‘We gotta get out of this place’: Althusser and social work

Abstract The article examines the work of Louis Althusser as it might relate to social work. Although his contribution is now neglected in, and beyond, social work, Althusser’s difficult and problematic conceptualisations warrant serious consideration. Seventy years after the publication of two of his most significant books, it is maintained that Althusser’s articulation of the interplay between the Repressive State Apparatuses/Ideological State Apparatuses can still aid critical reflection, perhaps particularly in relation to social work education and the shaping of contemporary professionalism.