Interactions of shame: violence against children in residential care

Within their chapter Marie Demant and Friederike Lorenz discuss the role of shame in the context of violence against children in residential care. Their work is based on two empirical projects and includes reports of survivors of sexual violence, who reported their experiences in hearings conducted by the German ‘Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse’, which started its work in 2016. It furthermore includes empirical material from a research project on systematic violence by a team of professionals in a residential care home for children with disabilities. Both perspectives indicate how young people experience shame and humiliation as part of the institutional setting. Furthermore, it shows the negative impact these practices have on children and adolescents in situations of dependency, seeking help, and disclosure. It points out practices of humiliation as a part of the violence and shows to which extent shame can affect the possibilities for young people in these situations to be heard and to get help.

Sociology of shame: basic theoretical considerations

In his chapter Sighard Neckel points out the social characteristics of shame. This emotion arises from the interweaving of social relationships and presupposes the difference between the self and its ideal image just as much as a violation of the norm before the eyes of others. In this respect shame is tied to sociality, normativity and morality. The author illustrates the structural anchoring of the loss of self-esteem in social conditions. Analogous to the dimensions of status acquisition used in sociology in modern societies, such as material prosperity, knowledge, position in organizations and in informal groups, different social shaming techniques are explained. Neckel shows that social devaluations arise when the work or need of people is not valued. The associated devaluations in material and social terms produce feelings of inferiority – feelings with which the addressees of social work are systematically confronted. The article concludes that individualizing social situations and interpreting social disadvantages as personal failure generate shame and the experience of one’s own unworthiness. It is shame that indicates how heterogeneous respect and recognition can be distributed in society.

Making sense of shame theory: a psychosocial structure

Against the background of the multifaceted and various interpretations and definitions of the concept of shame in sociological, psychological, and philosophical literature, Liz Frost, author of this chapter, proposes a systematic classification at which level shame could be considered. This three-part taxonomy she developed in reference to Honneth’s theory of recognition with the expectation of generating an analytical tool for social work theory, reflection, and practice. Three levels are taken into account: political/national, group/social and individual/personal. In each category it will consider how and by whom this type of shame might be generated, some key ideas or arguments within its purview, and some effects and/or practices that it leads to. The importance of the proposed taxonomy is illustrated and clarified on the basis of the phenomenon of ageism.

Emotional labour in social work practice and the production of shame

Carsten Schröder, author of this chapter, analyses the production of emotional atmospheres as a part of emotional labour. He argues that emotional labour, as work on their own emotions and the emotions of others, is an integral part of professional social work. He shows examples from a project in which he ethnographically observed social workers within a residential care home. His work focuses on how professional social workers create emotional atmospheres through emotional labour as a part of their interventions. In his example he focuses on the production of an emotional atmosphere that aims to reinforce a rule within the setting of the care home, in order to discipline the young residents. Carsten Schröder points out how harmful the experience of shame can be and raises therefore the question whether these interventions can still be viewed as professional interventions.

Poverty as an attack on subjectivity: the case of shame

In his chapter Holger Schoneville argues that a social work perspective on poverty has to be informed by a theory of subjectivity. He sets out to show what such a perspective entails and what role emotions, such as shame, play within it. He illustrates his argument through a research project that he conducted. One of the central questions of the project was, how people who are users of food banks in Germany experience their life and what these experiences mean for them in terms of their self-relationship and self-concept. The interviews with users of food banks reveal, that the emotion of shame is especially virulent when it comes to poverty. The analysis points out, that poverty not only means that people are faced with a lack of resources, but it also means that they are forced into living circumstances in which they face contradictions regarding their (self) expectations and their everyday reality. The chapter therefore highlights how the structure of social inequality, institutional forms of welfare and shame are interlinked.

Shame as an anthropological, historical and social emotion

In her chapter Veronika Magyar-Haas shows that in an anthropological point of view the possibility of the experience of the self in two modes – as a subject and an object, and so the difference between the ‘I’ and ‘Me’ – serves as a structural condition of feeling ashamed. Even if shame in this sense can be defined as a universal human feeling, the historical and cultural relativity of this phenomenon is to be taken into account. The author argues that in shameful situations subjects become objects for others and for themselves, too. She points out that by analysing shame, the existential difference of the self can be presumed – but the sources of shame as well as its intensity and forms of appearance are historically, culturally, and socially varying. It will be argued that in the emotion of shame the self reveals itself as a vulnerable self, which is in various relationships to others and to social norms. With reference to neoliberal expectations and ‘workfare programs’, the chapter illustrates to what extent they generate shame among service users and how shame can be seen as a reproduction of power.

Shame regulation as organisational control: evoking, containing and diverting shame to create compliance

Matthew Gibson, author of this chapter, considers how those invested in an organisation seek to regulate feelings of shame in employees to generate compliance and conformity to organisational rules, standards, and expectations. This chapter outlines a framework for understanding how leaders and managers seek to contain or divert feelings of shame as a result of doing tasks the organisation expects them to do while ensuring they evoke shame in employees as a result of any transgressions. This perspective extends and deepens themes developed within shame in professional practice, both within social work and in other professions. Finally, the author states that ensuring that social workers are not shamed for taking time to work with people or trying new things they genuinely believed would help and would facilitate innovation and creativity.

Shame, mistakes and reflective practice in social work

Alessandro Sicora, author of the chapter, argues that even for the social workers the shift from ‘I/you made a mistake’ to ‘I am/You are a mistake’, that is ‘I am/you are a failure as a practitioner or even as a person’ is easy and common, and shame may be the resulting feeling. Even if criticism may be feedback useful for giving constructive opportunities to learn from mistakes, is more often felt by people as an attack on, and a sabotage of, their own self-confidence, and this more commonly produces shame and, consequently in many cases, a defensive reaction, rather than listening and reflecting. In these circumstances, learning from mistakes becomes almost impossible. This chapter also presents some examples of short reflective writing by social workers and social work students who made an in-depth structured reflection on some of their most relevant experiences in relation to this issue.

Shame and social work: an introduction

Shame is a powerful emotion in the context of social work. It affects individuals and attacks their subjectivity from within, and yet is also experienced in the here and now as a thoroughly social emotion that enmeshes the individual in society. It is therefore highly potent within the field of social work, for its service users, and in social work practice itself. People who become service users often live in social situations in which they are confronted with shame. This emotion can occur to service users by virtue of being in the social work system, and it can also be experienced by those recruited to alleviate social problems the social workers. This introduction will try to give some preliminary definitions, introduce the main concepts highlighted in the book, present the general structure of the latter, and briefly describe the content of each of its chapters.

Claim, blame, shame: how risk undermines authenticity in social work

Mark Hardy, author of this chapter, argues that the highly charged context in which practice occurs means that because of unrealistic expectations of infallibility social work decision-making has taken on an existential character. He elaborates on why this is so, accounting for how risk, blame and shame intersect both practically and emotionally, as well as the value of existential thinking in enabling practitioners to preserve the authenticity of their practice. Social workers themselves practice in a risk-averse climate, very much aware that ‘poor judgement’ can and does lead to disciplinary action, with all that this entails in terms of professional repute, social standing and continued employment. The author suggests some potential responses to questions regarding how practitioners might cope with the expectations organisations and service users have of them.