Public Lecture: The Impacts of Neoliberalism on Social Work, Social Services and Communities

Wednesday, March 14, 2018 9:00 am - 10:00 am EDT (GMT -04:00)

Join us in the Dunker Family Lounge (REN 1303) to hear Dr. Ousamne Bâ speak on neoliberalism and its implications for social work. Refreshments will be provided and there will be a chance to meet with him following the presentation.

Presentation Topic:

This topic represents one of the current research works of the author. In this presentation, the brief genesis of liberalism and its transition to neoliberalism through their historical, sociopolitical and economic development processes allows to reveal their different ideological foundations based on the principles of natural and social selections which premises consist of the establishment of a radical structural and systemic individualism. The production, the reproduction and the perpetuation of such a societal paradigm for the maintenance of the system status quo, proceed, through the application of the technocratic and instrumental rationality , by the bureaucratization and the social engineering of the social professions including Social Work, Social Services, the reification of social problems, human needs and also by the impoverishment, the disempowerment and the insidious eradication of the communities’ social solidarities, their cultural diversity through the ghettoization , the individual and the collective well-being. 

The rehabilitation of those communities’ solidarities constitutes, not only an alternative but also a real issue for Social Work.

About the Presenter:

Dr. Ousmane Bâ is Professor at the Laurentian University’s School of Social Work.  He previously taught in many universities such as the University of Moncton at the School of Social Work (New-Brunswick), the University of Manitoba (Manitoba, Winnipeg), where he still is Affiliated Professor at the Mauro Centre for Peace and Social Justice and Conflicts Resolution (University of Manitoba, Winnipeg) and the University of Saint-Boniface (Winnipeg, Manitoba). He holds a State Degree in Social Work, a Psychopathology Degree both obtained between Senegal and France, he worked during about many years in psychiatry as a Social worker and a Psychopathologist. As Program Assistant position in the Health Sciences Division (HSD) at the Canadian International Development Research Center (IDRC) in Dakar and Ottawa, he professionally traveled in many countries throughout Africa, Asia and North America. He additionally obtained another Master’s Degree in Social Work and a P.h.D in Sociology-Anthropology and completed a doctoral program in Ethnology also at Laval University (Quebec, Canada). He achieved two post-doctorates during the second of which he implemented and coordinated the first French Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) Program at Saint-Boniface University in Winnipeg, in collaboration with Faculty of Social Work of the University of Manitoba. In addition to his interdisciplinary academic training, teaching and research experiences in Sociology, Anthropology, Intercultural Ethnology, Social Work and Psychopathology he conducted many scientific researches and published numerous books, articles and book chapters in French and as well as in English.