Decolonial Methodologies in Social Work
Foregrounding Pluriversalism in Teaching and Research
Published on 15. May 2025
Book
Hardback
248 pages
978-1-350-41922-3 (ISBN)
Description
This open access book offers an original exploration of how the notion of pluriversalism, an anti-colonial concept that resounds throughout many decolonial methodologies and pedagogies, underlies many current attempts to develop more just and equitable approaches to social work teaching and research.
Despite its prominence in other fields, pluriversalism has never been foregrounded in any full-length study of social work. This co-edited volume does just that, and in so doing, it codifies a thriving, but otherwise diffuse, subcurrent of alternative, othered ways of researching and teaching social work. It foregrounds local knowledges while maintaining a global scope and empirically grounded perspective, and in so doing it shows how pluriversal approaches open new spaces around the world for teaching and talking about social work in a manner that is more just, culturally sensitive, and attuned to structural power relations. In that same self-critical spirit, the chapters gathered here also engage critically with the risks of cultural appropriation endemic to pluriversal approaches, themselves, appropriations that would ultimately reproduce the exploitation mechanisms they aim to resist. This is a must-read for social work students, researchers, and practitioners interested in development studies, decolonial studies, and Indigenous studies.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Bloomsbury Open Collections Library Collective.
Despite its prominence in other fields, pluriversalism has never been foregrounded in any full-length study of social work. This co-edited volume does just that, and in so doing, it codifies a thriving, but otherwise diffuse, subcurrent of alternative, othered ways of researching and teaching social work. It foregrounds local knowledges while maintaining a global scope and empirically grounded perspective, and in so doing it shows how pluriversal approaches open new spaces around the world for teaching and talking about social work in a manner that is more just, culturally sensitive, and attuned to structural power relations. In that same self-critical spirit, the chapters gathered here also engage critically with the risks of cultural appropriation endemic to pluriversal approaches, themselves, appropriations that would ultimately reproduce the exploitation mechanisms they aim to resist. This is a must-read for social work students, researchers, and practitioners interested in development studies, decolonial studies, and Indigenous studies.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Bloomsbury Open Collections Library Collective.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
540 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-41922-3 (9781350419223)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Robel Afeworki Abay is a sociologist and guest professor of participatory approaches in social and health sciences at Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin, Germany.
Anna-Lisa Klages, social worker and art therapist, is a post-doctoral researcher at the Research and Transfer Center for Sustainability (ForTraNN) of The Technical University Ingolstadt of Applied Sciences, Germany.
Sara Rodriguez Lugo is a social worker and holds a Master of Arts in International Social Work with Refugees and Migrants from the Technical University of Applied Sciences Wuerzburg-Schweinfurt, Germany.
Tanja Kleibl is Professor for Social Work, Migration and Diversity at Technical University of Applied Sciences Wuerzburg-Schweinfurt, Germany. She is also the author of Decolonizing Civil Society in Mozambique (Zed Books, 2021).
Anna-Lisa Klages, social worker and art therapist, is a post-doctoral researcher at the Research and Transfer Center for Sustainability (ForTraNN) of The Technical University Ingolstadt of Applied Sciences, Germany.
Sara Rodriguez Lugo is a social worker and holds a Master of Arts in International Social Work with Refugees and Migrants from the Technical University of Applied Sciences Wuerzburg-Schweinfurt, Germany.
Tanja Kleibl is Professor for Social Work, Migration and Diversity at Technical University of Applied Sciences Wuerzburg-Schweinfurt, Germany. She is also the author of Decolonizing Civil Society in Mozambique (Zed Books, 2021).
Content
Introduction. Methodological and Pedagogical Implications of Decolonizing Social Work Research and Education - Anna-Lisa Klages, Sara Rodriguez Lugo, Tanja Kleibl, and Robel Afeworki Abay
Section 1. Decolonizing Social Work Research
1. A Counter-history of Social Work: Tracing Epistemic Violence in Social Work - Verena Grill
2. Decolonial Research Methodologies and Practice Methods in South Africa's Post-Colonial Social Work - Poppy Masinga and Karin Sauer
3. Power Relations within International Co-operations and Transnational Social Work - Nicolette Roman, Catherina Schenck, and Beatrix Schwarzer
4. Evidencing the Erasure: The Subaltern as a Writing Problem for Social Work, A Reading from the Peasant Women of Antioquia and Cundinamarca, Colombia - Ariel Camilo Gonzalez Moreno and Laura Daniela Toncon Chaparro
5. Regenerative Practice in Social Work -Yari Or
6. The Ethnomethodology of Postcolonial Perspectives - Galina Gostrer
7. Intelligence, Coloniality, and Anti-colonial Social Work - Gurnam Singh
Section 2. Decolonizing Social Work Education
8. Favouring Indigenous Languages in Social Work Education - Thembelihle Brenda Makhanya
9. How do we address the colonial past, post-colonial present, and decolonial futures of the world in social work education and practice in Nigeria? - Nwafor Nneka Francisca, Ngozi Eucharia Chukwu, and Uzoma Odera Okoye
10. Epistemologies of the South and Teaching in Higher Education: Learning from the Chilean Uprising and Paulo Freire - Ramiro Lobaton
11. Decolonizing Social Work Study Programs: Alumni Experiences from Ghana and Germany; A Transnational Research Project - Theodora Elorm Amlado, Jasmin Goldhausen, Inusah Karim, Lara Lehmann, and Franziska Neureither
12. Decolonizing Social Work Curricula in Higher Education: A Continuous Journey - Neil Bilotta, Theresa Palmer, Allison De Marco, Laurie Selz-Campbell, Travis Albritton, and JP Przewoznik
13. Exploring the 'Decolonial Mindset' as a Teaching Premise: Students' and Lecturers' Experiences from a Research-based Seminar - Sandra Holtgreve, Lisa Mends, and Nina Westerholt
14. To Do or to Be: Problem-posing as Decolonization in the Social Work Classroom - Vincent Wijeysingha
15. Postcolonial Perspectives as a Necessary Part of a Professional Self-understanding of Social Workers: Suggestions for Curricular Adjustments - Philipp Seitz
Section 1. Decolonizing Social Work Research
1. A Counter-history of Social Work: Tracing Epistemic Violence in Social Work - Verena Grill
2. Decolonial Research Methodologies and Practice Methods in South Africa's Post-Colonial Social Work - Poppy Masinga and Karin Sauer
3. Power Relations within International Co-operations and Transnational Social Work - Nicolette Roman, Catherina Schenck, and Beatrix Schwarzer
4. Evidencing the Erasure: The Subaltern as a Writing Problem for Social Work, A Reading from the Peasant Women of Antioquia and Cundinamarca, Colombia - Ariel Camilo Gonzalez Moreno and Laura Daniela Toncon Chaparro
5. Regenerative Practice in Social Work -Yari Or
6. The Ethnomethodology of Postcolonial Perspectives - Galina Gostrer
7. Intelligence, Coloniality, and Anti-colonial Social Work - Gurnam Singh
Section 2. Decolonizing Social Work Education
8. Favouring Indigenous Languages in Social Work Education - Thembelihle Brenda Makhanya
9. How do we address the colonial past, post-colonial present, and decolonial futures of the world in social work education and practice in Nigeria? - Nwafor Nneka Francisca, Ngozi Eucharia Chukwu, and Uzoma Odera Okoye
10. Epistemologies of the South and Teaching in Higher Education: Learning from the Chilean Uprising and Paulo Freire - Ramiro Lobaton
11. Decolonizing Social Work Study Programs: Alumni Experiences from Ghana and Germany; A Transnational Research Project - Theodora Elorm Amlado, Jasmin Goldhausen, Inusah Karim, Lara Lehmann, and Franziska Neureither
12. Decolonizing Social Work Curricula in Higher Education: A Continuous Journey - Neil Bilotta, Theresa Palmer, Allison De Marco, Laurie Selz-Campbell, Travis Albritton, and JP Przewoznik
13. Exploring the 'Decolonial Mindset' as a Teaching Premise: Students' and Lecturers' Experiences from a Research-based Seminar - Sandra Holtgreve, Lisa Mends, and Nina Westerholt
14. To Do or to Be: Problem-posing as Decolonization in the Social Work Classroom - Vincent Wijeysingha
15. Postcolonial Perspectives as a Necessary Part of a Professional Self-understanding of Social Workers: Suggestions for Curricular Adjustments - Philipp Seitz