Seminar Social Work in England Constructing the Present from Moments in the Past

The dominant discourse about the origins and development of social work in England presents it as a straightforward response to self-evident human needs and problems. Social work is seen as having evolved over time as a result of altruism and humanitarianism, with there being a growing consensus about the need for it to occupy an increasingly prominent place in society. The module problematises and deconstructs that dominant discourse by presenting social work in England as having been socially constructed, often contested and sometimes controversial, as a consequence of the tensions and dilemmas it raises. It considers how it has often been embroiled in political, policy, organisational, professional, and (increasingly) service user debates. This consideration indicates that as social work was built up over time, it not only changed but also maintained elements of continuity. The history of social work is important, therefore, because the profile and practice of social work today have developed in response to particular political and ideological debates and in the face of particular pressures and conditions at different junctures; social work is a contingent activity, conditioned by and dependent upon the context from which it emerges and in which it engages. What social workers do - the practices they adopt, the values they act upon, the outcomes they pursue - are the result of the accumulation of past practices and understandings that have gradually taken on a (more or less) accepted status. The contingent nature of social work is demonstrated by considering some of the key historical moments in social work, from its origins in the 19th century to its current manifestation under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition. Rather than thinking about social work as a professional project that has orchestrated its own genesis and development, it is positioned at these different moments as an element in their respective welfare regimes, concerned with managing and regulating the sphere of the ‘social’, with social work’s professional project having meshed with the wider social, economic and political forces in which it has been, and continues to be, located. FB 01 Humanwissenschaften Uni Kassel SoSe 2013 Lehrveranstaltungspool FB 01 FB 01 Institut für Sozialwesen Prof. Dr. Harris John