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Submission Number: 56
Submission ID: 813
Submission UUID: 4785e1a0-4d94-4826-80d9-c912a6dc8bf2
Submission URI: /2025/abstracts
Created: Wed, 04/23/2025 - 12:37
Completed: Wed, 04/23/2025 - 12:42
Changed: Fri, 05/09/2025 - 15:50
Remote IP address: 146.230.65.149
Submitted by: Anonymous
Language: English
Is draft: No
Current page: Complete
Webform: Abstract
Presenters
Dr.
Ntini
Edmore
University of kwazulu-natal
Dr Edmore Ntini is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Built Environment & Development Studies. He lectures in Institutions on Development, Development Theories, and Postgraduate Research Designs. He is currently the Chair of the School`s Research and Higher Degrees Committee. He coordinates the Independent Study Research Project in the Post Graduate Diploma, Undergraduate Level 2 Development Theories Module, and Level 1 Institutions in Development Module. He supervises Postgraduate Research students (Honours, Master's, and PhD). He serves on the MA Students Selection Committee and chairs the PhD Students Selection Committee in the Department of Community Development. Dr Edmore Ntini is an MA and PhD External Examiner for the Department of Development Studies and Sociology at five universities. He is currently the External Examiner for several Final-year Courses at three universities. He researches and publishes on Civil Society, the State, Community Development, Development Studies and Sociology themes. He peer-reviews publications for 16 Journals. Dr. Edmore Ntini`s publication record includes one co-published book chapter and 32 published journal articles. He has supervised and graduated more than 60 postgraduate research students. He is currently working on two book manuals.
No
Abstract
Reclaiming Political Social Work: Confronting Depoliticisation in Community Development Practice
THEME 4: Social Work Education, Transdisciplinarity and Curriculum Development
SUB 4.1 Preparing future social workers for roles in in nontraditional social work environments.
Oral Presentation
Reclaiming Political Social Work: Confronting Depoliticisation in Community Development Practice
by
Dr. Edmore Ntini
E-mail: Ntinie@Ukzn.ac.za (Business) /eddiemza@gmail.com (Personal)
Phone: +27 648090878/031 260 2289
Abstract
This paper repositions Political Social Work as the central axis of transformative practice within the increasingly depoliticised community development field. Once rooted in social justice, collective organising, and systemic change, social work has been progressively reduced to a technocratic profession tasked with managing service delivery. This transformation has been particularly acute in community development, where neoliberal governance frameworks have subordinated political engagement to institutional compliance, funding metrics, and bureaucratic neutrality. The paper argues that reclaiming the radical traditions of political social work is essential for revitalising community development and restoring the profession's relevance in confronting inequality and structural violence. Adopting a qualitative analytical approach, the study synthesises extant literature and critically examines case studies from South Africa, Nigeria, and Brazil. These cases illustrate how politically engaged social workers have mobilised grassroots movements, challenged institutional repression, and advanced structural transformation from within and outside formal systems. The analysis reveals that when detached from Political Social Work, community development risks becoming an apolitical apparatus that manages rather than disrupts oppression. Conversely, where social workers engage politically through organising, advocacy, and resistance, community development becomes a terrain of possibility rather than pacification. The paper concludes by identifying practical pathways for re-politicising the profession, including reforming social work curricula, creating solidarity-based funding infrastructures, and reintegrating social work into broader emancipatory movements. It calls for a decisive turn from managerialism and towards a re-humanised, politically conscious practice that aligns social workers with struggling communities. Without this shift, the profession risks becoming complicit in sustaining the inequalities it created to dismantle.
Keywords: Political Social Work, Community Development, Depoliticisation, Structural Inequality, Grassroots Organising, Professional Relevance
by
Dr. Edmore Ntini
E-mail: Ntinie@Ukzn.ac.za (Business) /eddiemza@gmail.com (Personal)
Phone: +27 648090878/031 260 2289
Abstract
This paper repositions Political Social Work as the central axis of transformative practice within the increasingly depoliticised community development field. Once rooted in social justice, collective organising, and systemic change, social work has been progressively reduced to a technocratic profession tasked with managing service delivery. This transformation has been particularly acute in community development, where neoliberal governance frameworks have subordinated political engagement to institutional compliance, funding metrics, and bureaucratic neutrality. The paper argues that reclaiming the radical traditions of political social work is essential for revitalising community development and restoring the profession's relevance in confronting inequality and structural violence. Adopting a qualitative analytical approach, the study synthesises extant literature and critically examines case studies from South Africa, Nigeria, and Brazil. These cases illustrate how politically engaged social workers have mobilised grassroots movements, challenged institutional repression, and advanced structural transformation from within and outside formal systems. The analysis reveals that when detached from Political Social Work, community development risks becoming an apolitical apparatus that manages rather than disrupts oppression. Conversely, where social workers engage politically through organising, advocacy, and resistance, community development becomes a terrain of possibility rather than pacification. The paper concludes by identifying practical pathways for re-politicising the profession, including reforming social work curricula, creating solidarity-based funding infrastructures, and reintegrating social work into broader emancipatory movements. It calls for a decisive turn from managerialism and towards a re-humanised, politically conscious practice that aligns social workers with struggling communities. Without this shift, the profession risks becoming complicit in sustaining the inequalities it created to dismantle.
Keywords: Political Social Work, Community Development, Depoliticisation, Structural Inequality, Grassroots Organising, Professional Relevance
Reviewer ONE Feedback
Dr
Thabisa
Matsea
Yes
Empirical Research
Accepted
Reviewer TWO Feedback
Mrs
Neo
Ravhuhali
Yes
Empirical Research
Accepted