The Routledge Handbook of Postcolonial Social Work reflects on and dissects the challenging issues confronting social work practice and education globally in the post-colonial era. By analysing how countries in the so-called developing and developed world have navigated some of the inherited systems from the colonial era, it shows how they have used them to provide relevant social work methods which are also responsive to the needs of a postcolonial setting.

This is an analytical and reflexive handbook that brings together different scholars from various parts of the world – both North and South – so as to distill ideas from scholars relating to ways that can advance social work of the South and critique social work of the North in so far as it is used as a template for social work approaches in postcolonial settings. It determines whether and how approaches, knowledge-bases, and methods of social work have been indigenised and localised in the Global South in the postcolonial era.

This handbook provides the reader with multiple new theoretical approaches and empirical experiences and creates a space of action for the most marginalised communities worldwide. It will be of interest to researchers and practitioners, as well as those in social work education.

Table of Contents

Introduction: setting the scene for critical new social work approaches in the neoliberal postcolonial era (Tanja Kleibl & Ndangwa Noyoo); Section I; Postcolonial Social Work: Perspectives and Approaches; Introduction: Postcolonial Social Work. Perspectives and Approaches (Tanja Kleibl); 1. Colonisation as collective trauma: fundamental perspectives for social work (Francine Masson and Linda Smith); 2.The relevance of Antonio Gramsci and Paulo Freire for a postcolonial education politics (Peter Mayo); 3. Colonialism and the colonisation of childhood in the light of postcolonial theory (Manfred Liebel); 4. Social work co-option and colonial borders (Linda Briskman); 5. Development. A postcolonial approach (Ronald Lutz); 6. Towards a decolonial feminist approach to social work education and practice (Roxane Caron and Edward Ou Jin Lee); Section II; Postcolonial social work and social movements; Introduction: Postcolonial social work and social movements; (Benjamin Bunk); 7. Conceptualizing the relation of postcolonial social work and social movements: subaltern answers from within exclusion and the theoretical ambivalence between postcolonial critique and social work practice (Benjamin Bunk); 8. Orientations from social movements: a postcolonial feminist perspective on human trafficking and social work (Anne C. Deepak); 9. Epistemic decoloniality as a pedagogical movement: a turn to anticolonial theorists such as Fanon, Biko and Freire (Linda Harms Smith); 10. Heterogenity within social movements: a reflection on pre, post, anti, and decolonial feminisms and womanisms emerging from Africa(Shahana Rasool); 11. Collective learning in and from social movements: the Bhopal Disaster survivors (Eurig Scandrett); 12. Social movements as pedagogical spaces: „Só lixo – just waste. The transformation of normative orientations under conditio

The Routledge Handbook of Postcolonial Social Work reflects on and dissects the challenging issues confronting social work practice and education globally in the post-colonial era. By analysing how countries in the so-called developing and developed world have navigated some of the inherited systems from the colonial era, it shows how they have used them to provide relevant social work methods which are also responsive to the needs of a postcolonial setting. This is an analytical and reflexive handbook that brings together different scholars from various parts of the world - both North and South - so as to distill ideas from scholars relating to ways that can advance social work of the South and critique social work of the North in so far as it is used as a template for social work approaches in postcolonial settings. It determines whether and how approaches, knowledge-bases, and methods of social work have been indigenised and localised in the Global South in the postcolonial era. This handbook provides the reader with multiple new theoretical approaches and empirical experiences and creates a space of action for the most marginalised communities worldwide. It will be of interest to researchers and practitioners, as well as those in social work education.

Cultural practices have the potential to cause human suffering. The Tension Between Culture and Human Rights critically interrogates the relationship between culture and human rights across Africa and offers strategies for pedagogy and practice that social workers and educators may use.Drawing on Afrocentricity and emancipatory social work as antidotes to colonial power and dehumanization, this collection challenges cultural practices that violate human rights, and the dichotomous and taken-for-granted assumptions in the cultural representations between the West and the Rest of the world. Engaging critically with cultural traditions while affirming Indigenous knowledge and practices, it is unafraid to deal frankly with uncomfortable truths. Each chapter explores a specific aspect of African cultural norms and practices and their impacts on human rights and human dignity, paying special attention to the intersections of politics, economics, race, class, gender, and cultural expression. Going beyond analysis, this collection offers a range of practical approaches to understanding and intervention rooted in emancipatory social work. It offers a pathway to develop critical reflexivity and to reframe epistemologies for education and practice. This is essential reading not only for students and practitioners of social work, but for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of African cultures and practices.