Features of social work development in Europe Sven Hessle, Ph D Professor of social work at Stockholm University SE-111 27 Stockholm, Sweden
n Plenary Lecture for Seoul Cyber University 2004-11-22
Abstract
At the moment there are conflicting tendencies of both unification and diversification of social work in Europe. Important is the unifying force to get different standards of social work under the same minimum standard umbrella to be able to communicate and evaluate between universities and practical social work in different countries. Also important is the ongoing forces to take consideration to local and regional socio-cultural traditions and contextual factors that contribute to establish different social work policies and methods. In this paper I will discuss different point of departures and practical examples for describing the progress of social work in the western world. I will emphasise some features of social work that contribute to give social work an identity as a discipline, and will end up with reference to Walter Lorenz (2000) in three dimensions along which social work can be positioned: Relationship to the state, Degree of professionalisation and Academic status
Introduction
If we take a close look at history of social work, we may find that a social worker originally was regarded as anyone involved in activities with a social purpose (Kendall, 2000). Fighting poverty has been the main area for engagement among volunteers, often organised in religious or other kinds of NGOs with or without ideological (religious or political) basis for activities in the name of solidarity. The societal responsibility for people in weak positions can be traced back even further in history, and every state might find its own genesis of activities with social purpose (Lorenz, 1995). Thus, the individual engagement or the state responsibility as a point of departure for tracing the roots of social work could give different results. But, as Lorenz (2001) points out, no individual forerunner is living in a vacuum. He or she (more often) always acts within a societal context, thus the social activities always are related to the state. When considering the education and the professionalisation of social work it might be easier to uncover a common line in history. There seems to be parallel steps taken in many
countries during the decades surrounding the turn of the 20th century (Kendall, ibid). The overall idea was to get rid of poverty, mainly in big cities, by educating volunteers to become more skilful in investigating and changing poor families or empower the surrounding context that maintained them in poverty. In this paper, I will limit the text on the development of the social work profession in Europe. Due to current ongoing internationalisation and migration processes, the European context has to be understandable from different points of view, e g from the perspective of universality and from the perspective of diversity processes(Lorenz, 2001). Under the perspective of universality, we can mention that of importance is the force to get different standards of social work under the same minimum standard umbrella to be able to communicate and evaluate between universities and practical social work in different countries (Lorenz, 1994). When everyone has the same opinion about social work and the same education, it may seem easier to make exchanges with people, curricula and experiences. But under the diversity perspective, it is important to mention the ongoing forces for considering local and regional socio -cultural traditions and contextual factors that contribute to establish different social work policies and methods (Hessle, Ioka & Yamano, 2004; Lorenz, 2001).The diversity perspective seems to contradict the universal force to make everything alike! In Europe we have to consider both perspectives in social welfare and social work issues. In this paper I will discuss different point of departures for describing the progression of social work in the western world with emphasis on Europe. I will moreover focus on some general features of social work that contribute to give social work an identity as a discipline, and will end up with reference to Walter Lorenz (2001) in three dimensions along which social work that can be positioned: Relationship to the state, Degree of professionalisation and Academic status
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Points of departure - three roads to trace social work genesis
From which point of departure shall we describe social work? From, i) a stipulated definition of social work, ii) from the work of some prominent representatives of social work and the streams of ideas they represent or iii) from a description of implementation of social work in practice, policy and research? There are advantages and disadvantages with the different point of departures.
A definition as point of departure for catching the essence of social work
One problem with this point of departure is that there is no final universal definition! In the literature we will find about 25 definitions or more, and when applied, leading to divergent areas for activities (Bergmark, 1998). Moreover, the definitions sometimes seem to be blind for different kinds of welfare states and cultural contexts. If we for instance pick a definition by Crouch (1979:46) of social work: the attempt to assist those who do not command the means to human subsistence in acquiring them and in attaining the highest possible degree of independence, the implementation of it in Asia would be problematic, e g. because the highest degree of independence would have different meaning in Asia. In Montreal, in the year of 2000, the main international associations for social workers, IFSW and IASSW, decided to go together in a common international definition of social work, as follows:
The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance wellbeing. Utilising theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work.
It is obvious that fundamental concepts in social work are social justice and human rights. And, the first core principles for the global standards for education that were developed from the declaration, seem to originate from a textbook on empowerment:
Facilitate the inclusion of marginalized, socially excluded, dispossessed, vulnerable and at-risk groups of people. Address and challenge barriers, inequalities and injustices that exist in society. Work with and mobilize individuals, families, groups, organisations and communities to enhance their well being and their problem-solving capacities.
Other core principles for social work focus on protection and advocacy, e g
Work towards the protection of people who are not in a position to do so themselves, for example children in need of care and persons experiencing mental illness or mental retardation within the parameters of accepted and ethically sound legislation.
The reactions have been positive so far, with the exceptions from some critical comments from a few countries in South East Asia. I think that the social work action for change approach might be challenging some of the countries in this region that strive for holistic harmony or structural stability. Moreover, it is not a strict definition in the scientific meaning, maybe it could be considered as a framework for social work.
The work of prominent representatives as point of departure
There are a handful of individual champions of the dawn of social work in the literature, most of them are women, and they enter the stage during the second part of 19th century. Octavia Hill is one of them, said to be the mother of social work education(Kendall, 2000). Others mentioned are usually Jane Addams and Mary Richmond, both of them are appointed main actors for the development of social work in the US. Addams was through her settlement ideas emphasising the empowerment of context for changing the conditions of the individual, Richmond was emphasising the diagnosis of the individual case work for the empowerment of the individual. Thus, both of them representing two visible historical paths for social work, one leading to community work, the other to individual case work. Since Jane Addams and Mary Richmond were highly influenced by the streams of ideas in Europe, the roots of social work can be said to be found in Europe. The first school of social work in the world opened 1899 in Amsterdam (Kendall, 2000). But this point of departure has limitations. It excludes other champions of social work not mentioned here, and maybe more seriously, some movements that are lacking strong personalities in the leading position are excluded from the torch light of history. For instance, the Elberfeld movement in the middle of 19th century, that became a model for the German system for fighting poverty. And the development of social pedagogy in central Europe and the sociocultural tradition of social work in the southern part of Europe (Lorenz, 1994).
Social work implementation in practice?
With this point of departure it is only possible to use the social work concept when and where it is actually labelled as social work. As a term it seems that social work was first used in Germany during the second part of 19th century (Sociale Arbeit). Social work was according to this position developed during a period of instability in Europe when ordinary measures of dealing with poverty and vulnerable categories of people became insufficient. The modern welfare state emerged from the end of 19th century to the 1960s with freedom and discipline as conflicting poles in a continuum. The modern welfare state had to fight the growing urbanisation with miserable levels of living condition, migration and insecurity leading to local, regional and international expressions of discontent (Howe, 1996). Social workers were needed to control the behaviour of people as well as to cure their problems. Through the social science theory, the living conditions were to be improved. The limitations with this point of departure is that even if we agree upon that only those activities that are labelled as social work activities should be included, we will quite soon find that lots of concepts are used to cover activities and professions that clearly could be included in social work.
In conclusion, different points of departure for tracing social work, all have their limitations. To say what social work is and what it is not has its difficulties. But the great variety of activities of social work is worth a documentation ( Lorenz, 1994). And even if we view every historical
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epoch and every kind of society as unique, the problem of comparison between them becomes problematic if we dont understand that some problems and conflicts are eternal and universal, demanding for a solution with social work involved.
Some features of social work
Under this headline I will forward some assumptions about social work features that are contributing in giving the discipline an academic identity and the social worker a professional identity. The six features are emphasising analysis, not social methods, since five of the six features will be listed as analytic tools
1. Social work is context-bound We have already emphasised that social work will proceed different in different parts of the world.
The definition is not unconditional, e g Social work is defined
different in history and regions. Social work will show a different face in Asia as compared to Europe. And the way social work will be conducted in the future will be different from the social work done in the 20th century.
Social work organisation is dependent of welfare policy, that is
social work has distinct roles and is conducted different in contrasted welfare systems. When the state is taking a great responsibility for the welfare of the citizens, like in Sweden, the role of social work is of carrying out the reforms to the citizens for executing their rights. When the state doesnt want to intrude in the privacy of the inhabitants, like in the US, the role of social work will be to diagnose the vulnerability of those that cannot adjust to the norm.
Dependency on socio-cultural context, that is distinct national and
regional historical traditions create different conditions for the establishment of social work. The strong family tradition of Japan was for instance the origin of a child welfare organisation that is focusing a consulting role for social workers for the parents. Social workers are not having the power to intrude in families when children are abused, even if the legislation permits them to (Hessle, Ioka & Yamano, 2004). 2. Social work is dependent on external influences
War, earthquake and other catastrophes demand special social work preparation, organisation and expertise. The civil society is the basic target for social work: When the civil society is destroyed through human made catastrophes like war or natural disasters like earth quakes, social work is a part of supporting the wounded, traumatised and separated victims, and participating in the reconstructing the society. Other influences, like globalisation, migration, are changing the conditions continuously for social work. Ongoing globalisation is forcing nations to interdependency. International relationships become necessary for analysing social problems that are crossing national borders and the solutions to social problems might be the result of international cooperation rather than an effort from local engagement. The increasing world wide migration over national borders is an example of the necessity to collaborate.
3. Social work directs attention to the most marginalised categories of the population
Poverty and vulnerability in local communities as well as different categories of people as well as individuals are the main target for social work. This attention has consequences for the development of the analytic tools as well as for the engagement of the social workers. A social worker should be able to trace individual, groups and categories at risk, in class rooms as well as in factories and community. And should be able to discuss and suggest measures for change and strengthen the capacity of the afflicted. Key words are: empowerment, human rights, 4. Social work is multidisciplinary
Social work as an academic discipline is dependent on other disciplines, like Sociology, Anthropology, Pedagogy, Psychology, Economics and Political science. But Social work puts distinct questions to scientific enquiry. When we for example want to examine specific demographic trends within a region, sociology will give the answer, but social work will put questions about which categories of the local populations are most vulnerable due to the development and which kinds of vulnerability. Social work will try to find out what measures to realise to fight vulnerability? 5. Social work is practice-oriented.
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Analysing and solving (psycho) social problems on many levels are at the core of social work. One path of social work leads to professional authorisation in practice. Another path leads to academic authorisation. This has consequences for the education of social workers. The authorisation in practice needs an educational path that includes training under supervision within the undergraduate education curriculum. Since involvement of the person is crucial in practical social work, the education also needs to include training of the personal development and valuesystem. The academic authorisation needs a path that acknowledge the academic demands on scientific skills and documentation, both on the undergraduate and (post)graduate levels 6. Social work methods in practice are developed from at least three levels of analysis
From historical point of view a praxis in social work has developed to meet the need of social actions from the position of three levels in society. In the analytic sense, social problems should be viewed from all levels but different kinds of social work methodology and skills are appearing on each level. The levels are listed below, and a few examples of social work activities are presented on each level.
The structural level. Social planning. Preventive organisation work, preventive planning in municipalities. Emergency planning. Organisational and group level. Activation of voluntary
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organisations or groups for social change in communities and municipalities. Community work. Social and community development. Empowerment of vulnerable neighbourhoods and local communities. Self help groups. The family and individual level. Psyko-social work for vulnerable families and individuals at risk. Child protection investigations and other investigations. Social networkmobilisation, Family structure building, Family or individual inhome treatment, family or individual social assistance. Care and placement for individuals and families. Foster care, residential care, homes for special supervision.
Dimensions for evaluating the position of social work Finally, summing up the presented features of social work, it might be useful to apply the elegant model presented by Walter Lorenz (2001) to locate social work on a position along three dimensions. Anywhere, where social activities are developing, it is possible to position social work on its relationship to the state, its degree of professionalism and its academic status. This could be a basic tool for internal comparisons concerning the development of social work within the society, as well as for international comparisons on the development of social work in the world. The first dimension emphasise the fact that social work has to negotiate between the pole where a political perspective on welfare relates its activities ultimately to the state, and the pole where welfare primarily is the concern of private individuals. Relationship to the state Private ---------------------------------------------------------- Political There is no country in Europe where social work is entirely part of a state bureaucracy so that social workers would act like government officials intervening with rigidly and legally defined parameters. Nor is social work entirely in the domain of civil society, contracted freely by individuals as a private affair. As we have pointed out, different welfare state models may place the emphasis on different positions for social work on the dimension. The second dimension emphasises the tension between the personally engaged volunteers on one hand and the highly educated professional specialists on the other. One uncertainty is whether social work can claim the status of a proper profession with
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activities already carried out by volunteers and so called paraprofessionals. Self-help movements argue that academics and social workers with formal qualifications have made professionals far too removed from the people whose interest they are meant to serve. Degree of professionalisation Social movements ----------------------------------------Professional elitism Two distinct directions can be distinguished for professional roads. One kind of highly trained professionals seem to put their knowledge and skills selflessly at the disposal of those whom they serve. Another variety of specialised professionals want to obtain monopoly of power in their field and control carefully access and competition to maintain their dominant position. Since social worker almost is a generalist rather than specialist, neither of the described roads for professionals can be said to have been approached so far. But there is an ongoing debate between knowledge and expertise versus personal qualities, where both poles can benefit by having the borders constantly open for discussion, so that no part can claim exclusivity. The third dimension concerns the status of social work as an academic discipline. Historically, social work entered the academia through other disciplines, like Sociology or Economics. Still social work in different parts of Europe is part of another discipline, like Education (in Italy) or Pedagogy (Germany). In Russia the road to academic authorisation goes through Sociology, Social pedagogy or even Medicine. Still in many countries social work has not an academic status, like in Denmark, France, Norway. In Britain, social work is gaining status at the universities. The lack of a universal definition and the contextual dependency of social work results in delay in a common academic road. Moreover, the practice oriented basis for social work carries the risk of being looked upon as an applied science, applied sociology or applied psychology. But social work has to be convincing that it operates both on social and on psychological (psycho-social) levels. Academic status Domination by other disciplines ---------------------------Academic autonomy In Sweden, social work is an independent academic discipline within social sciences, and the risk is less, in comparison with other countries, that the inferiority sometimes felt by social workers in the field, is reproduced at the academic level. On the contrary, the academic status of social work is giving social workers in Sweden comparable high legitimacy. But, this level of appreciation could easily be ruined if social work fails to recognise the dependency on other disciplines, like Sociology, Anthropology, Pedagogy, Psychology, Economics and Political science. And if social work as an academic discipline fails to recognise its dependency on practice.
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References Bergmark, . (1998). Nyckelbegrepp i socialt arbete.[key concepts in social work] Lund: Studentlitteratur Crouch, R. C. (1979). Social work defined. Social Work. 24:46-48 Hessle, S, Ioka, B & Yamano, N.(2004). Key factors to consider in international comparisons of family policy and child welfare the Japanese- Swedish case. In Mauro, N, Bjrklind, A & le Grand, C. (Eds). Transformations of the Japanese and Swedish Models for the 21st Century. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International. (pp 104 144) Howe, D. (1996). Surface and depth in social work practice. In Parton, N.(Ed). Social theory, social change and social work. The State of welfare N.Y: Routledge Kendall, K. A .(2000). Social work education - its origins in Europe. Alexandria: Council on Social Work Education Lorenz, W. (1994). Social work in a changing Europe. London: Routledge Lorenz, W. (2001). Social work in Europe - Portrait of a diverse professional group. In Hessle, S (Ed). International Standard Setting of Higher Social Work Education. Stockholm Studies on Social Work, No 17. Stockholm University: Department of Social Work: 9-24.
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