Defining social work is a never-ending story

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we present some of the reasons why defining social work is a difficult task. A brief history of the definition of social work is presented. We introduce a division of definitions of social work into the enumerative and abstract. The first fail to cover the entire palette of social work practices, while the second are paradoxically both too narrow and too inclusive. In order to tackle the problem of the over-inclusiveness of the definitions, we delimit the area of operation of social work using the duality of Habermas’ lifeworld and system. We maintain that Habermas’ theory should be used as a guideline for re-thinking what ‘goes wrong’ when social work is to be defined. Namely, social work practice mainly takes place in the borderlands between lifeworld and system, where both fail. This fact influences the definitions of social work, its theory, and its practice. The definition of social work is dependent not only on local knowledge and determinants, but on social problems that are local but also globally determined as well. As social problems change and evolve, the definition of social work remains a never-ending story.

POVZETEK

Definiranje socialnega dela se je vedno znova izkazalo kot težek posel. V tem članku predstavljamo nekaj razlogov zakaj je to tako. Najprej pokažemo, da lahko definicije socialnega dela delimo na takšne, ki naštevajo in na abstraktne definicije. Prve ne zajamejo celotne palete praks socialnega dela, druge pa so paradoksalno preozke in preobširne hkrati. Da bi rešili problem prevelike širine definicij, omejimo prostor delovanja socialnega dela s pomočjo Habermasove dvojnosti življenjskega sveta in sistema. Opozorimo, da Habermasove teorije ne bi smeli brati kot navodilo za prakso socialnega dela, vendar se razmišljanje v tem okviru pokaže koristno, ko hočemo ugotoviti, kaj gre »narobe«, ko poskušamo definirati socialno delo. Gre za to, da praksa socialnega dela poteka v prostoru kjer tako sistem, kot življenjski svet odpovesta. To vpliva na definicije socialnega dela, na njegovo teorijo in na prakso. Definicija socialnega dela ni odvisna le od lokalnega znanja in opredelitev, temveč tudi od socialnih problemov, ki sicer so lokalni, a tudi globalno določeni. Ker se socialni problemi spreminjajo in razvijajo, ostaja definiranje socialnega dela zgodba brez konca.

KEYWORDS:

• Definitions of social work
• theory of communicative action
• lifeworld
• system
• social problems

KLJUCˇNE BESEDE:

• Definicije socialnega dela
• teorija komunikativnega delovanja
• življenjski svet
• sistem
• socialni problemi

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr Nino Rode is a lecturer for methodology of research in social work University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Work. He leads courses on statistics and research in social work. His main interests are in research methodology in social work and social sciences, relations between qualitative and quantitative methodology, mixed methodology, statistics, and comparative research. In his research work, he was inter alia engaged in a project of establishing a system of evaluation of non-governmental organisations in social care in Slovenia.

Notes

1. Let’s point out that the English phrase ‘mutual understanding’ commonly used to translate Habermas’ term ‘verständigung,’ is not a very good choice for translation. The latter implies, beside mutuality and understanding, an active agreement between the participants of communication on what is understood and how to understand it.