The DNA of social work as a human rights practice from a frontline social workers’ perspective in Flanders

ABSTRACT

Societal and political developments in European welfare states challenge the core principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversity that underpin social work. At the same time, however, in many European countries, there is a revival of a more transformative social work discourse aimed at the fight for social justice and the realisation of human rights. Gaining insight into the implementation of this human rights approach in social work requires that it be studied in everyday practice, since rights are not rigid structures but social and political constructions. In Flanders a two-year research process was therefore set up with frontline social work practitioners to explore the common ground of diverse social work practices in realising a rights-based practice. Through a qualitative analysis of these frontline perspectives, complemented with input from diverse stakeholders, we identified five building blocks as the DNA of a strong social work focusing on the realisation of a rights approach: (1) politicising work, (2) proximity, (3) process logic, (4) generalist practice, and (5) working in a connecting way.

SAMENVATTING

Maatschappelijke en politieke ontwikkelingen binnen Europese welvaartsstaten dagen de kernprincipes uit die het sociaal werk onderbouwen, met name sociale rechtvaardigheid, mensenrechten, collectieve verantwoordelijkheid en respect voor diversiteit. Tegelijk zien we in vele Europese landen een heropleving van een meer transformatief sociaalwerkdiscours gericht op het bestrijden van sociale onrechtvaardigheid en het realiseren van mensenrechten. Om inzicht te verwerven in de implementatie van deze mensenrechtenbenadering binnen het sociaal werk is het noodzakelijk dit te bestuderen in alledaagse praktijen, daar rechten geen rigide structuren zijn, maar sociale en politieke constructies. In Vlaanderen werd een tweejarig onderzoeksproces opgezet met frontliniewerkers, om de gemeenschappelijke basis van een diversiteit van sociaalwerkpraktijken te exploreren met betrekking tot het realiseren van deze op rechten gebaseerde praktijk. Doorheen een kwalitatieve analyse van dit frontlinieperspectief, aangevuld met input vanuit diverse stakeholders, identificeerden we vijf bouwstenen als het DNA van sterk sociaal werk gericht op het realiseren van een rechtenbenadering: (1) politiserend werken, (2) nabijheid, (3) proceslogica, (4) generalistische praktijk, en (5) verbindend werken.

KEYWORDS:

• Human rights
• social justice
• solidarity
• frontline social workers’ perspective

KERNWOORDEN:

• Mensenrechten
• sociale rechtvaardigheid
• solidariteit
• frontlinieperspectief van sociaal werkers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Caroline Vandekinderen is a postdoctoral researcher based at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy of Ghent University, Belgium. Her research interests include disability (including mental health issues), gender, social exclusion, citizenship and interpretative and biographical research approaches.

Rudi Roose is professor of social work at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy of Ghent University, Belgium, where he is also head of the social work programme. His research interest is focused on the development of socially just practices in managerial times, within a diversity of practice fields such as youth care, poverty work and outreach work. He is chair of the International Social Work & Society Academy (TISSA) and Editor in Chief of the European Journal of Social Work.

Peter Raeymaeckers is assistant professor for the master of social work programme at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. His main topics of interest are social work research, governance and organisational networks.

Koen Hermans is assistant professor ‘social work and social policy’ at the Centre for Sociological Research of the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. His research priorities are homelessness, social work theories and critical realism methodologies. He teaches social work theory and the evaluation of social interventions.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Flemish Government within the framework of the Policy Research Centre Well-Being, Public Health, and Family, with internal ref. nr. ZKD2371.