Foucault, Governmentality and Social Work Policy

The philosopher Michel Foucault’s theoretical work provides fertile ground to analyse areas of significant concern in researching social work through his development of the ideas of discourse, power/knowledge, surveillance and governmentality. His development of these concepts allows an insight into the function of policy not always apparent in mainstream and contemporary social policy analysis, which has been based on the sociological triumvirate of social class, gender and ‘race’. In this chapter, we can explore how and why these conceptual gifts from Foucault are pertinent to understanding how service users are constructed as objects of social work policy, particularly with respect to contemporary discourses of social welfare and social exclusion.