Powerful discourses for social service: A feminist poststructural and action inquiry

Describes an action research project in a church affiliated, community‐based social service organisation in Aotearoa, New Zealand, in which feminist and poststructural discourse theory is drawn on to examine collaboratively the discourses available and impinging upon the work of staff developing a residential service for women and children. Managerial, psychology and human rights discourses dominated the possibilities for the work. Some staff chose to resist these by articulating and positioning themselves within social justice, communitarian and liberation theology discourses.