Loïc Wacquant, the concept of the ‘centaur state' and social work: the case of the Czech Republic

Abstract

The implementation of social work is strongly influenced by the contexts in which it operates. In the last thirty to forty years, the key context has been the neoliberalisation of society. The aim of this article is to reflect upon the influence of neoliberalism on the controlling role of social work using Loïc Wacquant’s concept of the centaur state. The text attempts to reveal the impacts of the cultural, economic and social policy of the neoliberal state on the execution of social work from the point of view of European and non-European authors, with an emphasis on the situation in the Czech Republic. The results of this reflection suggest that all three of these sets of policies have shifted the emphasis in social work from aid to control, a development which may lead to a fundamental change in the social work profession in the future.

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