Reimagining the Human Service Relationship fills a void by theorizing the social, organizational, and policy construction of the service relationship and providing a cross-national perspective on service contexts with case studies, ethnographies, and qualitative research examples tying theory to praxis.
Suzanne England, New York University Silver School of Social Work Speak to anyone on the receiving end of 'helping ... Read moreservices' and they will say it is the relationship between practitioner and service user that is everything. However important it is, relationship-based practice has not been served well by modern managerialism and bureaucratization. What is important about this book is its focus on that relationship. Reimagining the Human Service Relationship explores how it may help and the new forms it may take with user involvement and service users as practitioners, and offers fresh insights to support its flowering in the future.
Peter Beresford, Brunel University London Reimagining the Human Service Relationship exemplifies a too-rare collaboration across ideas and substance, and between those working mainly in North America, Nordic countries, and the United Kingdom. From Jaber F. Gubrium's lucid and provoking opener, the contributors to this carefully integrated text draw in the reader.
Ian Shaw, University of York and University of Aalborg The editors have succeeded in bringing together a group of international scholars to address a pressing issue encountered across human service provision, namely, how to conceptualize a meaningful service relationship that has validity at this historical moment. Drawing on research that questions the very existence of the divide between users and providers, Reimagining the Human Service Relationship offers thought-provoking insights that challenge both policy and practice.
Sheila Neysmith, University of Toronto An insightful collection of essays that illuminate the everyday dynamism of human service provision and the futility of adequately capturing this with experience-distant distinctions such as professional/client and autonomy/dependency. A must-read for students, scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and anyone else hoping to grasp the working realities of the service relationship.
Darin Weinberg, University of Cambridge Show Less