Styrningsmentalitet i socialt arbete En kritisk diskursanalys av KBT

Abstract

This study is based on the will to understand the importance of a specific theory within social work. From the concept of neo-liberal governmentality, the aim is to critically examine and discuss how governance and self-governance is manifested in social work methods and interventions, exemplified by the theory cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). This will be accomplished through an analysis of:

• How governance (and self-governance) is manifested in text through the advocacy of CBT and methods based on CBT. • How (governance and) self-governance is manifested in text through the contents of CBT and methods based on CBT.

The study has a deductive approach including the hypothesis that the discourses inherent in social work methods and interventions, exemplified by the theory of CBT and methods based on CBT, may be related to the West’s development of a neo-liberal concept of governance. The empirical material consists of a newsletter from the former Swedish Institute for the development of methods in social work (IMS) and the analysis was carried out with reference to Michel Foucault’s theories of governmentality and by using Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis. The analysis shows, that the dominant discourses in the advocacy of, and through the contents of, CBT are those of science and the competent client, as well as the discourse of learning and behavioral change. In the light of previous research and theory, these discourses can be seen as conform to neo-liberal assumptions about the individual, and as an expression of governance and self-governance. The study thus shows that CBT, as presented in the empirical material from IMS, can be analyzed and understood using theories of governance, self-governance and neo-liberal governmentality. The interdiscursivity reflected in the social work’s discursive practice, also indicates a change in the social work’s order of discourse. In this study, the change can be seen both as a product of neo-liberal governmentality and as a reproduction of it. Finally the study discusses whether CBT’s assumptions about the solutions to problems, are of such great relevance to social work, that it corresponds to the extent of the advocacy.