Table Of ContentANALYSING SOCIAL WORK
COMMUNICATION
With communication and relationships at the core of social work, this book
reveals the way it is foremost a practice that becomes reality in dialogue,
illuminating some of the profession's key dilemmas. Applied discourse
studies illustrate the importance of talk and interaction in the construction
of everyday and institutional life.
This book provides a detailed review and illustration of the contribution
of discourse approaches and studies on professional interaction to social
work. Concentrating on how social workers carry out their work in everyday
organisational encounters with service users and colleagues, each chapter
uses case studies analysing real-life social work interactions to explore
a concept that has relevance both in discursive studies and in social work.
The book thus demonstrates what detailed discursive studies on interaction
can add to professional social work theories and discussions. Chapters on
categorisation, accountability, boundary work, narrative, advice-giving,
resistance, delicacy and reported speech review the literature and discuss how
the concept has been developed and how it can be applied to social work.
The book encourages professional reflection and the development of
rigorous research methods, making it particularly appropriate for post
graduate and post-qualifying study in social work where participants are
encouraged to examine their own professional practice. It is also essential
reading for social work academics and researchers interested in language,
communication and relationship-based work and in the study of professional
practices more generally.
Christopher Hall is Social Care Researcher in the School of Medicine,
Pharmacy and Health at Durham University, UK.
Kirsi ]uhila is Professor in Social Work at the School of Social Sciences and
Humanities at the University of Tampere, Finland.
Maureen Matarese is Assistant Professor in Developmental Skills at Borough
of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, USA.
Carolus van Nijnatten is Professor in Social Studies of Child Welfare in the
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Utrecht,
Netherlands.
Routledge Advances in Social Work
New titles:
Analysing Social Work Commnnication
Discourse in practice
Edited by Christopher Hall, Kirsi ]uhila, Maureen Matarese and
Carolus van Nijnatten
Forthcoming titles:
Chronic lllness, Vulnerability and Social Work
Liz Walker and Elizabeth Price
Feminisms in Social Work Research
Edited by Stephanie Wahab, Ben Anderson-Nathe and Christina Gringeri
Social Work in a Global Context
Issues and challenges
Edited by George Palattiyil, Dina Sidhva and Mono Chakrabarti
ANALYSING
SOCIAL WORK
COMMUNICATION
Discourse in practice
Edited by Christopher Han
Kirsi juhila, Maureen Matarese
and Carolus van Nijnatten
R
~~.~I~;"~~~"P
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2014
by Routledge
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
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© 2014 selection and editorial material, Christopher Hall, Kirsi juhila,
Maureen Matarese and Carolus van Nijnatten; individual chapters,
the contributors.
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the
editorial material, and of the contributors for their individual chapters,
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification
and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Analysing social work communication: discourse in practice/
edited by Christopher Hall, Kirsi juhila, Maureen Matarese and
Carolus van Nijnatten.-1st Edition.
pages em.-(Routledge advances in social work)
1. Social service. 2. Social interaction. I. Hall, Christopher.
HV40.A74223 2013
361 .301 •4 -dc23
2013013908
ISBN: 978-0-415-63682-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-08496-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon and Gill Sans
by Florence Production Ltd, Stood leigh, Devon, UK
CONTENTS
List of contributors Vll
Acknowledgements !X
1 Social work disconrse in practice 1
Christopher Hall, Kirsi ]uhila, Maureen Matarese
and Carolus van Nijnatten
2 Analysing social work interaction: premises and
approaches 9
Kirsi ]uhila, Asa Miikitalo and Martine Noordegraaf
3 Categorisation 25
Asa Miikitalo
4 Acconnta bili ty 44
Maureen Matarese and Dorte Caswell
5 Bonndary work 61
Stef Slembrouck and Christopher Hall
6 Narrative 79
Christopher Hall and Maureen Matarese
7 Advice-giving 98
Christopher Hall and Stef Slembrouck
vi Contents
8 Resistance 117
Kirsi]u hila, D orte Caswell and Suvi Raitakari
9 Delicacy 136
Carolus van Nijnatten and Eero Suoninen
10 Reported speech 154
Kirsi ]uhila, Arja Jokinen and Sirpa Saario
11 Discourse analysis of 'ordinary' social work 173
Christopher Hall, Kirsi ]uhila, Maureen Matarese
and Carolus Van Nijnatten
Appendix: transcription symbols 181
References 183
Author index 199
Subject index 203
CONTRIBUTORS
The contributors to this book are members of an international research
group, Discourse and Narrative Approaches to Social Work and Counselling
(DANASWAC). First established in 1997, the group has worked together
on a number of research projects and has published widely on the subject.
The contributors are from seven countries and most of the chapters are
international collaborations.
Dorte Caswell is Associate Professor in social work in the Department of
Sociology and Social Work at Aalborg University, Denmark.
Christopher Hall is Social Care Researcher in the School of Medicine,
Pharmacy and Health at Durham University, UK.
Arja Jokinen is Senior Lecturer in social work at the School of Social Sciences
and Humanities at the University of Tampere, Finland.
Kirsi ]uhila is Professor in social work at the School of Social Sciences and
Humanities at the University of Tampere, Finland.
Asa Makitalo is Professor in Education in the Department of Communica
tion, Education and Learning at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Maureen Matarese is Assistant Professor in developmental skills at Borough
of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, USA.
Martine Noordegraaf is Professor (lector) of youth and family and Lecturer
of qualitative research methods at Christian University of Applied Sciences,
Netherlands.
viii List of contributors
Suvi Raitakari is Researcher in social work at the School of Social Sciences
and Humanities at the University of Tampere, Finland.
Sirpa Saario is Researcher in social work at the School of Social Sciences
and Humanities at the University of Tampere, Finland.
Stef Slembrouck is Professor of English Linguistics and Head of the
Linguistics Department at Ghent University, Belgium.
Eero Suoninen is Senior Lecturer in social psychology at the School of Social
Sciences and Humanities at the University of Tampere, Finland.
Carolus van Nijnatten is Professor in social studies of child welfare m
the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Utrecht,
Netherlands.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank the many colleagues who have supported, encour
aged and challenged our discursive interaction studies during the last decade.
The origin ofthe book was the sixth DANASWAC (Discourse and Narrative
Approaches to Social Work and Counselling) meeting in Ghent (August,
2009), where we organised a round-table discussion dealing with different
discursive approaches and their applicability in social work studies. Since then
the book has been discussed and developed yearly in DANASWAC meetings.
We wish to thank all the members of the DANASWAC network for valuable
comments and inspiration. Some of the early versions of the chapters were
also presented at the European Conference of Social Work Research in
Oxford (March, 2011), where we arranged a symposium about discursive
studies in social work.
Chapters 1, 2, 8 and 10 have been partially written based on findings
from the research project Responsibilization of Professionals and Service
Users in Mental Health Practices, led by Kirsi Juhila and funded by the
Academy of Finland (2011-2016).
Chapter 3 was written within the Linnaeus Centre for Research on
Learning Interaction and Mediated Communication in Contemporary
Society (LinCS), a CoE financed by the Swedish Research Council (2006-
cont.).
Chapters 5, 6 and 7 have drawn on data collected for the research
projects E-Assessment in Child Welfare, led by Christopher Hall and funded
by the Economic and Social Research Council e-Society programme
(2005-2007), and Error, Responsibility and Blame in Child Welfare, led by
Sue White (Birmingham University) and funded by the Economic and Social
Research Council Public Services Programme (2007-2009).
Description:With communication and relationships at the core of social work, this book reveals the way it is foremost a practice that becomes reality in dialogue, illuminating some of the profession’s key dilemmas. Applied discourse studies illustrate the importance of talk and interaction in the construction
