Journal article
Technicist education: paving the way for the rise of the social work robots?
Critical and Radical Social Work, Vol.7(2), pp.139-154
2019
Abstract
This article seeks to explicate one form of technical rationality (ie the technological development of robotics) in social work education and practice. As advances in robotics evolve, questions are raised about the role of technicist education in reducing social work practice to a set of tasks that are repeatable, formulaic and linear (ie tasks that robots are capable of performing). We conduct a critical synthesis of the literature to explore how these parallel processes potentially create a seamless transition for social robots to replace the human social work workforce. Our analysis suggests that social workers need to reclaim a broader understanding of social work education and practice if we intend to retain human social work practitioners into the future. We argue that this is vital because critical social work practitioners are more capable than robots of meeting the espoused social justice values of social work.
Details
- Title
- Technicist education: paving the way for the rise of the social work robots?
- Authors
- Christine Morley (Author) - Queensland University of TechnologyPhillip Ablett (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - School of Social SciencesKate Stenhouse (Author) - Queensland University of Technology
- Publication details
- Critical and Radical Social Work, Vol.7(2), pp.139-154
- Publisher
- Policy Press
- Date published
- 2019
- DOI
- 10.1332/204986019X15491042559718
- ISSN
- 2049-8608; 2049-8608
- Organisation Unit
- School of Social Sciences - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Law and Society
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99451485402621
- Output Type
- Journal article
Metrics
2 File views/ downloads
680 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web Of Science research areas
- Social Work
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: InCites