Ringvorlesung The Re Regulation of Social Welfare and Social Work Ringvorlesung

Throughout modernity, social welfare provision and social work have become subject to a broad set of formal regulations providing orientations for managers and those at the frontline. Historically, these regulations have taken shape through a complex interplay of (bottom-up) grass-root action, elitist paternalism and statutory frameworks. Grass-root action has far and wide developed into ‘welfare professionalism' during the 20th century, whereas profession-based norms became a regulatory source of its own and a driving force for the design of social service systems - although bottom-up and top-down (statutory) influences persisted in these systems. During the last decades of the 20th century, this regulatory regime was challenged by both a new wave of grass-routs activism (blaming professionalism for being insufficiently responsive) and by economic or political elites bemoaning its (alleged) inefficiency. The (more or less) international result was the advent of the ‘managerial state' embodying patterns of (re-)regulation combining command-and-control policies with business-style (and often market-oriented) management. But which are the ingredients, contradictions and problems of the new regulatory regime? Who is actually setting the tune in this regime including at local or street level? Where and how does social professionalism resist? Which impact does (quasi-)mar­ket regulation have on social welfare and social work? The lecture series, embracing four lectures held by distinguished specialists in various fields and from different countries, aims at illuminating the characteristics of the new regime systematically, also with an eye on how distinctive national traditions and approaches make a difference here. The lectures will partly be held in English language. FB 04 Sozialwesen Uni Kassel SoSe 2010 Lehrveranstaltungspool FB 04 Sozialrecht und Sozialwirtschaft Prof. Dr. Bode Ingo