Associate Professor Malcolm Carey
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN SOCIAL WORK
Social Work
0151 291 3853
careym1@hope.ac.uk
I am a qualified social worker and senior academic with more than twenty-five years experience working in higher education. I previously worked in local authorities, the voluntary sector, and residential care, exclusively with older and disabled people. I have an academic background in the humanities and social sciences, and a professional past in adult social work. I have undertaken ethnographic, case study and interview-based research: including around the construction and management of professional identities and the impact of social work reforms on older or disabled 'service users'. I have published more than 50 first authored articles in high-impact peer reviewed journals and also authored the popular and widely used The Social Work Dissertation among other books. I have held a number of senior and leadership positions in academia, including managing two Departments, leading on REF campaigns, and so forth. I have examined and supervised to completion numerous PhD's and Professional Doctorate students.
My publications and research interests have included the following themes: professional identities; applied ethics; ageing and later life, disability and social care; critical theory and policy. Relatedly, I have undertaken research into topics including loneliness and ageing; changing social work identities; the marketisation and bio-medicalisation of social work; rule-bending among social workers and the circumscribed life chances of many care-experienced adults. I have recently explored the ethical impact of Universal Credit upon lone mothers and am examining obstacles to food bank access for older people and the potential role of social workers in offering support.
I particularly enjoy exploring issues which are under-researched or analysing theoretical, political and policy-related concerns from a critical perspective.
Examples of recent publications include:Carey, M. (2023) 'Towards the privileging of care-experienced children and young people's educational and other 'life chances' within social work practice and education' Critical and Radical Social Work
Carey, M. (2023) 'Understanding the reduced educational attainment levels and poor 'life chances' of young people in care' Youth and Policy
Carey, M. (2022) 'The neoliberal university, social work and personalised care for older people' Ageing and Society Carey, M. and Bell, S. (2022) Universal credit, lone mothers and poverty: Some ethical challenges for social work with children and families Ethics and Social Welfare Carey, M. (2021) Welfare conditionality, ethics and social care for older adults in the UK: From civic rights to abandonment? British Journal of Social Work Carey M (2021) The potential impact of extensive privatisation in the UK upon the life chances of young people in care Youth and Policy
Carey, M. (2020) Universal credit, lone mothers and poverty: Context and challenges for social work with children and families Critical and Radical Social Work
Tolhurst, E., Carey, M., Weicht, B., and Kingston, P. (2020) Is living well with dementia a credible aspiration for spousal carers? Health Sociology Review
Carey, M. (2020) Obstacles to meaningful professional education within the neoliberal university Social Work Education