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Articles

Between othering and recognition: in search of transformative practice at the street level

בין האחרה להכרה: החיפוש אחר פרקטיקה טרנספורמטיבית בשירותים החברתיים

 

ABSTRACT

Critical social work scholars consider recognition a counterpractice to othering, but, empirical evidence of recognition as a contextualized and feasible challenge to othering in social services is scarce. This gap in the existing literature is significant in light of the operation of conservative and neo-managerial approaches known in the European context to enable othering while hindering critical practices. This article traces the implementation of the Poverty-Aware Paradigm in welfare agencies in Israel to qualitatively analyze the detailed ways in which 25 street-level social caseworkers navigated the tensions between othering and recognition. By showing how recognition operates at the discursive, relational, and institutional levels, the article expands the current articulation of recognition as solely relational. Its portrayal of recognition as posing a potential transformative challenge to othering contributes to its conceptualization as a contextualized challenge to neo-managerialism and to the feasible promotion of practice informed by social justice.

תקציר

הכרה נחשבת על ידי חוקרים ביקורתיים בעבודה סוציאלית כפרקטיקה נוגדת האחרה. עם זאת, חסרות דוגמאות אמפיריות המציגות את האופן בו הכרה מייצרת התנגדות להאחרה באופן הקשרי ובר-קיימא בשירותים החברתיים. פער זה בספרות הקיימת הופך משמעותי לאור האחיזה בשדה של גישות שמרניות וניאו-ניהוליות, המוכרות בשדה האירופי כמאפשרות פרקטיקות של האחרה תוך חסימה של פרקטיקות ביקורתיות. מאמר זה עוקב אחר יישום הפרדיגמה המודעת-עוני במחלקות לשירותים חברתיים בישראל על מנת לנתח באופן איכותני את הדרכים בהן 25 עובדות סוציאליות מנווטות את המתח בין האחרה להכרה. הממצאים מדגימים כיצד הכרה פועלת ברמה השיחית, ההתייחסותית, והמוסדית. בכך, המאמר מרחיב את הניסוח הנוכחי של הכרה כמושתתת על יחסים בלבד. ההצגה של הכרה כפרקטיקה המאפשרת טרנספורמציה פוטנציאלית לדינמיקות של האחרה תורמת להמשגה של הכרה כפרקטיקה ביקורתית הקשרית, המקדמת צדק חברתי בשירותים החברתיים.

Acknowledgment

The author wishes to thank gratefully to Prof. Sanford Schram for his support in writing this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics Statement

The author declared this study meets the conditions for ethical research. The research received official ethical confirmation.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes on contributors

Shachar Timor-Shlevin

Shachar Timor-Shelvin, social work practitioner, lecturer at the Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

My research deals with professionalization processes in social work, mainly focusing on critical social work, the construction of a critical theory of practice, and implementing critical rationality in social policy.

I completed my doctoral research in 2019 at Bar-Ilan University’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology. This research traced the tensions between neo-managerial rationality, which governs the operation of social services in Israel and other countries, and the critical stream in social work theory. This research sheds light on the ways in which social workers address and manage the resulting tense professional contradictions.

In my post-doctoral work at the Department of Political Science at Hunter College, CUNY in 2020, I analyzed the theoretical meanings of the tension between neo-managerialism and critical social work to conceptually develop social work theory of practice.

Currently, I am investigating the practical meanings of hybridity in social services, and the unique experience and agency of old people living in poverty.

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