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After Saint Petersburg (Russia)
in 2003 and 2004, Gdańsk (Poland) in 2005, Kaunas
(Lithuania) in 2006, Messina (Italy) in 2007, Riga
(Latvia) in
2008 and Vilnius (Lithuania) in 2009 academic and professional
representatives of Social Work from Europe, Russia
and Australia adjourned for the eighth time now to
discuss the fundamental impact of the economic crisis
and the possibilities Social Work has within this crisis
movement. Last year Vilnius, the European Capital of
Culture 2010, hosted the international academy meeting.
This year the conference took place in Tallinn, the
capital of Estonia whose historic centre is also a
World Heritage Centre. High-profile scientific debates
closely linked to practical Social Work in Estonia
allowed to further develop the idea behind the ''Social
Work & Society'' Academy (TiSSA).
As the above
list of former venues shows, the academy's focus
on Eastern Europe is one of its characteristic features.
In the course of the European enlargement TiSSA pursues
two major goals. One is to provide Eastern European
scientists and professional with easy access to international
discourses and at the same time to help them to greater
independence of hegemonic expectations from scientific
and professional discourses in Western Europe. The
second central goal is to inspire Western European
and international scientists and professionals to
reflect
and expand their own positions by direct contact
with the processes of political and social transformation
in Eastern Europe.
TiSSA considers these objectives
to be necessary and at the same time sees them
as opportunities
to advance a european professional self-conception.
Therefore it is necessary to observe and analyse
current processes of political and social transformation
from
an internationl perspective with respect to their
effects on Social Work.
With the mentioned tasks
and goals
of the ''Social Work & Society'' Academy in mind,
the following questions formed the core of the 2010
conference in Tallinn:
1. Will it be possible for
future Social Work to act as a responsible and adequate
social service with regard to the needs and obligations
of
its addressees?
2. Which are the circumstances
under which Social Work has to meet the existing
requirements?
3. Which possibilities and
options does Social Work
have to provide professional and effective
support in times of crisis?
4. Looking at current
processes
of social change, how should professional
standards and the necessary specific and 'technical'
knowledge of Social Work be developed and designed?
The
aim of the TiSSA conference in Tallinn was
to gain clarity
on the questions in which social and
political areas Social Work can be applied and what
its
prospects in
the ongoing crisis are.
Currently there
are two crisis phenomena that are being debated
in the
scientific
as well as in the public political
discourse: The crisis
of the welfare state and the economic
crisis.
PhD-PreConference
As in earlier
years, three days
before the main conference,
the so-called plenary session began,
postgraduates
from different countries met for
the PhD-PreConference in Tallinn from 22 - 24 August
2010. The
PreConference gives aspiring junior researchers
the unique
opportunity to present their doctorate
projects
in an international
disciplinary context and to gain
new inspiration for their work. Each presentation
is embedded
in a debate
to support the doctorate candidates
in their research projects and to provide room
for critical statements
and comments. An additional and
special feature
of this event, to which only doctorate
candidates
and students have access, is the exclusive
commentary on
each presented project by an international
team
of professors. This year they were: Lauri
Leppik (Tallinn University, Estonia), Oldřich Chytil
(Ostrava University,
Czech Republic), Rudi Roose (Ghent
University,
Belgium), Juha Hämäläinen (Kuopio University,
Finland), Mel Gray (Newcastle University, Australia),
Karin Böllert (Münster University, Germany),
Heinz Sünker (Wuppertal University, Germany) and
Hans-Uwe Otto (Bielefeld University, Germany).
Specific
research questions, specific national
social-political contexts, methodic approaches as well
as methodological
and theoretical frameworks of the
individual presentations varied widely. This has shown
how versatile and heterogenous
Social Work is as an international
field of research and practice. The presentations can
be summarised under
the following umbrella headings:
Social Work in times of crisis; social services and
social practice; Social
Work with children; families and
social services; growing up in times of crisis; social
problems, and gender-specific
issues. Despite the variety in
topics and versatility of presentations, continuities
and points of contact
between different presentations
can be found. Social Work is currently affected by
changes that pose a new
challenge to the discipline and
profession in all the different national contexts and
all its different shapes.
On two afternoons groups
generally discussed the conference topic ''Social
Work in times
of crisis''
in a frank and critical-constructive
atmosphere. The focus was on
the question which effects result
from
the current crises and processes
of social change for
professional and disciplinary
Social Work in an international
context.
The results were presented and
discussed in
a plenary session on the last
evening of the PreConference.
This also
served as an excellent preparation
for participation
in the main conference. The questions
formative for the discourse were
partly derived from the conference's
central questions postulated
above.
An additional intellectual
achievement of the participants
of the PreConference was to comment
the others' works, i.e. to test
one's
own potential in a discourse
beyond
one's own topic, to be open for
new research difficulties, to
develop extra sensitivity for
academic
debates, and to get
to know alternative forms of
discourse – in
an open atmosphere in an international
setting. Another
feature of the TiSSA PreConference
is the opportunity to participate
in the successive main conference
and
pursue further topicspecific
analyses, make new contacts,
and actively
participate in the event.
TiSSA
plenary
session
The plenary session was
opened at the Institute for Social
Work of Tallinn University on
25 August
2010 by Lauri Leppik (Estonia),
head of the local organisation
committee. Hans- Uwe Otto (Germany)
gave a thematic
introduction, analytically reflecting
current crisis movements and
their possible effects on Social
Work.
Next Hans van Ewijk (Netherlands)
talked about how
to handle complexity in an open
and uncertain society as well
as about current issues of transformation
concerning
different forms of intervention
in Social Work. These social
changes
Hans van Ewijk analyses as a
lasting world of discontinuities
due to
mobilisation and flexibilisation.
Prevalent existing responses
to growing sociopsychological
disorientation can increasingly
be found in the area of (mental)
health or they become apparent
in the shape of penal measures. Here van Ewijk
diagnoses the lack of strategies
to put more effort into the creation
of local social support systems
with a mix of informal
empowerment by volunteers as
well as by locally moored social
workers.
He advocated a higher effectivity
through
networking of professional social
workers with schools, places
of employment, families, and associations.
Olga
Borodinka (Russia) presented
challenges
to modern Social Work in developing
Russia in times of economic crisis
and drew attention to the recent
development that an
increasing number of addressees
require much qualified support.
The central problems are the
creation, regulation,
and accessability of social services
offered by social workers. According
to Borodinka future developments
in Social Work in today's Russian
society require changes
to the relationship between professionals
and clients. To consider clients
as passive is the prevalent perspective
in Russia which had to be replaced
with a determined
acknowledgement of the importance
of the roles of clients for future
Social Work. Big challenges can
also be observed with the secondary education
of professionals in Russia. The
current reform of the education
system,
which also affects parts of the
secondary education of professionals
in Social Work, is being carried
out
yielding to pressure from the
markets rather than reflecting
social requirements.
According to Borodinka however,
instead of short-term economic
considerations the community's
interests and possible and desired
benefits for society should be
formative for the reform. Next
scientists
from Belgium (Thomas Maeseele,
Rudi Roose), Switzerland (Gabi
Hahn, Nadia Baghdadi), Russia
(Burova, Grishanova,
Slepukhin), and Lithuania (Jolanta
Pivorience) talked about international
social problems and Social Work.
For an example the presentation
by Gabi Hahn and Nadia
Baghdadi be mentioned here. Before
the background of the debate
about minarets in Switzerland they
showed
how Others, the Muslim community
in this case, are
defined using ethnic differences
and in how far this ''stigmatisation''
influences the discourse on immigrant
integration. The importance of
transcultural sensitivity
as a necessary skill of professionals
in Social Work was also emphasised.
The day was concluded in groups
working parallel to each other.
The topics were research
prospects of Social Work – Fabian
Kessl together with Susanne Maurer
(Germany), Rasa Naujaniené (Lithuania),
Alex Kleine and Nina Thieme (Germany) – and
opportunities and circumstances
of growing up for children and
youths – Irena
Leliugiene together with Wiktor
Djacenko (Lithuania), Odeta Merfelaité (Lithuania),
Spiros Pantazis together with
Maria Sakellariou (Greece), and
Didier
Reynaert, Maria Bouverne-De Bie
and Stijn Vandevelde
(Belgium).
The second day was
characterised by highly interesting
visits to
Social Work institutions and
organisations in Tallinn. On
the final day of the Academy
conference
central topics were 'managerialism
and Social
Work', 'Past, present and future
of social educational sciences
in Europe', and especially 'future
prospects
of Social Work in times of crisis'.
Presentations from Germany (Holger
Ziegler), Denmark (Niels Rosendal
Jensen),
Finland (Mikko Mäntysaari),
and Australia (Mel Gray) revolved
around the question, in how far
managerialism
supersedes the project of professionalisation.
According to Holger Ziegler the
welfare professional mode of
regulation based on autonomy
with regard to actions and decisions
is being replaced by a managerial
regulation
which climaxes in the concept
of
effect-oriented regulation. The
implementation of this managerial
regulation was
helped on by rife scepticism
towards welfare professional
regulation.
Under the heading 'Surviving
the crisis:
Modelling knowledge production,
translation, and evidence-based
practice' Mel Gray (Australia)
looked at the interaction between
theory and practice in Social
Work. A model
of knowledge generation and transfer
into Social Work was presented.
Also an analytic model was developed
which will show the complex paths
and detours of knowledge
from its production to its application.
Gray's conclusion is that not
all knowledge will affect practice.
And
even the knowledge that will
eventually
influence practice will be delayed
very much on its way from production
to its practical application.
Finally
she claimed that the theory of
knowledge generation as a means
to strengthen
evidence-based practice will
be formative for the future of
professionalised
Social Work.
Heinz Sünker
(Germany) based his deliberations
on empirical results and looked
at insights and diagnoses that
resulted
from historical events in 1968
and how those events influenced
the development and social consciousness
of critical Social Work. He concluded
that any democratic
and social development is highly
dependent on the assertion of
an emancipatory concept of education
for all citizens
and as such also for professionalised
Social Work.
Karin Böllert
(Germany) and Catrin Heite (Germany)
centered their presentations
around questions concerning (1)
the relationship
between (post-)welfare and professional
Social Work, (2) Social Work
within the Bologna Process,
and (3) the labour market of
Social Work. Based on te concept
of autonomy
they defined addressees as individuals
endowed with rights. Heite and
Böllert showed
that a decrease in public responsibility
for the production of welfare
and the increasing activation
of individual
responsibility affect professionalism
in Social Work.
The general orientation of 'activation',
which describes the transformation
of welfare state regulation regimes,
is based on Social Work as a
means of activation. Böllert
and Heite found that new structural
requirements of employability
which emerged in the course of
the Bologna
Process undermine the position
of Social Work as a
place for scientific research
and as a place for the education
of
professionals as well. With regard
to
the labour market of Social Work
it became clear that the paradigm
of activation has led to a considerable
demand for professional social
workers in some areas,
yet at the same time an increasing
number of professionals find
themselves in tenuous employment
situations.
On
''The Future of Social Work in
Times of Crisis'' presenters
from Finland (Synnove Karvinen-Niinikoski),
Italy (Walter
Lrenz), Lithuania (Laimute Talimiené,
Vilija Targamadzé, Eglé Kvieskaité),
Germany (Jörg Fischer, Eberhard
Raithelhuber), and Sweden (Leili
Laanements) talked about future
challenges
and requirements Social Work
has to face in the current process
of social transformation. The
debate
focussed
on political difficulties concerning
primary education, social politics
and secondary education as well
as
on current social movements and
the influences that market processes
have on social services.
The
8th conference
of the international ''Social
Work & Society''
Academy in Tallinn followed an
ambitious agenda. More than 50
presentations covered a wide
range of international
as well as national social problems,
the role of Social Work and research
prospects as well as analyses
of new forms of government and
regulation
regimes. The
lively final debate, in which
young participants were prominent
much
of the time, the chance for intriguing
contacts, the visits to practically
working organisations
in Tallinn as well as more informal
opportunities and expeditions
into the beautiful historic city
centre
all contributed to another successful
realisation of
the TiSSA idea.
The Hradec Králové University
has invited to the 9th conference
of the international ''Social
Work & Society''
Academy, which will take place
in the Czech Republic
in late
August 2011.
Translation:
Sabrina C. Meier
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