Reimagining Social Work in AotearoaI have been wondering (as my time in a University teaching job meanders to an end) about the function of dissent – questioning and challenging the status quo, power, vested interests – in organisations and in wider politics. I once wrote ‘‘One day I’ll find a place where there are no games of power / One day I’ll get struck by a meteor shower”. What are the implications of the current – and inescapable – power shifts in our social and political world?
Thinking is always important – particularly at times when we are encouraged to believe it is unnecessary. AI can do that for us, right?
Ngā mihi o te tau hou. Happy New Year. Kia kaha to all our many readers and 1000 subscribers. In 2024 we had over 25,000 reads from over 15,000 individuals. When we set up the Reimagining Social Work Collective website in 2015 we never imagined it would still be going in 10 years. But we’re here and still passionate about encouraging dissent in the struggle to build a better society. While I’ve written about many issues on the RSW blog, intersectional feminism still drives me forward. Please note feminism is for “all those who travel under the sign women. No feminism worthy of its name would…render trans women into ‘not women'”(Ahmed, 2017, p.14).
To all 15,000 of our readers in Aotearoa and overseas and all 1,000 of our loyal subscribers, we wish you and your whānau the happiest year ahead.
Since we know what makes you happy is to educate, agitate, and organise, we want to share some ideas about actions and invite your own thoughts in the reply section below.
The relative calm of the slow days between Christmas and New Year afford an opportuntity for reflection. 2024 has been a challenging year. We have endured a complex hard-right political blitzkrieg from the coalition government. Their focus is on legislative and policy frameworks which promote ‘business freedom’ by facilitating optimum conditions for private profit. This flowering of capitalist fundamentalism (neo-liberalism on steroids) is supported by a range of deceptive ideological tropes – shallow and false representations of equality, such as the idea that the interests of capital and labour are the same or the notion that we can all be capitalists. A raft of contradictions lies below the surface layer of political deceit: