The meaning of social cohesion in preventive family support: a practitioners’ perspective

ABSTRACT

Promoting social cohesion through early childhood services has become a priority on the political agenda. Despite joint academic and political attention, a consensus on what social cohesion is, is lacking. While child and family social work is framed as ideal to foster social cohesion, there is little knowledge on what this may mean. The aim of the current study is to analyse the meaning making of child and family social work practitioners regarding social cohesion in Flanders (Belgium). An explorative multiple case study was performed in child and family social work in three neighbourhoods in Flanders. The Critical Incident Technique was used with practitioners (N = 28) to understand how they conceptualise social cohesion and viewed their role in promoting this community-oriented outcome of early childhood services. The results suggest that practitioners focus on the inter-individual and relational components of social cohesion rather than on the socio-political components, which contrasts with the politicising function that child and family social work is supposed to fulfil.

SAMENVATTING

Het bevorderen van sociale cohesie in de preventieve gezinsondersteuning is een prioriteit op de politieke agenda. Ondanks de gezamenlijke academische en politieke aandacht, ontbreekt consensus over wat sociale cohesie net is en hoe dit bevorderd kan worden in praktijken voor gezinnen met jonge kinderen. Het doel van de huidige studie is om de betekenisverlening van sociale cohesie door praktijkwerkers in de preventieve gezinsondersteuning te analyseren. Een exploratieve multiple case study in drie wijken in Vlaanderen (België) werd uitgevoerd. De Critical Incident Technique werd gebruikt om met praktijkwerkers (N = 28) in gesprek te gaan. Op deze manier tracht dit onderzoek te begrijpen hoe praktijkwerkers sociale cohesie conceptualiseren en hun rol invullen bij het bevorderen van sociale cohesie. De resultaten suggereren dat praktijkwerkers zich vooral richten op de inter-individuele en relationele componenten van sociale cohesie en in mindere mate op de sociaal-politieke componenten. Dit staat in contrast met de politiserende functie die de preventieve gezinsondersteuning geacht wordt te vervullen.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood services
• social cohesion
• critical incident technique
• multiple case study
• politicisation

KERNWOORDEN:

• Preventieve gezinsondersteuning
• sociale cohesie
• critical incident technique
• multiple case study
• politisering

Acknowledgements

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, MD, upon reasonable request. For the study, a specific ethical protocol (SEP) was submitted to the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences for approval on 15 November 2021. The SEP was approved with reference 2021/176 Melissa Dierckx.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Ghent University Special Research Fonds BOF19/DOC/034.

Notes on contributors

Melissa Dierckx

Melissa Dierckx is affiliated to the department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, in the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at Ghent University. Her research is about early childhood services in contexts of increasing diversity. She is currently working on the dissertation entitled ‘Theorising Social cohesion in Child and Family Social Work’.

Jochen Devlieghere

Jochen Devlieghere is a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University with specific interest in the use of pedagogical concept in working with children and families at the intersection of Child and Family Social work and Child Welfare and Protection, children rights and the meaning of social science for our broader society. He is a board member at several boards, including Ghent University and Editor in Chief of the international peer reviewed European Journal of Social Work.

Michel Vandenbroeck

Michel Vandenbroeck is associate professor in family pedagogy and head of department in the department of social work and social pedagogy. His research is about policy and practice in early childhood care and education and parent support. He studies processes of in- and exclusion in child care, preschool and parent support in contexts of increasing diversity.