Prolific author and Liverpool Hope University Professor Michael Lavalette is celebrating the publication of his thirtieth book - in his thirtieth year as an academic.
Professor Lavalette is Head of the School of Social Sciences at Liverpool Hope.
And when he’s not engaged with students, he’s more often than not busy either writing or editing a growing line of books exploring social work.
His first, The Forgotten Workforce: Scottish Children at Work, came in 1991 shortly before obtaining a PhD for his work on the subject of Child Labour.
And now his latest tome, Social Work and the COVID-19 Pandemic, explores how modern society and habits allowed the virus to flourish, why inequality saw it rip through susceptible communities, and why social care and public health systems have been left to pick up the pieces while ‘catastrophically weakened’ from years of austerity, privatisation and marketisation.
The book is edited by Professor Lavalette as well as Professor Iain Ferguson, of the University of West Scotland, and Professor Vassilios Ioakimidis, of the University of Essex.
It’s based on a series of social work webinars co-organised by Professor Lavalette when the crisis first began to unfold.
And while it brings together contributors and authors from across the world, Chapter 1 - ‘Capitalism, the ecological crisis and the creation of pandemics’ is penned by Professor Lavalette himself.
He says: “It was only while putting together another new book proposal that I realised Social work and the Covid19 Pandemic: International perspectives is actually my 30th book, in my 30th year as an academic.
“I’m delighted, and surprised, to have reached such a figure and it’s testament to all the many and varied great contributors and editors I’ve worked with down the years.”
Professor Lavalette, national co-ordinator and founding member of the Social Work Action Network, says Social work and the Covid19 Pandemic: International Perspectives calls for new ideas in social work to be generated in the face of the fallout from Covid-19.
And the book warns that there can be no return to ‘normal’.
Professor Lavalette and his colleagues write: “In the face of the present crisis some politicians are demanding that we get back ‘to normal’. In some senses it’s an appealing demand.
“Lock downs and quarantines can be isolating and we all want to get back to more fruitful human contacts and relationships.
“But the ‘normal’ that our rulers want us to get back to is the ‘normal’ business as usual of things like growing inequality, austerity cuts to services, reduced wages for workers, more privatisation, less regulation and less democratic accountability. In other words, the ‘normality’ of global, neo-liberal capitalism.
“It is now time for social workers to join the movements for social change and demand that there should be no return to business as usual. The contemporary crisis demands ‘another social work’.
“Another social work, one which focuses on equality and social justice, on putting people’s needs before profit, of collective provision of service and democratic accountability, is not only possible but necessary – and it must see itself, consciously, as an ally in the struggle for a better world that puts people and planet first.”
Some of Professor Lavalette’s other recent books include Race, Racism and Social Work, published in 2013 and co-edited by Laura Penketh, Capitalism and Sport: Politics, Protest, People and Play,also published in 2013, and Voices from the West Bank, co-authored by Chris Jones and published in 2011, and which focused on the lives of young Palestinans forced to confront ‘mortal danger’ on a daily basis.
** Social work and the Covid19 Pandemic: International Perspectives is published by Policy Press as part of its ‘Rapid Response’ series.
You can order the book, priced from £5.49, by heading here.