Exploring the Concepts of Recognition and Shame for Social Work

Frost, Liz

Abstract

© 2016 GAPS. Recognition and shame are both concepts that potentially offer social workers a structure to build practice on; two states experienced by both social workers and service users. ‘Recognition’, within social, political and economic thought, has been established as a field in which inequality and exclusion can be analysed. Social work theorists have also made inroads into exploring its reach. ‘Shame’ in twentieth century and contemporary sociological and psychoanalytical accounts, is understood as a force in limiting human agency, well-being and capacity This paper briefly outlines some of the defining ideas in circulation in relation to recognition and shame, and then briefly considers how psychoanalytical and contemporary social structural analysis builds on this, making links to contemporary social work thinking throughout. The paper also specifically considers some of the uses of recognition and shame for thinking about social worker and service user ‘well-being’, and the connections, through both the relational and the socio-political, which inflect social work practice.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 27, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Feb 9, 2016
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Nov 30, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 9, 2017
• Journal: Journal of Social Work Practice
• Print ISSN: 0265-0533
• Electronic ISSN: 1465-3885
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 30
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 431-446
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2015.1132689
• Keywords: recognition, shame, psychosocial, psychoanalysis, structure
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/910062
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2015.1132689
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Social Work Practice on 09 February 2016, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02650533.2015.1132689
• Contract Date: Apr 20, 2016