Social Work, Personalisation, and the Care Act 2014: a Bourdieusian Analysis

This article considers the role of social work in English social care within the context of the Care Act 2014 and related policy agendas. This is achieved through a theoretical analysis of English social care policy and legislation rooted in the work of Pierre Bourdieu. Having been contextualized in the consolidation of neoliberal hegemony in Britain, particular focus is given to social care reforms stemming from the 2010–2015 Coalition Government, including the implementation of the Care Act 2014 and its associated personalisation principles. Utilizing Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘habitus’, ‘field’, and ‘capital’, social care policy and reform is viewed as embodying an ongoing ideological shift in the ways in which the state, and its social care professions, are envisaged as functioning and interacting with its citizens. From this, the role of social work in English social care is considered in relation to policy agendas underpinning the Care Act 2014 and more recent policy reviews and proposals. This article concludes by drawing on Bourdieu’s notion of ‘hysteresis’ to conceptualize a profession facing a complex negotiation of its skills and values within destabilizing political, economic, and ideological framings of practice.