Donna Baines is a Professor and the previous Director of the UBC School of Social Work. She joined the School in July of 2019 with an enthusiasm for the School’s commitment to social justice and an ethic of care. Dr. Baines comes to UBC from the University of Sydney, where she served as the Chair of the School of Social Work and Social Policy. Previously, she held professorial appointments at Dalhousie University and McMaster University. Dr. Baines’ research focuses on paid and unpaid work, anti-oppressive/critical social work theory and practice, and social policy and austerity. She has collaborated extensively with research projects in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Scotland and is currently involved in a number of research collaborations, including as a co-applicant on a SSHRC Partnership Grant and as a co-investigator on another. She founded and co-edits the online journal, Social Work & Policy Studies: Social Justice, Practice and Theory.

Dr. Baines was recently awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Grant 2020-2024 titled “Building Emancipatory Practice and Theory: Indigenous and Anti-Oppressive Perspectives in International, Decolonizing Dialogue.” Working with colleagues from four provinces, Baines is Co-Investigator on a two-year SSHRC-funded project examining the impacts of neoliberalism on mental health in social workers (Catrina Brown, PI). Baines is a co-investigator on an Australian Research Council Grant (S. Charlesworth, RMIT University, PI) on decent work and good care for older people in residential and home care in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Canada. She is also investigator on an Australian-based project investigating the impact of neoliberalism on Indigenous social work education (B. Bennett, PI) and a second project on the impact of neoliberalism on non-Indigenous social work education (C. Morley, PI).

Recent Books

Baines, D., Clark, N. and Bennett, B. (2023) (eds.) Anti-Oppressive Social Work. Rethinking Theory and Practice. 4^th edition. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.

Baines, D. and Cunningham, I. (eds) (2021) Working in the Context of Austerity: Challenges and Struggles. Bristol: Bristol University Press.

Baines, D., Bennett, B., Goodwin, S. and Rawsthorne, M. (eds) (2019) Working Across Difference and Inequity in Social Work and Policy Studies. London: Palgrave/MacMilan.

Kennedy-Kish Bell, B. and Sinclair, R., Carniol, B. and Baines, D. (2017) Case critical. Social Services and Social Justice in Canada. Toronto: Between the Lines.

Baines, D. (ed) (2017) Doing Anti-Oppressive Practice. Social Justice Social Work. Third edition. Halifax: Fernwood.

Baines, D. and McBride, S. (eds) (2014) Orchestrating Austerity: Impacts and Resistance. Halifax: Fernwood.

Recent Book Chapters

Baines, D. and Lambi-Raine, D. (2022) Understanding the State: A Central Anti-Oppressive Social Work Skill. In Baines, D., Clark, N. and Bennett, B. (eds) Anti-Oppressive Practice: Rethinking Theory and Practice. Halifax: Fernwood.

Baines, D. (2022) Neoliberalism, Austerity and the Crises in Care Work. In Wells, D. and Peters, J. (eds) Canadian Labour Policy and Politics: Inequality and Alternatives. Vancouver:  University of British Columba Press.

*Listed The Hill Times’ Top 100 Best Books in 2022 https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2022/12/19/the-hill-times-list-of-100-best-books-in-2022/355169/#

Baines, D. and Sharma, A. (2022) Anti-oppressive practice. In LeFrancois, B.,Shaikh, S. and Macias, T. Critical Social Work Theory. Pp. 118-127, Halifax: Fernwood.

Baines D., and Kia H. (2022) Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice Theory. In: Hölscher D., Hugman R., and McAuliffe D. (eds) Social Work Theory and Ethics. Social Work. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3059-0_10-1

Baines, D., Cunningham, C., James, P. and Roy, C. (2021) Privatizing the Sacrifice: Individualized Funding, Austerity and Precarity in the Voluntary Sector in Australia and Scotland. In McBride, S, Evans, B. and Plehwe, D. (eds) The Changing Politics and Policy of Austerity. Bristol: Bristol University Press. (pp. 82-102).

Armstrong, P. and Baines, D. (2021) Privatization, Hybridization and Resistance in Contemporary Care Work. In Baines, D. and Cunningham, I. (eds) Working in the Context of Austerity: Challenges and Struggles. Bristol: Bristol University Press. (pp. 97-110).

Baines, D. and Young, D. (2021) Austerity, Personalised Funding and the Degradation of Care Work: Comparing Scotland’s Self-Directed Support Policy and Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme. In Baines, D. and Cunningham, I. (eds) Working in the Context of Austerity: Challenges and Struggles. Bristol: Bristol University Press. (pp. 171–192).

Baines, D. and Kgaphola, I. (2020) “Seeing Everyone Do More Than Society Would Expect Them”: Social Development, Austerity and Unstable Resources in South African Community Services. In Todd, S. and Drolet, J. (eds) Community Practice and Social Development in Social Work. NY, NY: Springer. (pp. 401-420). DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6969-8.

Baines, D. (2020) Critical Clinical Social Work. In Brown, C. and MacDonald, J. (eds) Critical Clinical Social Work: Counterstorying for Social Justice. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press. (pp. 8-12).

Baines, D. (2019). Social Justice Politics: Care as Democracy and Resistance. In Freebody, K., Goodwin, S. and Proctor, H. (eds) Higher Education, Pedagogy and Social Justice Politics and Practice. New York: Springer. (pp. 67-80).

Baines, D. and Waugh, F. (2019) Resistance, White Fragility and Late Neoliberalism. In Baines, D., Bennett, B., Goodwin, S. and Rawsthorne, M. (eds). Working Across Difference and Inequity in Social Work and Policy Studies. London: Red Globe Press. (pp. 247-260).

Baines, D. (2019). Anti-Oppressive Community Development. In Rawsthorne, M. and Howard, A. (eds) Everyday Community Practice. Melbourne: Allen and Unwin. (pp i-x).

Baines, D. (2018) Managerialism and Outsourcing: Corporatizing Social Services in Canada’s Nonprofit Sector. In Brownlee, J., Hurl, C. and Walby, K. (eds) Minding the Public’s Business. Critical Perspectives on Corporatization in Canada. Toronto: Between the Lines. (pp. 169-179).

Baines, D. and Gnanayutham, R. (2018) Bookettes and Benefits: Rapid Ethnography and a Mid-project Knowledge Mobilization Strategy. In Armstrong, P. and Lowndes, R. (eds) Creative Team Work. Developing Rapid Site-Switching Ethnography. Toronto: Oxford.(pp. 156-169).

Baines, D. (2018) Social Ethics of Care in a Context of Social Neglect: A Five Country Discussion. In Pease, B. Vreugdenhil, A. and Stanford, S. (eds) Critical Ethics of Care in Social Work: Transforming the Politics of Caring. London: Routledge. (pp. 16-26).

Baines, D. (2018) Managerialism, New Public Management and Possibilities for Social Justice Social Work: A Four Country Comparison. In Beddoe, E. and Bartley, A. (eds) Transnational Social Work: Opportunities and Challenges of a Global Profession. Bristol: Policy Press. (pp. 35-52).

Baines, D., Tseris, E. and Waugh, F. (2018) Activism and Advocacy in Everyday Practice. In Thompson, N. and Stepney, P. (eds) Social Work Theory and Methods. The Essentials. New York: Routledge. (pp. 215–226).

Shields, J., Baines, D. and Cunningham, I. (2018) “Precarious Undertakings: Serving Vulnerable Communities through Non-profits Work.” In Wayne Lewchuk, Michelynn Laflèche and John Shields (eds) Precarious Employment: Causes, Consequences and Remedies, Fernwood, Halifax. (pp.31-43).

Cunningham, I., Baines, D. and Shields, J. (2018) “Worker voice and representation for the precarious workforce in non-union CVS organisations during austerity.” In Wayne Lewchuk, Michelynn Laflèche and John Shields (eds) Precarious Employment: Causes, Consequences and Remedies, Fernwood, Halifax. (pp. 123-136).

Baines, D. (2017) Care and Control in Long Term Care Work. In Evans, B. and McBride, S. (eds) Austerity: The Lived Experience. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. (pp. 125-144).

Baines, D. (2017) Is Progressive, Critical, Anti-Oppressive Social Work Possible in Today’s Context? Exhausting Ethical Action + Revitalizing Resistance. In Spencer, E., Gough, J. and Massing, D. (eds) Progressive, Critical, Anti-Oppressive Social Work: Ethical Action. Toronto: Oxford University Press. (pp. 56-68).

Baines, D. (2016) Care, Austerity and Resistance. In Williams, C. (ed), Social Work in the City. Themes, Issues and Interventions in the 21st Century Urban Context. London: Palgrave. (pp. 193–214).

Baines, D. (2016) Doing Critical Social Work Foreward. In Pease, B. Goldingay, S., Hosken, N. and Nipperess, S. (eds) Doing Critical Social Work. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen + Unwin. (pp. ix-xvi).

Baines, D. (2015) What we are up against: Canada. In Sinding, C. and Barnes, H. (eds) Social Work Beyond Borders, Social Work Artfully. Waterloo, ON: Wilfred Laurier Press. (pp. 7-16).

Baines, D. and I. Cunningham. (2014). Using Comparative Perspective Rapid Ethnography in International Case Studies: Strengths and Challenges. In Tight, M. (ed) Case Studies. New Dehli: Sage. (pp. 309-324).

Baines, D. (2013) Social Justice Social Work Struggles in Canada: Poverty, Neoliberalism and Symbolic Resistance. In Lavalette, M. (ed) Critical Debates in Social Work. London: Palgrave. (pp. 49-58).

Baines, D. (2013) Unions in the Nonprofit Social Services Sector: Gendered Resistance. In Ross, S. and Savage, L. (eds) Politics of Public Sector Unions. Halifax: Fernwood. (pp. 80-90).

Baines, D. (2013) Resistance In and Outside the Workplace: Ethical Practice and Managerialism in the Voluntary Sector. In Carey, M. (ed) Practical Social Work Ethics: Complex Dilemmas within Applied Social Care. London: Ashgate. (pp. 227-244).

Baines, D. (2013) Women’s Occupational Health in Social Services. In Miles, A. (ed) Globalizing World. Equality, Development, Peace and Diversity. Toronto: Ianna Press. (pp. 147-159).

Baines, D. (2011). Labour Processes Under Marketisation: A Canadian Perspective. In Cunningham, I. and P. James (eds.) Voluntary Organisations and Public Service Delivery. London: Routledge. (pp. 168-184).

Baines, D. and Freeman, B. (2011). Work, Care, Resistance and Mothering: An Indigenous Perspective. In Krull, C. and J. Sempruch (eds) A Life in Balance. Reopening the Family-Work Debate. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. (pp. 67-80).

Journal Articles since 2004

Baines, D. (2023) Interwoven, Cross-Sector, Situational and Enduring Solidarities: Crisis, Resistance and De-Privatization in Care Work. Work in the Global Economy. https://doi.org/10.1332/273241721X16793134787483

Baines, D. (2022) ““Without Losing What We Know”: Dissenting Social Work in the Context of Epochal Crises. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work. 34 (3), 8-20.

Baines, D., Clark, N. and Riley, J. (2022) “Rethinking Regulation: Inclusions, Exclusions and Struggles”. Canadian Social Work Review. 39 (1), 101-123.

Baines, D. (2021) Soft Cops or Social Justice Activists: Social Work’s Relationship to the State in the Context of BLM and Neoliberalism. British Journal of Social Work. 1-19. bcab200, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcab200.

Baines, D., Charlesworth, C. and Dulhunty, A. (2021) Relationship-Based Care, Austerity and Aged Care. Work, Employment and Society. 1-17. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0950017020980985

Gates, T. G., Bennett, B., & Baines, D. (2021). Strengthening critical allyship in social work education: opportunities in the context of #BlackLivesMatter and COVID-19. Social Work Education, 1-17.

Baines, D. and Lai, D. (2021) Guest Editorial. Social Justice and an Ethic of Care. Special Issue. Research on Social Work Practice. 31, 6: 561–575.

Baines, D., & Daly, T. (2021). Borrowed time and solidarity: The multi-scalar politics of time and gendered care work. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 28(2), 385-404. https://academic.oup.com/sp/advancearticle/doi/10.1093/sp/jxz017/5513316?searchresult=1.

Baines, D., McDonald, F. and Stanford, J. (2020) Zero-Sum Social Policy, Going Gig and the Australian National Disability Insurance Program. Studies in Political Economy. 101(1): 17-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/07078552.2020.1738778.

Baines, D. and Cunningham, I. (2020) ‘How Could Management Let This Happen?’ Gender, Participation, and Industrial Action in the Nonprofit Sector. Economic and Industrial Democracy. 41(2): 436–456. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X17715768.

Baines, D., Cunningham, I., Kgaphola, I. and Mthembu, S. (2020) Nonprofit Care Work as Social Glue: Creating and Sustaining Social Reproduction in the Context of Austerity/Late Neoliberalism. Affilia. Journal of Women and Social Work. https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/I69CH5SXRVGJFHI8Z5A8/full
DOI: 10.1177/0886109920906787.

Baines, D. and Kgaphola, I. (2019) Precarious Care: International Comparisons of Nonprofit Social Service Work. Women’s Studies International Forum. 74: 210-217. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539518305405.

Baines, D. and Daly, T. (2019) Borrowed Time and Solidarity: The Multi-Scalar Politics of Time and Gendered Care Work. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society. https://academic.oup.com/sp/advancearticle/doi/10.1093/sp/jxz017/5513316?searchresult=1.

Baines, D., Kent, P. and Kent S. (2019) “Off my own back”: Precarity on the Frontlines of Care Work. Work, Employment and Society. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017018817488.

Baines, D. and Armstrong, P. (2018) Non‐Job Work/Unpaid Caring: Gendered Industrial Relations in Long‐Term Care. Gender, Work and Organization. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/gwao.12293.

Baines, D. and Armstrong, P. (2018) Promising Practices in Long Term Care: Can Work Organisation Treat Both Residents and Providers with Dignity and Respect? Special Issue. Social Work and Policy Studies: Social Justice, Practice and Theory. Vol 1, (1). https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/SWPS/index

Baines, D. and Cunningham, I. (2018) ‘How Could Management Let This Happen?’ Gender, Participation, and Industrial Action in the Nonprofit Sector. Economic and Industrial Democracy. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X17715768.

Baines, D., Charlesworth, S. and Daly, T. (2018) The Work of Care: Tensions, Contradictions and Promising Practices. Special Issue. Labour and Industry: A Journal of the Social and Economic Relations of Work. 27 (4). pp. 257-260. https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2017.1433286

Baines, D. and Wang, F. (2018) Critical Engagements with Aging and Care. Special Issue. Social Work & Policy Studies: Social Justice, Practice and Theory. Vol. 1 (1). https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/SWPS/index

Cunningham, I., Baines, D., Shields, J. and Lewchuk, W. (2017) “You’ve Just Cursed Us”: Precarity, Austerity and Worker’s Participation in the Nonprofit Social Services. Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations. 72 (2): 370-394.

Baines, D., Cunningham, I. and Shields, J. (2017) Filling the Gaps with Unpaid, Formal and Coerced Work in the Nonprofit Sector. Critical Social Policy. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018317693128.

Baines, D. and Van den Broek, D. (2017) Coercive Care? Control and Coercion in the Restructured Care Workplace. British Journal of Social Work. 47(1), 125-142.

Baines, D. and Cunningham, I. (2017). Mediating and caring: Line managers and employee commitment in the voluntary sector. Labour and Industry, a journal of the social and economic relations of work. Online first. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2017.1310432

Baines, D. (2016) Moral Projects and Compromise Resistance: Resisting Uncaring in Nonprofit Care Work. Studies in Political Economy. 97(2), 124-142.

Baines, D., Charlesworth, S. and Daly, T. (2016) Underpaid, unpaid, unseen, unheard and unhappy? Care work in the context of constraint. Journal of Industrial Relations. Vol. 58(4) 449–454.

Cunningham, I., Baines, D., Shields, J. and Lewchuk, W. (2016) Austerity, ‘precarity’ and the non-profit workforce – a comparative study of UK and Canada. Journal of Industrial Relations. 58(4): 455-472.

Charlesworth, S., Baines, D. & Cunningham, I. (2015) ‘If I had a family, there is no way that I could afford to work here’: Juggling paid and unpaid care work in social services’ Gender, Work & Organization. 22(6) 596-613.

Baines, D. (2015) Nonprofit care work: Convergence under austerity? Special Issue. Competition and Change. June (19): 194-209.

Baines, D. and Cunningham, I. (2015) Care work in the context of austerity. Special Issue. Competition & Change. June (19): 183-193.

Baines, D. with Daly, T. (2015) Resisting Regulatory Rigidities: Lessons from Front-line Care Work. Studies in Political Economy. Spring, 95: 137-160.

Charlesworth, S. and Baines, D. (2015) Understanding the Negotiation of Paid and Unpaid Care Work in Community Services in Cross-National Perspective: The Contribution of Rapid Ethnography. Family Studies Journal. 21(1): 7-21.

Baines, D., Charlesworth, S., and Cunningham, I. (2015) Changing Care? Men and Managerialism in the Nonprofit Sector. Journal of Social Work. 15(5): 459-478.

Baines, D., Charlesworth, S., Turner, D., and O’Neill, L. (2014) Lean social care and worker identity: The role of outcomes, supervision and mission. Critical Social Policy. 34(4): 433-453.

Baines, D., Campey, J., Cunningham, I., Shields, J. (2014) Not Profiting from Precarity: The Work of Nonprofit Service Delivery and the Creation of Precariousness. Just Labour. 22 (Autumn): 74-93.

Cunningham, I., Baines, D. and Charlesworth, S. (2014) ‘Government Funding, Employment Conditions and Work Organization in Non-Profit Community Services: A Comparative Study’, Public Administration, 92(3): 582-598.

Baines, D., Charlesworth, S., Cunningham, I. (2014) Fragmented Outcomes: International Comparisons of Gender, Managerialism and Union Strategies in the Nonprofit Sector. Journal of Industrial Relations. 56(1), 24-42.

Baines, D. and Ian Cunningham. (2013). Using Comparative Perspective Rapid Ethnography in International Case Studies: Strengths and Challenges. Qualitative Social Work. 13, 1: 73-88.

Baines, D., Charlesworth, S., Cunningham, I. and Dassinger, J. (2012) Self-monitoring, self-blaming, self-sacrificing workers: Gendered managerialism in the non-profit sector. Women’s Studies International Forum. 35, 5, September–October: 362–371.

Baines, D. and I. Cunningham. (2011). White Knuckle Care Work: Working on the Edge with the Most Excluded. Work, Employment and Society. 25(4): 760-776.

Baines, D. and I. Cunningham. (2011). Introduction: Employment Implications of the Outsourcing of Public Services to Voluntary, Not-for-Profit Organisations. International Journal of Public Sector Management. 24 (7): 636-640.

Baines, D. (2011). “It Was Just Too Hard to Come Back”: Unintended Policy Impacts on Work-Family Balance in the Australian and Canadian Nonprofit Social Services. Community, Work and Family. 14, 2: 233-254.

Baines, D. (2011). Resistance as Emotional Labour: The Australian and Canadian Nonprofit Social Services. Industrial Relations Journal. 42(2) March: 139-156.

Baines, D., Cunningham, I., and H. Fraser. (2011). Constrained by Managerialism: Caring as Participation in the Voluntary Social Services. Economic and Industrial Democracy. May, 32, 2: 329-352.

Baines, D. (2010) ‘If We Don’t Get Back to Where We Were Before ‘: Working in the Restructured Nonprofit Social Services. British Journal of Social Work. April, 40, 3:928-945.

Baines, D. (2010) Gender Mainstreaming in a Development Project: Intersectionality in a Post-Colonial Un-doing. Gender, Work and Organization. 17.2: 119-149. Lead Article. Translated into Vietnamese by the Journal Donation Project, The New School for Social Research, New York, New York (June, 2010).

Baines, D. (2010) Neoliberal Restructuring/Activism, Participation and Social Unionism in the Nonprofit Social Services. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. 39,1: 10-28. Lead Article.

Baines, D. (2010) ‘In a Different Way’: Social Unionism in the Nonprofit Social Services, an Australian-Canadian Comparison. Labor Studies Journal. 35,4: 480-502.

Baines, D., McKenzie Davis, J. and M. Saini (2009) “Wages, Working Conditions, and Restructuring in Ontario’s Social Work Profession”. Canadian Social Work Review. 26, 1: 59-72.

Baines, D. (2008) Labour Studies, Social Unionism and Engaged Academics: Strategies and Struggles in Canada. Labour & Industry. 19 (1/2) August-December: 107-119.

Baines, D. (2008) Race, Resistance and Restructuring: Emerging Skills in the New Social Services. Social Work. 53, 2: 123-132.

Baines, D. and Brooker, A-S. (2007). Bullying and Power:  Manufacturing Vulnerability in a Small Canadian Town. Women and Work. November, 21-38.

Baines, D. (2007) The case for catalytic validity: building health and safety through knowledge transfer. Journal of Health and Safety Practice and Policy. 5 (1): 75-89.

Baines, D. (2006). “Whose needs are being served?” Quantitative Metrics and the Reshaping of Social Services. Studies in Political Economy. 77, Spring: 193-207.

Baines, D. (2006). “Staying with People Who Slap Us Around”: Gender, Juggling and Violence in Paid (and Unpaid) Care Work. Gender, Work and Organization.  March 13(3): 129-151.

Baines, D. (2006). ‘If You Could Change One Thing’: Social Service Workers and Restructuring. Australian Social Work. 59, 1, March: 20-34.

Baines, D. (2005). Criminalizing the Care Work Zone? The Gendered Dynamics of Using Legal and Administrative Strategies to Confront Workplace Violence. Social Justice. 32(2): 132-150.

Baines, D. (2004). Caring for nothing: Work organization and unwaged labour in social services. Work, Employment and Society. 18(2): 267-295.

Baines, D. (2004). Pro-Market, non-market: the dual nature of organizational change in social services delivery. Critical Social Policy. 24(1): 5-29.

Baines, D. (2004). Losing the “Eyes in the Back of Our Heads”: Social Service Skills, Lean Caring and Violence. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare. Volume 31, Number 3: 31-50.

Areas of Scholarship: Paid and unpaid care work; austerity and neoliberalism in the human services; nonprofit work and organization; anti-oppressive and social justice theories

Areas of Practice: Anti-oppressive and social justice practice; organizational practice; social policy; critical leadership

Dr. Baines welcomes inquiries from PhD students.