The Routledge Handbook of Postcolonial Social Work

The Routledge Handbook of Postcolonial Social Work reflects on and dissects the challenging issues confronting social work practice and education globally in the post-colonial era. By analysing how countries in the so-called developing and developed world have navigated some of the inherited systems from the colonial era, it shows how they have used them to provide relevant social work methods which are also responsive to the needs of a postcolonial setting.

This is an analytical and reflexive handbook that brings together different scholars from various parts of the world – both North and South – so as to distill ideas from scholars relating to ways that can advance social work of the South and critique social work of the North in so far as it is used as a template for social work approaches in postcolonial settings. It determines whether and how approaches, knowledge-bases, and methods of social work have been indigenised and localised in the Global South in the postcolonial era.

This handbook provides the reader with multiple new theoretical approaches and empirical experiences and creates a space of action for the most marginalised communities worldwide. It will be of interest to researchers and practitioners, as well as those in social work education.

Tanja Kleibl is Professor of Social Work, Migration and Diversity at the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg–Schweinfurt (FHWS). Her research interest is in the area of political sociology, in particular postcolonial civil society, social movements, mobility, and international development. She has worked for various local and international NGOs and government agencies in Africa and beyond. She brings together 15 years of extensive practice and research experience in development cooperation and migration.

Ronald Lutz, Sociologist and Anthropologist, is Professor at the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences at the Erfurt University of Applied Sciences since 1993. His fields of interest are in poverty, social politics, social development, and international relations.

Ndangwa Noyoo is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Social Development at the University of Cape Town. His research interests are in social policy, comparative social policy in Africa, social development, public policy, and Indigenous knowledge systems. He has published widely in the areas of social policy, social development, and related fields, especially, in the context of Africa and Southern Africa.

Benjamin Bunk holds a PhD in educational science (Jena). After extensive field research in Brazil (PUCRS), conducted as Junior Fellow at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies (Erfurt), he recently shifted to a postdoctoral position in pedagogical youth studies (University of Gießen). Besides social movements and social theory, he is dedicated to the philosophy of education and concepts of global citizenship education.

Annika Dittmann holds a Bachelor’s degree in Pedagogy from the University of Bamberg and a Master’s degree in International Social Work from the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt. Currently she is working with female underage refugees.

Boitumelo Seepamore is a lecturer in the discipline of social work at the University of KwaZulu–Natal. She teaches community work and draws her experience from the community work projects she has undertaken in her work with the communities of Soweto in Johannesburg, and KwaZulu–Natal.