Mind your own business: technologies for governing social worker subjects

Abstract

A vast body of research has demonstrated negative effects on social work following from a neoliberalisation of the welfare state. This article explores some of the ways in which such neoliberalisation may be carried out and maintained, by shaping social workers subjects in ways that make them compliant in such a scheme. From interviews with social workers in Sweden, an analysis of budget governing, individual wage negotiations, the client contractor model and social worker supervision shows that such governing technologies may accentuate an individual, competitive and detached subject. This may in turn produce loyalty to individual selves and management, which risks undermining the formation of a social worker subject who is willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with both their co-workers and their clients.