Solving the unsolvable
Narrative practices in social work
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.26896Keywords:
inter-institutional meetings, moral issue, older people, social work intervention, storytellingAbstract
Social workers often confront situations that are practically, legally and morally unsolvable. Storytelling appears to be central to achieving what seems to be unobtainable and unsolvable. Drawing on past research on storytelling within the ethnomethodological tradition, this study aims to examine how storytelling is used in the discussion of very complex and delicate cases by social workers and other professionals. This study is based on data collected for the Aging, Poverty and Social Exclusion (APSE) project, based in Portugal. Through a detailed analysis within an ethnomethodological framework, and informed by conversation analysis of transcripts of inter-professional meetings, the study shows how social workers and other professionals (nurses, policemen, carer coordinators etc.) use stories in fine tuning the details of home visits, clients’ housing conditions and so on. These stories are institutionally framed – that is, they are structured around what is considered right and wrong by a specific institutional gaze. Stories are often used to propose solutions, by telling the stories of similar previous cases. In these stories the professionals highlight their order of relevance and their responsibilities in managing the case. They delineate a sense of direction for social interventions conducted in narrow and tortuous paths, full of pitfalls.
References
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Baldwin, C. (2013) Narrative Social Work: Theory and Application. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.
Baldwin, C. and Estey-Burtt, B. (2012) Narrative and the reconfiguration of social work ethics. Narrative Works: Issues, Invesigations & Interventions 2 (2): 1–19.
Bülow, P. H. (2004) Sharing experiences of contested illness by storytelling. Discourse & Society 15 (1): 33–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926504038943
Campion-Smith, C., Austin, H., Criswick, S., Dowling, B. and Francis, G. (2011) Can sharing stories change practice? A qualitative study of an interprofessional narrative-based palliative care course. Journal of Interprofessional Care 25 (2): 105–111. https://doi.org/10.3109/13561820.2010.515427
Cedersund, E. (1999) Using narratives in social work interaction. In. A. Jukinen, K. Juhila and T. Pösö (eds) Constructing Social Work Practices, 69–86. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Curl, T. S., Local, J. and Walker, G. (2006) Repetition and the prosody-pragmatic interface. Journal of Pragmatics 38 (10): 1721–1751. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2006.02.008
De Fina, A. (2008) Who tells which story and why? Micro and macro contexts in narrative. Text and Talk 28 (3): 421–442. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.2008.020
De Fina, A. and Perrino, S. (2011) Introduction: Interviews vs. ‘natural’ contexts: A false dilemma. Language in Society 40 (1): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404510000849
Floersch, J. (2000) Reading the case record: The oral and written narratives of social workers. Social Service Review 74 (2): 169–192. https://doi.org/10.1086/514475
Fraser, H. (2004) Doing narrative research: Analysing personal stories line by line. Qualitative Social Work 3 (2):179–201. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325004043383
Garfinkel, H. and Sacks, H. (1970) On formal structures of practical action. In J. C. McKinney and E. A. Tiryakian (eds) Theoretical Sociology: Perspectives and Developments, 338–366. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Gomes, I., Carvalho, I. and Paoletti, I. (2014) Poverty intervention in relation to the older population in a time of economic crisis: The Portuguese case. RASP: Research on Aging and Social Policy 2 (1): 88–114.
Hall, C. (1997) Social Work as Narrative: Storytelling and Persuasion in Professional Texts. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Hall C., Sarangi S. and Slembrouck S. (1997a) Moral construction in social work. In B-L. Gunnarsson, P. Linell and B. Nordberg (eds) The Construction of Professional Discourse, 265–291. London: Longman.
Hall, C., Sarangi, S. and Slembrouck, S. (1997b) Silence and silenced voices: Interactional construction of audience in social work talk. In A. Jaworski (ed.) Silence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 181–211. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Hall C., Sarangi, S. and Slembrouck S. (1997c) Narrative transformation in child abuse reporting. Child Abuse Review 6 (4): 272–282. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0852(199710)6:4<272::AID-CAR329>3.0.CO;2-5
Hall, C., Slembrouck, S. and Sarangi, S. (2006) Language Practices in Social Work. London: Routledge.
Hall, C. and White, S. (2005) Looking inside professional practice: Discourse, narrative and ethnographic approaches to social work and counselling. Qualitative Social Work 4 (4): 379–390. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325005058642
Holma, J., Partanen, T., Wahlström, J., Laitila, A. and Seikkula, J. (2006) Narratives and discourses in groups for male batterers. In M. Libshitz (ed.) Domestic Violence and its Reverberations, 59–83. London: Nova Science.
Holt, E. (1996) Reporting on talk: The use of reported speech in conversation, Research on Language and Social Interaction 29 (3): 219–245. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327973rlsi2903_2
Holt, E. (2000) Reporting and reacting: Concurrent responses to reported speech. Research on Language and Social Interaction 33 (4): 425–454. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327973RLSI3304_04
Holt, E. and Clift, R. (2007) Reporting Talk: Reported Speech in Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Housley, W. (1999) Role as an interactional device and resource in multidisciplinary team meetings. Sociological Research Online 4 (3). Available online: http://www.socresonline.org.uk/4/3/housley. https://doi.org/10.5153/sro.315
Housley, W. (2000) Story, narrative and teamwork. Sociological Review 48 (3): 425–443. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.00224
Hydén, L. C. (1999) Talk about money: Studying the interaction between social workers and clients. International Journal of Social Welfare 8 (2): 143–154. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2397.00075
Jokinen, A. and Suoninen, E. (1999) From crime to resourse: Constructing narratives in a social work encounter. In S. Karvinen, M. Satka and T. Pösö (eds) Reconstructing Social Work Research: Finnish Methodological Adapatations, 208–241. Jyväskylä, Finland: SoPhi.
Kohler Riessman, C. (2008) Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences. London: Sage.
Kohler Riessman, C. and Quinney, L. (2005) Narrative in social work: A critical review. Qualitative Social Work 4 (4): 391–412. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325005058643
Labov, W. (2011) Oral narratives of personal experience. In P. C. Hogan (ed.) Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Language Sciences, 782. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Labov, W. and Waletzky, J. (1967) Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In J. Helm (ed.) Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts, 12–44. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Larsson, S. and Sjöblom, Y. (2010) Perspectives in narrative methods in social work research. International Journal of Social Welfare 19 (3): 272–280. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2397.2009.00672.x
Lerner, G. H. (1989) Notes on overlap management in conversation: The case of delayed completion. Western Journal of Speech Communication 53: 167–177.
Niemelä, M. (2005) Voiced direct reported speech in conversational storytelling: Sequential patterns of stance taking. SKY Journal of Linguistics 18: 197–221.
Nikander, P. (2003) The absent client: Case description and decision-making in multi-professional meetings: Interactions, identities and practices. In C. Hall, K. Juhila, N. Parton and T. Pösö (eds) Constructing Clienthood in Social Work and Human Services, 112–128. London: Jessica Kingsley.
Nikander, P (2005) Managing Scarcity: Joint decision making in interprofessional meetings. In T. Heinonen and A. Metteri (eds) Social Work in Health and Mental Health: Issues, Developments and Actions, 273–299. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press.
Nikander, P. (2007a) Emotion categories in meeting talk. In A. Hepburn and S. Wiggins (eds) Discursive Research in Practice: New Approaches to Psychology and Interaction, 50–69. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nikander, P. (2007b) Interprofessional decision making in elderly care: Morality criteria and help allocation. In I. Paoletti (ed.) Family Caregiving: Relational and Institutional Issues, 319–332. New York: Nova Science.
Paoletti, I. (1998) Handling ‘incoherence’ according to the speaker’s on-sight categorisation. In C. Antaki and S. Widdicombe (eds) Identities in Talk, 171–190. London: Sage.
Paoletti, I. (2015) Active aging and inclusive communities: Inter-institutional intervention in Portugal. Aging International 40 (2): 165–186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-014-9216-9
Paoletti, I. and Carvalho, M. I. (2012) Aging, poverty and social services in Portugal: The importance of quality services. Indian Journal of Gerontology 26 (3): 396–413.
Paoletti, I. and Gomes, S. (2014) Future talk in later life. Journal of Aging Studies 29: 131–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2014.01.005
Paoletti, I. and Gonçalves, A. (2017) Interinstitutional networks and democratization of services in social intervention with older people in Portugal. RASP: Research on Aging and Social Policy 5 (2): 111–137.
Pithouse, A. and Atkinson, P. (1988) Telling the case occupation narrative in social work office. In N. Coupland (ed.) Style of Discourse, 183–200. London: Croom Helm.
Pomerantz, A. (1984) Agreeing and disagreeing with assessments: Some features of preferred/dispreferred turn shapes. In J. M. Atkinson and J. Heritage (eds) Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, 57–101. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Roscoe, K. D. and Madoc, I. (2009) Critical social work practice a narrative approach. International Journal of Narrative Practice 1 (1): 9–18.
Sacks, H. (1992) Lectures on Conversation. 2 volumes. Oxford: Blackwell.
Sarangi, S. (1998) Interprofessional case construction in social work: The evidential status of information and reportability, Text 18 (2): 241–270. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.1.1998.18.2.241
Schegloff, E. A., Jefferson, G. and Sacks, H. (1977) The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language 53 (2): 361–382. https://doi.org/
10.1353/lan.1977.0041
Silverman, D. (ed.) (1997) Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Practice. London: Sage.
Stivers, T. (2008): Stance, alignment, and affiliation during storytelling: When nodding is a token of affiliation. Research on Language and Social Interaction 41 (1): 31–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/08351810701691123
Stokoe, E. and Edwards, D. (2006) Story formulation in talk-in-interaction. Narrative Inquiry 16 (1): 56–65. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.16.1.09sto
Wahlström, J. (2006) Narrative transformations and externalizing talk in a reflecting team consultation. Qualitative Social Work 5 (3): 313–332. https://doi.org/10.1177/
1473325006067359
Wells, K. (2011) Narrative Inquiry. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195385793.001.0001
Wetherell, M., Taylor, S. and Yates, S. (eds) (2001) Discourse Theory as Practice. London: Sage.
Baldwin, C. (2013) Narrative Social Work: Theory and Application. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.
Baldwin, C. and Estey-Burtt, B. (2012) Narrative and the reconfiguration of social work ethics. Narrative Works: Issues, Invesigations & Interventions 2 (2): 1–19.
Bülow, P. H. (2004) Sharing experiences of contested illness by storytelling. Discourse & Society 15 (1): 33–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926504038943
Campion-Smith, C., Austin, H., Criswick, S., Dowling, B. and Francis, G. (2011) Can sharing stories change practice? A qualitative study of an interprofessional narrative-based palliative care course. Journal of Interprofessional Care 25 (2): 105–111. https://doi.org/10.3109/13561820.2010.515427
Cedersund, E. (1999) Using narratives in social work interaction. In. A. Jukinen, K. Juhila and T. Pösö (eds) Constructing Social Work Practices, 69–86. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Curl, T. S., Local, J. and Walker, G. (2006) Repetition and the prosody-pragmatic interface. Journal of Pragmatics 38 (10): 1721–1751. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2006.02.008
De Fina, A. (2008) Who tells which story and why? Micro and macro contexts in narrative. Text and Talk 28 (3): 421–442. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.2008.020
De Fina, A. and Perrino, S. (2011) Introduction: Interviews vs. ‘natural’ contexts: A false dilemma. Language in Society 40 (1): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404510000849
Floersch, J. (2000) Reading the case record: The oral and written narratives of social workers. Social Service Review 74 (2): 169–192. https://doi.org/10.1086/514475
Fraser, H. (2004) Doing narrative research: Analysing personal stories line by line. Qualitative Social Work 3 (2):179–201. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325004043383
Garfinkel, H. and Sacks, H. (1970) On formal structures of practical action. In J. C. McKinney and E. A. Tiryakian (eds) Theoretical Sociology: Perspectives and Developments, 338–366. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Gomes, I., Carvalho, I. and Paoletti, I. (2014) Poverty intervention in relation to the older population in a time of economic crisis: The Portuguese case. RASP: Research on Aging and Social Policy 2 (1): 88–114.
Hall, C. (1997) Social Work as Narrative: Storytelling and Persuasion in Professional Texts. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Hall C., Sarangi S. and Slembrouck S. (1997a) Moral construction in social work. In B-L. Gunnarsson, P. Linell and B. Nordberg (eds) The Construction of Professional Discourse, 265–291. London: Longman.
Hall, C., Sarangi, S. and Slembrouck, S. (1997b) Silence and silenced voices: Interactional construction of audience in social work talk. In A. Jaworski (ed.) Silence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 181–211. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Hall C., Sarangi, S. and Slembrouck S. (1997c) Narrative transformation in child abuse reporting. Child Abuse Review 6 (4): 272–282. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0852(199710)6:4<272::AID-CAR329>3.0.CO;2-5
Hall, C., Slembrouck, S. and Sarangi, S. (2006) Language Practices in Social Work. London: Routledge.
Hall, C. and White, S. (2005) Looking inside professional practice: Discourse, narrative and ethnographic approaches to social work and counselling. Qualitative Social Work 4 (4): 379–390. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325005058642
Holma, J., Partanen, T., Wahlström, J., Laitila, A. and Seikkula, J. (2006) Narratives and discourses in groups for male batterers. In M. Libshitz (ed.) Domestic Violence and its Reverberations, 59–83. London: Nova Science.
Holt, E. (1996) Reporting on talk: The use of reported speech in conversation, Research on Language and Social Interaction 29 (3): 219–245. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327973rlsi2903_2
Holt, E. (2000) Reporting and reacting: Concurrent responses to reported speech. Research on Language and Social Interaction 33 (4): 425–454. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327973RLSI3304_04
Holt, E. and Clift, R. (2007) Reporting Talk: Reported Speech in Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Housley, W. (1999) Role as an interactional device and resource in multidisciplinary team meetings. Sociological Research Online 4 (3). Available online: http://www.socresonline.org.uk/4/3/housley. https://doi.org/10.5153/sro.315
Housley, W. (2000) Story, narrative and teamwork. Sociological Review 48 (3): 425–443. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.00224
Hydén, L. C. (1999) Talk about money: Studying the interaction between social workers and clients. International Journal of Social Welfare 8 (2): 143–154. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2397.00075
Jokinen, A. and Suoninen, E. (1999) From crime to resourse: Constructing narratives in a social work encounter. In S. Karvinen, M. Satka and T. Pösö (eds) Reconstructing Social Work Research: Finnish Methodological Adapatations, 208–241. Jyväskylä, Finland: SoPhi.
Kohler Riessman, C. (2008) Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences. London: Sage.
Kohler Riessman, C. and Quinney, L. (2005) Narrative in social work: A critical review. Qualitative Social Work 4 (4): 391–412. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325005058643
Labov, W. (2011) Oral narratives of personal experience. In P. C. Hogan (ed.) Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Language Sciences, 782. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Labov, W. and Waletzky, J. (1967) Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In J. Helm (ed.) Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts, 12–44. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Larsson, S. and Sjöblom, Y. (2010) Perspectives in narrative methods in social work research. International Journal of Social Welfare 19 (3): 272–280. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2397.2009.00672.x
Lerner, G. H. (1989) Notes on overlap management in conversation: The case of delayed completion. Western Journal of Speech Communication 53: 167–177.
Niemelä, M. (2005) Voiced direct reported speech in conversational storytelling: Sequential patterns of stance taking. SKY Journal of Linguistics 18: 197–221.
Nikander, P. (2003) The absent client: Case description and decision-making in multi-professional meetings: Interactions, identities and practices. In C. Hall, K. Juhila, N. Parton and T. Pösö (eds) Constructing Clienthood in Social Work and Human Services, 112–128. London: Jessica Kingsley.
Nikander, P (2005) Managing Scarcity: Joint decision making in interprofessional meetings. In T. Heinonen and A. Metteri (eds) Social Work in Health and Mental Health: Issues, Developments and Actions, 273–299. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press.
Nikander, P. (2007a) Emotion categories in meeting talk. In A. Hepburn and S. Wiggins (eds) Discursive Research in Practice: New Approaches to Psychology and Interaction, 50–69. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nikander, P. (2007b) Interprofessional decision making in elderly care: Morality criteria and help allocation. In I. Paoletti (ed.) Family Caregiving: Relational and Institutional Issues, 319–332. New York: Nova Science.
Paoletti, I. (1998) Handling ‘incoherence’ according to the speaker’s on-sight categorisation. In C. Antaki and S. Widdicombe (eds) Identities in Talk, 171–190. London: Sage.
Paoletti, I. (2015) Active aging and inclusive communities: Inter-institutional intervention in Portugal. Aging International 40 (2): 165–186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-014-9216-9
Paoletti, I. and Carvalho, M. I. (2012) Aging, poverty and social services in Portugal: The importance of quality services. Indian Journal of Gerontology 26 (3): 396–413.
Paoletti, I. and Gomes, S. (2014) Future talk in later life. Journal of Aging Studies 29: 131–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2014.01.005
Paoletti, I. and Gonçalves, A. (2017) Interinstitutional networks and democratization of services in social intervention with older people in Portugal. RASP: Research on Aging and Social Policy 5 (2): 111–137.
Pithouse, A. and Atkinson, P. (1988) Telling the case occupation narrative in social work office. In N. Coupland (ed.) Style of Discourse, 183–200. London: Croom Helm.
Pomerantz, A. (1984) Agreeing and disagreeing with assessments: Some features of preferred/dispreferred turn shapes. In J. M. Atkinson and J. Heritage (eds) Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, 57–101. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Roscoe, K. D. and Madoc, I. (2009) Critical social work practice a narrative approach. International Journal of Narrative Practice 1 (1): 9–18.
Sacks, H. (1992) Lectures on Conversation. 2 volumes. Oxford: Blackwell.
Sarangi, S. (1998) Interprofessional case construction in social work: The evidential status of information and reportability, Text 18 (2): 241–270. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.1.1998.18.2.241
Schegloff, E. A., Jefferson, G. and Sacks, H. (1977) The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language 53 (2): 361–382. https://doi.org/
10.1353/lan.1977.0041
Silverman, D. (ed.) (1997) Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Practice. London: Sage.
Stivers, T. (2008): Stance, alignment, and affiliation during storytelling: When nodding is a token of affiliation. Research on Language and Social Interaction 41 (1): 31–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/08351810701691123
Stokoe, E. and Edwards, D. (2006) Story formulation in talk-in-interaction. Narrative Inquiry 16 (1): 56–65. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.16.1.09sto
Wahlström, J. (2006) Narrative transformations and externalizing talk in a reflecting team consultation. Qualitative Social Work 5 (3): 313–332. https://doi.org/10.1177/
1473325006067359
Wells, K. (2011) Narrative Inquiry. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195385793.001.0001
Wetherell, M., Taylor, S. and Yates, S. (eds) (2001) Discourse Theory as Practice. London: Sage.
Published
2017-12-12
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Articles
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Equinox Publishing Ltd.
How to Cite
Paoletti, I. (2017). Solving the unsolvable: Narrative practices in social work. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 10(3), 317-336. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.26896
