Social Work Futures?

Social Work Futures? Research Group is a hub for transdisciplinary work exploring questions arising from a shift in focus from “the social” to the “biosocial,” and from “culture” to “naturecultures.”

The major contemporary concerns of environmental degradation, addressing zoonotic disease and the implications of new technologies bring with them a need to reconsider common understandings of the ‘human’ and ‘the social,’ including those that ground modern professional projects like social work. Work across science and philosophy confronts dominant assumptions of human exceptionalism and demands alternative modes of relating within more than human worlds. The threats associated with environmental degradation and the opportunities afforded by artificial intelligence and cybertechnologies require a means of considering relationships beyond the traditional sites of social work. There is a need to reconceptualise the social to include the bio/cyber/multispecies frames that are constitutive of all life. This is not to sidestep or ignore values of equality and justice but to consider the material and more than human inferences of their production.

The Social Work Futures? Research Group provides a creative space for transdisciplinary exploration on these problems.

Contact

Social Work Futures? Research Group is keen to connect with researchers who share an interest in our themes. If you want to be included on our distribution list, or you have an idea for a shared initiative please contact heather.lynch@gcu.ac.uk. You can follow us on twitter @SocialWorkFutu1