Postmodernism and the Conduct of Inquiry in Social Work

Abstract

This article proposes that social work's indigenous treasures are the intensely personal, highly emotional, often brutal stories of everyday life as lived by clients and witnessed by practitioners. Citing postmodern thought in several disciplines, the author suggests that the embrace of narrative as a method of inquiry and as a transformational tool at the individual and societal levels has the potential to bring social work's practice, research, and social action aspects into harmony. Clinical narratives illustrate the ways in which the postmodern dia logue could be (and already is) engaged by practitioners.