Politics as Social Work: A Qualitative Study of Emplaced Empathy and Risk Work by British Members of Parliament

Abstract

The constituency work of British Members of Parliament (MPs) has long been referred to in political circles as a form of social work. This article reports on a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with thirteen MPs. The aim of the research was to find out what characterises their constituency work to understand why it apparently bears comparison with social work. The article draws on the concepts of proximity and place from the mobilities paradigm to articulate the idea of ‘politics as social work’. MPs in the study engaged in face-to-face emotional labour in which they formed and sustained empathic relationships with people and places to represent them. They practised judgement under uncertainty and risk work, and they were embedded in local organisational networks of risk and trust with local authorities and other agencies. The article argues that this analysis of politics as social work provides a deeper understanding of the politics of social work. In the era of the COVID-19 pandemic and its severe socio-economic impact, the importance for social work of the concept of emplaced empathy and the need for our reorientation to place is thrown into particularly sharp focus.

Knowing where the shoe pinches: three Labour ministers reflect on their experiences in social work and politics

“…Just as social workers support individuals who are suffering the consequences of social inequality and political decisions, the politicians spoke of their constituency work as showing them how policy works out in real lives, with people granting them the privilege of hearing personal stories of adversity. There were strong connections here to what Warner (2020), in discussing the role of constituency case work, terms 'politics as social work'.…”

“…Politicians' conference speeches have a rhetorical purpose of course and they always have future elections in the backs of their minds. They are not therefore likely to be as frank as they would be in less public conversations, or in anonymised research interviews such as Warner's (2020). However, despite these limitations, the conference session ranged over several important dimensions of the relationship between politics and social work.…”