It requires the practitioner to critically examine the power imbalance inherent in an organizational structure with regards to the larger sociocultural and political context in order to develop strategies for creating an egalitarian environment free from oppression, racism, and other forms of discrimination in the larger society, by engaging at the legal and political level.
Lena Dominelli (2002) defines Oppression as, "relations that divide people into dominant or superior groups and subordinate or inferior ones.
This often evolves from an evaluative process, where the individual ends up measuring him/herself in a hierarchy against the other based on the personal values s/he holds.
[5] Dominelli (2002) defines it, "in challenging established truths about identity, anti-oppressive practice seeks to subvert the stability of universalized biological representations of social division to both validate diversity and enhance solidarity based on celebrating difference amongst peoples" (p. 39).
It remains dedicated to principles of social justice, which is also upheld in BASW values, by acknowledging diversity within oppression and considering the intersection and hierarchies of the "isms" that construct people as victims or perpetrators.
[7] The complex and unequal role of "power" and "isms" are considered as an immense complication in anti-oppressive practice.
[9][citation needed] Anti-Oppressive Practice seeks to identify strategies to construct power in a way that will address the systemic inequalities that are operating simultaneously at the individual, group and institutional level to oppose the production and reproduction of oppression.
[11] According to Dominelli (2002, p. 6), anti-oppression is “a methodology focusing on both process and outcome, and a way of structuring relationships between individuals that aim to empower users by reducing the negative effects of hierarchy in their immediate interaction and the work they do together.” [12] Cultural Oppression: Language has a contribution to oppression in general, language with its marking function constructs social structure and an interplay in creating cultural values.
"[15] Professional practitioners are aware of the power (im)balance between service users and providers that reflects in practice, though the aim is always using this differences legitimately to empower others and reduce the experience of powerlessness and the resulting learned helplessness or the "culture of silence".