introduction themes comitees programme location information links archive
1. thema: Poverty and Social ExclusionA. Structural characteristics of poverty or the concentration of poverty in individual population groups
C. (Co)-responsibility for increasing/reducing poverty (at the global, state, local and individual levels)
D. The operation of professional services and institutions which work on poverty reduction and offer help in overcoming poverty
B. The pluralisation of service providers and access to services
E. Cases of good practice and social work’s role in reducing poverty and social exclusion at the state and local levels
2. thema: Access to Public Goods, Services and Rights
C. The user perspective and access to services
B. Pluralisation of service providers and access to services
A. The gap between declared and actual access to public goods, services and rights
D. Examples of good practice in the removal of obstacles in access to public goods, services and rights
3. thema: The Concept of Decent Labour in Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion
B. The employed poor (concept, scope, characteristics, measures): the social exclusion and poverty of the employed
C. Flexible forms of employment
F. The quality of working life
A. Labour relationships between social justice and free competition
D. Labour discrimination
E. The European social model
4. thema: The Globalisation of Opportunities and Localisation of Consequences
E. The future and dilemmas of social work
A. Indicators of development
D. Us and them: attitudes to social and ethnic minorities
C. Alternatives to the existing concepts of social policies
B. The relationship between globalisation and the nation-state
5. thema: Starting points and practices of social work in increasing the participation of the poor and socially excluded groups.
A. Identification and perception of processes which prevent or impede active participation
D. Changes to performing services and the practice of social work based on active participation
B. Provision of the active participation of people at different levels
C. Ways of stimulating active participation developed by the practice and theory of social work
E. How changes are reflected in social work practice
6. thema: International symposium (22nd April)
A. Crossing the borders in social work: internationalism in social work education and research
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1. thema: Poverty and Social Exclusion
Theme co-ordinators: Simona Ratajc, Simona Smolej
While a particularly favourable picture is shown by data on income distribution inequality and the general poverty risk rate for Slovenia, certain population groups have seen a stronger risk of poverty for a number of years. While the data for 2008, when signs of the global economic crisis started to appear, are still not available, given the increase in the unemployment rate, in the number of beneficiaries of financial assistance, and reports by humanitarian organisations on the greater need for help, it can be justifiably assumed that the poverty risk rate will rise. Consequently, some social groups which in the past have remained above the poverty line, even if only due to the inflow of social transfers, will now also find themselves below this line. Further, there have been reports on poverty in employed population groups receiving a low income or being exposed to great uncertainty as regards their employment and income. In this context, it is important not to ignore the amendments to the Social Protection Act and the Employment and Unemployment Insurance Act which have caused changes in access to financial benefits and assistance. Here, of greatest importance is the experience and identification of poverty by services authorised to implement this legislation. In the first place, the thematic complex of the section 'Poverty and Social Exclusion' seeks to actualise and foreground the concept of poverty as the state of a lack of income or material resources (also touching on the theme of calculating and displaying data on poverty risk rates). While social exclusion will primarily be the theme of the other four sections, this section will also concentrate on this concept relative to poverty (co-dependence, mutual influence, multiple deprivation etc.). The theme is subdivided into five complexes:A. Structural characteristics of poverty or the concentration of poverty in individual population groups: the concentration of poverty in terms of the household structure, age, gender, one’s current work status, education etc., material deprivation, multiple deprivation (low income, deprivation in lifestyle and the subjective experiencing of poverty), signals given by relative poverty indicators and data on »non-monetary« poverty.
C. (Co)accountability for increasing/reducing poverty (at global, state, local, individual levels): involvement – inclusion in global streams, significance of the state, its welfare system, regional and local development, the individual's family, social network and own resourcefulness, public and (or) individual risk-taking, the role and experiences of users in presenting poverty and their role in planning and offering help, co-operation with institutions.
D. The work of professional services and institutions dealing with poverty reduction and offering help to combat it: general sensibility, sensibility for poverty, perception of deprivation and distress at all social levels, approaches to successful and effective poverty perception and reduction, improvement of access to adequate information, goods, services and sources of help.
B. The influence of legislative changes on the increase/reduction of poverty and access to rights: the influence of amendments to the Social Protection Act, the Employment and Unemployment Insurance Act, the planned changes to the Health Care and Health Insurance Act.
E. Examples of good practice and social work’s role in reducing poverty and social exclusion at state and local levels: presentations of examples of good practice in the search for solutions for poverty, individual cases of planning and offering help for creating solutions to poverty, the participation of the social network as well as obstacles to planning and offering quality help.
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2. thema: Access to Public Goods, Services and Rights
Theme co-ordinator: Liljana Rihter
At the declarative level, equal rights and dignity for all people are ensured by Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948. Social and economic rights are specifically ensured and further defined in The European Social Charter; they can be joined together in the following major groups: the right to housing (guaranteed accommodation), the right to health (an efficient health care service structure, the provision of a healthy and safe work environment), the right to education (free primary and secondary education), the right to work (achieving and maintaining the highest possible employment level, the right of workers to organise themselves), the right to non-discrimination (prohibition on discrimination in access to rights ensured by the Charter), and the right to protection against poverty and social exclusion. In recent years great emphasis has been laid at the European Union level on the modernisation of social services of general significance which should be organised so as to guarantee all individuals access to services they need to fully participate in social life. These services should cover diverse needs, ensuring a personal approach, geographical closeness to individuals, guarantee equal access regardless of an individual's economic status, and enable autonomy to the performers of services to allow them to quickly respond to new social needs.
While rights and access to services and goods are guaranteed at the declarative level, in practice numerous obstacles at different levels emerge which impede or prevent access to services and goods. At the level of statistical data for Slovenia as summarised by the Slovenian Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development in its 2008 Social Overview, trends are reported showing potential increasing difficulties in access to certain goods and services (such as health care, long-term elderly care). There are also many current obstacles (financial, local) in access to child day-care centres and the provision of housing. Specific attention should be paid to vulnerable groups which are left out of general statistics, whose social position makes it quite probable that their access to rights, goods and services is even more impeded due to a combination of causes. Congress papers in the thematic groups stated below aim to encourage a reflection and conceptualisation of the current situation and to draw attention to obstacles on one hand and examples of good practice on the other, which in the future could contribute to narrowing the gap between declarative levels and actual access to public goods, services and rights:
C. The user perspective and access to services (how do users assess their access to services, to what extent are their proposals considered; how (fast) do service providers and lawmakers respond to (new) problems and user needs; how can a consideration of the user perspective improve access to services).
B. The pluralisation of service providers and access to services (influence of the pluralisation of service providers on access to services, assessment of benefits and deficiencies of the pluralisation of service providers in terms of access to services; challenges for the future).
A. The gap between declared and actual access to public goods, services and rights (conceptualisation of causes and/or obstacles limiting or preventing access to public goods, services and rights, such as privatisation, liberalisation, the financial crisis, physical obstacles, geographical obstacles, social obstacles…; assessment of the gap between declared and actual access to public goods, services and rights in different fields; the role of different actors in reducing the gap).
D. Examples of good practice of removing obstacles in access to public goods, services and rights (presentations of programmes, measures, activities/actions carried out by different performers or users which have contributed to removing obstacles in access to public goods, services and rights).
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3. thema: The Concept of Decent Labour in Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion
Theme co-ordinators: Barbara Kresal, Danica Hrovatič, Goran Lukić
Employment and work should represent the most effective way of exiting poverty and social exclusion. However, today’s phenomenon of the employed poor paints a different picture. The flexibilisation of employment results in new, unknown forms of distress, exclusion and poverty. Discrimination in access to employment and work, during employment, and in the cessation of employment puts the weakest, most vulnerable groups of people and individuals in a less favourable position in the labour market, with victims of multiple discrimination requiring special attention. Values such as workers' protection, safety at work and a quality work environment are becoming rare goods. On one hand, unemployment has become a constituent part of many people’s work life while, on the other, for many employed the intensity of work has been increasing, with long and often unfavourable working hours resulting in exhaustion, difficulties in harmonising work and family/private life, causing stress and the burn-out syndrome. New forms of violence at work are emerging such as mobbing or victimisation. The thematic complexes below will consider questions such as where and what is the role of social work here; what are the possibilities for the employment of social workers; how to bridge the gap between the demand for a socially just and inclusive labour market and the existing unfavourable trends in our realities by means of promoting and actually asserting the concept of decent work. The thematic complexes are:B. The employed poor (concept, scope, characteristics, measures): the social exclusion and poverty of the employed (existing forms of social exclusion of the employed, employment problems in the non-governmental sector, the autonomy of social work within systems; concepts of compensation for labour; minimal payment for work and the poverty line; other reasons for poverty among the employed, actions and measures).
C. Flexible forms of employment (part-time employment, shorter working hours, agency workers, work from home, student work, contractual work, illegal work etc.).
F. Quality of work life (harmonisation of work and family; decent working hours; decent payment; decent working conditions; unemployment; violence and harassment at work, mobbing or victimisation in the workplace, stress, the burn-out syndrome, safety and health-care at work, workers' participation, social dialogue etc.).
A. Labour relations between social justice and free competition (decent work: definition, contents, international standards; social dumping; social responsibility of companies etc.)
D. Discrimination in work (discrimination and the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment, multiple discrimination, positive measures, law court protection and other forms of social care; anti-discrimination campaigns etc.).
E. The European social model (flexible safety or safe flexibility; migration; employment policies; the free movement of goods and capital against the free movement of people; social dialogue etc.).
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4. thema: The Globalisation of Opportunities and Localisation of Consequences
Theme co-ordinators: Vesna Leskošek, Tanja Rener, Ana Kralj, Jelka Zorn
The globalisation of opportunities and localisation of consequences present paradigmatic turning points in the modern world which consolidate global relations of power and powerlessness. In these circumstances, social work has been experiencing serious challenges while at the same time developing faster than ever before. There is the ample and diverse production of theory and tools for practical action to look for various ways to face the modern world. We encounter the phenomena of managerialism, governmentality, rapid solution-oriented techniques, liberal demands to cut the role of the state and to expand the competencies of the private sector, the segmentation and deprofessionalisation of social care and, on the other hand, a strengthening of those theories and practices which advocate a strong welfare state. Mechanisms will be exposed which strengthen structural exclusion that is revealed in two main forms: 1) as negative discrimination which violates legal norms and legislation; and 2) as exclusion based on those laws which are inherently restrictive, discriminatory or exclusive. The following and similar questions will be considered: How to assert the right to health care, education, work, social services for people whose stay in the country is being criminalised? Are they recognised as potential users of social services in the first place? How to guarantee the equal treatment of homosexual parents in comparison with heterosexual families? What social services are needed by handicapped parents? How to establish theoretical and practical social work drawing upon people's rights and their actual needs rather than safeguarding the borders of the welfare state? In other words, how to use the ethical code, professional principles and act for the benefit of the user/user group when social workers find themselves in a situation restrained by outside rules which impede the user perspective and trample on users' dignity and autonomy? Which theoretical concepts and practical tools are available?
New solutions are emerging such as the universal basic income, which has already received much attention.
E. The future and dilemmas of social work: chances, risks, opportunities. Social workers and teachers of social work are encouraged to present examples of good practice and critically reflect on them. Which services, working methods or projects have brought positive effects in terms of an increase in social inclusion and reduction of poverty to local communities?
A. Development indicators: the relationship between the economy and the social sphere, indicators of social inequality, the relationship between economic and social indicators, the definition of social development
D. Us and Them: the theme concerns attitudes to social and ethnic minorities: How to think and act in social work relative to the phenomena of structural exclusion based on ethnicity (the Roma), personal legal status (people without documents, ‘the erased’, foreign workers, asylum seekers), impairments, non-dominant family forms, homelessness and other excluded groups?
C. Alternatives to existing concepts of social policies: the crisis of the world economy presents an opportunity for the thematisation of new approaches in social policies, perhaps even new models of social policies, such as for example the potential introduction of the Universal Basic Income (UBI), Tobin's tax, co-operatives, solidarity exchanges and non-commodifying exchanges of goods and services, alternative ways of community life (such as »free zones«) etc. The discussion will provide an opportunity for the »savage mind« to take an unrestricted walk through various domains of social policy and social work.
B. The relationship between globalisation and the nation-state: In the globalising world the meaning and power of nation-states have not been disappearing, rather the opposite is the case. What is disappearing is the dimension of the state as the space for political mediation and public, deliberative democracy, while its repressive dimension has been intensifying. The latter has mainly been expressed as the strengthening of control, the internal one over the population and the external one over state borders. The following questions arise: has the nation-state been strengthened in a way that supports globalisation processes? Has the meaning of the nation-state in globalisation processes been reduced or maybe even increased? Are its competencies due to extra-national connections (EU) in social policies becoming weaker or stronger?
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5. thema: Starting points and practices of social work in increasing the participation of the poor and socially excluded groups.
Theme co-ordinator: Mojca Urek, Peter Stefanoski, Boris Kosec
Poverty and social exclusion are closely connected with smaller possibilities for people to participate in and influence the state, civil society, social networks etc. The homeless, the elderly, youth, the single, single-parent families, the handicapped, ethnic minorities and others experience different obstacles, either systemic or structural or emerging as a result of discrimination pushing people into isolation, loneliness, marginalisation, even persecution and criminalisation. The lack of participation leads to deprivation and a state of being socially endangered which in time become interpreted as cultural or even personal characteristics of the group, further impeding or preventing their participation. Participation is the basic ethical and methodological starting point of social work at several levels in terms of changing the structural conditions impeding participation, creating favourable conditions and abolishing obstacles for participation at the personal level, methods of work such as empowerment, advocacy and others, and at the level of relationships between experts and users, and the provision of participation and co-creation in professional work. Participation is more a question of having the possibility to actively influence one's own life and a question of the processes which influence the individual’s life, and only to a smaller extent is it a question of choice between different service providers. The thematic complexes are:A. Identification and perception of processes preventing or impeding active participation: Which are the systemic obstacles preventing participation – at the level of everyday life, at the institutional level, in social work, in the very system of social protection and policies in general. How to perceive and identify obstacles to active participation, how can social workers influence politicians who enable or impede participation, especially drawing on their experience and knowledge in work with people on the margins (for different groups such as the poor, the homeless, people with mental health problems, the handicapped, those who experience violence, children, the young unemployed...)?
D. Changes in the performance of social work services and practice based on active participation: Is desinstitutionalisation resulting in stronger participation or is it impeding it? Do the changed ways of financing (such as individualised financing) only provide a wider choice or also make the individual's influence stronger, and what changes do they trigger within the welfare state? Does the introduction of packages of services improve the quality of work or not? How to control changes so as to enable their consistent planning and implementation? Do evaluation methods provide the only answer or is it necessary to also introduce other ways of controlling processes? How to regulate the open market of services so that it responds to actual needs?
B. Enabling people’s active participation at different levels: How to actively participate in solving one's own problems? How to influence processes which affect people's lives, how to encourage possibilities for active citizenship?
C. Ways of encouraging active participation developed by the practice and theory of social work: Ways of inclusion at the level of individual, group and community work (projects, programmes, methods, techniques, trainings…). How to understand and translate social work concepts such as strength, empowerment, creation of a working relationship, advocacy. How to exert a greater influence on policies which will enable inclusion and active citizenship?
E. How are these changes reflected in social work practice: Is it possible to establish and use them in institutions and organisations which employ social workers? How should public services along with non-governmental and private institutions work in order for their work to satisfy modern principles including the user perspective by encouraging users' active participation and their strength?
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6. thema: International symposium (22nd April)
Symposium co-ordinators: Darja Zaviršek, Vesna Leskošek
The symposium will be held on 22nd April in Brdo pri Kranju, Slovenia as part of the 4th Congress of Social Work. Working language is English.
The aim of the symposium is to explore, how international educational and research projects in social work contribute to a:
- promotion of social justice, equality and solidarity;
- promotion of human rights;
- inclusiveness and equal opportunities;
- anti-discrimination, intersectionality, diversity;
- crossing borders between “us” and “them”;
- promotion of IASSW global standards in education and ethics of social work;
- strengthening the existent networks and regional association with the emphasis on the Eastern European sub-regional Association of the Schools of Social Work (EEsrASSW).
Theories are developed in accordance with the capacity of science to respond to social changes and to reflect on them, analyse them and identify new paradigm shifts. Social work is no different in this respect, except for the fact that, in many countries, it is not recognised as an academic discipline, even though the theoretical contributions to this field originating from these countries are no less rich or extensive. The difficulties encountered by social work on its way to the academisation point to the durable and closely guarded borders between ‘us’ and ‘them’, which remain an emphatic feature of the world even in the era of much-lauded and promoted globalisation. The more we hear about the free movement of goods, people, services and money, the more the world becomes characterised by closed borders and new walls. For some, the world is becoming globalised, while for others it is becoming inaccessible. Accordingly, the issue of borders has become one of the central themes within the field of social work. An important question is how social work, as an academic discipline and a profession, is responding to social changes and the increased social inequalities. Equally important are the effects of the emerging new world order and the numerous new challenges it presents to social work in areas that traditionally were not within its domain.
The currant internationalism is therefore getting new meanings and new dimensions. For a long time, the imagined borders of Europe were clear and unambiguous encompassing the area from the Atlantic Ocean to the iron curtain. Today, Europe has been extended to the countries of the European Union. Although the iron curtain came down towards the end of the 1980s, the border persists, but being called with another name. The border between capitalism and socialism was replaced by the border between western and eastern Europe. Nor did the accession of 10 new member states to the European Union in 2004 significantly change the situation. This division can still be found in many texts. It alerts us to the fact that Europe's borders are just as firm as they were two decades ago. While western Europe is believed to be a plural space, eastern Europe is seen as a uniform space lacking diversity. Internationalism frequently stops at the borders of Europe, and the same holds true for proverbially open and cosmopolitan science.
This can also be translated into the social work as a scientific discipline. There is not a lot of opportunity for most of the non-American and non-European scientist to be heard and their work to be known by their colleagues in the privileged parts of the world. Looking at the bibliographies, list of contributors and other indicators of who is who in the social work we can notice just few authors from the rest than the west. Claiming that we also have to conclude that the power balance is changing in resent years and social work theory is becoming much more inclusive although not entirely. Although social work is proverbially open, inclusive and participative, many scholars have still today denied access to the international arena.
Call for papers
Papers can be submitted on-line:
http://www.fsd.si/congress/registration_with_contribution/
The deadline for paper submission for symposium is 28th February 2010.
More info
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