On technology and the prospects for good practice in the human services: Donald Schön, Martin Heidegger, and the case for phronesis and praxis

Abstract

Technology is fundamental to and embedded in the way practice is conceptualized and institutionalized in social service work. Many scholars assume and expect that good practices of care are achieved with the correct application of theory produced by rigorous scientific research. However, there are significant critiques of this viewpoint. We examine the work of Donald Schön and Martin Heidegger and agree with these authors’ suggestions that technical rationality and modern technology are not the way to achieve good practice in the human services. At the same time, we are not convinced that the alternatives offered by Schön (artistry) and Heidegger (techne) provide what good practice requires. We draw on Aristotle’s account of the intellectual virtues and make the case for phronesis and praxis as other possibilities for inspiring new kinds of social welfare practice in the twenty-first century.