Surviving as a Postmodern Social Worker: Two Ps and Three Rs of Direct Practice

Social workers interested in postmodernism have been provided an abundance of theory, but little to guide them in direct practice in diverse child welfare roles. In this article, two Ps and three Rs of practice based on postmodernist principles are discussed: positioning, power, resource sharing, resistance, and reflection. Professionals working in the delivery of frontline human services are struggling to work both with and in communities to celebrate diversity and localized constructions of reality while fulfilling professional and agency mandates. Informed by the broad theory of postmodernism, the two Ps and three Rs of practice allow workers to be mandated agents of the system, while deconstructing their privileged position.