Confronting Oppression, Restoring Justice: From Policy Analysis to
Social Action
(2004) by Katherine van Wormer, MSSW,
Ph.D. Alexandria, VA: CSWE,
paperback,
254 pp. $23.95. ISBN: 0872931064
An empowerment approach is the organizing framework for this text which examines the nature of oppression, who does it and why, from the standpoint of biological and social psychological aspects. The impact on victim/survivors is explored through the inclusion of brief personal narratives recording grueling consciousness-raising experiences. Divided into two parts, the first of which focuses on oppression and the second on the twin concept of injustice, Confronting Oppression, Restoring Justice, has as its major task the addressing of the age-old question for social workers, How can we avoid participating in the oppression? Or, working from the outside, How can we help the casualties of economic restructuring or the victims of structural or interpersonal violence? Examples of exemplary programs and actions to confront oppression and injustice are provided. Recommended as a main or supplemental text for courses in policy, policy analysis, HBSE, and racial and ethnic minorities.
Features:
·
Offers comprehensive coverage of the impact of
oppressive practices in the
including racism,
sexism, heterosexism, classism, ageism, etc.
·
Places societal oppression and injustice in the
context of global economic forces.
·
Expands the definition of social justice and injustice
to go beyond economic considerations of distribution into the arena of social
control.
·
Offers a radical framework for policy evaluation
and analysis that includes international and environmental considerations.
·
Provides illustrations of successful legislative
advocacy that resulted in program change at state and local levels.
·
Forges a conceptual link between the
oppression/injustice configuration and strategies of empowerment.
·
Includes chapters on human rights and
restorative justice.
·
Offers an analysis of ethical dilemmas for
social workers in encountering oppressive practices.
·
Satisfies CSWE standards for the inclusion of
content on oppression in the social work curriculum at the undergraduate and
graduate levels.
From the back cover: Katherine van Wormer's Confronting
Oppression, Restoring Justice examines the twin forces of oppression and
injustice and how social policies, cultural institutions, and prevailing
ideologies promote or sustain them. Using an internationally informed
perspective, she unpacks concepts such as internalization of oppression,
injustice, restorative justice, social exclusion, empowerment, and critical
consciousness. From this framework, she describes the skills of critical
analysis needed to confront oppression and injustice, providing examples of
human services
programs that successfully deploy strategies of empowerment
and engage
forces of oppression and injustice.
Written for frontline human services practitioners, students, and
educators, Confronting Oppression,
Restoring Justice comes at an
auspicious time when narrowing global distances breed both corporate political
might and worldwide coalition building for social justice.
Katherine
Stuart van Wormer is professor,
From the Foreword by David G. Gil
"Professor van Wormer's book makes important contributions to a
radical
paradigm of social policy development and social work
practice. It presents to the [social work] field an approach aimed at narrowing
the gap between the social justice orientation of its Code of Ethics and the
actual realities of the dominant policy and practice paradigm."
Contents
Foreword by David G. Gil............................................................................................... v
Part One.
Confronting Oppression.....................................................
Introduction to Part One.................................................................................................. 1
Chapter 1. The Essence of Oppression........................................................................ 3
Chapter 2. Understanding Oppression.................................................................... 27
Chapter 3. Confronting Social Exclusion and Oppression Worldwide......... 57
Chapter 4. Anti-Oppressive Policy Analysis........................................................ 101
Chapter 5. The Empowerment Tradition in Social Work.................................. 125
Part Two. Injustice and Restorative Justice
Introduction to Part Two............................................................................................ 149
Chapter 6. The Nature of Injustice........................................................................... 151
Chapter 7. From Policy Analysis to Restoring Justice........................................ 173
Chapter 8. Restorative Justice.................................................................................... 197
Appendix. United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.......... 225
References....................................................................................................................... 233
Index................................................................................................................................. 251
Order from www.cswe.org, 703-683-8080,
