Abstract

Wither the social in social work? A textual analysis of "Looking After Children"

Gerald de Montigny

Looking After Children (LAC) project materials developed in Great Britain have been piloted across Canada. Advocates of LAC want it incorporated as part of a required documentary regime for all Children’s Aid Societies in Ontario. This paper will situate the development, adaptation, and promotion of LAC in Canada within broader institutional contexts of cutback, service elimination, downsizing, and fear of liability. This paper’s thesis is that the adoption of LAC must be situated as emerging inside of a restructured child welfare system. Authentic, human, and face-to-face relations and supports are substituted by machine technologies to manage, control, and regulate the inchoate and chaotic domains of daily life.

Back to Papers