Citation

Powell JL, Gilbert T. Int. J. Soc. Welf. 2007; 16(3): 193-201.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1468-2397.2006.00459.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Drawing on Judith Butler's conception of ‘performativity’, we would argue that the notion has important implications for contemporary debates in international social welfare over agency, subjection and ‘resistance’. Professional social workers embedded in discursive institutions function according to particular expectations around performativity. In addition, this organisational context is complex with multiple demands. In light of technologies of surveillance and control in contemporary social work, performativity offers a response to the pressing need to expand notions of worker opposition beyond traditional forms of organised dissent towards the production of subjective space.