Surviving Hegemony Through Resistance and Identity Articulation Among Outreaching Social Workers

Abstract

An understanding of outreaching social work in Hong Kong is viable through an analysis of discourses constructed and experienced by social workers. The discourses address hegemony by the government and consent, resistance, and identity arising from social workers. These discourses were the focus of the present study, which relied on repeated in-depth interviews with 20 practitioners in the outreaching social work field. The results give insight in three main ways: they unfold the discourses of hegemony and consent in terms of effectiveness, accountability, and social control; they address the discourses of resistance in terms of incompatibility, social defense, and others; and they examine professional identity in terms of respect for self-determination, relationship building, youth development, and unionization. All the discourses and identities emerged from a process of international spillover. Moreover, the study found that social workers realized that the hegemonic crisis triggered identity development because of the need to preserve the profession. The study implies that the social work profession has high levels of commitment and internationalization, both of which help proliferate the profession.

A Landscape of Intersecting Discourses

“…Discourses, as defined by Healy (2014), are contextual theories or ideologies that frame ideas and language, especially about social phenomena, for example, positivism, neo-conservativism, and managerialism (Gregory & Holloway, 2005;Newberry, 2014). In recent decades, discourses such as these have disputed and transformed notions of professional knowledge, integrity, independence, and expertise (Fook, 2016), which do not always sit comfortably with social work professional identity (Cheung & Ngai, 2009). Consequently, the meaning and practices of professions and professional identities have become highly contested in many contexts (Baxter, 2011).…”

“…Within a neo-conservative discourse, it is further argued that organizations should operate along the same principles of a private business to maximize efficiency and individual choice (Newberry, 2014). These views overlap with a managerial discourse, which emphasizes administrative and technical work (Aronson & Smith, 2011;Cheung & Ngai, 2009). Based on these ideas, it is preferable for social work interventions to be underscored by positivist scientific frameworks to target improving and monitoring the capabilities of individuals to fix their own problems (Healy, 2014).…”

“…Concerns about these discourses unfold in environments of increased competition between various occupation groups for broader, non-social work specific jobs and precarious employment arrangements (Harrison & Healy, 2015). Organizational contexts are frequently characterized by management of risk and defensive practice (Stanley & Lincoln, 2016), rather than encouraging professionals to be autonomous and reflective (Cheung & Ngai, 2009;Newberry, 2014). Social workers, including managers, have to carefully navigate tensions between organizational and professional identity that can at times conflict (Aronson & Smith, 2011), especially as "professional identity is not a stable entity: it is an ongoing process of accommodation and customization shaped by contextual workplace factors" (Webb, 2017, p.4).…”

“…To flourish in contemporary workplaces, social workers across the globe are increasingly encouraged to develop and embrace professional identity (Webb, 2017), especially from the perspective of enacting core values of social justice and human rights (Asquith, Clark & Waterhouse, 2005;Cheung & Ngai, 2009), as well as maintaining professional recognition and retention in light of challenging socio-political trends in the human services sector (Healy & Meagher, 2004). This paper examines how those trends impact the lived experience of professional identity during the initial post-qualification period.…”

Encouraging the Disuse of Illicit Drugs Among At-Risk Youth

“…Essentially, even though the prevalence of the use is low in Hong Kong youth (about 3.0%, Cheung & Cheung, 2006), the use is culturally impermissible (Chui & Chan, 2012;Mak & Day, 2012). To expedite early detection and treatment, the government of Hong Kong sponsors outreaching social work teams to engage street youth who are at risk of drug use and other delinquent activities (Cheung & Ngai, 2009). This outreach engagement is useful in other places as well (Appel & Oldak, 2007;Coviello et al, 2006).…”