ESWRA Seminars
The seminar series came about in response to interest from SIGS, ESWRA’s commitment to inclusivity, and the digital possibilities developed in the context of Covid-19. The seminars are in the main lead by SIGS. ESWRA Special Interest Groups have been offering monthly seminars for the last 2 years. The series has been a huge success, and we believe it is valuable to those presenting and attendees alike. The Seminar series provides knowledge exchange and connection for members between the conferences. It has become a way of disseminating work in a specific area, online and without access implications. So far have attracted more than 600 participants. Scroll down to see recordings / presentations of seminars.
Call for Seminars
We are inviting SIG convenors to submit an abstract for a seminar in this series. The abstract should include the title, abstract of 100 – 200 words, names of the speakers, and an indication of the structure. There is no theme, though hopefully the work of the SIG, or a particular member of the SIG’s work will be show-cased. Please demonstrate in your abstract that you have taken into consideration that the Association’s aim is to take forward the development, practice and utilization of social work research to enhance knowledge about individual and social problems, and to promote just and equitable societies. For available dates please contact info@eswra.org normally seminars start at 14:00 GMT / 15:00 CET. Available dates are 13th May 2026, 10th June 2026.
Save the date! See below for sheduled seminars
Next Seminar
Workforce Special Interest Group
Date: Wednesday 10th December 2025
Start time: 13:00 GMT / 14:00 CET
Registration link: https://forms.gle/RUoMjEiaC39T6Q219
Contact: info@eswra.org
General Abstract
Symposium Title: Democracy for social workers? Practising social work in neo-liberal contexts: the impact on self, service users and opportunities for resistance and change
Reflecting growing concerns about the impact of social work practice on social workers and service users, this symposium draws on four studies from Romania, the USA, Northern Ireland and an international literature review. These enable consideration of what it means and how it feels to practise social work in neo-liberal contexts, and reports on ways in which social workers, social work students and social work academics are seeking to resist and generate change. Using democracy as the key organising concept and principle, the symposium questions the extent to which democratic values and practices characterise the experience of being a social worker. It argues that an erosion of democracy within social work is manifest in how social workers are treated as individuals and as a professional group. Moreover, it interrogates the feasibility of social workers supporting service users to seek social justice from a basis of relative powerlessness, compromised autonomy and often a sense of professional despondency.
In seeking to redress this, the presentations reflect the democratic value of research with social workers and social work students, for affording primacy to their voice and recording the barriers they encounter in neo-liberal working contexts, including, unmanageable workloads, serious resource constraints, a lack of agency and power, and moral injury arising from being unable to practise in line with the core social work value of social justice, all of which manifest in high levels of stress. The discussions employ a range of theoretical framings to expand on the relationship between social work and democracy. Addressing ‘human sustainability’, the first presentation reports on the experience of Romanian social workers and provides visceral insights into the lived reality of practice in a post-communist state, one that has largely adopted the type of neo-liberal management practices that dominate the social profession internationally. The second presentation reflects on similar problems, this time facing the social work workforce in Northern Ireland. Using the concept of ‘safe staffing’, it contends that the impact of understaffed and over-stretched workforce is felt by not only by social workers but also by the older client group they suport, undermining their democratic rights to effective social care, and arguably representing a form of ageism. The third presentation draws on the history of social work in the United States and highlights how the profession was founded on a commitment to ‘social democracy’, as embodied in the settlement movement. It contrasts the collectivist and rights-based approaches that have characterised much of social work practice with the individualist and de-politicised methods propagated by neo-liberalism. In questioning the possibilities for social work practice within these contexts, it finds that social workers have and continue to find ways to resist, with resistance seen as integral to democracy within the profession. Similarly, the final presentation, which considers the concepts of ‘self-care’ and ‘workplace democracy’, addresses the serious challenges facing social workers but offers a way of conceptualising self-care that embodies values of social justice and supports anti-oppressive practice, both of which are key to social work as a practice of democracy.
1. Title: Social Workers Under Stress: Navigating structural, political, organisational and individual challenges.
Silvana (Bobarnat) Crivoi) 1,2, Florin Lazar1, Georgiana-Cristina Rentea1, Anca Mihai1, Daniela Gaba1, Lucian Alecu3, Ovidiu Pop3, Adrian Luca3, Ana-Maria Mustatea1 1University of Bucharest, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work; 2National Scientific Research Institute for Labour and Social Protection; 3University of Bucharest, The Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Romania.
The social work profession requires strong vocational commitment, but the constant pressure on social workers often undermines their participation in processes that characterise democracy within organizations, including decision-making and contributing to change. Using the lens of ‘human sustainability’ proposed by Docherty et al. (2009), this research explores strategies for improving working conditions and enhancing democratic practices in both public and private social service providers.
Between December 2023 and February 2024, 22 semi-structured interviews were carried out with Romanian qualified social workers focusing on their working conditions and experiences. Our preliminary results highlight that social workers are confronting a professional crisis, characterised by structural and organisational challenges which impact significantly at the individual level. Intensive workloads, work-life imbalance, underpayment, and reduced autonomy lead to discouragement among social workers that further result in their retraction from the processes required to facilitate the organizational renewal the profession urgently requires.
Our study illustrates that when organizations and government are guided by managerialist and post-Fordist principles, the constant and multiple pressures on frontline social workers undermine their active role in the places where they work, and the quality of their working lives. The results show the necessity for organizational and structural change to develop democratic practices for social workers, these practices being one of the key dimensions of human sustainable organizations. The diversity and complexity of social work require institutional internal capabilities to carry out continuous and sustainable change. Liberating, democratic practices would allow social workers to actively contribute to this continuous change process.
2. Title: Safe Staffing in Older People Social Work: The democratic rights of older citizens to access to social work services from a stable workforce
Professor Paula McFadden, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland.
Workforce planning models in social work are less developed than other health and social care disciplines. A research project, commissioned by the Department of Health, Northern Ireland provided baseline analysis to inform ‘safe staffing’ policy and legislation policy and legislative developments expected between 2025-2028.
This presentation focuses on analysis of 80 older people’s social work community teams in Northern Ireland. Analyses of staffing supply and service demands were conducted at individual, team, and regional levels within older people services. Mixed methods were used for scale and in-depth analysis on staffing supply and service demands. A survey collected team level data and 5 focus groups with teams and 12 interviews with front line social workers provided voice to support the analysis of staffing levels and caseload demands. The findings reveals social workers and managers frequently face overwhelming worker-to-caseload ratios, routine use of waiting lists, and team vacancies. The findings indicate that the democratic rights of older people, to a timely, safe and effective service, is likely to be severely impacted by high workloads and delays due to the need for waiting lists, as well as social worker vacancies. This raises broader questions about the priority given to older people within social services and their lack of agency and engagement in shaping service provision. The results underpin the importance of foregrounding social workers’ views when scoping workforce issues so that policy formation is a democratic, evidence-based process.
3. Reclaiming the Democratic Profession in the United States: Social Workers’ Involvement in Resistance
Jessica Toft, Associate Professor; Elin Amundson, PhD Student, and Channel Lowery, PhD Student, University of Minnesota, USA.
In response to early US industrialization, social workers founded settlement houses to facilitate ‘social democracy’ to workers (Addams 1902, 1910), enabling social activity and access to learning. These reformers also supported labor unions to challenge dangerous and exploitive work. During the Depression, social workers organized a Rank and File movement to protect their and their clients’ rights. Social work has thus long utilised collective approaches to fight for civil, political, social, and economic rights, yet, since the rise of neoliberalism in the 1980s, social work management has largely advocated individualized interventions over collective ones. Practice related to the social aspects of democratic well-being - advocacy, addressing social policy issues, collective action – are often thwarted under neoliberal administrations, and social workers experience exploitive working conditions and de-professionalizing pressures.
This presentation interrogates how social work’s mission to promote democratic principles stacks up when social workers themselves experience low wages, long hours, and poor working conditions. Do social workers follow the dictates of neoliberal individualized practice to protect their jobs? Or do they resist, and possibly threaten their pay and even employment? Do they somehow embody both? If so, how does this unfold in the workplace? The presentation provides evidence from a statewide survey and interviews regarding resistance to neoliberal managerialism. Following Strier and Bershtling’s (2016) prescription that resistance is practice, it identifies ways that social workers are resisting in real time, from hallway discussions to union actions, and in doing so offers hope for how democratic principles and practices can be supported within the profession.
4. Title: Conceptualising self-care as a form of workplace democracy for social workers and social work students
Dr Pearse McCusker1 and Dr Sarah Rose2
University of Edinburgh1; Edinburgh Napier University2
Concerns about wellbeing for social workers have grown in tandem with increasing research highlighting challenging working conditions across social work contexts and countries. ‘Self-care’ is a contested term used to describe approaches aimed at mitigating the negative impact of such conditions on social workers. Various definitions of self-care emphasise the importance of maintaining a sense of personal agency and the opportunity to ‘take ownership’ of personal wellbeing (Lee and Miller, 2013). While potentially useful, this individualised approach to self-care can characterise broader issues as personal problems, thus obscuring the impact of organisational and structural factors (Collins, 2021) and placing expectations on individuals to adapt rather than address these.
Based on the findings of a narrative literature review, undertaken as part of a funded participatory action research project with social work students, this presentation advocates for a broader conceptualisation of self-care that can be understood as a form of ‘workplace democracy’, embodying the democratic values of respect for diversity, collective action and social justice. In reference to these three key democratic values, it considers the importance of adopting a diverse understanding of the ‘self’ beyond narrowly defined social and cultural norms. It explores how self-care practice can support the wellbeing of social workers by collectively addressing the organisational factors and working conditions that precipitate stress and burnout. Moreover, it highlights the potential for self-care to support the social justice aims of the profession by enhancing social workers’ reflexivity, awareness of social inequality and capacity for anti-oppressive practice
If you have issues regsitering email Claire Prater info@eswra.org
Seminar Schedule
|
Date |
SIG / Title |
|
10th December 2025 |
Workforce SIG | Title: Democracy for social workers? Practising social work in neo-liberal contexts: the impact on self, service users and opportunities for resistance and change |
|
14th January 2026 |
Arts Based Research in Social Work SIG | Title: Why use Arts Based Research in Social Work? Theoretical and methodological advantages and challenges |
|
11th February 2026 |
Solidarity and Social Work SIG | Title: Relocated Solidarity: rethinking social workers’ roles in supporting politically displaced migrants |
|
11th March 2026 |
Decolonisation in Social Work |
For more information about the ESWRA Seminar series or to submit an abstract please email info@eswra.org
Missed a seminar or want to refresh your memory? Click on the seminar title for slides / zoom recording.
Relational Solidarity and Social Work. Intersectional and Decolonial Perspectives for Social Work Research and Practice
Thomas Geisen
Recently, research on solidarity emerges in various fields of Social Work, particularly in areas related to social movements. Examples include urban gardening and climate change activism, as well as post- and decolonial Social Work. From an international perspective, solidarity is often associated with indigenous concepts of mutual support, such as the South African concept of Ubuntu. Although solidarity is acknowledged as a normative principle in Social Work practice, the empirical research on solidarity in Social Work remains on the margins of the discipline. More often, empirical research on normative orientations and practices that bring people together and contribute to the development of a sense of shared identity and mutual belonging focuses on different terms and concepts, such as support, reciprocity, recognition, and obligations. However, these concepts differ widely from a relational understanding of solidarity. They can best be understood as elements of a more comprehensive understanding of a mutual practice to ‘stand-up-for-each-other’ – an everyday life description of solidarity. Against this background, the presentation will argue that, for more complex approaches in empirical Social Work research based on intersectional and decolonial perspectives, the concept of relational solidarity can contribute epistemologically and methodologically to a better understanding of social work theory and practice. This can happen by bringing together different individual perspectives positioned in different social, cultural, and professional/economic communities of practice and learning, as well as by analyzing them as becoming and being part of specific communities and (transnational) societies. Finally, relational solidarity is a multilayered, complex concept that offers the opportunity to combine different areas and dimensions with different relational perspectives and will thus offer new perspectives for Social Work research.
Dr. Thomas Geisen is Professor for Workplace Integration and Disability Management at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland FHNW, School of Social Work, in Olten. He has widely been published in the fields of work, migration, and Social Work, and has an outstanding record of presentations at international conferences and as an invited speaker. Geisen is co-founder of the EASWR Special Interest Group SIG “Solidarity and Social Work” which want to promote empirical research on relational solidarity. He is convinced that empirical solidarity research contributes to establishing a new, relational perspective on Social Work practice by better understanding joint action and support structures of people in different social contexts and in intersectional perspectives. Contact: thomas.geisen@fhnw.ch; further information: www.fhnw.ch/de/personen/thomas-geisen
Links:
https://solidarity-research.ch/conference/
Contributors: Sarah Donnelly, Kathryn Mackay, Alisoun Milne, Lorna Montgomery, Louise Isham, Sarah Wydall.
Abstract
This webinar considers how carer harm is understood, surfaced and responded to in contemporary policy, practice and research. The intention is that in mapping this landscape, promising linkages between areas of practice and research are identified and attention is drawn to the common obstacles that inhibit effective, sensitive responses to carer harm. We consider first the naming and framing carer harm. In turn, we highlight the importance of engaging with the gendered dimensions (and inequalities) that lie at the intersection of experience of care and violence and the need to move beyond binary conceptions of power(lessness) in family and intimate relationships over the life-course. This is particularly important given the growing number of family carers, caring for longer periods, in constrained social circumstances. We suggest that changing the way we think and talk about carer harm may support practitioners to better recognise the impact of direct and indirect forms of carer harm without stigmatising or unduly blaming people with care needs. The article also considers how carer harm is ‘hidden in plain sight’ on two accounts. The issue falls through the gaps between, broadly, domestic abuse and adult and child safeguarding services; similarly, the nature and impact of harm is often kept private by carers who are fearful of the moral and practical consequences of sharing their experiences. We reflect on these issues in discussing what can be done to better support carers and their families across practice, policy and research domains. The article sets out recommendations to this effect and invites an ongoing conversation about how change for carers and families can be realised.
PRESENTATIONS:
Arts-based Research in Social Work
Abstract:
This seminar will describe the embodied relational aesthetic turn and its contribution to social work research specifically. Outlining how arts can capture the triangle between the subjective experience of the individual, the relational context, and the physical socio- cultural context or world of the research participant. It will outline the interrelationship between subjective and objective knowledge stressors, and recourses, as caught spatially in the arts in the relationship between figure and background, as well as meaning levels as expressed in symbols, enabling to "re-search" for the experiences of participants outside of the limitations of professional abstractions.
Most importantly, this seminar will outline three practical structured arts-based methods that can be used in research with individuals, families, groups, and communities (creative genograms, conflicted fish, and transforming images to integrate stress and coping). Participants will be able to apply the theory but also the methods to their own research concerns.
Relevant publications of the presenter and others will be utilized as examples of the above theories and methods.
Abstract
Throughout Europe the most damaging consequences of the coronavirus have fallen disproportionately on older work. This seminar will explore the intersection between care homes, human rights, and social work. It will be delivered by members of the European Network for Gerontological Social Work using a recently published article in the European Journal of Social Work as a platform for discussion. The paper adopted the framework of the European Convention on Human Rights to explore deaths, and related harms, and identify human rights violations relating to the pandemic in homes from seven European countries (between March and December 2020).
Based on the findings, the authors - members of the SIG - call for an urgent re-examination of the role of social work in relationship to care homes and the importance of (re)engaging with human rights issues for care home residents and their families. This seminar will take this issue forward by firstly presenting the key findings of the paper (updated from Dec 2020) and then considering three ‘country case studies’ which will explore different social work responses to protecting the rights and wellbeing of older people in care homes during, and post, the pandemic. There will be opportunities for Q and A. The seminar will conclude with a focused discussion abou what SIG members can do, post the pandemic, to ignite greater engagement with care homes by social workers & their employers, what the social work role could achieve and how social work can address human rights issues.
Abstract
This session is aimed particularly at those who are new to writing for journal publication, those who need some revision, and those who can share useful experiences of this. Marcin Boryczko, Liz Frost, Lars Uggerhøj, Ozan Selçuk
Abstract
What do fish, tattoos, gingerbread figures, and photos have in common? What will happen if we throw research into this strange mix? The positivist tradition will sigh and frown. The social constructivists and pragmatists will clap their hands with glee, saying: We work with people, marginalised people, functionally illiterate people, o yes, and children. We really want to include them as research participants and help them to voice their narratives in the best way possible. We want to connect with participants and co-construct knowledge. We want to follow creative avenues to knowing and understanding. In this seminar we will talk about how to enrich interviews with body maps, and timelines. We will focus on the value of cartoons, photovoice and photo elicitation. And then the fish.
Prof Mariette van der Merwe, Compres research unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, North-West University, South Africa
Abstract
This workshop will draw on findings of a global survey of social workers’ ethical challenges conducted by the Social Work Ethics Research Group with the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) in 2020 and a series of regional IFSW webinars in 2022. We will assess the use of the lessons learnt from rethinking ethics and values during the pandemic for facing other global challenges including the climate crisis, political conflicts and regional injustices. In particular, we will consider the importance of social workers taking holistic, ecological perspectives; promoting global connectedness; letting go of rigid professional boundaries; and adopting both more cosmopolitan and contextualised approaches to values and ethics. The workshop will comprise a presentation, followed by discussion of key questions in break out groups
Contributors: Sarah Banks & Lynne Cairns, Durham University, UK; Teresa Bertotti, University of Trento, Italy; Michelle Hei Yan Shum, Hong Kong Baptist University; Ana M. Sobočan, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia; Kim Strom, University of North Carolina, USA; Jane Shears, IFSW Ethics Commissioner; María Jesús Úriz, Public University of Navarre, Spain
Social work educators are globally aware of the profession’s ethical “mandate” to engage with human rights and there are many policy documents, theoretical pieces of work etc. justifying the importance of this. However, in our experience, when facing the commitment to teach about human rights to social work students, social work educators tend to be unaware of how the same task is being approached by other courses and educators throughout the world. Moreover, due to its complexity and large scope, human rights can often feel like an overwhelming topic, difficult to translate into specific teaching activities, meaningful for social work students. However, despite local differences and the importance of contextualisation, there is a wealth of good teaching experiences on social work and human rights across Europe which social work educators teaching human rights could get inspired and benefit from. But this largely unexplored by social work research.
In this online seminar, we would like to start a conversation within ESWRA about how human rights teaching is approached by social work educators across Europe and set some basis for promoting collaborative international research on the topic. For this, the seminar presenters will firstly share our experiences of teaching human rights and social work in the four European countries of Lithuania, England, Spain and Poland. Then, we will offer a space for interaction and discussion with the seminar participants, addressing both good and innovative teaching experiences in this field and contemporary key questions and challenges about teaching human rights to social work students. Our focus is on experience sharing and research networking on this topic.
Contributors: María Inés Martínez Herrero (International University of la Rioja, Spain), Eglė Šumskienė (University of Vilnius, Lithuania), Caroline Bald (University of Essex, UK), Emilio Gómez Ciriano (University of Castilla la Mancha, Spain), Marcin Boryczkoc (University of Gdansk, Poland).
for a substantial number of mostly young scientists, getting funding to conduct research has become a question of ‘to be or not to be’ . The stakes have increased significantly in a climate where not only the research itself but frequently job security depends on funding. International research teams are currently crucial for the development of the discipline of social work and for addressing the problems facing society today. At first it appears straightforward working in such teams, but it is frequently a tough and challenging process. To address these issues, we propose a discussion on the following topics:
Kris Clarke (Associate Professor/ University of Helsinki), Melinda Madew (Professor/ Protestant University of Applied Sciences Ludwigsburg), Liz Frost (Associate Professor/UWE Bristol) and Marcin Boryczko (Associate Professor/University of Gdańsk).
Abstract
I will critically assess how social work writing has dealt with the colonial. The seminar will draw from an archival study of the development of social welfare in Singapore as a British colony, in the late colonial period from the end of Japanese occupation in 1945 through to final independence in 1965.
I will take two broad questions by way of illustration and include group exercises on this material. First, I will sketch a case study of late colonial, welfare-engaged women in Singapore, in a world of imperial privilege, welfare exceptionalism and late colonial fragmentation. Second, I will depict late colonial social work practice, taking adoption in the ethnically diverse community of Singapore as the anchor for this. If we are to grasp the colonial heritage, these lives and practices should neither be ignored nor assigned to a past that has irretrievably been left behind. I seek to avoid the assumption that all social workers need to know about colonialism is its horrors.
The seminar connects with the work of these SIGs: Social Work History and Research. Social Work Research on Migration And Asylum. Social Justice and Human Rights; and Social Work Workforce Research
Speaker
Dr Ian Shaw. Formerly S R Nathan Professor of Social Work, National University of Singapore, and Professor Emeritus, University of York.
Exercises - Welfare Engaged Women in a Late Colonial World - click here: https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:4aa84403-0156-3b7d-8563-ecc304b66560
Published Material
Shaw, I. 2023. ‘Approaching the colonial.’ British Journal of Social Work. 53 (1): 637-655
Shaw, I. 2022. ‘Late colonial women in a welfare world.’ Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/02185385.2022.2077817. Online first.
Late colonial social work practice. Qualitative Social Work, 22(4), 735–752, https://doi-org/10.1177/14733250221098602
Abstract: The presentation will discuss the practice research as a way for mutual, contextual learning in partnership between different stakeholders. Yliruka will use learning about systemic social work as a case, where students received their topics from the social work communities.The seminar connects with the work of Social Work Practice Research SIG.
SIG-Children Rigths´s In practice - Presentation
SIG Children’s Rights in Practice Presentation by Professor Laura Lundy : The 'Lundy Model'
Sicora, A., & Frost, L. (2025). Joy and sadness among social workers in Italy: An exploration through group concept mapping. The British Journal of Social Work.
