The caged bird sings: The voice of the workfare generation

Abstract

Social work literature suggests that three depoliticisation tendencies characterise the youngest generation of social workers. First, they exhibit less interest in the structural level of social problems. Secondly, they are supposed to incline towards the idea of welfare conditionality. And thirdly, they are evolving towards increasingly shallow technical, box-ticking professionals. As such, this generation of social workers seems to conform with a policy climate in which social justice is increasingly under pressure. It is our contention that this debate is one-sided and negative. It dismisses the perspective of the social workers themselves. For organisations in social work, it might appear paradoxical that the youngest generation of social workers—although submersed in the context of workfare—hold the key to revising institutional processes and guidelines. Based on generational theory, however, we argue that social work needs to consider the ability of the newest generation to signal procedural and institutional barriers that hinder the pursuit of social justice.