Case Critical: Challenging Social Services in Canada. 4th ed.

Carolyn Campbell is an assistant professor at Dalhousie University’s
Maritime School of Social Work.

Carniol describes his text as a “book about the realities of both
those who receive and those who deliver social services.” In
describing these realities, he interweaves his own experience and
analysis with the experiences of other analysts, workers, and clients to
explore the contradictions, frustrations, and possibilities of social
work practice within Canada.

Presented in seven chapters with copious endnotes and references, the
text is well written and offers a critical analysis of Canadian social
work theory and practice. Carniol begins by establishing his central
thesis: the “institutions of the welfare state are the dominant
system’s attempt to gloss over the very inequities it creates in the
first place.” In supporting this thesis, he reviews the development of
social services in Canada, explores the curricula of social work
schools, surveys the working conditions of social workers, scrutinizes
the incursion of corporate management practices into the profession,
recounts direct experiences of clients, and articulates the strategies
of a “liberation” social work practice.

In presenting the building blocks of a liberation practice (also
referred to as anti-oppressive social work), Carniol investigates a
myriad of key concepts such as deserving and undeserving poor, the
principle of less eligibility, the development of scientific charity,
the importance of “relationship” in social work practice, altruism,
social work’s intimate connection to the state, power, oppression,
domination, privilege, colonialism, hegemony, empowerment, and social
justice. Although he adopts a broad-brush approach to these central
concepts, he nevertheless provides a solid introduction to each.

Carniol privileges both individual and collective client voice,
demonstrates the connection between policy and the lived reality of
clients and workers, and offers concrete suggestions for a
liberation-based practice. A refreshing change from more
“traditional” social work texts, his book challenges educators,
students, and practitioners to actualize the profession’s espoused
commitment to social justice and social change. Given the current
movement within social work toward increased professional regulation and
competency-based practice, the critique he presents is both timely and
relevant.