When lives become data: Rethinking digital social work in Africa, Asia :: Mmegi Online

Mental distress often reaches a social worker before it reaches a doctor. A child stops attending school. A parent struggles to manage daily life. Someone withdraws from family, work and the community. By the time a clinical name is given to the problem, the human story may have been unfolding for months.

I read Digital Social Work Across Africa and Asia: A Decolonial Framework for the Future of the Global South mainly through this link between social work and mental health. The book discusses digital change, but the deeper issue is what happens when a person’s difficult life is turned into a record, an assessment or a category.

The book is written by Siddhartha Paul Tiwari, PhD, FRAS, FRAI, of Google Asia Pacific, Adi Fahrudin of Esa Unggul University and Fentiny Nugroho of the University of Indonesia. It is published by the University of Indonesia Press.

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book review

When lives become data: Rethinking digital social work in Africa, Asia

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