Collective Work and the Claimant’s Struggle

Abstract

The social services team seems as chaotic as ever: every other Tuesday they have been meeting but with little coherence or purpose; they remain an individualistic collection of social workers. There had been the attempt to develop some form of team practice to cope with the problems of the area in a more collective way. The team leader had come away from a short course some eighteen months ago burning with a belief in ‘Team Practice’ and a commitment to make it work. Pauline, a social worker, had been as enthusiastic as the others at the start, believing that a collective approach to work might increase not only the instrumental effectiveness of the team but also help to develop collective consciousness among the workers. This would replace the extreme individualism that Pauline saw as characteristic of social workers in general.