Abstract

Social work is located and intervenes where the sphere of the private and personal meets with the sphere of the public and political (Lorenz, 2006). In its critical tradition, social work seeks to explain and transform the circumstances and living conditions people have to face and struggle with in their everyday life by connecting them to structural aspects of discrimination, oppression and injustice (Fook, 2003; Pease, Goldingay, Hosken and Nipperess, 2016). Critical social work approaches share the recognition that societal power structures and differentiation processes, particularly those along the lines of class, race, gender and their intersections, contribute to the issues social workers encounter as personal and social problems. Critical social work involves a critical reflexive stance towards its own position and role and is committed to participatory relationships and approaches in order to achieve social transformations with and for marginalised and oppressed populations (Healy, 2005).