(Re) assembling the left: The politics of redistribution and recognition in social work

Abstract

This article makes a modest contribution to recent analyses by Houston and Garrett in the British Journal of Social Work on the various merits, drawbacks and opportunities for social work in engaging with the important sociological debate about the categories of redistribution and recognition. It suggests that the impact of this debate can have significant knock-on effects for the recasting of a Critical social work and in mobilising social work as a vehicle of social justice. The discussion shows how social work provides an example that illustrates the applicability of an ethical turn in social sciences to a concrete case. In doing so, it reveals the explanatory power of the redistribution/ recognition interaction by connecting the socio-economic and socio-cultural aspects of injustice. © The Author 2010.