TY  - SER
AU  - Critchley, Ariane
AU  - Keddell, Emily
TI  - Risks and representations : : creating consensus narratives about risk with pregnant women involved with child protection systems in Aotearoa New Zealand and Scotland
PY  - 2023///
PB  - Sage
KW  - CHILD PROTECTION
KW  - DISABLED PEOPLE
KW  - INFANTS
KW  - MOTHERS
KW  - PEOPLE WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES
KW  - PREGNANCY
KW  - RISK FACTORS
KW  - SOCIAL SERVICES
KW  - SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE
KW  - NEW ZEALAND
KW  - INTERNATIONAL
KW  - SCOTLAND
N1  - Critical Social Policy, 2023, First published online, 10 December 2023
N2  - Social work aspires to empowerment ideals, including taking a ‘non-expert’ position of professional curiosity, and validating the perspectives of people in contact with services. Yet in child protection, social workers are involved in practice that refutes the views and opinions of people and are positioned by their role as an identifier of abuse and risk manager. Social workers and people who are subject to child protection services can be locked into meaning battles regarding the effect of parental behaviour and the representation of risks to children. These negotiations over meanings are especially difficult in the pre and perinatal period, where who controls the representation of the baby's voice or best interests is fundamental to decision outcomes. Using Fricker's concept of ‘testimonial injustice’ as an analytical lens, this article draws on studies in two different contexts: Aotearoa New Zealand and Scotland, to examine the implications of the intense mediation of meanings that affect child protection practice. We find that concepts relating to the importance of mothering, love for children, and extended family relationships were sources of mother's disagreements with professional views of risk, but that through qualified agreement or advocacy from community workers, a shared risk narrative could be constructed. (Authors' abstract). Record #8527
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1177/02610183231215231
ER  -