Rudi Roose

Implementing a strengths perspective in child welfare and protection: a challenge not to be taken lightly

Although it can be observed that the popularity of a strengths perspective in social work is increasing, social work researchers have articulated the necessity to gain empirical knowledge about actual social work practice that claims a strengths perspective. We explore the findings of recent research into a strengths-oriented pilot project in the field of child welfare and protection in Flanders (the Flemish speaking part of Belgium), in which we examined whether the strengths-oriented discourse in social work actually took place in the relationship between social workers and families in practice. The research reveals an ambiguous picture of the ways in which the strengths perspective can be implemented in practice, because social workers walk a tightrope between responsibilizing and governing families. We argue that the implementation process needs a conceptual and theoretical foundation that goes beyond mere eclecticism. We also argue that this demands a broadening of the focus of strengths-oriented social work from a relational to a political level, as this strengths-oriented social work practice remains situated within the broader social, economic, and political context.

Researching child poverty: Towards a lifeworld orientation

Childhood research with children in poverty involves a diversity of dilemmas and complexities. In the context of a recent research project in Belgium, the authors attempt to embrace child poverty as a normative issue created a crisis of representation. In order to untangle this, they situate different methodological approaches in relation to the constructed epistemological windows on child poverty. The authors differentiate between research in which the authentic voice of children in poverty is represented, and research in which their lifeworld is interpreted through a lifeworld orientation perspective that pursues human dignity and social justice in our societies.

Rediscovering recovery: reconceptualizing underlying assumptions of citizenship and interrelated notions of care and support.

Over the last few decades, research, policy, and practice in the field of mental health care and a complementary variety of social work and social service delivery have internationally concentrated on recovery as a promising concept. In this paper, a conceptual distinction is made between an individual approach and a social approach to recovery, and underlying assumptions of citizenship and interrelated notions and features of care and support are identified. It is argued that the conditionality of the individual approach to recovery refers to a conceptualization of citizenship as normative, based on the existence of a norm that operates in every domain of our society. We argue that these assumptions place a burden of self-governance on citizens with mental health problems and risk producing people with mental health problems as nonrecyclable citizens. The social approach to recovery embraces a different conceptualization of citizenship as relational and inclusive and embodies the myriad ways in which the belonging of people with mental health problems can be constructed in practice. As such, we hope to enable social services and professionals in the field to balance their role in the provision of care and support to service users with mental health problems.

'The Greatest of Equalisers': A Critical Review of International Organisations' Views on Early Childhood Care and Education

There is a large consensus among international organisations (e.g., United Nations and the World Bank) in considering Early Childhood Care and Education a prominent policy to equalise opportunities. Moreover, it is common opinion that interventions in early childhood aiming at equalising ‘opportunities’ rather than ‘outcomes’ will overcome political dissent. These two claims draw upon a particular interpretation of the work of contemporary egalitarian philosophers, as well as a number of studies in both developed and developing countries, finding higher benefits for disadvantaged children. Despite the tradition of analysing welfare provision from an equality perspective, the shift towards early childhood education as an equality policy has not yet fully been analysed. We critically examine the consensus advocated by international organisations regarding Early Childhood Care and Education as key to ‘levelling the playing field’ and suggest that the first claim (early childhood as greatest equaliser) should be considered with caution. We also argue that the alleged consensus on this claim may lead to a depoliticisation of social policy.

Relevant Others in Restorative Practices for Minors: For What Purposes?

Abstract This article starts from the finding that (1) in spite of the numerous publications on restorative justice, relevant others have been a limited research topic and (2) when reference is made to relevant others, their presence is almost automatically assumed to be positive. However, the prevailing penal climate that seems to be focusing on the responsibilisation of offenders, makes us question why such importance is attached to these relevant others. Combining the information deduced from restorative justice literature and three studies, the authors conclude that some criticism of restorative justice, such as offender orientation, instrumentalisation and responsibilisation, needs to be examined at the level of relevant others too, and that it is time to breach the obviousness with which they are almost automatically involved, regardless of possible pitfalls.

Framing the 'child at risk' in social work reports: truth-telling or storytelling?

Summary In the field of child welfare and protection, the notion of the ‘child at risk’ implies a central ground and legitimation for intervention yet is extremely ambiguous, since it can be constructed in radically different ways in practice. This construction process might involve challenges to professional assessment and intervention, since dealing with this complex notion is about more than tools, (risk) management and protocols. We focus on the practice of writing reports as an exemplary practice in which social workers exercise their power while assessing and constructing the child as ‘at risk’. Two approaches of social workers in interpreting the complexity of situations where children are potentially at risk are considered: truth-telling and storytelling. We report on a qualitative study conducted with 152 social work students in which we explore how they construct reports. Findings In our analysis, we identify three major issues in the construction of the ‘child at risk’ when social work students approach report writing as an open-ended and reflexive practice of storytelling: recognisability, comprehensibility and stigmatisation. Applications The normative judgment processes in social work are complex, determined by the analysis of situations in which the child may potentially be constructed as being at risk. Dealing with this complexity therefore requires reflexivity of social workers regarding their perceptions and interpretations at stake in practice. We argue that normative judgment in risk assessment should be an essential area for exploration in social work education.

On the frontline or on the side-line? Homelessness care and care avoiders

Homelessness is a social problem that is subject to many definitional issues and problems. These problems can be discerned on both the conceptual and the practical level. Based on research carried out in Ghent, Belgium, this article deals with ways in which social workers involved in homelessness care construe the problem of ‘care avoiders’, who seem to be perceived as a separate category within the homeless population. We show that: (1) different categories of homelessness are created on an organisational and on an individual level (2) specific services have been developed for those who do not enter regular facilities and (3) a residual group has been created, which social work does not really know how to deal with.

An honorary Doctor in Social Work - Professor Walter Lorenz

On the 20 of March 2015, Professor Walter Lorenz received an honorary doctorate at Ghent University. This was the first honorary doctorate for a social work scholar in Belgium. On the eve before the ceremony that was organised to celebrate this honour, Professor Lorenz gave a pertinent public lecture at Ghent University, entitled ‘Rediscovering the social question’, which we believe might inspire a diversity of social work scholars and practitioners. We therefore invited Walter Lorenz to submit an academic paper based on this lecture, which is now published in this issue of the European Journal of Social Work. In his contribution, Walter Lorenz situates the core of social work in its historical connection with the project of modernity. As a consequence of this historical connection, social work cannot be seen as a ‘solution’ to social problems, but must be approached as a negotiated reflection of the way social reality is shaped. This negotiation has to happen on a continuous basis, involving a diversity of people in a diversity of situations. As such, the double mandate of social work – working on the tension between control and emancipation cannot be reduced to a characteristic of social work, yet is an element of modernity itself. Extremely relevant in the contribution of Walter Lorenz is the way he shows how the project of modernity reaches its limits. This challenges social work to critically analyse and reflect on the social question from which it emerged and to reframe this question for its present day relevance. As such, the mission of social work is characterised by a tension between the promise/mission of personal freedom and the inequalities to realise this freedom. This inequality results in growing insecurity, feelings of powerlessness and alienation. The challenge that Walter Lorenz posits is opposed to the idea that There Is No Alternative (TINA), and implies that it is precisely the mandate of social work to address that there are always personal as well as political alternatives. Furthermore, Lorenz emphasises that these alternatives should be created through democratic dialogue between individuals and groups. As social work works with people at the margins of society, it can contribute in vital ways to this democratic dialogue by taking questions and dilemmas encountered in these margins seriously. As such, he argues that social work has to contribute to a reframing of the social question. By awarding Walter Lorenz an honorary doctorate, Ghent University wanted to honour this quest for democracy and the emphasis on the vital role that social work can play in this quest (see also Lorenz, 2014). Also, the honorary doctorate has a symbolic value in embracing the merits of Walter Lorenz in his contribution to the debate on social work, the study of social work in Europe and his role in linking different social work approaches and educational programs in European Social Work. As such, Walter Lorenz is an inspiring mentor, not in the least for the social work

Learning Democracy in Social Work

At present, an increased feeling of a democratic decline results in a renewed appeal for social work to investigate socialisation for democracy and citizenship. Citizenship as a political concept refers to the citizen as subject with civil, political and social rights. A social conception of citizenship reduces citizenship to civic virtue, defined as the engagement to participate actively in the further development of a model of democracy. Social work has a fundamentally different position in both conceptions of citizenship. It is suggested that in a political conception, social work supports citizens in taking part in the process of democracy, whereas in a social conception, social work becomes a policy instrument focusing on the citizen’s duty to smoothly integrate in the prevailing democratic project and, in doing so, to contribute to social cohesion. In this chapter, we challenge this suggestion. We argue that only in the tension between a political and social conception of citizenship, the educational dimension of social work becomes clear, and it is through this dimension that social work can become a democratic practice. The educational dimension in social work is crucial to conceptualise democracy as an open and ongoing process and not as a predefined project. This argument results from a pedagogical perspective on social work. This perspective enables us to connect rather than oppose social and political conceptions of citizenship. It is in this dialectic tension that we find a meaningful answer to the question of how to relate social work to learning democracy.

The Pointer Sisters: Creating Cartographies of the Present

In this article, acquired knowledge is considered as a temporary reflection that expresses the enactment of a social life that produces and reproduces social realities. Researchers need to engage with an open-ended process of de- and reconstruction of meanings between many players of the social world. As the poststructuralists Deleuze and Guattari reveal, our knowledge base is inherently trapped in lines of flight, on a voyage for which there pre-exists no map. For researchers involved with a reconstructive move, we explore and apply their concept of the map (cartography) as a potentially innovative methodological and analytical approach. Creating cartographies of the present allows researchers to deal with uncertainties, complexities and effects of surprise as participants in the production of knowledge, so to create sustainable and innovative understandings of situations and realities with research subjects.