Reimagining Social Work the RSW Collective

In this episode Neil Ballantyne talks to Professor Liz Beddoe about the topic of reproductive justice and the implications of the recent decision by the US Supreme Court to overturn the famous 1973 court ruling of Roe v Wade. 

Liz also highlights some of the actions that social workers and social work educators can take to promote an awareness of reproductive rights.


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Anita Gibbs (Associate Professor, University of Otago) is a longstanding social worker, teacher, researcher and advocate for young people with FASD and their families. In 2020 she received the University of Otago 'Critic and Conscience' award for her outstanding work in this area. Anita is currently undertaking research with caregivers and stakeholders on the topic of living well with FASD across the lifespan.

In this podcast, we explore foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and its intersections with the youth criminal justice system in Aotearoa New Zealand. FASD is a lifelong disability that leads to particular issues making children and young people more vulnerable to coming into contact with the police and justice processes. We chat about brain domains, making disability accommodations, supporting families and what works best for youth involved in the youth justice system. We discuss what good practice looks like from a social worker and other professional perspective.

This podcast is especially relevant as September 9th is international FASD day.


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This podcast is an interview with Dr Fairleigh Gilmour, an academic in Gender studies and Criminology at the University of Otago. Fairleigh has run a volunteering programme into the Milton prison for a number of years, after discovering how few students in her criminology classes had ever been into a prison. Her programmes involve recruiting and training students to develop their own classes and run them for men in the local prison. This year, she has worked with prison staff and the University of Otago to offer a first year criminology paper to people currently in prison, despite the restrictions on internet access and the difficulties of curriculum commensurability. Fairleigh’s commitment to inclusive education and university -prison partnerships to enable quality educational and recreational activities for people in prison is a great example of commitment to action on inequities in the criminal justice system.


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In this podcast Deb Stanfield interviews Liz Beddoe about changes to the abortion law that will make it possible to set up safe areas around specific abortion services.


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In this episode, Deb Stanfield interviews Emily Keddell (University of Otago, Aotearoa New Zealand) for the RSW collective. Emily speaks to The Prevention Project: Supporting Whānau and Reducing Baby Removals, a project undertaken with colleagues Luke Fitzmaurice and Kerri Cleaver. 

Emily explains the background to the project and shares its key findings, which include the important mediating role of community social workers and other professionals, the value of a poverty-informed perspective, and the role of community building initiatives to improve social networks of whānau. Improving the pathways into, and availability of, early, intensive, culturally responsive services and enabling a whole of whānau orientation to practice are key promoters of preventing entry to care. 

Devolving power and resources to build the availability of such services, particularly by Māori, for Māori services, was suggested as a way to help build the capacity of these kinds of services. Whānau involved with Oranga Tamariki around the time of birth reported the trusting, non-judgemental and supportive relationships with community-based workers, and focussing on intrinsic motivating factors such as love for children, helped them navigate Oranga Tamariki intervention, and their own personal struggles, to retain care.



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In this episode, Ian Hyslop interviews Paul Garrett of  NUI (National University of Ireland, Galway) for the RSW Collective. Paul is a much read and respected theorist and writer in relation to the political context of social work and its implications for education and practice futures.

Dr Garrett  discusses his recent response to the provocative ‘end of social work’ critique offered by Chris  Maylea. While acknowledging the difficulties associated with critical practice he suggests that social work  does not sit outside of the tensions facing the liberal capitalist system globally. Referring to Gramsci’s notion of ‘conjunctures’ he points to climate change, uneven social suffering, the geopolitical unrest which is fuelling a refugee and migrant crisis, and the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Add to this the political resurgence of the populist right and unprecedented for state surveillance and we indeed are living at a challenging cross roads. Garrett argues that we can not choose to live apart from these structuring realities – but that where there is power and reaction there is resistance and solidarity. As workers and social citizens there is, as there always has been, a different world to be won. Dissent is a necessity


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