1st Edition
Consciousness-Raising Critical Pedagogy and Practice for Social Change
Almost everywhere across the world, economic inequality has been rising within and across national borders. The vision of a fairer world embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is being assailed by the advance of conservative ideology aided by vitriolic right-wing populism sweeping across the globe. Neoliberal ideology has had a profound impact in the shaping social work and human services at the frontlines.
This book contributes to scholarship in critical practice and theory. It does so by exploring a practice approach steeped in the critical tradition that has hitherto received inordinately nominal attention in social work literature. The book features accounts of consciousness-raising in a variety of contexts – caste relations, race and religion, gender and sexuality, disability and social class. The narratives are meant to tease out conceptions and potential applications of consciousness-raising as an approach for critical practice. It will be of interest to practitioners, educators and students of social work, community development, social development and social pedagogy as well as those engaged in the promotion of human rights and social justice.
List of figures; List of tables; List of contributors; Acknowledgements; Chapter 1: Consciousness-raising and critical practice Nilan Yu; Chapter 2: Touching the untouchable: Dalit empowerment through consciousness-raising in an Indian village Archana Kaushik, Lenin Raghuvanshi & Mohanlal Panda; Chapter 3: Critical consciousness-raising amongst poor Rakhine villages in rural Myanmar Anthony Ware and Vicki-Ann Ware; Chapter 4: Consciousness-raising among rural women in Bangladesh: a study of BRAC Microfinance Program participants Faraha Nawaz; Chapter 5: Gendered violence in the Australian context: feminist consciousness-raising Carole Zufferey; Chapter 6: Colliding identities: Gay Muslim men in a liberal secular society Ella R Kahu and Keith Tuffin; Chapter 7: ‘We could have, you know, a revolution’: consciousness-raising and self-advocacy for people with intellectual disabilities in 1980s Victoria David Henderson and Christine Bigby; Chapter 8: Paulo Freire and education for liberation: the case of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) Wilder Robles; Chapter 9: ‘From the river to the sea’ – Promoting Palestinian resistance through praxis Michael Lavalette, Tracy Ramsey and Mohammed Amara; Chapter 10: Critical consciousness and social change Nilan Yu; Index
Biography
Nilan Yu is a lecturer in social work at the University of South Australia. He has been involved in teaching and researching social work and social development for over two decades. Before joining academia, he was engaged in community development work in urban communities populated by informal settlers/squatters in the Philippines. His current research interests are in the areas of disability, migration and its intersections with disability, ageing, critical practice and policy. He is co-editor of the book Subversive action: Extralegal practices for social justice (with Deena Mandell, 2015) and Faces of homelessness in the Asia Pacific (with Carole Zufferey, 2017).
