Critical social work and co-design: preparing graduates for emancipatory practice

Co-designing with service users is an increasingly common practice in social and community service organizations and one that graduate social workers are likely to encounter. The potential benefits of using co-design for social work are that service users become active participants in problem solving and develop creative solutions to social issues that may not be achieved by more traditional methods of intervention. However, co-design in social work education is considered a novel approach to working with diverse stakeholders to address issues of mutual concern. Therefore, graduates may not be equipped to engage with co-design and other forms of design thinking are through a critical lens. Herein lies a challenge. How might social work academics equip students with co-design skills in ways that complement critical social work ethics, practices and values? This paper analyzes the alignment of critical social work with the problem-solving focus of co-design and examines the implications for social work academics when preparing graduates to work in critical and creative ways within organizations employing social workers. This article makes an original contribution to the emerging literature on social work education and co-design in neoliberal contexts.<p></p>