‘Just Knowledge’: Can Social Work’s ‘Guilty Knowledge’ Help Build a More Inclusive Knowledge Society?

Abstract

In contemporary societies, the value and importance of knowledge is increasingly tied to its potential to generate profit. This raises questions about whether and how knowledge can, at the same time, be harnessed and valued for its capacity to advance social justice. In this paper we consider these questions in relation to social work knowledge and academic research utilisation, setting our analysis in the context of broader debates on these themes. As well as highlighting the risks that the 'knowledge economy' poses to certain currents of knowledge (currents within social work and analogous currents in other fields), we ask what might be done to protect and realise the value of these currents. We suggest that the example of social work usefully illuminates both the potential and challenges of knowledge utilisation for social justice more broadly.

Knowing poverty: Social workers’ perceptions of poverty knowledge

“…Findings confirm previous studies that document the numerous obstacles that stand in the way of developing and managing knowledge in the social services and, more generally, in the field of social work. These include an organizational atmosphere that demands reactive work as the norm, sparse opportunities for peer learning, and an organizational structure that impedes the institutionalization of knowledge management (Heinsch & Cribb, 2019;Qingnian & Yujie, 2005). Our study shows an organizational atmosphere of perpetual emergency and poor access to professional communities intended for discussing the poverty issue.…”