Making a Case in Social Work

Abstract

The central focus of the article is a case study in which the author highlights the ways in which social workers and other helping professionals constructed a mother, her daughter and their own realities through the use of authorial devices such as moral characterization, point of view, and other techniques. This analysis is made on the basis of oral and written accounts available in this case and focuses primarily on some of the narrative strategies underpinning interventions in the case. These, it is maintained, served social workers in making their representations persuasive for various publics. Moreover, this analysis shows that social work accounts are also deeply moral narrative strategies. The narrative materials examined here about a mother illustrate how the character of a morally unsuitable woman and parent are constructed in social work accounts. The analysis also demonstrates that such moral constructions then serve as the basis for interventions requiring justification when presented to important professional audiences.

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