The renaissance will not be televised

Brave new social landscapes painted in the watercolours of liquid modernity challenge the possibility of a renaissance of radical social work. The consequences of modernity's liquefaction for the project of taking a political stance challenge radical social work conceived as a retrieval of solidarities and mobilised collectives of the past. Principles of radical analysis are used to explore theoretical and institutional factors affecting the contemporary articulation of a radical project, and to consider the implications of liquid modernity for such an articulation. Radical strategy can no longer take the form of "speaking truth to power", for power no longer feels obliged to listen. Future radical social work can succeed through the creation of new strategic responses to reconstituted fields of practice, state-global interfaces, and the injustices they create. This entails a critical reappraisal of the language of radical practice, a reorientation to the dynamics of new social landscapes and a reframing of the radical position.