Solidarity and Heart - The Development of Structural Social Work: A Critical Analysis

Abstract

A politically progressive approach to social work is the structural approach. Based on a Marxist perspective, structural social work seeks to create a welfare state built upon socialist principles. This paper described historical antecedents of structural social work in Canada, including the circumstances around its emergence in the 1970s and 1980s. I discussed recent developments and explored its possible future. Throughout the article, a critical lens is applied elucidating the structural approach’s strengths as well as shortcomings. I found that structural social work highlighted a moral dichotomy between the social worker’s conscience and the demands of our capitalist society, and advocated a definite need to mobilize voting for progressive candidates in elections. The shortcomings of the structural approach included an Euro-American centric bias, a weak potential as a decolonizing discourse, and its lack of an ecological imagination.

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