As Social Work is a broad professional field subject to all kinds of stigma and misconception and due to its relevance to the context of Universal Asylums “business” it seems relevant provide brief elaboration.
The cute little introductory definition put to us in 2008 was “Social Work – the interface between humans and our environments” (mutually interdependent). The brief account of the complexity and various aspects of the distinct nature of the profession is covered in the following assignment I received a Distinction for in 2011 - Complexity in Practice - Conceptualise The nature & Complexity of Social Work. and further touched upon in the following case study which I received a Credit for Complexity in Practice - A#02.
No punches were pulled advising us societies three most critical threats are global conflict, ecological collapse and managing our ageing population, followed by a list of social issues more typically associated with Social Work such as cultural and gender based inequality, domestic violence, homelessness, drug and alcohol, “mental health”, etc. They outlined three main career directions associated with such qualifications along the lines of being underpaid burning ourselves out working for under-resourced NGOs concerned with social issues perpetuated by systemic flaws, or for better pay we could work for the government which in most cases would require compromising values with any positive influence we offer limited by bureaucracy and last but not least struggling to survive as an activist fighting for greatest social change. With the aim of Social Work being – “to do ourselves out of a job”.
This is fundamental to every aspect of Universal Asylum, from its name, general “mission statement” and the two distinctly individual yet interconnected sets of intellectual property it claims ownership underpinning political “demands”. Universal Asylum is officially registered as “humanitarian” (or closest similar option) being the most appropriate general classification of a range of options I’m pretty sure included “ecological conservation”. Unfortunately it was not possible to select multiple options as according to the definition of Social Work at least these two and others are by no means mutually exclusive. Hence Universal Asylums concern for everything, as reflected by its name, and the fact that in ways it potentially comes across leaning more towards “ecological conservation” with contempt for humanities reckless disregard for the complex ecological context our physical existence is 100% absolutely relent upon.
However, of the three critical threats the oversimplified statement introducing the one I’d been previously unaware “in 20-30 years everyone will either be the elderly or employed looking after the elderly” was possibly greatest influence my approach to 4 years of full-time tertiary “education” in an academic field that encouraged critical analysis of everything associated with the above including itself as individuals within a professional culture informed by and potentially contributing to the evolution of its broad knowledge base (anti-oppressive). The impossibly of this oversimplified extreme where no one is left to run necessary aspect of society was a clever way of raising an extremely serious issue with all kinds of complex implications with lecturers particularly cautious to avoid speculation over how governments might “manage” such a vulnerable situation.
Macro scale social reform capable of addressing all social issues was the only possibly way I could see at that stage of avioding the critical threat of the above which just so happened to involve my parents generation with devestating consiquences for my children and everyone I've ever known and loved. However, conceptualising such reform would of course require developing an advanced as possible understanding of the complexities of human beings as individuals and their interrelationships with one another across and between different cultural contexts and their development throughout time. Fortunately we were encouraged from the start to particularly critical of dominant oppressive civilisations and of the use and misuse of power, and roles institutions such as religion, psychiatry, criminal "justice", "education", economics, etc, played in the subordination and domination of minority groups and perpetuation of other forms of systemic inequalities throughout history. Studying existing sociological critiques and the multifaceted problematic nature of political systems preventing social progress.
Whilst not compatable with all subjects and assignment tasks covered thoughout the core content of the four year degree marco scale social reform always remained in the back of my mind. However, my original career plan was more along the lines or working part-time in different contexts whilst setting up a private practice combining my experience as an artist, dancer and social worker to undertake a range of therapeautic and activist tasks advocating for reform of existing systems.
Unfortunately I'd told my career plan to a psychopath I'd been sleeping with covered in Narcissistic Discard - Sabotage of my Career & Socially via Gaslighting & Weaponisation of Deaths. who did everything it could to do as much damage to everything I loved as possible.
Subsiquentially, and due to additional circumstances covered in Standing up to Latino Grooves [2019]. I faild my final assignment Complexity in Practice - One of my Most Important Assignments. However, my One & Only Fail!
The rediculous and unusually low word count for a final subject assignment didn't help, especially the last of all subjects prior to my final feild education. Being the one assignment that gave the freedom to do so - I intended to do something huge but circumstances left me with no time, and I was forced to submit somthing that vaguely scrapes the surface of anything I was trying to achieve. I don't know if circumstances were different it I would have realised the potential of the original concepts fundamental to Universal Asylums Leaderless System of Governance in Planning & Evaluation in the Human Services A#03 - "Harnessing Independence" the previous year in 2010. I should have introduced it as an anti-oppressive leaderless system of goverance, using a refined variation of such software and institutional structure, to overcome systemic barriers associated with the complexities associated with the main issues of social work in facilitating "hypersocialfluidity". The assignment illudes to the fact the war on drugs was a priority without clearly stating that this was to free up the greatest amount of resources for our aging population. It's embarressing but all it really proves is that I was trying to formulate anti-oppressive macro scale social reform.
Of course it doesn't matter that I got a Distinction and Credit for the core course content, due to failing this assignment my acidemic transcript says I only just passed complexity in practice.
To be revised and continued....
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