Feminism and the professionalisation of social work

Social Work in Europe, 2001

1996

This paper is an introduction to the approach and method that I have developed in a recent study which aim is to trace the conceptual and practical history of Finnish poor relief and social work during the period when they modernized, i.e. were transformed from a voluntary activity based on local knowledge into textually coordinated professions. When planning the study and choosing the approach, I wanted to work out a method which helps to overcome the contradictions between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ in social work in interpreting its modernization. I believe that every epoch needs a new interpretation of history; an interpretation which begins from its own premises. Many consider our time post-modern. How do we need to understand the past now in order to be able to orient ourselves for the future, calls for micro-histories rather than the great, often marxistly flavored grand stories of the modern period. This time calls for reinterpretations of modernization which speak about real a...

Affilia, 2010

This article explores the interlocking historical trajectories of feminisms and the social work profession in the United States. Bringing these two histories together, the article examines the ideas, practices, and people that have shaped the complicated organism that is ‘‘feminist social work,’’ from the civic involvement of 19th- and early 20th-century women to 21st-century efforts to craft more global, fluid, and inclusive feminist theories and practices. Structured around the three ‘‘waves’’ of feminist activism and theory building, it focuses in particular on changes and continuities in U.S. feminist social work theorizing.

1989

2014

This paper argues that there are many social works and that it is inappropriate to seek to create and defend a single unified identity for it. Personal and social identities are the characteristics that make someone or something recognisable to others and are connected to the social and cultural meanings and values associated with an identity. Europe has multiple countries and national, linguistic and cultural identities; it is logical to assume that these would create multiple social works. An internationalist view proposed a unified social work as part of a professionalisation project in the twentieth century to institutionalise the status and recognition of social work, but differing practices, occupational groups, contributory disciplines, social institutions incorporating social work and objectives mean that multiple potentialities exist for alternative forms of social work. While social work contains many possibilities, distinctive characteristics include its objectives of con...

Social work is both a discipline and a profession. As a discipline, it has a specific body of theory that guides its practice and as a profession it is guided by a particular set of values. In order to understand any discipline, it is important to consider its historical development -changes in its ways of thinking -over time. The profession of social work is closely linked with the institution of social welfare. Thus if we wish to examine its historical development, we need to recognise that it is closely tied to the evolution of the institution of social welfare in many countries. In this chapter, we trace the historical development of social work and social welfare and focus particularly on how social work came to be recognised as a profession. As already noted, social work gets its distinctive nature among the other professions in society from its connections with the institution of social welfare. In many countries, it became the profession sanctioned by society to dispense social welfare services -now referred to by different terms in various countries: for example, social care services in the UK and community services in Australia. Social workers are therefore concerned with the nature and range of available social or community welfare services and with the delivery of these services to clients in various contexts, such as disability, child welfare, mental health, and so on.

Social work and society, 2005

The problem-situation In most Western countries, the professional status of social workers is instable and insecure. Of course, most Western countries are themselves instable, ridden with feelings of insecurity and in search of reassurance and promises of control. But social work hardly lends itself as a projection screen for visions of professional control and efficiency in the face of insecurity. On the contrary: within the present cultural and political climate, social work connotes primarily with unpopular social problems, with people unable to cope adequately with the competitiveness and the rate of change of post-industrial societies, that is to say: it connotes more with dependency and helplessness then with autonomy and control. Moreover, whereas public discourse in most Western country is dominated by a neo-liberal perspective and the intricate network of economic, managerial, consumerist and military metaphors connected with it, social work still carries with it a legacy of 'progressive politics' increasingly labeled as outdated and inadequate. Although the values of solidarity and social justice connected with this 'progressive heritage' certainly have not faded away completely, the loudest and most popular voices on the level of public discourse keep underscoring the necessity to adapt to the 'realities' of present-day postindustrial societies and their dependence on economic growth, technological innovation and the dynamics of an ever more competitive worldmarket. This 'unavoidable' adaptation involves both the 'modernization' and progressive diminishment of 'costly' welfare-state arrangements and a radical reorientation of social work as a profession. Instead of furthering the dependency of clients in the name of solidarity, social workers should stimulate them to face their own responsibilities and help them to function more adequately in a world where individual autonomy and economic progress are dominant values. This shift has far-reaching consequences for the organization of the work itself. Efficiency and transparency are the new code words, professional autonomy is dramatically limited and interventions of social workers are increasingly bound to 'objective' standards of success and cost-effectiveness. At first sight, this situation does not provide a very promising horizon for those theorists, researchers and social workers still adhering to the 'progressive' legacy of social work and its central values: solidarity, social justice and empowerment. The notion of historical progress connected with these values seems to have lost its visionary and unifying power, to be replaced by and large by a quite different, neo-liberal view of 'a better future', dominated by the idea of ever increasing consumptive possibilities for autonomous individuals on the basis of unlimited economic growth and technological innovation. This neo-liberal vision of a better future is underpinned by its own version of a just society, wherein every man (!) gets what he deserves on the basis of his own efforts. This vision accomplishes the remarkable feat of trivializing blatant forms of social inequality and exclusion, not only by picturing them as an unavoidable price to be paid 'in the short run' for a better future for all 'in the long run', but also by stressing the individual responsibility of those who are unwilling or unable to face

Historical impacts and inconsistency have influenced the development of the field of profession of social work. Independent social caregiver or social worker positions did not exist in the local governments earlier in history since 1995. Today, the profession of the social worker is not specified at the local government level, the ambivalence position of the employer of the social work field: at the client level is existing to the political decision making process and some time the social worker is not included in the decision of social policy in local government. The decision-making process regarding the clients is distributed among different levels, the practice undermines the independence of the social worker and the social worker cannot protect the client. The principle of collective responsibility lives on in the 21st century without giving the profession of social work the opportunity to grow independent. Introduction We could formulate, the topic of profession in EU context, is including the responsibility for policy of employment at the current time. The social affairs and inclusion is shared between the EU and its member countries. The EU coordinates and monitors national policies, promotes the sharing of best practices in fields like employment, poverty and social exclusion and pensions makes laws and monitors their implementation in areas like rights at work and coordination of social security schemes. The European Employment Strategy encourages action to:1) make labour markets functions better; 2) equip people with the right skills for employment, 3) improve job quality and working conditions and 4) create jobs. The requirement of profession differ between the national states and the

Australian Social Work