Social Work Professional Organizations in Europe and Beyond
An Opportunity for Social Work and Social Policy in Complex Societies?
International Blended Seminar
June, Monday 27th, 2022, 09:30-16:30 (Central European Summer Time)
Physical Venue: Pisa, Aula Magna – Department of Political Science, Via Serafini 3
Virtual Venue: https://sp.unipi.it/c/220627-social-work via MS Teams
Current social work practice is often fragmented, developed at micro-level, focused on case- management and embedded within multiple and specific organizations. Nevertheless, social work as a profession is something more than this.
In many countries of the world social work practice has been shaped by complex socio- institutional processes at national and international level. Social Work Professional Organizations (SWPOs) are a key-actor of these processes, and they sometimes emerge as one of the most relevant outcomes (and a resource for the further development) of the institutional recognition of social work.
SWPOs may play a relevant role in current societies. Beyond and differently from the work organizations, they may give social workers several opportunities in terms of collective identification, ethics, protection, coordination, training, networking. Their action could be relevant for the users (e.g. through the ethical statements) and the policy-making, especially in the critical junctures of our societies (e.g. democratic transition, austerity). SWPOs are probably highly dependent on the contexts where they act and they may push social work and social policy in different directions.
While this is clear enough in general terms, still very scarce is knowledge about SWPOs in a comparative perspective. This Seminar contributes to fill this gap by focusing on the continuities and changes of the basic characteristics, intra-organizational dynamics, and policy action of the European SWPOs, in relation to the evolutions of the context at national and international level.
A better understanding of the SWPOs is an opportunity for strengthening the debate between academics and practitioners on a neglected but crucial topic: the collective dimension of social work as a profession and the reconfigurations of the organizations which are expected to shape today and tomorrow social work.
For information: Riccardo Guidi, riccardo.guidi@unipi.it
***The International Seminar is part of the UniPi-PRA Project 2020_42 “Social Sciences and Public Engagement: Towards a New Alliance between Public Knowledge and Society” (Coord. Andrea Borghini).
Participation is free of charge and warmly encouraged. Registration welcome through urly.it/3ntph
PROGRAM
09:30 – 09:45 Welcome
09:45 – 11:15 Opening Session.
Approaching Social Work Professional Organizations in Contemporary Societies
Riccardo Guidi (Chair), University of Pisa
Introduction: Why Social Work Professional Organizations Deserve More Attention
Andrea Borghini, University of Pisa
State, Powers and Social Work through the Lens of Public Sociology
Annamaria Campanini, IASSW President
The Institutional Processes of Social Work and their Organizations: an International Look
Vasilios Ioakimidis, University of Essex
Social Work Professional Organizations in Critical Junctures
Coffee Break
11:30 – 13:30 Research Session.
Social Work Professional Organizations in Europe.
Chair: Andrea Salvini (University of Pisa)
Paper 1.
Social Work Professional Organizations in Southern Europe: Continuities and Changes, Convergences and Divergences
Riccardo Guidi, Maria Ines Amaro, Francisco Branco, Maribel Martín Estalayo, Vasilios Ioakimidis, Ana Belen Dominguez
Paper 2.
Social Work Professional Organizations in Germany
Benjamin Benz, Oscar Corman, Dieter Kulke
Paper 3.
Contemporary Social Work Professional Organisations in Britain: a Consideration of Strengths and Weaknesses of Social Work Representative Bodies
Michael Lavalette
Paper 4.
Social Work in Ukraine: Changing the Professional Landscape
Tetyana Semigina, Olena Chuiko, Valentyna Shkuro
Lunch Break
15:00 – 16:30 Final Roundtable.
Moving a Step Forward: Social Work Professional Organizations in Social Work and Social Policy Future Agenda
Chair: Riccardo Guidi, University of Pisa Contributions:
Conclusion: John Gal, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
CONTRIBUTORS
Maria Ines Amaro, University Institute of Lisbon. Former Vice-president of the Portuguese Professional Association of Social Work and the EASSW.
Benjamin Benz, Protestant University of Applied Sciences Bochum.
Andrea Borghini, University of Pisa. Coordinator of the UniPi-PRA Project 2020_42 “Social Sciences and Public Engagement: Towards a New Alliance between Public Knowledge and Society”.
Francisco Branco, member of the Installing Committee of Portuguese College of Social Workers.
Annamaria Campanini, President of the International Association of the Schools of Social Work (IASSW).
Olena Chuiko, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
Oscar Corman, Member of the Expert Committee for Social Work Policy in the German Society for Social Work (DGSA)
Ana Belen Dominguez, General Council of Social Work (CGTS) – Spain.
Maribel Martín Estalayo, Complutense University of Madrid.
John Gal, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Co-editor of the Series Research in Social Work (Policy Press).
Gianmario Gazzi, President of the National Council of Social Workers (CNOAS) – Italy (to be confirmed).
Riccardo Guidi, University of Pisa.
Dieter Kulke, University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt.
Vasilios Ioakimidis, University of Essex. Chair of the Global Education Commission of the International Federation of Social Workers. Co-editor of the British Journal of Social Work.
Michael Lavalette, Liverpool Hope University. Convenor of the Social Work Action Network in the UK and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Critical and Radical Social Work.
Angelo McClain, CEO of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) – USA.
Sigrid Leitner, University of Applied Sciences Cologne. Coordinator of the Project 'Welfare state reform from below: Democratization of social policy through social advocacy?”.
Andrea Salvini, University of Pisa.
Tetyana Semigina, Academy of Labour, Social Relations and Tourism, Kyiv.
Valentyna Shkuro, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
Idit Weiss-Gal, Tel Aviv University
