Risk and Social Work

1
Risk and Social Work

• Dr Jo Warner
• School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social
  Research, University of Kent, UK
• Paper presented at the First ISA Forum of
  Sociology
• Barcelona, September 5-8th 2008

2

• Risk in some form has always been a major
  focus in social work, but it has been implicit
  rather than explicit
• Formalised approaches to the assessment and
  management of risk are increasingly dominant
• Raised risk consciousness is now evident in all
  aspects of social work, just as it is evident in
  all aspects of cultural, political and social
  life.

3
Definitions of risk in social work

• Range from the realist, where the aim is to add
  to knowledge about risk and thereby improve
  decision-making about it
• To social constructionist approaches where risk
  is a way of thinking (Parton 1996 98)

4

• Research can never produce an exact answer
  about the degree of risk of a particular
  placement for an individual child because the
  interplay of the factors which determine success
  or failure will be unique in each case
  (Department of Health 1991, p65). If this is
  simply to remind us that the error component will
  remain large, there is no dispute. If it means
  what it says (the interplaywill be unique in
  each case) it is either a misunderstanding of
  the logic of modelling, or a comprehensive (but
  unsubstantiated) rejection, which we do not
  share, of the possibility of social knowledge.
  (Macdonald Macdonald 1999 44)

5

• My central argument is essentially that risk is
  not a thing or a set of realities waiting to be
  unearthed but a way of thinking. As a
  consequence, social works increasing
  obsession(s) with risk(s) point to important
  changes in both the way social workers think
  about and constitute their practices and the way
  social work is itself thought about and thereby
  constituted more widely. (Parton 1996 98).

6
Studies on Risks vs Risk

• Risks

• Risk

• Realist
• Draw upon often detailed empirical work to
  establish basis for risk factors
• Rooted in evidence based approach, and notion
  of calculability (Hacking 1999)
• Focus on probabilistic reasoning

• Macro level analysis
• Theoretical and conceptual
• Critical /constructionist approaches
• Asks what is risk? How can it be known?
• Asks why is this issue rather than that viewed as
  a risk?

7

• Are these approaches compatible with one another?

8
Risk in practice I Risk Minimising

• Closely linked to defensive practice
• Tends to involve close adherence to protocols and
  procedures
• Reflects culture of blame and the inquiry culture
  in many services
• Consistent with general cultural trend towards
  risk aversion in public context

9
Risk in practice II risk taking

• Intuitively associated with creative and
  innovative approaches to interventions
• Often viewed as being based on notion of
  calculated risks