Ontologisering af lønarbejde: En queerkritik af konstruktionen af lønarbejde og det arbejdende menneske i dele af socialrådgiverstudiets curriculum

The field of social work is one that is influenced by the context in which it unfolds. Therefore, the norms and normative assumptions about how life is supposed to be led, have an influence on the field. In today’s
western society, wage labor is no longer only an economic necessity, but it is also a moral obligation and a norm. Wage labor and having a tie to the labor market is therefore a part of what is seen as a normal life.
However, within a queer theoretical thought, norms have a doubleness to them – they give directions, guide, and orient us, but they also govern what lives are intelligible and what lives are deemed valuable.
The norm creates unity through a strategy of exclusion, as Judith Butler writes. Some of the people the norm of wage labor excludes, are the ones, social workers encounter, which is why reflections about power, knowledge and norms are essential within the profession.