Empowering collaboration within a Danish workfare paradigm: a challenge in social-work research

ABSTRACT

This article explores how the concept of empowerment is understood and interpreted by social workers in a Danish welfare context. Empowerment is a broad concept that allows for varying interpretations. In this article, empowerment as a reinforcer of critical thinking in social work is discussed. The theory of whether empowerment influences service users to take more responsibility for their employability within a workfare paradigm is also discussed. The study comprises a small-scale participatory practice research project conducted at a job centre in Denmark. The study focused on meetings between service users and social workers and on the opportunities for critical reflection and action provided by these social workers in terms of the service users’ involvement in their own employment opportunities. The article argues that empowerment, when enacted in collaboration with social workers, can be operationalised in ways that might strengthen the critical approach and engagement of social workers within a Danish welfare context. This argument does not solve the contradictions inherent in empowerment as a concept or solve its asymmetric power relations, but it can strengthen opportunities for critical reflection and learning in employment-oriented social work and activation.

RESUMEN

Denne artikel undersøger, hvordan empowerment som begreb forstås, fortolkes og anvendes af socialarbejdere i en dansk velfærds kontekst – nærmere bestemt i et Jobcenter. Empowerment er et bredt begreb, der giver mulighed for varierende fortolkninger. Her diskuteres empowerment som en mulig forstærker af kritisk tænkning i socialt arbejde. Det diskuteres endvidere om empowerment som strategi kan påvirke de borgere, som er tilknyttet Jobcenteret til at deltage mere i arbejdet med deres egne muligheder for at uddannelse eller beskæftigelse. Undersøgelsen består af et mindre praksisforskningsprojekt forankret i et samarbejde mellem forsker og de professionelle på et jobcenter i Danmark. Der er fokus på møder mellem borgere tilknyttet Jobcenteret og socialarbejdere, hvor det undersøges, hvorvidt, og hvordan de professionelle arbejder med inddragelse af borgerne. Herunder diskuteres udvikling af de professionelles kompetencer til kritisk at reflektere dels over arbejdet med inddragelse dels muligheder for at etablere samarbejde med borgerne. I artiklen argumenteres der for, at en empowering tilgang kan styrke de professionelles kommunikative kompetencer, den kritiske refleksion og muligheder for etablering af samarbejde med borgerne. Dog skal det stå klart, at en empowering tilgang på ingen måde opløser de asymmetriske magtforhold, som er indbygget i det sociale arbejde; ej heller opløser den struktur, som producerer ulighed i såvel velfærd som arbejdsliv. Artiklen fremhæver at undersøgelsen viser, at det på trods af denne asymmetri er muligt at styrke den kritiske refleksion, borgerdeltagelse og professionel læring i beskæftigelsesorienteret socialt arbejde.

KEYWORDS:

• Participatory practice research
• empowerment
• activation
• critical reflection
• professional learning

NØGLEORD:

• Participatorisk praksis forskning
• empowerment
• beskæftigelsesrettet socialt arbejde
• kritisk refleksion
• professionel læring

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Maja Lundemark Andersen is associate professor, educated social worker, Dr. and works as lecturer in Social Work on the Masters Programme in Social Work. Her research is focused on user perspectives and practice research in social work. A special dimension is empowerment. She has been working with empowerment as a concept in social work practice since 1988 and as a field of research since 2002. Her interest also direct towards how social work professions interact and intersect within different fields in social work – for instance in activation as an important area.

Notes

1 Occupational welfare in Europe is an important and current research area that is not covered in this article. Please see Natali et al., 2018 for more information on this topic.

2 Please see Andersen (in press), as it focuses on the perspectives of citizens in these processes.

3 The selected service users (twelve people in total) were also interviewed during and at the end of the project, but this material is not included in the present article. It will be presented in another article (forthcoming).

4 Please see the Danish Civil Protection Act, section four (2004).

5 The direct supervision led to the development of a self-assessment method in the social workers. This formed the basis for colleagues listening to each other’s conversations and, subsequently, providing feedback to maintain the focus on professional learning.