In Politics for Social Workers: A Practical Guide to Effecting Change, Professor Stephen Pimpare offers a historically informed and theoretically grounded assessment of current political issues. The book tackles current debates around immigration, COVID-19, and the domestic terrorism of January 6th. All these issues are presented with an eye toward how they impact social workers and what members of the profession can do to fight for social justice.
The book will be extremely useful to social work students and professionals who still feel uncomfortable talking openly about politics. Pimpare begins the book with a wide-ranging survey of American democracy, institutions, and history. We learn, through concise narrative, that the United States is “unlike any country in the world,” because many of our founding institutions are built on the idea of exclusion. From how the Senate gives overdue influence to small conservative states (Wyoming and California have the same number of Senators), to unaccountable Supreme Court Justices who make sweeping rulings based on obscure readings of the Constitution (originalism), readers are given historical perspective to many of today’s most important social justice issues.
Pimpare speaks to those professionals who see the value of political advocacy. He encourages social workers to recognize that “not everyone shares your values.” While the work of supporting clients from marginalized communities seems like a “good thing” to social workers, more than half the population supports a politics of “exclusion.” It is within this political climate of racial animosity, gendered oppression, and increasing economic inequality that Pimpare calls on social workers to choose the side of justice. Neutrality, while a key tenet of clinical intervention, does nothing to serve clients who need social transformation.
The book is at its best when it encourages social workers to drop any notion that they are significantly different from the people they serve. Pimpare offers stark statistics that show how insecure life within America’s middle class has become. With jobs becoming less skilled, union membership decreasing, and the amount of debt the average MSW student graduates with increasing, the idea of our clients’ problems being “theirs” should be left behind. A politics of solidarity, where client and worker unite for systemic change, is the only solution to growing economic insecurity.
Politics for Social Workers is more than a primer on how our current social welfare system works. Politics for Social Workers is more an instruction manual for those who are tired of helping clients cope with an unjust economic system. For current professionals, students, and teachers, Politics for Social Workers is a roadmap for systemic change. It is a voice that can help spark discussion in classrooms and in agency staff meetings, as we get ready for the important mid-term elections of 2022.
Reviewed by David Hornung, PhD, LMSW, Assistant Professor, CUNY York College-MSW Program.