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Mollycoddling the Feckless
£12.49
A provocative critique of welfare dependency and social policy.
For anyone interested in social policy debates.
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About the Ebook
My mother, ninety-three,
blames me and my kind
for mollycoddling the feckless.
Alistair Findlay has written the first ever memoir of a career in Scottish social work. He reflects on the changing landscape of the profession since he entered it in 1970 in a memoir that is thoughtful, progressive, humane – and funny. He conveys how he and his fellow workers shared friendship and banter in work that can be hard and thankless but also hugely rewarding and worthwhile.
Everyone knows what a teacher or a doctor does because everyone has met one. Very few people meet social workers. Your chances of meeting a social worker increase the poorer you are; the more jobless; the more deprived the area you reside in… Frontline social workers can flit in the blink of an eye from the ordered calm of a courtroom to absurdist Beckett-like dialogues with psychotic individuals to struggles with distraught mothers – one wielding a claw-hammer on a tenement landing, as happened to me.
Reviews
Alistair Findlay’s inability to be mealy-mouthed is both admirable and shocking. JEN HADFIELD
Findlay gives the feel of social work. He conveys it sweat, its smell, its reality… BOB HOLDEN
Why You'll Love This Ebook
- Critical examination of welfare systems and assumptions.
- Challenges stereotypes about poverty and assistance.
- Published by Luath Press, Scotland's leading independent publisher.
- A thought-provoking analysis of social safety nets.
About the Author
ALISTAIR FINDLAY has had a diverse career, from clay miner to social worker. He has published four previous collections of poetry, including Sex, Death and Football (2003), The Love Songs of John Knox (2006), Dancing with Big Eunice (2010) and Never Mind the Captions (2011).
Publication Details
Publisher: Luath Press
Publication Date: 14 June 2019
Print Length: 256 pages (Ebook edition)
ISBN (Ebook): 9781912387601
Format: Ebook
Language: English
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