"Drawing on Foucault's later work on governmentality, this book traces the effects of 'the rise of risk' on contemporary social work practice. Focusing on two 'domains' of practice - mental health social work and probation work - it analyses the ways in which risk thinking has affected social work's aims and objectives, methods and approaches. It critically interrogates the claim that the logic of actuarialsim is implicated in a shift from 'care' to 'control' and argues the case for a distinctive approach to understanding and undertaking social work which does justice to the reality of contemporary practice"-- Provided by publisher.