Three year PhD studentship in social work at Glasgow Caledonian University

Opportunity for a PhD Studentship in: The Making of Professional Identity for Social Work. Applications are invited for a full-time PhD research studentship within the Department of Psychology, Social Work and Allied Health at Glasgow Caledonian University. Professor Stephen Webb and Dr Martin Kettle will supervise the research. The full-time studentship is for a period of three years, subject to satisfactory progress and provides payment of tuition fees at the UK/EU rate plus an annual stipend, commencing October 2015.

Applicants must possess a minimum of a good honours degree (2:1) in social work, sociology, social anthropology or a related social sciences discipline. Experience in fieldwork research and/or ethnography would be advantageous.

Issues around professional identity for social work are very much alive in UK especially in light of the integration agenda of health and social care; the move towards self-directed care; the Frontline development and two recent reviews of social work in England and Wales.  Increasingly the health and social care integration agenda frames professional identity in social work as a matter of concern. Research across the sector reveals social workers are facing complex challenges: not purely in terms of how they execute their responsibilities, but fundamentally in the way professional values are sustained, the sense of role position and distinctiveness of professional remit. What it means to be an effective public sector professional in social work is becoming ever more contestable. With this research the way professional identities are being renegotiated will be examined against the rapidly changing political, economic and social background. In adopting an institutional logics perspective the study will examine the way the term 'professionalism' and identification with social work is mobilised as a matter of concern. Commonalities and divergence across four themes will be mapped: (i) multi-agency working and inter professionalism; (ii) the role of professional and work-based learning, (iii) the effects of turf wars and jurisdiction strategies; (iv) the ways in which organisational culture and policy maintains or displaces the professional identity of social workers.

Please email Professor Stephen Webb  or Dr Martin Kettle to apply for this position.