Hearing voices, talking difference: a dialogic approach to anti-oppressive practice

This article starts from an acknowledgement of the centrality of the idea of 'antioppressive' practice (AOP) to social work and of the difficulty in implementing AOP in the context of social work education, training and practice. It is suggested that hermeneutic philosophy may have some contribution to make to social work thinking and practice (cf. Whan, 1986; Henkel, 1995) and that a conception of practice grounded in a theory of dialogic understanding may help practitioners to frame a more adequate response to situations of oppression and inequality. After 'locating' my account by providing a brief outline of the hermeneutic framework from which my own ideas derive (Gadamer, 1979), I move on to look at the potential contribution of a dialogic model of understanding to a developing anti-oppressive practice in social work. In particular I draw a connection between the dialogic approach associated with Gadamerian hermeneutics and the politics of empowerment articulated by the black feminist writer, Patricia Hill Collins (1991).