Chapter 11 Negotiating ideologies and the moral order in child protection social work
- Resource Type
- Book
- Authors
- Lutman-White, Eleanor; Angouri, Jo
- Source
- Mapping Ideology in Discourse Studies. 118:201-222
- Subject
- Language
Child protection social work is a quintessential moral domain of professional practice. This chapter is concerned with the ideologies associated with the moral order as enacted in child protection social work. We draw on audio-recorded interviews and focus groups conducted in England in which social workers and managers gave accounts of child protection social work, taking an Interactional Sociolinguistic perspective. In analysing these accounts, we show how social workers negotiate in situ and commodify the ideologies of child protection social work; a hierarchy of ideological positions emerges in a process through which the moral order is redefined interactionally in the encounter. Our findings highlight the intimate connection between ideology and the moral order in this particular context. They also provide a greater understanding of how child protection social work contexts for practice are (re)produced in and through interaction.