Making Networks Work: Social Work Action and Children ‘At Risk’

• Published in: Qualitative social work : QSW : research and practice 2011-03, Vol.10 (1), p.49-65
• Main Authors: Stanley, Tony, Plessis, Rosemary Du, Austrin, Terry
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1473-3250; 1741-3117
• DOI: 10.1177/1473325010379629

While the practices of social workers have been extensively researched, qualitative researchers have paid less attention to how child protection work is accomplished through networks that bridge the human and non-human worlds of assessment and intervention work for ‘at risk’ children and families. Drawing on the work of Actor Network theorists, we argue that child protection social work can be tracked as multiple partially connected networks that are organized around children and families, while at the same time incorporating hierarchical occupational group practices. The circulation, prioritization and hierarchical ordering of professional reports, case notes, court reports and assessment documents that organize particular sets of action by social workers has seldom been analysed. This article examines child protection social work as sets of associations between human and non-human actants with significant outcomes for individuals, whanau and families. It draws on detailed interviews with child protection social workers throughout New Zealand who spoke about their experience of particular cases, their interactions with other human service professionals and the documents they accessed, analysed and created as they assessed whether children were ‘at risk’.