Advocacy/Empowerment: An Approach to Clinical Practice for Social Work

Social work exists within the structure & ideology of a particular political economy, which forms the structural & ideological parameters that produce both the suffering of people & the means of controlling it. Social work reflects this contradiction, particularly in its clinical practice paradigms at the theory & practice levels. Following an analysis of this contradiction, advocacy/empowerment theory is used to construct an alternative clinical practice paradigm. The implications of the alternative -- confrontation with systems along with collaboration with client constituencies -- are also discussed. 14 References. AA