Hello!
So I know the name of this blog is Rad Social Work. And I really am going to write a lot about radical social work and my developing research that supports radical and feminist practice. I'm going to write a lot about feminism as a good frame for social work and try to use this as a space to meet other feminist social workers. BUT I also chose "rad" social work instead of something like "feminist" social work or "radical" social work because of the nostalgic use of the word "rad" to mean cool and free. Meaning, I'm going to post what I want. Right now, a lot of that is going to be about being in graduate school, since I've been spending my summer in a mental boot camp as I prepare for my most challenging years of my academic career. And I will probably post cute pictures of my pets sometimes.
So not everything is going to satisfy the radical part of rad. This may be an unnecessary disclaimer. But I'm one of those people who wants to be clear that I've thought through some assumptions and pitfalls and tried to make the best decision I can. Maybe I'll get enough feedback that I change the name some day or maybe I'll come up with a more catchy title. But for now, I really just want to write and don't want to get too hung up on the title. I think it's a good one. If I find it's not, I'll change it.
I will write some about being a radical person in the real world. I'll explain how I'm really only radical in some ways. Some of my way more rad friends would say I'm not that radical. In many ways, I'm actually pretty square. Like being a feminist, living radically can come in many shapes and is not well-defined. A lot of people will try to define it, and that's a good exercise. I'll work to define it how I define it for me and we can talk about what feminist means to me versus other folks. But my scholarship and the changes I hope to make in the world are pushing it away from patriarchy and capitalism, and working to reroute our society from neoliberalism and as far as I understand it that's radical. I wish we could just get rid of these systems of control today. But that is not a real thing that can happen. Even though I hate it, change takes a lot of time and all change has unintended consequences. But we can participate in moving toward change, we can be a voice in the crowd, and we can work together to set up a different world. In fact, we have no other choice. I'll write more about my beliefs and over time we'll get to know each other.
I just wanted to write this because I don't really want to be facing too many expectations for this blog. I want to write what I think will be helpful. Being efficient in my life and being an effective professional/ scholar are important to me. I believe these are ways to make progress toward breaking down oppressive systems. So I'm going to write about that. I'm also going to write about ideas for actually breaking down or at least questioning and chipping away at oppressive systems.
In short, be ready for some things to relate directly to radical social work and for some things to not be. I'm probably going to focus more on process than on product because I'm very interested in the way we social workers work, not just what we objectively accomplish. In many situations, I think the way you work, the way you live, the way you are is more important than what you actually do. But of course, I think they're both important, so I'm going to write about both.
Thanks,
Kess
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