Layering, social risks and manufactured uncertainties in social work in Poland1

2019 ◽  
pp. 185-200
Author(s):  
Paweł Poławski
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
Activation Policy ◽  
Depth Interviews

This chapter shows the latent functions and perverse effects of activation policy, conditionality, and related governance reforms implemented on a local level in Poland from the perspective of social workers. The chapter focuses on the consequences of layering processes within welfare state institutions, and how these processes shape the structure of social assistance and affect social work. The analysis is based on qualitative data collected from in-depth interviews with social workers that cover their experiences with the implementation of activation measures that have been modified and adjusted to local realities. The research confirms that orientation toward poverty management is strengthened by the pillarization of organizational structures and financial mechanisms, and that the reforms generate dysfunctions and strengthens uncertainties for both beneficiaries and social workers.

scholarly journals Conceptualization of Soft Skills as Part of the Professional Socialization of Social Workers

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
FUZIAH SHAFFIE ◽  
RUZLAN MD. ALI ◽  
FAHAINIS MOHD. YUSOF
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Public Universities ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Professional Socialization ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
The Social ◽  
Higher Institutions ◽  
Depth Interviews

This article discusses the conceptualization of soft skills which current higher institutions’ educators of professional programmes should contemplate. Social work educators were probed to describe their experiences within their profession, and viewpoints on, soft skills as part of the professional socialization of social workers toward becoming professionally and socially competent when providing their services to their clients. In-depth interviews were used as means of gathering qualitative data. The transcribed data was then thematically analysed. This paper highlights the opinions of two social work educators, from two public universities, on the issue of soft skills among social workers. The social work educators insinuated that it is important to raise awareness of soft skills competencies among social work educators to help them in assessing themselves, and identify where and how they could actively seek to improve themselves as trainers or teachers of social workers to function effectively within the context of their workplaces. Embedding the soft skills competencies into their career as social workers is assumed as one of the effective and effcient method of achieving both professional and social competence. The proposed soft skills provided early ideas and initiatives which can serve as guideline when facilitating and guiding future qualifed social workers.  

Modes of Relational Agency among Welfare-reliant Mothers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hagit Sinai-Glazer ◽  
Boris H J M Brummans
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Relational Agency ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Seeking Help ◽  
Depth Interviews

Abstract How do welfare-reliant mothers enact their agency in relationships with social workers and social services? The present article addresses this question by investigating how twenty Israeli welfare-reliant mothers expressed different modes of human agency in in-depth interviews. Results show how research participants enact agency through (i) expressing anger, (ii) seeking help, (iii) resisting and (iv) engaging in non-action. By highlighting the multidimensional and situational nature of agency, this article offers a new relational lens for conceptualising and empirically studying human agency in social work.

Social work education in action: How studying for the profession facilitates the adaptation of internationally educated social workers in Canada

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-127
Author(s):  
Annie Pullen Sansfaçon ◽  
Marion Brown
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Work Skills ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theory Project ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Adaptation Processes ◽  
Depth Interviews

This article presents the results and theorization of a 4-year Grounded Theory project that sought to understand the processes and dynamics involved in the professional adaptation of internationally educated social workers now practicing in Canada. In-depth interviews with 66 participants, who undertook social work education outside of Canada and have subsequently settled to practice in the country, were conducted. Results highlight that the social work educational background of the professionals not only offers key conceptual, theoretical, and analytical foundations needed to adapt knowledge and skills to practice abroad, but also provides tools to navigate and negotiate professional adaptation processes as a whole. We conclude that ultimately, social workers may adapt well to their new work contexts because of the transferability of social work skills, knowledge, and values to new practice settings, thus facilitating interventions with services users and also their own process of professional adaptation.

scholarly journals Construction of Reflexivity in Social Workers Working with Vulnerable Children in the Czech Republic

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Kateřina Glumbíková
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Worker ◽  
Situational Analysis ◽  
Vulnerable Children ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
The Impact

Social work in the Czech Republic is confronted with the impact of global neoliberalism, which is manifested by privatisation of social services, individualisation of social risks and economisation. Reflexivity of social workers working with vulnerable children and their families has the potential to lead to a higher quality of social work, strengthening of social workers' identity, and empowering social workers to promote changes in everyday practice. Meeting this potential requires an understanding of constructing reflexivity by social workers, which is the objective of this paper. We used a qualitative research strategy, particularly group and individual interviews with social workers and their analysis using current approaches to grounded theory. Concerning data analysis, we found out that constructing reflexivity (nature and subject of reflexion) derives from the perceived roles of social workers (social worker as an ununderstood artist, social worker a as mediator between social and individual, social workers as an agent of a (society) change, social workers as an agent of normalisation and reflexive professional). The acquired data, within the situational analysis, was inserted into a position map on the scale of holistic and technical reflection. The conclusion discusses the implication for practice and education in social work.

scholarly journals Collective endeavours: finding community, love and hope

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret S. Malloch
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Community Support ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Mutual Aid ◽  
Modern Life ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
Collective Resistance ◽  
Professional Resources

Strains on professional resources and complex experiences of isolation and despair have taken their toll on communities, adding to the challenges for social workers and social work as a profession. In a context of austerity and locational stress, communities are increasingly relied upon to enhance or, indeed, replace the need for state intervention. However, grass-roots and mutual aid collectives have the potential for both community support and resistance. Using original qualitative data, this article explores how some groups based in Scotland’s most deprived locales provide collective and mutual aid, and, in doing so, attempt to address some of the challenges of modern life (such as overcoming addiction, isolation and mental anguish). Importantly, this article revives and develops Erich Fromm’s discourse on the importance of ‘love’ and Marx’s concept of ‘spiritual emancipation’ to explore the potential for transforming individual experiences into collective resistance.

scholarly journals En domänteori för organisering av socialt arbete i offentlig sektor

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Morén ◽  
Marek Perlinski ◽  
Björn Blom
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Domain Theory ◽  
International Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Institutional Conditions ◽  
Policy Domain

A domain theory for the organization of social work in the public sector The article presents outlines of a domain theory for the organization of social work in the public sector. e aim is to describe – from a Nordic perspective – how social workers’ professional prac- tice is shaped by local level politics and administration, and how such shaping processes at the local level are conditioned and controlled by general structural and institutional conditions at the national and international level. We argue that public sector arenas for social work are constituted by three domains with different tasks and logics, yet interconnected and interdependent: the policy domain, the domain of administration and the profession’s domain. Organizations at the local level – constituted by the three domains and their respective logics – are, in turn, conditioned by a fourth domain: the domain of institutional conditions. The latter domain is about control ideals, norms, knowledge, epistemological approaches and technologies prevailing in society, legitimized and disseminated by central institutions that affect how local level organizations operate.

Neoliberalism and Australian social work: Accommodation or resistance?

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Wallace ◽  
Bob Pease
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Western World ◽  
Everyday Activity ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Critical Social Work ◽  
State Regime ◽  
New Institutions ◽  
The Impact

• Summary: Since the mid-1970s the Australian welfare state has faced a continuing crisis of resourcing and legitimation. Social work as a central entity within the welfare state has been challenged in terms of to its value base and relevance. As with much of the Western world, this challenge has been heightened with the rise of neoliberalism, which has pervaded most aspects of Australian society. Neoliberalism has consequently had a profound effect upon Australian social workers. The challenges to the Australian welfare state and social work are from without and within, by neoliberal ideas and its practices. • Findings: While neoliberalism’s relationship to social work as a broad theme is explored in the literature, the complexity of marketization and inclusive aspects have not been considered in any detail in relation to social work. The evidence in the Australian context is even slimmer, and as a consequence the particularity of the Australian welfare state and its relationship to neoliberalism, and the consequences for Australian social work, remains largely untested. Furthermore, while there are some indications of the day to day impact on social work in the context of a post-welfare state regime, little work has been conducted on the capacity of neoliberalism to infiltrate social work through its new institutions of the social and thus become embedded in social work. • Application: This article lays the foundations for a research project to examine the extent to which neoliberalism has become embedded in Australian social work and how social workers and social work educators are responding to these hegemonic influences. What are the ways in which social workers have become complicit in neoliberalism? Is Australian social work part of the neoliberal project to the point where neoliberalism has become part of its understandings and everyday activity? It is hoped that through this research, a more sophisticated understanding of the impact of neoliberalism on social work will contribute to the revitalization of critical social work in Australia and forms of resistance to the neoliberal project.

scholarly journals Counselling in social work: A legitimate role?

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-27
Author(s):  
Petro Booysen ◽  
Barbara Staniforth
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Clinical Skills ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Group Data ◽  
Focus Group Data ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Thematic Data

INTRODUCTION: Social work roles can sometimes be considered to sit on a continuum between a community work/social change perspective and a therapeutic work perspective. One perspective could be preferred above the other, at a particular time and in a particular context, or both perspectives could be supported. This article explores the legitimate function of counselling in social work in Aotearoa New Zealand.METHODS: Data were obtained sequentially through 16 in-depth interviews and four focus groups in a qualitative PhD study. The respondents were practising social workers from various ethnicities and fields of practice represented in Aotearoa New Zealand. Both the interview and focus group data were analysed using a general inductive and thematic data analysis method.FINDINGS: The data demonstrate a relationship between counselling and social work, that social workers regularly use counselling skills and that social workers have a need to develop their clinical skills. Rigid boundaries between the two professions can have adverse effects for clients at times when multi-skilled professionals are needed; participants in this study are calling for ethicality and accountability in this regard.CONCLUSION: The findings from the data confirm the legitimacy of counselling in social work and have implications for social work practice, education, and continued professional development.

scholarly journals Det tværprofessionelle samarbejde – et paradoks i skolens socialpædagogiske arbejde?

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (25) ◽  
pp. 14-23
Author(s):  
Ditte Tofteng ◽  
Mette Bladt
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Action Research ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Professional Work ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
The Social ◽  
Modern Welfare State

Tværprofessionelt samarbejde er tidens løsen på komplekse sociale problemstillinger. Den moderne velfærdsstats borgerindsatser synes at kræve et særligt samkoordineret arbejde mellem professioner. Men nogle gange ser det ud til, at det tværprofessionelle ender med at stå i vejen for en sagsgang og indsats, der er faglig meningsfuld og foregår rettidigt. Artiklen vil – med udgangspunkt i en case fra et længevarende aktionsforskningsforløb på en skole i Københavnsområdet – sætte fokus på, hvordan det tværprofessionelle samarbejde kan blive et benspænd for opgaveløsningen. Artiklen viser, at det tværprofessionelle nogen gange ender med at blive systemets svar på de af systemet skabte problemer.Inter-professional cooperation is often the solution for complex social problems. The social work of the modern welfare state seems to demand a specialized coordinated cooperation between professions. But sometimes it looks like, the inter-professional work end up being in the way of an administration and effort, which is timely and professional sound. Based on a long term action research project the article will, be focused on how the inter-professional work sometimes becomes a trip up for problem solving. The article shows that the inter-professional sometimes become the systems answer to problems created by the organizational structures of the system.

scholarly journals Social Workers’ Management of Child Interpreting: A Qualitative Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siân E Lucas
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Directions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Future Research Directions ◽  
Depth Interviews

Abstract Spoken language interpreters are commonly used to facilitate communication for emergent bilingual service users in social work. Children often have greater English language proficiency than their parents and may interpret for family members in a variety of contexts, including social work. This article approaches the topic of child interpreting from social workers’ perspectives and presents findings from in-depth interviews about child interpreting. Social constructionist theories are used to examine the way social workers manage child interpreting. The findings indicate that social workers manage child interpreting by monitoring, scaffolding or stopping encounters. Through talking about child interpreting, the social workers conceptualise children as passive, vulnerable or untrustworthy. Social workers recognised the potential contributions that child interpreters offered but remained concerned about their ability to translate technical and emotionally laden messages. Given that child interpreting was found to be unavoidable in social work, there is scope to develop a framework for safe and effective child-interpreting practice. Future research directions include an exploration of children’s perceptions about interpreting in social work contexts.

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