Challenging Oppression and Confronting Privilege

A Critical Approach to Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Privilege Theory and Practice

Third Edition

Bob Mullaly and Juliana West

Updated and revised. Challenging Oppression and Confronting Privilege has been thoroughly updated and revised to reflect the most current research and thinking about anti-oppressive and anti-privilege practice for today's social work students
Enhanced coverage of confronting privilege. Students are encouraged to constantly consider their privilege with the expanded chapter on confronting privilege (Chapter 2), as well as new discussion of privilege woven throughout the text
New box program. Boxed features containing important vignettes for students have been updated and differentiated as "Case Example" and "Personal Experience" boxes
Encourages critical thought. Discussion questions draw attention to key concepts and encourage students to look at issues through a critical lens

Challenging Oppression and Confronting Privilege

A Critical Approach to Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Privilege Theory and Practice

Third Edition

Bob Mullaly and Juliana West

Description

Challenging Oppression and Confronting Privilege is the definitive guide to anti-oppressive and anti-privilege social work, which is a prominent part of social work theory and practice today. Bob Mullaly and Juliana West examine the many forms that oppression and privilege can take at the personal, cultural, and structural levels. They outline the necessary practices and approaches that social work must adopt to fight against oppression and privilege, and to assist those who have been oppressed.

This much-anticipated new edition has been fully updated and revised to include a thorough discussion of privilege. The authors explore the practical implications of anti-oppression and anti-privilege - and share their own encounters with these concepts - in Case Example and Personal Experience boxes. Discussion questions encourage students to look at issues through a critical lens.

Challenging Oppression and Confronting Privilege

A Critical Approach to Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Privilege Theory and Practice

Third Edition

Bob Mullaly and Juliana West

Contents
Boxes
Acknowledgements
Preface

1. Oppression: An Overview
Introduction
Diversity, Difference, and Oppression
Social Work Approaches to Difference
The Nature of Oppression
Oppression as a Social Justice Issue
The Genealogy of Modern-Day Oppression and the Politics of Identity
The Dynamics of Oppression
Forms of Oppression
Personal, Cultural, and Structural Levels of Oppression
Conclusion
Critical Questions for Discussion
Further Readings

2. Privilege: An Overview
Introduction
The Nature of Privilege
Dynamics of Privilege
Personal, Cultural, and Structural Levels of Privilege
Why Dominant Groups Do Not See Privilege as a Problem
A Taxonomy of Everyday Examples of Unearned Privilege
Social Work and Privilege
Pedagogy of Privilege
Conclusion
Critical Questions for Discussion
Further Readings

3. Theoretical and Conceptual Considerations
Introduction
Social Problems: The Great Paradox of the Helping Profession
Order and Conflict/Change Perspectives
Critical Social Theory
Critical Social Work Theory
Modernism and Postmodernism
Major Concepts Associated with Oppression/Anti-Oppression Framework
Conclusion
Critical Questions for Discussion
Further Readings

4. Oppression and Privilege at the Personal Level
Introduction
Normalizing Gaze and Objectified Bodies
Acts of Oppression at the Personal Level
Effects of Oppression on the Individual
Surviving Oppression: Responses of Oppressed People at the Personal Level
Acts of Privilege at the Personal Level
Conclusion
Critical Questions for Discussion
Further Readings

5. Oppression and Privilege at the Cultural Level
Introduction
Culture (the "Poor Cousin" in Social Work)
The Dominant Culture
Popular/Mass Culture
Critical Social Theories of Culture
Stereotypes as Cultural Expressions of Oppression
Language and Discourse as Mechanisms of Oppression (and Anti-Oppression)
Social Work and Cultural Oppression
Privilege at the Cultural Level
Whiteness and Privilege
Privilege as a Category of Analysis, Model of Lived Experience, and Cultural Narrative
Social Work and Privilege at the Cultural Level
Conclusion
Critical Questions for Discussion
Further Readings

6. Oppression and Privilege at the Structural Level
Introduction
Social Relations and Oppression
The Politics of Difference
Economic Relations and Oppression
Political Relations and Oppression
Effects of Structural Oppression
Social Determinants of Health
Privilege at the Structural Level
Conclusion
Critical Questions for Discussion
Further Readings

7. Internalized Oppression and Domination
Introduction
Psychology of Oppression
Inferiority and Internalized Oppression
The Master-Slave Paradigm
False Consciousness
Other Perspectives on Internalized Oppression
Psychology of Liberation
Internalized Domination and Privilege
Conclusion
Critical Questions for Discussion
Further Readings

8. The "Web": The Multiplicity, Intersectionality, and Heterogeneity of Oppression and Privilege
Introduction
Multiple Identities and the Persistence of Domination and Oppression
Models of Multiple Oppressions
Intersectional Analysis
Heterogeneity within Oppressed Groups
Conclusion
Critical Questions for Discussion
Further Readings

9. Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Privilege Social Work Practice at the Personal and Cultural Levels
Introduction
Anti-Oppressive Practice at the Personal Level
Anti-Oppressive Practice at the Cultural Level
Challenging the Organization
Anti-Privilege Practice at the Personal and Cultural Levels: What Can We Do?
Conclusion
Critical Questions for Discussion
Further Readings

10. Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Privilege Social Work at the Structural Level with Selected Principles for All Levels
Introduction
Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Privilege Practice at the Structural Level
Selected Principles of Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Privilege Social Work Practice
The Constructive Use of Anger
Conclusion

Critical Questions for Discussion
Further Readings
Notes
References
Index

Challenging Oppression and Confronting Privilege

A Critical Approach to Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Privilege Theory and Practice

Third Edition

Bob Mullaly and Juliana West

Author Information

Bob Mullaly, Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Social Work, University of Manitoba, and Juliana West, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education and Social Work, Thompson Rivers University

Bob Mullaly is emeritus professor in the Faculty of Social Work at University of Manitoba. Previously, he taught in the Department of Social Work at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia, and in the social work program that he founded at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He is also the author of The New Structural Social Work (OUP Canada, 2007).

Juliana West is assistant professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at Thompson Rivers University. Her work has appeared in publications from the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives and the FORUM on Corrections Research. She is a three-time recipient of the University of Manitoba Teaching Services' Teaching Excellence Award (2008, 2011, 2012). Prior to completing her Ph.D, she acted as a policy advisor for both Alberta Mental Health and Correctional Services Canada, and is the former director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Calgary.