Search results

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- PART I: SOCIAL WORK AND SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM -- 1 Introduction: Constructionist Perspectives on Social Work Practices -- 2 Social Construction in Social Work and Social Action -- PART II: PRACTICES OF ENCOUNTER -- 3 Using Narratives in Social Work Interaction -- 4 Examining the Artfulness of 'Risk Talk' -- 5 Doing 'Delicacy' in Institutions of Helping: A Case of Probation Office Interaction -- 6 Speaking of Emotions in Child Protection Practices -- 7 Masculinity Discourse in Work with Offenders -- PART III: DISCURSIVE STRUGGLES -- 8 The 'Social Construction of Child Maltreatment': Some Political, Research and Practice Implications -- 9 Constructing Child Welfare Practice in Ontario, Canada -- 10 Constructing Juvenile Delinquency: The Socio-Legal Control of Young Offenders in Israel, 1920-1975 -- PART IV: PRACTICAL RELEVANCE -- 11 Financial Counseling at Norwegian Social Offices: Lessons for Constructing Social Work Practice -- 12 A Model for Constructivist Social Work Practice: The Product of a Clinician-Researcher Dialogue -- 13 Speaking Up and Speaking Out: A Dialogic Approach to Anti-Oppressive Practice -- 14 Negotiating Constructions: Rebridging Social Work Research and Practice in the Context of Probation Work -- Notes on Contributors

The article collects the variation of forms of subtle persuasion embedded in social work interviewing. It is based on the constructionist idea that institutional interviewing is not an innocent practice of information gathering, but a practice that also produces knowledge and creates identities. A detailed analysis of interview episodes from different social work settings is used to illustrate interview practices, which persuade a client to reconstruct his/her 'story'. The analysis focuses on four basic devices of persuasion: 'persuasive questions', 'persuasive responses', 'asking explanations' and 'encouraging questions'. The devices are not clear-cut entities, but they seem in an interesting way to be complementary, and also overlapping in the functions they fulfil. By explicating the interactional construction of the devices, the article aims at contributing to social workers' understanding of the nature of the means through which practical activities are achieved.