Surviving As a Postmodern Social Worker: Two Ps and Three Rs of Direct Practice‪.‬

Much has been written that demonstrates the theoretical applicability of postmodernism to social work (Brotman & Pollack, 1997; Chambon & Irving, 1994; Howe, 1994; Leonard, 1995; Pease, 2002; Pease & Fook, 1999). Little of this literature, however, addresses the needs of social workers who apply postmodern ideas to direct practice in culturally and socially diverse child welfare, corrections, mental health, and community settings. Professionals working in the delivery of frontline human services struggle to work both with and in their communities in ways that celebrate diversity and localized constructions of reality while fulfilling professional and agency mandates. As Camilleri (1999) wrote, "it is time to move from the rhetorical to the problematic of practice" (p. 37). Based on my personal experience in a number of social work settings and a review of the clinical and community practice literature, I discuss five aspects of social work practice reflecting the principles of an applied interpretation of postmodernism: positioning, power, resource sharing, resistance and reflection. Positioning the worker as part of the associational fabric of a community challenges bureaucentric understandings of the worker as "other." Examining power as constructed through the language used by social workers reveals how that language communicates the agenda of professionals, but rarely the agenda of those "at risk." Through resource sharing, social workers are able to address issues arising from this deconstruction of position and power. Social workers who take a postmodern approach to their work resist decisions and processes that are not in the best interests of those being served. Finally, professional social workers work best when they reflect critically on their practice. Through reflection they make their practice reciprocal, responsible, and transparent. In the discussion that follows, which focuses on aspects of practice typical of social workers in child welfare settings, I examine each of the two Ps (2Ps) and three Rs (3Rs) of a practice based on a postmodern interpretation of social work. I pay particular attention to the practicalines of day-to-day social work, such as negotiating boundaries, ethical decision making, report writing, and conducting meetings.