(Routledge Advances in Social Work) 1st Edition
by Gerald de Montigny (Author)
What do the stories youth in state
care tell about life in their family of origin? What stories do they
tell us about coming into care, living in care, and relationships with
foster-parents and social workers? This book presents the stories of
youth in care, though not in splendid isolation, but as interactively
produced, turn by turn in interviews, and in conversations with other
youth.
By using tools from conversation analysis (CA), the author
examines interviews with youth in care and social workers, to unfold
the essential and incorrigible reflexivity of story production. CA
allows us to grasp the ways that a youth’s story emerges turn by turn,
and is an artefact of a social relation between a youth and an
interviewer.
This text provides social work readers with a sense
of art, artistry, and ambiguity at the heart of social interaction. It
will be required reading for all social work students and academics
looking for a deeper, more philosophical understanding of the
profession.
