Social Work Professionalism During and After Apartheid in South Africa

Abstract

Professionalism is an ideal defined as the norms or values that orient the work of an occupation. In practice, research derived from country settings in the Global North shows how the ideal of professionalism competes with market and bureaucratic priorities. Less is known about how professionalism is nurtured or subjugated to market and bureaucratic institutions in postcolonial contexts in the Global South. This paper takes up the study of factors that promote or constrain professionalism in one postcolonial setting by contrasting South African social worker professionalism during and after apartheid. In the wake of calls for international research that is historically-grounded and sensitive to local context, data drawn from archival research and ethnographic fieldwork finds that social workers are prevented from asserting their professional values as a unified profession due to enduring race divisions in the profession. Another legacy of apartheid is the profession's dependency on the state for funding social worker salaries, which constrains social workers ability to assert professional values independent of the state's agenda. Finally, the organizational context employing social workers creates uneven opportunities for social workers to assert their professional values through policy advocacy.

Unintended Consequences of Community Health Worker Programs in South Africa

“…CHW labor is largely coordinated by international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or domestic community-based organizations affiliated with NGOs (Mayosi & Benatar, 2014). Most CHWs are economically marginalized African women (Daniels, Clarke, & Ringsberg, 2012; Swartz & Colvin, 2015; van de Ruit, 2017b). Furthermore, the blurred boundaries between formal work and volunteering lead to uneven pay scales for CHWs, with some health services offering no remuneration and others paying a modest stipend (Schneider et al, 2008; Swartz & Colvin, 2015).…”

Child health promotion during the COVID-19 pandemic: A health and welfare sector collaboration

“…The administrative context in which social workers are employed produces uneven positions for social workers to affirm their professional values through policy support. 39 Calitz et al 35 confirm that South Africa experienced a radical shortage of social workers, which reduced the visible means of support these professionals offer in the community with regard to children and families.…”

South African community health workers' pursuit of occupational security

“…This research emphasizes how the state is a pivotal actor in either creating opportunities for or against the development of occupational closure (Bourgeault, 2017; Kuhlmann, 2013; Witz, 1992). Incorporating analysis of profession‐state relations in the Global South brings consideration of state functions and competence into play (Chorev & Schrank, 2017; Jin, 2017; van de Ruit, 2017).…”

“…Much of this work, however, has focused on the Global North, and there has been limited research on professions in the Global South (Chorev & Schrank, 2017). Global sociology has attended to the importance of international organizations and funders in professional development in the Global South (Harris, 2017; Liu, 2017; van de Ruit, 2017). A key contribution this paper makes is to connect research on the gendered segmentation of labor markets, the sociology of work and occupations, and global sociology to understand the barriers and opportunities for nascent women‐dominated health occupations to formalize their occupational status in countries in the Global South.…”