The New Forest: The Relationship between Social Work and Socially Engaged Art Practice Revisited

In 2015, Leanne Schubert and Mel Gray wrote a critical commentary in the British Journal of Social Work entitled 'The death of emancipatory social work and birth of socially engaged art practice'. In this commentary, the authors argue that artists have moved in to fill the void that increasingly emerges as social workers vacate the public spaces of activism and social change. However, there is little consensus in the existing body of research about the so-called 'death of emancipatory social work' and what 'social engagement' in the arts precisely entails. The aim of our article is therefore to revisit the relationship between social work and socially engaged art practices. A rhetorical analysis of the differing constructions about social engagement in the case study The New Forest displays different roles of artists: (i) the artist generates change, (ii) the artist imagines, (iii) the artist researches, (iv) the artist acts as an entrepreneur and (v) the artist confirms the social order/takes advantage. Our analysis of how artists deal with the complexity of social problems and attempt to take up an explicit social engagement offers insights for a reconsideration of the emancipatory potential and social justice aspirations of social work.