Boalanc Structural Social Work

Carleton University encourages students to acquire knowledge in critical thinking and analysis of structural barriers that prevents people reach their goals and develop their full potential. Structural Social Work is a powerful eye opener because it completely changes the perspective of the world we are accustomed to have, to be able to see how the political and economic systems work today. Unfortunately, there are many people today that do not realize that structural barriers exist in our society, which make them to be negligent to the needs of others. Instead of helping one another, society imposes the idea of individualism, competition and selfishness between people.
In the YouTube video The Story of Stuff (a short animated documentary about the life cycle of material goods) we could see that consumerism is what matters in society today. Everyone is focused on shopping whereas the value of a person is not on what he/she is, but rather on what he/she purchases. For this reason, social workers who have the privilege to work with people of different age, race, culture, religion and background, need to practice structural social. By doing this, clients will know what structural barriers are and how these can affect the control,
balance and power they have within their own lives. Structural barriers not only can deprive people from achieving professional and personal goals, but also strip them from building up character and positive self-esteem to success in life.
Structural social work enables opportunities.
Structural social work by definition is to “maximize client resources; reduce power inequalities in client-worker relationships; unmask the primary structures of oppression; facilitate a collective consciousness; foster activism with social movements; and encourage responsibility for feelings and behaviors leading, to personal and political change” (Carniol, 1992, p. 1). Through structural social work, the barriers imposed in society through ideologies can be changed as the structural social work seeks social justice promoting equality between every individual, and provide the tools for those who have no support to be able to speak up for their rights and demands a fair treatment in
society.
On the other hand, the biggest obstacles to apply social work are in people and society. People who have always been marginalized and oppressed by agencies, schools and people, would require special preparation, attention and effort to prove them that they can change their lives with the intervention of structural social workers. It is important to admit that not everyone agrees with the vision of structural social work, therefore, the opposition to this approach is another barrier that would avoid change in workplaces or public service facilities.