Book Review: Paul Michael Garrett, Social work and social theory: Making connections. The Policy Press: Bristol, 2013, ISBN 9781847429605

It is important to state at the outset that I enjoyed this book, or at least large sections of it, but I also found it rather frustrating. The book is made up of 11 chapters and following an introductory chapter, is split into two parts. The first is concerned with ‘debating modernity’ made up of four chapters which critically analyse some of the most high-profile social theorists of recent times and their approaches to understanding contemporary society and recent social change – Giddens, Beck and Bauman in particular – together with some of the social work writers who have drawn on this body of work. The remaining two chapters in part one are then concerned with drawing on Marx, particularly Das Capital, for making sense of modernity and convincingly argues for replacing the concept of modernity with an explicit use of …