- Book of Abstracts -

Transcription

1 2nd International Conference Sociology and Social Work May, Oslo, Norway Theory and Practice - Book of Abstracts - This book contains abstracts of all oral papers. Each author can be found in the index of authors. 1

2 Table of Contents Key note speeches... 4 Margareta Bäck-Wiklund. Towards a reflexive practitioner? - Possibilities and challenges Ian Shaw. Sociological Social Work Oral papers... 6 Torunn A. Ask. Perspectives on the practitioner in partnership... 6 Kari Baardseth, Kaare Torgny Pettersen. How can social work research and sociology meet in an action research project in a socially vulnerable district in Brazil?... 6 Fabio Cappello. Social agencies for children and families as street level bureaucracies: a case study between theory and practice... 7 Wei Chen. Home- and Community-based Services for the Elderly in Contemporary Urban China: a comparative study between Guangzhou and Nanjing... 8 Elisabeth Hirsch Durrett, Sabine Voélin. Old age, home care needs and self-determination... 8 Kjell-Arne Dybvik. Work for all? A study of how persons with mental health problems evaluate the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration... 9 Helge Folkestad. Theory from practice, for practice Amelie Fougner. Peer Tutoring in Social Work Education: A Study of Changes in the Authority of Knowledge and Relationships between Students and Teachers in Norway Siri Kahrs Fjeldheim. The person-in-situation the person or the situation? Ragnhild Fugletveit. Inclusion or exclusion? A study of how ten employer s evaluate persons with mental health problems and their workability Erika K. Gubrium Promises and practices of personalisation: Discursive trajectories in Norway s new work approach Anne Halvorsen. Knowledge and practice development in social work practice, - a case study in three organizations Ingeborg Helgeland. "Social participation, life course and marginality - A 25 years follow-up study of 85 juvenile delinquents" Nicole Hennum. Sociological knowledge as destabilizing? Or why is psychology so attractive Mari Dalen Herland. Seriously troubled youth becoming fathers: a 25-year longitudinal approach 13 Kjeld Høgsbro. From Social engineering to institutional Ethnography the development of sociological practice and sociotechnics since Mihai Bogdan Iovu. Evidence-Based Practice: Beliefs, Attitudes, Knowledge, and Behaviors of Social Work Professionals Kari Sjøhelle Jevne. Concerns of abuse or neglect in the context of resident and contact disputes: a user perspective on the child welfare service Monica Kjørstad. Transcending the limitation of empiricism A Critical Realist Approach Lise Cecilie Kleppe. Texts as practice Seyma Ipek Kostekli. Flex security and working shorter hours in Turkey during the global crisis: an empirical analysis of firms and employees

3 Leili Laanemets. Different roles in research practice, implications for theory in social work Irene Levin. What happened to "the social" in social work? Vigdis Madsen. What is meant by a holistic approach to user s challenges? Maria Appel Nissen, Michael Hviid Jacobsen. Sociology and Social work research. Challenging knowledge about social problems Werner Obrecht. Towards a general normative theory of the professional processing of practical problems Søren Peter Olesen. Sociological perspectives on theory and practice in employment-oriented social work Einar Øverbye. Deconstructing universalism Kaare Torgny Pettersen. How can Social Work with Victims of Sexual Abuse within the context of a Norwegian Incest Center be explained with the use of Thomas Scheffs Theoretical Concepts of Shame? Benoît Renevey. Mixing theory and practice in a graduation work: some considerations from a ten years long experimentation in training programs of social workers in Switzerland Yuan Rui. Social Exclusion and Neighborhood Support: the Experience of Empty-Nest Elderly in Urban Shangai, China Michael Seltzer and Marit Haldar. Hegemonic Tales and Subversive Stories: Chicago Sociology and Social Work Revisited Ian Shaw. Evaluating in Practice: Interrupting, Translating and Inhabiting Qualitative Inquiry as Professional Practice (Workshop) May-Britt Solem. Analytic perspectives for research and practice in social work Pernille Stornæss Skotte. Exploring uncertainty in child welfare work Anne Margrethe Sønneland, Line Baagø-Rasmussen.There is no justice for the poor' - on the importance of sociology for social work in processes of transitional justice Tony Stanley. Our tariff will rise: Understanding how risks get reified in the social work office Jan Storø. A Reflective and Systematic Process. An Investigation of one Tool of the Child Welfare Worker Index of authors

4 Key note speeches Margareta Bäck-Wiklund. Towards a reflexive practitioner? - Possibilities and challenges. Contemporary welfare institutions experience a need for new forms for executing and justifying their work along with accelerated requests for quality bench- marking, evaluations as well as manual based parenting. As a consequence it is argued in this paper that working as a social work practitioner in contemporary society means taking into account and applying a multi-layered and reflexive approach. Through a sociological analysis with focus on power, norms and normalization, new light is shed on cases involving families/individuals dealing with societal norms, both general and specific, when interacting with professionals. The goal for the reflexive practitioner in these and related situations is to challenge taken for granted assumptions to reveal dilemmas in order to strengthen professional discretion -the core of social work practice. Margareta Bäck-Wiklund is Professor emerita of Social Work at the University of Gothenburg, with a specialization in social work and family policy. She created, and is still an advice member of, the research program Parenting and Childhood in Modern Family Culture, which focuses on variations in family forms and childhoods, gender and parental roles in family life, working life as well as everyday life. She has also been working in two EU funded projects: one eight country comparative project in the Fifth Framework Program of the European Commission Gender, Parenthood and the Changing European Workplace: Young adults negotiating the work-family boundary and an eight country EUfunded project within the Sixth Framework Program Quality of Life in a Changing Europe. She recently co-edited the book Quality of Life and Work: Theory, Practice and Policy. She was previously Editor for The Journal of Social Science. 4

5 Ian Shaw. Sociological Social Work. I hope to address the theme of the conference in two ways. First, through an exploration of the archives held at the University of Chicago, I will attempt a history of the present to suggest how the relationship between sociology and social work came to be as it is. I will suggest that the practice of some (both familiar and forgotten) people in 1920s and 1930s sociology and social work is best explained as a form of sociological social work. Second, after tracking this family tree, I will sketch my own efforts to exemplify one kind of sociological social work though an outline of what I call variously evaluating in practice and qualitative social work. I will illustrate how these arguments challenge both sociology and social work, both theory and practice. Ian Shaw is Professor of Social Work at University of York. He has a first degree in sociology, and it has influenced his social work practice as a probation officer, and, subsequently, his university work. He has conducted research at the interfaces between social work and sociology, as well as social policy, health studies, education and housing. His research interests include the practice/research relationship, the nature of social work as an applied social science in relation to disciplines like sociology, qualitative research and evaluation methodology, practitioner and action research, developing social work research strategies, technology and professional practice and the history of social work research. He was recently involved as joint Principal Investigator in the evaluation of the UK s much-criticized Integrated Children s System.' Recent books include Evaluating in Practice and Social Work and ICT. He is also Co-Editor of the journal Qualitative Social Work. 5

6 Oral papers Torunn A. Ask. Perspectives on the practitioner in partnership Based on a governmental initiative and funding from The Norwegian Directorate for Labour and Welfare, a national project was carried out ( ), aimed at developing and strengthening knowledge and quality in the social services (in a broad meaning of the term). The project was implemented in four regions, connected to universities, including University of Agder. An important objective in the project has been to promote structures and arenas for binding cooperation and partnership between research, education, practice and users. The evaluation report from the national project (Gjernes and Bliksvær 2011) states the assumption that the researchers have had the greatest power and influence in the partnership, while users have received the most attention. The authors ask whether some of the parties to the cooperation has been suppressed or not given the role they had expected or deserved, although neither party has indicated that. However, the question is still there, and read between the lines, the role of the practitioner is questioned. I think the report give a hint on an important issue. On the basis of experiences and empirical data from our own local projects developed between the university and welfare agencies in municipalities in the Agder region, I will look deeper into the role of practice and the practitioners in the cooperation. An assumption is that practitioners have the greatest expectations directed at them, spoken and unspoken, from both researchers and users. We may interpret it positive as confidence and as a sign of importance to their contribution. On the other hand there is this supposition, implicit and explicit, that services and practices are not good enough, which may again lead to the assumption that the practitioner is to blame and is the target of change. My interest is therefore to explore: What views on their role in the partnership are expressed by the practitioners? What ideas of the practitioner role / roles are expressed from the researchers point of view? Following the questions above: What can be fruitful approaches to interpret the descriptions and reflections about different positions and role challenges in the cooperation? Kari Baardseth, Kaare Torgny Pettersen. How can social work research and sociology meet in an action research project in a socially vulnerable district in Brazil? The Federal University of Espirito Santo (UFES) is responsible for an action research project: "Centre for the Study of alternative health measures" (CEPAS). CEPAS is led by Professor in Sociology Pedro Fortes. Østfold University College (ØUS) and UFES have signed an agreement of intend for collaboration within research, education and teacher/student exchange. CEPAS has its focus on social and health practice in areas that have been identified with problematic living conditions. The aim is to bring forth practical improvements for the residents of CEPAS-area and develop a social responsibility so that those who live in this vulnerable area can understand their social reality and improve it. The social work research project cooperates with CEPAS to gain an understanding of the living conditions for families in the CEPAS area; approved and carried out under the supervision of Professor Fortes. The study combines both qualitative and quantitative methods. 6

7 The findings will be given back: to the CEPAS-project for use in improvement of the living conditions; to the social work students from ØUC to improve their learning outcome from a practice period at CEPAS. The qualitative collection of data is: 1) In-depth interviews with four parents about their living conditions; 2) Chart map interviews with four children (one of each parent); based on the question: What have you been doing during the last seven days? The interviews are carried out with the assistance of medical students from UFES and social work students from ØUC. The quantitative collection of data consists of a survey among 705 families about health and living conditions. The survey has been carried out by medical students from UFES over a 10 year period and gives information of how the area has changed over this 10 year period. The research project is now at the stage where data is being analyzed. The analysis of the qualitative data consists of creating units of meaning (Kvale 2001) which are categorized in living condition components. These categories will be compared with the ongoing public health study. The findings will be presented for the first time at the conference in Oslo. References: Kvale, S Det kvalitative forskningsintervju. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademiske. Fabio Cappello. Social agencies for children and families as street level bureaucracies: a case study between theory and practice I am deeply interested in studying how organizations influence social work practice: public policy implementation and organizational studies are for me crucial theoretical fields. It is, basically, through them that I am trying to keep a strong contact between theory and practice in social work. The research project I am developing analyses social work practice within the Michael Lipsky conceptual frame of street level bureaucracy. Lipsky (1980) defines as street level bureaucrats all public service workers who interact directly with citizens and have substantial discretion in the execution of their work. They are professionals who provide services within state programs but also operate in an environment where resources are chronically inadequate and goals expectations tend to be ambiguous and conflicting. How do they react in front of these contradictions, how do they face them? Is their discretion becoming due to organizational complexity and the welfare crisis - a kind of trap that lead them to take often responsibilities (and face ethical dilemmas) on behalf of the managerial and the political level? In order to respond to these questions I am realising a case study (with a quali-quantitave methodology) in which I analyse the dimensions of discretion of social workers in an Italian social district, paying specific attention to the phase of initial assessment (intake) of minors at risk. At the preliminary level I have realised a small quantitative analysis of data confirming that - no matter what the regulations say social workers tend autonomously (and coherently with Lipsky theorization) to ration services in order to balance resources with requests. The study emphasizes the risk that sectors of the social protection system can be weakened without any legislative intervention and with the unaware contribution of field workers too much focused on heavy caseloads and everyday pressure. Moreover, it hopes to be an example of how research at the field level can help the understanding of certain welfare mechanisms offering interesting viewpoints to practitioners. 7

8 Wei Chen. Home- and Community-based Services for the Elderly in Contemporary Urban China: a comparative study between Guangzhou and Nanjing In the 1980s, with the ailing and collapse of the state-owned enterprises which was the backbone of the Chinese centrally-planned economy, the previous work unit-based welfare has gradually evolved into a quasi-form of mixed economy of welfare state, market and individual. Earlier in 1987, the Minister of Civil Affairs has launched the document on exploring a new mode of service delivery at the community level, from when upon, home- and community-based services for the elderly has incrementally emerged as an important eldercare program and been experimentally implemented in quiet a few economically-developed large cities since With an aim at exploring pioneering models or modes of this program, this research selects two cities as targeted cases Guangzhou and Nanjing, which can be representative for the Pearl River Delta as well as Changjiang Delta respectively to conduct a comparative study deploying qualitative research methods. Based on over half a year s time in the fieldwork in 2011, a mixed mode of eldercare cooperating between the street office (a 4 th -tier government in contemporary China) and NGO (with professional social work orientation) could be detected in Guangzhou, while a reform of community administrative institution is scrutinized in Nanjing simultaneously to be the macro background of home- and communitybased services for the elderly. Relying on multiple sources of data collection, e.g., site observations, key informant interviews (officials of civil affairs bureau, cadres of street office and residents committee), focus groups (elder service users), in-depth interviews (community social workers, elder service users), etc., analytical frame could be established from macro, mezzo, and micro levels to outline and compare the programs implementing situations in this two cases. In a nutshell, not merely is this research social welfare-based-cum-social work-based, it is also keen on a benign balance between theory and practice, combining theoretical backups (British community care, welfare mix, critical gerontology, etc.) as well as professional social work perspectives (critical gerontological social work approach, empowerment, participation, etc.) to figure out the current modes of home- and community-based services for the elderly, and expect to help polish the indigenization and localization of this eldercare program so as to build up solid or somewhat idealtype eldercare models in the future. Elisabeth Hirsch Durrett, Sabine Voélin. Old age, home care needs and selfdetermination First results from our ongoing qualitative study of 35 first-time users of home care services in the cities of Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland 1 point to a broad range of strategies used by frail elders in order to maintain or regain some mastery over the process of requesting and receiving help with ADL and/or IADL activities in their home. Our study design and theoretical framework are based on French (Crozier, Touraine) approaches to the sociology of the actor s position (see e.g. Lahire, 2002), and on the grounded theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 2004). Achieving a better understanding of the forms and determinants of an actor s stance at a time of increasing frailty is a goal intimately linked to the authors position as educators of social workers. The centrality of the client s autonomy, posited by social work professional approaches, must be examined and questioned when interventions take place in a field characterized by the perceived predominance of health concerns, and by a view of ageing as decline and loss. First analyses of data from in-depth interviews with frail elders point to a broad range of stances towards the evaluation and care-provision processes, as well as to differences between episodes of care need viewed as temporary as opposed to long-term. The recourse to creative combinations of 1 Study funded by the Swiss National Research Fund and the Leenaards Foundation, ref. FNS DORE 13PD6_32282,

9 private and public care provision by users is also a salient feature (Gucher, 2012), despite a relatively rigid public policy context favoring the use of public service and informal care combinations rather than public/ private choices. Recent British analyses of the choice issue and the implied view of frail elders and informal carers in policies focused on choice are highly relevant here (Stevens et alii, 2011) Issues raised by interviewees also shed new light on views about the role of informal carers, especially adult children, in the organization and delivery of care. A clear priority is frequently placed on the maintenance of relations based on equality or reciprocity, hands-on care being viewed as a possible threat to the nature of the parent-adult child balance. Distanced or conflictual relationships with adult children are also repeatedly mentioned. The implications of users strategies will be used to discuss issues of the promotion of autonomy in social work and social care interventions with frail elders, as well as their theoretical underpinnings. References Gucher, C. (2012) Reconnaissance de l expertise profane et accès à une position d usager-citoyen dans un contexte de compensation de la dépendance. Presentation to the REACTIS netweok conference, Dijon, January 2012 Lahire, B. (2002) Portraits sociologiques et dispositions individuelles. Paris : Nathan Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1994) Grounded theory methodology : an overview, in Denzin, N.K. & Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousands Oaks : Sage Stevens, M. et alii (2011) Assessing the Role of Increasing Choice, Jnl Soc.Pol. 40, 2, Kjell-Arne Dybvik. Work for all? A study of how persons with mental health problems evaluate the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration Co-writers: Kaare T. Pettersen and Eva Bjørg Antonsen This study seeks to reveal how six unemployed persons with mental health problems evaluate the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration( NAV ), which is responsible for inclusion in the labor market. The six participants are chosen by the local Church City Mission in Fredrikstad in Norway, a voluntary organization that cooperates with NAV in job clarification for individuals with e.g. mental health problems. All six participants have been out of the ordinary work for at least four years and have not been able to return fully to the workplace. Method and design A qualitative design and use of interviews are well suited in this study because the primary goal is to collect evaluations from people who have experience with the lack of inclusion in the labor market (Brink et al.1998). The primary goal is to let the participants describe in their own words how they evaluate NAV and the possibilities for being included in the labor market. The participants own description are viewed as an important source of data, by means of which experiences, understanding and interpretations are revealed ( Kvale et al. 2009). Results and conclusion The study focuses on how people with mental health problems evaluate the possibility for inclusion in the labor market. The six participants say that NAV does not seem to be able to provide adequate assistance to them. With 200 cases per caseworker there will be very little time for following up each person. The employees in NAV will therefore have to prioritize economic case management. The 9

10 participants in this study say that NAV is characterized by a lack of continuity, many different procedures, and a focus on their own budget instead of users need. Informants say that they are treated with respect by pilots, and they experience greater happiness and quality of life. In NAV, the pilots primary task is to guide people with mental health problems into the labor market. However, there is no information about pilots really helping people into the labor market. Helge Folkestad. Theory from practice, for practice One ambition for sociological research on Social Work might be to enhance development in that field. Some ways of conducting research, however, may work against that sort of ambition. Firstly, a quest for evidence that is to be useful may lead to reductionism that is blind to the complexities of actual practice. Practice cannot merely be, nor be described or guided by, instrumentally useful knowledge. Secondly, the language of Academia too often seems far removed from the challenges professionals experience in their work and the contextually focused way problems are discussed in daily professional life. Things may go lost in translation between what researchers want to bring forward and what practitioners feel the need to focus on. Thirdly, normative, taken-for-granted vantage points may limit what research questions get asked, and thus block interesting perspectives from sight. When, e.g., researchers become caught up in political or administrative goals for services, they easily become overly critical toward those charged with reaching these goals. Then there is the risk of a shut-down in dialogues for change. We need to create theory that can be generative in and for practice. I will argue for a bottom-up strategy which tries to portray ways of working in concepts that have the capacity to travel into discussions about actual practice in new locations. When these insights of research are presented in recognizable terms they may release the potential for novel ways of acting, and thus make themselves useful without falling into the trap that is the instrumental mistake (Skjervheim). The researcher must seek to understand how the actors in the field understand the world, but not limit her/himself only to that understanding. The researcher should bring forth an interpretation of how practitioners think and act, that is neither trapped into that particular way of thinking, nor deaf to the tonality of the actual practice. In this way research may contribute to new perspectives that also the practitioners see as relevant for their work and reflections on practices. Amelie Fougner. Peer Tutoring in Social Work Education: A Study of Changes in the Authority of Knowledge and Relationships between Students and Teachers in Norway This article draws from the findings of a 10-year research project focused on the consequences of a peer tutoring program introduced in 2002 for teaching counseling skills to first year students enrolled in the bachelor degree program of a Norwegian child welfare faculty. Using a variety of quantitative and qualitative research methods involving more than 400 tutors, tutees and teachers acting as coinvestigators of the program, it was found that peer tutoring resulted in a number of significant changes. Central among these were increased learning potentials among tutors, greater activity and feelings of freedom for exploring knowledge among tutees together with an enhanced sense of belonging to a developing community of professional practitioners. Following a brief outline of the methods and findings of the study, the article examines how the traditional authority of knowledge of the teacher in the classroom was destabilized and then transformed by the peer tutoring program. In concluding, the article briefly describes the transitional learning community which evolved among students and teachers in the program 10

11 Siri Kahrs Fjeldheim. The person-in-situation the person or the situation? Mary Richmond was a pioneer in professionalization of social work; specifically she introduced concepts and work methods that are still in the core of social casework today. Hollis and Woods which base their book upon the legacy of Mary Richmond uses the term, Casework A psychosocial therapy. They emphasize that the shift from sociological to psychosocial focus in casework has brought new methods and understanding into social work, but that something important has nearly been lost in the process the understanding of and necessity of working with the individuals social environment. Are they successful in reintroducing the environment back into social work? Hollis uses Gordon Hamilton s concept the person-in-situation, which refers to the threefold configuration consisting of: the person, the situation and the interaction between them. This concept embodies both the concepts of psychology AND sociology, the individual and his environment, and therefore bringing back the focus on the individual s social context as equally important and intertwined. Interestingly enough Hollis uses the concept casework, not social casework, throughout her book, despite her effort to emphasize the social/environment in casework. Social work is in its deepest core social. What happened to social in social casework? My focus will be on the person-in-situation as social works core concept. It seems that the social is more and more missing from social work in general. Is this the case? Does this mean that the individual is more important in social work today than the environment? And what might be the effects on social work? Ragnhild Fugletveit. Inclusion or exclusion? A study of how ten employer s evaluate persons with mental health problems and their workability Co-writers: Kaare T. Pettersen and Kjell Arne Dybvik. This study seeks to reveal how ten employers evaluate persons with mental health problems and their workability. All ten employers in these study are included in the Norwegian Inclusion agreement ( IA avtalen). In the agreement there is a focus of including persons with disabilities into the active labor market. Method and design A qualitative design and use of interviews is used in this study because the primary goal is to analyze depth interview with employers experience with inclusion of persons with mental health problems. The primary goal is to let the participants describe in their own words how they experience inclusion of people with mental health. The informants own description is viewed as an important source of data, by means of which experiences, understanding and interpretations are revealed (Kvale and Brinkmann 2009, Thagaard 2009). Results and conclusion Employers want more openness around mental health problems and work life. Several employers have experienced having employees who have struggled with mental illness or problems and challenges. It seems that openness around problems and disorders can lead employers to a greater insight and understanding of their situation and possibilities for the facilitation of the work to be performed. Experience of cooperation with NAV and medical health care seem to be characterized by challenges and different assessments of work - definitions. Despite the fact that all companies are part of the 11

12 Inclusive working life (IA), none of the employers provide a strategy to prioritize people with mental illness, or other disability groups. Erika K. Gubrium Promises and practices of personalisation: Discursive trajectories in Norway s new work approach. This paper focuses on the activation policies that affect the world of social work practice with social assistance claimants. It starts from with the assumption that the interplay between theory and practice is integral to understanding the process of policymaking and strongly influences the everyday practice of social work. The specific focus is the Qualification Programme, an activation approach for Norway s social assistance recipients that represents a move from a work first to a more personalised, human capital approach. Human capital and work first approaches are both informed by the tenets of rational choice theory, which strongly influences the practices associated with programme provision. The paper presents empirical evidence from in-depth interviews with 28 social assistance claimants concerning their experiences within the context of the social service setting. The evidence from the conversations suggests a trajectory (and hierarchy) from marginality to normal in which claimant s motivations and individual choices are constrained or even opposed by a range of particularities. The one-size-fits-all rational choice assumptions informing the activation approach both are not a good fit for the particular needs of the claimant, and moreover, also work against claimant identity. There is a need for policy making and social work to be flexible and account for these real-life nuances. The rational choice assumptions framing the design and provision of activation programming must be reconsidered. Anne Halvorsen. Knowledge and practice development in social work practice, - a case study in three organizations Based on case studies in three organisations I will discuss how social workers engage in knowledge and practice development. The basic question in the study is what knowledge and practice development (fagutvikling) means in social work; what is it. Although it is a widely used concept in the Norwegian debate about social work and other professions (nursing for instance), it is seldom defined. There seems to be a common agreement that knowledge and practice development is both important and necessary, but little agreement about what it means and what it refers to. In this study, a colleague, Sigrid Nordstoga, and I set out to map empirically what the concept means to practitioners and how it is used in practice. Three organisations within the social work sphere were contacted and agreed to participate. By now we have finished the first round of data gathering and have made a sum up of how this concept "fagutvikling" (knowledge and practice development) is used and understood in practice. The study shows that it covers a wide variety of activities and ideas, and that the organisations have chosen different strategies in their efforts to develop a more knowledge based practice. Ingeborg Helgeland. "Social participation, life course and marginality - A 25 years follow-up study of 85 juvenile delinquents" The goal of this fourth follow up study is to investigate the life course of year olds who as adolescents had serious problem behavior. The study has special emphasis upon their social participation as adults, included working life. How can we ensure that marginalized children and youth do not become marginalized adults? How do they navigate and negotiate their lives from excluded to included positions? These are women and men who were formerly clients of child welfare services, and who were followed-up with interviews when they were 15, 20 and 30 years of age. This fourth follow up using life history interviews, include questions like 12

13 1) How do the women experience their lives, and how do the men experience their lives that they are living as year olds? 2) How have these men and women experienced the transitions in the phases of their lives? 3) How do those who have children experience being mothers or fathers? 4) What kinds of contacts have respondents had to social welfare services and to other agencies providing help, and how has that contact been experienced? Nicole Hennum. Sociological knowledge as destabilizing? Or why is psychology so attractive This paper is grounded in social work s two main paths as pioneered by Jane Adams and Mary Richmond: the one, a societal approach and the other, a psycho-medical approach. Throughout history, each of these has had its heyday. An analysis of these periods indicates that while a societal approach was hegemonic in the 1970s, there is today a trend towards a psycho-medical approach in social work. This paper aims to show that during different periods, there are mechanisms generating the dominance of one or the other of these approaches. This raises questions about why sociological knowledge is perceived as disturbing during periods when psycho-medical knowledge seems most attractive. The paper suggests that a possible answer to the dilemma posed by the current colonization of social work by psychology and medicine might be one revitalizing the social approach with the help of politics. Mari Dalen Herland. Seriously troubled youth becoming fathers: a 25-year longitudinal approach This paper will question how men with severe adjustment problems during adolescence perform fatherhood. Based on a 25-year longitudinal study, following a group that joined a state-initiated child welfare programme as teenagers, the aim has been to search for their accounts of fathering as adults and to examine how these descriptions vary. The analysis is based on qualitative interviews with fathers carried out in different time spans. Using a life course theoretical framework and theories from the new fatherhood discourse, different fathering patterns will be discussed. The participants in this study generally wish to be responsible parents. They want to give their children different and better opportunities than they experienced in their own childhood. For some fathers, the child becomes their life project while others perform fatherhood from a distance after having experienced out-of-home placement of their children by the child welfare service. The informants parental accounts will be elaborated and understood through three different patterns of fathering practices; 1) Full-time fatherhood 2) Part-time fatherhood 3) Fatherhood from a distance. Kjeld Høgsbro. From Social engineering to institutional Ethnography the development of sociological practice and sociotechnics since 1930 In the last fifteen years, social work has been confronted with the political demand of being evidence-based. In the same period a debate among researchers in social work practice have questioned the premises for the traditional systematic reviews and they have asked the question whether this was just a methodological debate we have already been through 50 years ago. This article gives a review of considerations in the history of applied sociology from Weber to Dorothy Smith, and it aims at finding out what is new and what are old elements in the discussion about evidence based practice. Sociology and social work share common roots in the Chicago milieu of social science in the 1930s, and as this article will show, the two disciplines share a lot of issues as regard questions of validity, evidence, methodology, practical relevance of research and scientific legitimacy in its later development of sociotechnics and evaluation strategies. 13

14 The paper continues the discussion from the following former articles on these questions: Høgsbro K Social Policy and Self-help in Denmark - a Foucauldian Perspektive. International Journal of Self Help & Self Care 6 (1): Høgsbro K, Pruijt H, Pokrovsky N, and Tsobanoglou G Sociological practice and the sociotechnics of governance. In The New ISA Handbook of Contemporary Sociology: Conflict, Competition, Cooperation, eds A Denis and DK Fishman SAGE/ISA. Mihai Bogdan Iovu. Evidence-Based Practice: Beliefs, Attitudes, Knowledge, and Behaviors of Social Work Professionals Background and Purpose. Little research has been done regarding the attitudes and behaviors of Romanian social workers relative to the use of evidence in their daily practice. Therefore, the purpose of this study is twofold: first, we want to describe the beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors of social workers as they relate to evidence-based practice (EBP) and secondly, to generate hypotheses about the relationship between these attributes and practice characteristics of the respondents. Methods. A survey of a small random sample of Romanian social workers was designed. Participants completed a questionnaire designed to determine beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors regarding EBP, as well as demographic information about themselves and their practice settings. Results. Respondents agreed that the use of evidence in practice was necessary, that the literature was helpful in their practices, and that quality of client care was better when evidence was used. Training, familiarity with and confidence in search strategies, use of databases, and critical appraisal tended to be associated with younger therapists with fewer years since they were licensed. The majority of the respondents had access to online information, although more had access at home than at work. According to the respondents, the primary barrier to implementing EBP was lack of time. Discussion and Conclusion. Social workers stated in generally a positive attitude about EBP and were interested in learning or improving the skills necessary to implement EBP. They noted that they needed to increase the use of evidence in their daily practice. This raises the question of taking serious steps in organizing an EBP training curricula for undergraduate and graduate social worker students. Kari Sjøhelle Jevne. Concerns of abuse or neglect in the context of resident and contact disputes: a user perspective on the child welfare service Concerns about child abuse or neglect as part of a residence or contact dispute place parents in the intersection between the social work and family law system. This paper explores parenting practices among parents who have concerns about child abuse or neglect as part of a residence or contact disputes, and discusses parents experiences with the child welfare service (CWS). The main empirical data are in depth interviews with 15 parents (7 mothers and 8 fathers). Interviews with 26 social workers serve as supportive data. The study shows that parents being in touch with the CWS as part of a residence or contact dispute have multiple and often mutual concerns about the parenting practices of other parent. Dealing with these concerns causes emotional, as well as economical strains upon parents. 14

15 Child welfare workers are one of many professionals these parents are in touch with as part of handling their concerns for the child and disagreements on the child s residence and contact. The analysis indicates that parents possibilities deal with their concerns and disagreements depend on two main factors which are interrelated. Firstly, whether parents are able to get information and document their concerns for the child. Secondly, whether professionals interpret parental concerns as legitimate or as false accusations being made as part of a conflict. The study shows that an important element in reducing custodial conflicts and for finding solutions in the best interest of the child, is that professionals dealing with residence and contact disputes explore parents concerns for the other parental practices. Monica Kjørstad. Transcending the limitation of empiricism A Critical Realist Approach Based on an empirical study of social workers implementation of a workfare policy in a municipality in Norway, the purpose of this paper is to discuss how the professional experiences made by practitioners in the field can be systematized in a way that can benefit the development of good practice and advancement of theory. In this case it is done by utilizing different methods and by studying the phenomena at several levels: societal, institutional and individual. Applied knowledge presupposes knowledge of the mechanisms that produce empirical occurrences and these mechanisms are seldom directly observable. This means that empiricism will have limited value in the explanation of human action. A critical realist perspective was chosen as the theoretical approach. Practical knowledge and everyday concepts have a special place within the critical realist perspective. The starting point for critical realism is the claim that the content of everyday knowledge makes up the immediate mechanisms behind the actions that build social phenomena. For that reason, everyday knowledge must be included in social science research. With reference to Parton (2000) I will argue that rather than seeing the relationship in terms of the application of theory to practice, theory can be generative and can offer new insights and perspectives to inspire practitioners to think and act differently. The content of everyday knowledge belongs to the raw material that scientific knowledge must systematically include if theories in social science are to have any validity. The construction of social science concepts must be justified by the content of everyday knowledge and should be able to integrate that knowledge. At the same time, social science concepts must be able to transcend everyday concepts and be utilized to provide theoretical clarification. Theory has a fundamental role in the research process and facts are seen as being dependent upon theory, but not determined by theory. The unique characteristic of social work is the way theory and practice are closely interrelated, and this points to the interrelationship between sociology and social work. Lise Cecilie Kleppe. Texts as practice This abstract presents some methodological aspects of using texts as empirical material(1) in research. The aim is to question dichotomies between theory and practice. My PhD project is placed among research on professions. I explore perceptions of professional responsibility as it is articulated in text books in nursing and social work. Despite my use of empirical material, text books, my work is considered as theoretical by editors in journals. The project builds on the post-structural tradition where meaning is an ongoing process, and the result of discursive work(2, 3). Central to this tradition is the language s role in construction of the reality. This involves seeing the responsibility as an opinion system, in which negotiations are carried out on the meanings of categories such as: social worker, client and relations. These opinion 15

16 patterns, discourses are not fixed encapsulated and static, but change continuously (2-4). The methods in use are discourse analysis and text analysis. The text books are part of the ongoing work of articulations that modifies the categories` meaning. Thus the books are more than theories, they are meanings making interactions, a kind of practice (1, 5) (6, 7). This abstract is based on work in progress, on an ongoing analysis of textbooks in social work. By using Fowlers(8) transitivity concept, I examine the articulations related to concepts of responsibility in the texts. Transitivity is concerned with how changes in the world are articulated. Changes can occur as actions or processes. Related to changes are participants. The doer of an action is termed an agent, and participants having things done to them are affected participants. Only the agent can be responsible for the actions. When changes occur as processes, they have an effect, but there is no need for agents. And in the end, no one is responsible. The questions I ask while reading the books are: - What is expressed as actions, and what is expressed as processes? - Who is agents and who is affected participants? The aim of the analysis is to reveal the conceptions of responsibilities embedded in the texts. How and for what reason some people become clients of social work can give an indication of the social workers responsibilities. Seyma Ipek Kostekli. Flex security and working shorter hours in Turkey during the global crisis: an empirical analysis of firms and employees The current global crisis, which we consider to have begun in the second half of 2007 and which has left its imprint on the last three years, has thrust the world into a chaotic environment. Turkey was not affected by the crisis very negatively from a financial perspective. This aspect distinguishes Turkey from other countries. That said, due to the Global Economic Crisis, Turkey took a significant hit in manufacturing and employment areas. Turkey has been remarkably successful in exiting the crisis thanks to measures taken to step up production and stimulate foreign and domestic demand. Turkey has the 6 th fastest growing countries in the world in During the Global Economic Crisis, the Government has established various social policy measures. Amongst those policies, Short-Time Working Schemes (STWS) and its pay has particular significance for the industrial sector and its workers. Many firms could not benefit from STWS opportunity due to rigid rules and restrictions in the beginning of the crisis. Later, these restrictions have loosened because of measures against the economic crisis and consequently SWTS has become a life buoy to employers. Turkey was relatively little affected by the crisis and is continuing to grow following an inevitable one-year interruption. But Turkey has unfortunately not made progress in the area of labour market flexibility. Working hours are long and getting longer in Turkey, where labour market rigidity is the worst in the OECD. In this study, the concept of STWS in such a flexicurity is examined in connection with labour market reform, also taking into account the evolving definition of employment. First, the increasing importance of the concept of flexicurity is considered. Then, the actual situation with regard to flexicurity in Turkey, ie, practice and implementation, is examined. Third, working time reduction policies are analyzed in terms of implementation on an OECD and EU basis. In the light of these trends and STWS s experience, the situation in Turkey is examined in the fourth and final section and alternative ways of reducing working hours and their impact on employment are investigated. 16

17 Leili Laanemets. Different roles in research practice, implications for theory in social work An ideal of social work is the greatness with developing a close relationship between research and the practice of social work, preferably in combination with user participation. In Sweden has during the last years several projects and program started with this ambition. Funding has been primarily the state but also provincial and local governments / administrations. As part of a large state-funded collaborative project this here presented study with a participatory approach was conducted. The study took place in an open day care center for drug addicted women. Its main focus was creative art activities, combined with everyday interactions. The program was highly appreciated by the users and other professionals. Some 20 women were enrolled and the staff consisted of three social workers. The initiative for the study was taken by staff who contacted the researcher (me). The objective was the desire to understand and demonstrate what was active in the work and the activities performed. Together, the study was drawn up. It consisted of six focus groups with staff and users, three joint gatherings to discuss and analyze the results and their implications for the work. During the working process with the study different roles and positions were crystallized between us actors, which are the staff, the users and the researcher. What were our main interests in the program, in participating in the study and in the gained knowledge (results)? In this presentation I want to, from my position as a researcher, discuss and problematize these different roles and what implications it may have for theory in social work. Irene Levin. What happened to "the social" in social work? The discipline of social work draws from a diversity of traditions. In this paper I will focus on Mary Richmond and that of Jane Addams as representatives of two traditions differing in focus and actual practice though both including the social within their perspectives. In 1889 Mary Richmond coined the term social work in her article The settlement and friendly visiting published after her death in In her book Social diagnosis, Richmond drew from medicine to exchange a medical diagnosis with a social diagnosis in order to analyze a case. The social however was still central in her understanding even though she used the term environment to apply to the context for analyzing the client. Later Gordon Hamilton introduced person in situation as the analytical point of departure for social work and social case work. And the term social case work slowly began to disappear and eventually was replaced by case work especially in the writings of Florence Hollis from the early 1950s. The other tradition involving the use of social stems from Jane Addams work with social policy, neighborhoods, groups and individuals. For Addams the social was deeply embedded within the perspective and her actual work. Today, however, there is a tendency that social workers speak Addams but do Richmond as Carla Pinto so aptly put it (2011). The literature has focused first and foremost on the differences between Addams and Richmond. But one similarity is that both envisaged a social work with emphasis on the social. The main differences to be explored in this paper are the meanings they attached to social in their writings and practice. 17

18 Vigdis Madsen. What is meant by a holistic approach to user s challenges? A holistic approach to social problems seems to be an ideal for social work as well as for the Norwegian Labour and Welfare organisation. Therefore this is an important issue in many professional bachelor programs. Students from the bachelor programme of welfare studies were asked in an exam to explain theoretically holistic approach and further give examples: how good practice could be explained by using a holistic approach or how bad practice could be explained by lack of such practise. The students had textbooks giving them theoretical background to answer these questions. They could choose between different perspectives to explain holistic approach. There were three groups of perspectives. 1) To regard holistic approach according to the understanding of the users and social workers action: deterministic, voluntaristic, moral and dialectical. 2) Based on the dialectical understanding of action, the interaction between user and social worker seen as a tool to practice a holistic approach where both the problem-solving process and the relational climate are important. 3) Knowledge about the human being in society and the reciprocal influence between the two levels were the third approach to a holistic understanding. We expected that most students would use the third approach for a theoretical presentation because this perspective is the most common in practice research. An atomistic understanding of users needs will often result in failures for service providers, while a more holistic approach where users problems are regarded in social context, a successful result seems to be more evident. The sociologist C. Wright Mills, who died in 1962, is celebrated this year. One of his important works, The Sociological Imagination (1959), is a critique of ascendant schools of sociology in the United States at the time. The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society. (Mills 1959:6)This way of looking at the world connects private problems with important social issues, a basic holistic understanding for all kinds of social work. For this seminar it would be interesting to see how this sociological work should be important for students understanding of holistic approach. Maria Appel Nissen, Michael Hviid Jacobsen. Sociology and Social work research. Challenging knowledge about social problems. Despite differences some say substantial, others superficial in scientific traditions, one of the obvious relations between sociology and social work research can be characterized as a mutual interest in the social, and by using sociological theories and methods in the practice of research, both sociology and social work research face the challenge of understanding and explaining the social. This challenge is related to the complex forms and processes of social realities, but also to the reservoir of sociological theories. Social realities challenge sociological knowledge, and in particular when they appear to us as what we perceive as unanticipated social phenomena and/or social consequences difficult to explain. When given a sociological explanation, such phenomena can be termed social problems. Following this, another relation between sociology and social work is a mutual interest in social problems as a social phenomenon and, in particular, within social work research, as a practical problem of social action and change. The aim of our paper is to outline a potential approach to understanding the intricate relationship between sociology and social work research as a relation of knowledge constituted by a mutual interest in investigating the social, in approaching social problems as practical problems and thus facing the same challenges in terms of sociological understanding and explanation. This approach is outlined in two steps. The first is a critical reflection on the book Understanding the Social Sociology and Social Work (Jacobsen & Pringle 2008), as well as the contributions to this book. The book explores the interdependencies between sociology and social work from various perspectives 18

19 and fields of research. However, we argue that there is a need to focus more specifically on the mutual interest in social problems as a practical problem which requires sociological understanding and explanation. The second is an actual attempt to outline a sociological approach to social problems as practical problems which requires sociological understanding and explanation. This is an approach which stresses the liquid, complex, unanticipated and sometimes paradoxical forms of and shaping of social problems. Eventually such an approach will be useful for social work as a sensitive and reflective approach and guide to social problems. Werner Obrecht. Towards a general normative theory of the professional processing of practical problems The problem of the relation between theory and practice as it is understood and analysed in this contribution is the question of the role of knowledge in action and especially the role of scientific knowledge in professional action. Stated in this way, it is a general problem of the structure of professional knowledge and it involves and relates conceptual problems of two philosophical disciplines: the science of philosophy as well as praxeology. The concepts primarily involved are description, explanation (and theory), prognoses, value, practical problem, aim, plan, method and action. The answer to the question will depend on the philosophical frame of reference, within which the solution of the problem is pursued. It is proposed that a solution of the problem that meets the criteria of both of the involved philosophical disciplines mentioned, is possible only in terms of a systemist and materialist ontology, a realist epistemology and philosophy of science and within a materialist praxeology that conceives (1) action as an interaction between concrete systems at least one of which is a human being and (2) a professional action as a purposive action, that implements technological rules as a means to reach an explicit goal, a goal that is stated in terms of a trajectory of the object in question in a state space starting at present in a state that is problematic in a specified sense, and ending in a intended one at another time, that is less problematic. Sect. 1 formulates the problem as mentioned; sect. 2 discusses the ontological and epistemological concepts involved; sect. 3 is concerned with the concept of action and especially that of professional action; sect. 4 sketches the structure of general normative theory of action, which presents a structured answer to the principal question and sect. 5 presents a reflection of the obstacles in social work science, that prevented them till now from finding a sound solution to the problem of professional knowledge and action. Obrecht, W. (2009). Die Struktur professionellen Wissens. Ein integrativer Beitrag zur Theorie der Professionalisierung. Professionalität und Professionalisierung in der Sozialen Arbeit. Standpunkte Kontroversen Perspektiven. R. Becker-Lenz, S. Busse, G. Ehlert and S. Müller. Wiesbaden, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften: Obrecht, W. (1996). Ein normatives Modell rationalen Handelns. Umrisse einer wert- und wissenstheoretischen Allgemeinen normativen Handlungstheorie für die Soziale Arbeit. Symposium Soziale Arbeit. Beiträge zur Theoriebildung und Forschung in Sozialer Arbeit. Köniz, Edition Soziothek: Søren Peter Olesen. Sociological perspectives on theory and practice in employmentoriented social work The aim of the paper is to present various social scientific perspectives as regards investigating the professional challenges in the street level practice at Danish Jobcentres and to discuss the relevance 19

20 of these perspectives. The presentation and discussion is based on a recent, major multi-method study of the policies, organisation, staff and the everyday professional practice at the jobcentres. Like in other countries the Danish employment system on the one hand is centralised and characterised by a number of New Public Management trends as well as work first and work fare strategies. This is, among others, a result of the policy of the former liberal-conservative government and the implementation of a reform from 2003 called Flere i arbejde (More people into work). On the other hand, the present (since 2011) centre-left government has declared that it wants a social and employment policy, which offers a better help to cash benefit recipients with other problems than unemployment in order to make the effort more oriented towards employment and also towards the demands of the individual unemployed person. These formulations indicate that besides economic theory about the role of incentives in the social and employment effort knowledge based on sociological and social work theory and research about everyday street level practice appear as becoming of relevance. The study combines policy analysis and public administration with sociology and the practice of institutions, including institutional interaction, and methodologically register-data, survey-data and interview-data are combined with observations. One of the interesting questions would be how the combination of economic incentives with relational awareness could be interpreted. References: Rapport 1. Baadsgaard, K., Jørgensen, H., Nørup, I. & Olesen, S.P. (2011): Jobcentre og klemte kvalifikationer. Hvorfor og hvordan studere faglig praksis og kvalificering til arbejdet I beskæftigelsessystemet med kontanthjælpsmodtagere og sygemeldte. Aalborg Universitet: CARMA. Rapport 2. Baadsgaard, K., Jørgensen, H., Nørup, I. & Olesen, S.P. (2011): Praksis, krav og kvalifikationer. Jobcentermedarbejdernes erfaringer og holdninger til beskæftigelsesarbejdet, belyst ved interview I 4 jobcentre. Aalborg Universitet: CARMA. Rapport 3. Baadsgaard, K., Jørgensen, H., Nørup, I. & Olesen, S.P. (2011): Praksis og kvalifikationer set fra fronten. Jobcentermedarbejdernes erfaringer med og syn på indsats og kvalificering omkring arbejdet med kontanthjælpsmodtagere og sygemeldte. Aalborg Universitet: CARMA. Rapport 4. Baadsgaard, K., Jørgensen, H., Nørup, I. & Olesen, S.P. (2011): Mikroprocesser:Den konkrete faglige praksis i jobcentrene. Observationer af frontlinjevirksomhed. Aalborg Universitet: CARMA. Einar Øverbye. Deconstructing universalism Universalism is one of the core concepts in the social policy tradition. It is however a rather vague. The paper explores the various meanings of universalism, in particular as it is used in social policy discourses. The paper argues that social policy discourses are located simultaneously in two different language games (Sprachspiele); a political language game and a scientific language game. Universalism as a concept works differently when applied in these different language games. "Universal" is Latin word. According to Pieper (1964, 26) the concept was coined by Boethius ( ) with reference to the Platonic-Aristotelian discussion if concepts exist in themselves (as eternal universals) or only constitute labels representing particulars. Titmuss and Marshall first applied the concept with reference to social policy, probably deriving it from one of Talcott Parsons' pattern variables (universalism-particularism). Parsons suggested a set of dichotomous variables to capture what (in his view) were crucial differences in value-orientation between pre-modern and modern societies. For Parsons, universalism implies that individuals act according to values and norms that are universal in their society (for example, the universal value that all are equal before the law). This 20

21 is said to represent a "modern" mindset. Parsons contrasts this to particularism, which means that people act differently towards particular people, based on the nature of their relationship (for example, people behave differently towards their immediate family or their occupational group than towards strangers). Titmuss claimed that universal social policies were particularly widespread in Scandinavia. However, the word is seldom used by Scandinavian politicians or administrators. It was not traditionally part of the way Scandinavian ruling elites conceptualised their own policies, in particular not in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, when the majority of present-day Scandinavian welfare programs were established. The concept has to a limited extent surfaced in official social policy documents from the 1990s onwards not least because a new generation of Scandinavian politicians, where some studied social policy in the 1970s and 1980s (and encountered the concept in their curriculums), are now moving into positions, and have learned to use this label to self-characterise their particular policies. In the paper, the concept of universalism is applied with reference to the characteristics of the many Scandinavian welfare systems (since they are supposed to be among the most universal in the world), in an attempt to etch out the meaning of universalism with reference to specific social policies. Kaare Torgny Pettersen. How can Social Work with Victims of Sexual Abuse within the context of a Norwegian Incest Center be explained with the use of Thomas Scheffs Theoretical Concepts of Shame? Working with those who have experienced sexual abuse is a complicated matter because such abuse involves the violation of the victim s body and also generates shame in those involved. A more precise knowledge of how shame from sexual abuse is experienced is needed in order for helpers both to find those who are trying not to be seen because of their abuse and in order to help them rid themselves of shame as part of a healing process. This paper is based on empirical data from interviews with 19 adult men and women who speak of the shame they say they have experienced from sexual abuse as children, as parents, or as employees at a Norwegian Incest Center. Findings show that shame from sexual abuse is found in seven major categories: family, emotions, body, food, self-image, sex, and therapy. Each of these categories is discussed in the article. The study is part of a larger exploration of the concept and phenomenon of shame within the context of child sexual abuse set forth in a doctoral dissertation by Pettersen in The presentation will explain how social work with victims of sexual abuse is carried out within 20 Incest Centers in Norway and how they work with the shame from sexual abuse using elements as: respect, inclusion, positive self-evaluation, disclosure of emotions, acceptance, trust, and new life experiences. The findings are discussed within the theoretical framework of Professor in sociology Thomas Scheff. Meeting people with problems in social work, may be conceived as turning the world upside down; it means moving from being within an I-It relationship to an I-Thou relationship, and where social bonds are in focus. The way the Norwegian Incest Centers work with shame will be put forth as exemplary for social work practice in general. References: Pettersen, K. T. (2009). An exploration into the concept and phenomenon of shame within the context of child sexual abuse. Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Thesis for the degree of doctor philosophiae, 2009:184 21

22 Scheff, Thomas J., Shame and the Social Bond: A Sociological Theory. Sociological Theory, 18: Scheff, Thomas J., Shame in Self and Society. Symbolic Interaction, 2: Benoît Renevey. Mixing theory and practice in a graduation work: some considerations from a ten years long experimentation in training programs of social workers in Switzerland In Switzerland, social workers usually get trained in technical universities, also called «Universities of Applied Sciences», where they get a bachelor title. These universities offer educational programs for engineers, musicians, nurses, and other professionals such as social workers. These programs carry on six or eight semesters, and an important part of this time is being spent by students in institutions, firms, organisations, social offices, and so on, to do a kind of internship. Regularly they go back to school to take part to courses in which they get theoretical bases in disciplines like sociology, psychology, pedagogy, in which they learn methods, technologies, and so on. During their whole training period of three or four years, theory and practice are often clearly distinctive moments. But at the end of their training program, the students of Universities of Applied Sciences must carry out a graduation work. A central requirement of this graduation work is that the students must confront theoretical knowledge and experienced practice of social work. It is expected from the students that they can be able to play, on the same time, the role of a reseacher (they must produce knowledge by carrying out a scientific study of a phenomenon) and the role of a professional: this specific role is by the way being called a role of practitioner-researcher. Our ten years long surveys of this particular way of carrying out a graduation work show that the students have difficulty in working on theoretical and practical matters on the same time. It seems to be easier for them to be entirely a researcher than to be half a researcher and half a practitioner. The graduation works get systematically assessed on both sides: on the quality of the through an empirical study produced knowledge and the quality of the mobilised theoretical background; and on the quality of the considerations they are able to make about issues for the practice, from the results of their empirical studies. What we notice since ten years, is that our students are able to be very good researchers, but that they have trouble to develop considerations about the practice of social work. This is very disappointing, considering the fact that they spent a lot of time absorbed in practice during their education as social workers. In my presentation, I shall develop further these considerations and submit some explanations to understand this phenomenon. Yuan Rui. Social Exclusion and Neighborhood Support: the Experience of Empty-Nest Elderly in Urban Shangai, China The global upsurge in China s aging population is the key motivation for this research. Population aging, coupled with changing family structure as a result of the single-child policy and economic marketization, exerts a profound influence on society in China today. Its effects include the emerging focus on the empty-nest elderly (ENE) since many seniors are left alone while their adult children work or live elsewhere. Aiming at developing a conceptual understanding of how neighborhood support influence social exclusion from the perspectives of ENE in their respective socio-economic and cultural environments, this study utilized in-depth interviews to collect data from ENEs living in urban Shanghai. The present research identifies five dimensions of social exclusion ENEs are experiencing -- material resources, social relationships, civic activities, basic services, and poorly maintained accommodations. Moreover, neighborhood support has the potential to provide support including emotional, material, accompaniment, cognitive, and skills/ labor resources to reduce social exclusion risks. The 22

23 implications of the current findings for social policies and service programs to enhance the well-being of the expanding ENE population in China are discussed. Michael Seltzer and Marit Haldar. Hegemonic Tales and Subversive Stories: Chicago Sociology and Social Work Revisited A central place in the creation myth of sociological science is occupied by the world s first department of sociology established in 1892 at the University of Chicago. According to this tale, a group of reform minded men (Small, Thomas, Park, Burgess) developed theories especially focused on social problems involved with immigration and urban life. A central tenet of their theorizing was that these and related problems were to be solved through social work carried out by women schooled in sociology. In this paper, we challenge this account with a subversive story about the creation of Chicago sociology, its founding fathers and the actual theoretical and practical roles of the members of what is now known as the Chicago Women s School of Sociology. In so doing, we shall show how theories heavy on personal agency initially developed by these men and conflicting theories of social structure and the agency of class informing the social work practice of these women resurfaced in often widely differing forms during later periods in the shared history of sociology and social work. Ian Shaw. Evaluating in Practice: Interrupting, Translating and Inhabiting Qualitative Inquiry as Professional Practice (Workshop) This workshop introduces how qualitative methods can be translated and re-inhabited as part of a radically different kind of social work practice. I will address four connected problems. 1. A narrowness of conception of social work intervention possibilities, usually associated with a certain kind of interviewing that easily becomes routinized and formulaic. 2. An unhelpful because again narrowly conceived conception of the relationship between practice and research. 3. An unduly deferential conception of the relationship between social science and social work. 4. A constrained view of what is entailed in social work evaluation - typically a post hoc, evaluation-as-accountability model. First, the workshop is about practice and not about research or evaluation. The case developed will be about qualitative work as a practice task. Second, this workshop departs radically from almost all mainstream views of social work, in that evaluation is not seen as a self-contained phase of practice but as a dimension of every phase. Third, the workshop is not about the specific application of research findings to practice but about the method of inquiry and evaluation. Fourth, the workshop will work from the literature and practice of qualitative inquiry. Fifth, the workshop will not be used to advocate or describing a particular model of social work intervention. Evaluating in practice demands a set of commitments and skills of both facilitator and participants that I express as translation, counter-colonizing, interrupting and inhabiting. I will cover the participatory workshop elements through various exercises that represent the range of practice and thinking within evaluating in practice. Each exercise will illustrate the processes of translation, interrupting and inhabiting that lie at the core of evaluating in practice. (1) Arts-based; a narrative of pain and culture. A social worker draws on arts-based methods and comments that Each of the moments I describe in the narrative applies and reinforces relations of power. Participants will consider how her article illustrates these everyday acts of power, and discuss how this example enables us to think critically about (our own and others ) practice. 23

24 (2) Narrative. Bleak depression. This exercise will start by recognizing that we cannot think of social worker narratives without first realizing that service users tell stories. Using an example from Riessman ( Rick ), a relatively simple translation for evaluating in practice can be achieved by asking what do we learn about mental illness in particular bleak depression by fact that this is a narrative rather than conventional interview? (3) Ethnography. Systematic self observation. Following a briefing on the original ethnographic source, this exercise will take the form of planning to enable ourselves or perhaps students to work with service users to understand and learn about something that is a natural part of their everyday life. May-Britt Solem. Analytic perspectives for research and practice in social work Social work as a discipline acknowledges among other things the complexity of the interaction between parents and children and environment. This results in a situation-specific and situated concept of parenting. I argue that parents life experiences with regard to their specific life contexts determine their parenting practices. In that frame of reference, this means exploring how parents are living and doing parenting in varied social contexts where interactions are understood as developmental processes located in time and space. These parenting practices take place in the families everyday life, which are structured as habits, rules, principles and of events where regularities occur. Situated parenting is expressed by this day-to-day organization and change in time as the child develops. The concept guided participation focuses on the varied ways children learn as they participate in and are guided by the values and practices of their local culture (Rogoff, 2003). The analytic concepts situated parenting and guided participation must be understood in the context where these actions and interactions take place. In this paper, this comprehensive understanding of a child s life is rooted in three analytical perspectives, most relevant for social work. First of all, an ecological and interactional (sociocultural) perspective on human developmental processes (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; 2005; Rogoff, 2003) emphasizing families everyday lives. Secondly, a salutogenic perspective regarding health promotion entails focus on knowledge of human resources and of viewing individuals holistically (Antonovsky, 1979, 1987). This perspective improves our knowledge of parents and children s coping practices by promoting investigations of variations in family construction and expanding the concept of normality. Finally, social work practice and research also needs a perspective that takes into account our being in the world. Parents social and material conditions may be resources as well as hinderans in the parenting situation. I argue that the salutogenic and socio-cultural analytical perspectives are compatible with critical realism, held as a position in the theory of science. Critical realism takes into account both the influence of external environments on the functioning of families and the perspective that the social world is social constructed (Bhaskar, 1998; Houston, 2001a, 2001b). Pernille Stornæss Skotte. Exploring uncertainty in child welfare work This paper explores knowledge management and dealing with uncertainty in Child Welfare Services. Child welfare workers constantly have to establish legitimate interpretations and make decisions about children and families based on limited access to information and restricted knowledge about future prospects of their intervention or lack of such. These aspects of professional activities of child welfare workers are similar to aspects of medical practice as these are explored and understood with 24

25 use of the theoretical concept of uncertainty, developed and applied by Renée Fox from the 60 s. The application of the concept in medical sociology has been contested as not being clearly enough defined and not being grounded in the experiences and practices of medical staff. Uncertainty is an adjective often used to describe the essence of social work and child welfare practice. It is particularly frequent in discussions about the trend towards evidence based practice, both in support of and as a critique of more objective criteria for decision making. This paper discusses the usefulness of the concept of uncertainty in understanding structural aspects of child welfare practice. It explores the use of knowledge and routine in handling cases with ambiguous leads and limited information access. This discussion is based on a single case study of a Norwegian child welfare case, taking place in one child welfare office, involving several child welfare workers. Written case documents, field interviews and semi-structured interviews have been gathered over a period of one year, and have been analyzed to gain understanding of how child welfare work in this single case relate to organizational routines and different sources of knowledge in making decisions and moving the case along. My analysis indicates that uncertainty does not seem to be present in the day to day handling of the case, although the complexity of the case is acknowledged. Anne Margrethe Sønneland, Line Baagø-Rasmussen.There is no justice for the poor' - on the importance of sociology for social work in processes of transitional justice The rights of victims and survivors of human rights violations to truth, justice and reparations are contained in major human rights treaties, and strengthened in the principles of international criminal law. Recently, there has been an increased focus on redress for victims, as well as on victims' needs after suffering serious human rights violations. In this paper, we will argue that there is a need for sociology to engage with processes of transitional justice. We will also argue that social work in processes of transitional justice requires research where such aspects as class, stigma and discrimination are highlighted, in order to challenge discriminating practices and structures. Social workers are often vital actors in facilitating survivors access to rights that is frequently hampered by such discriminating structures. In other words, social workers play a key role in bridging the gap between rights in theory and their implementation in practice in processes of transitional justice. This highlights the need for thinking social work and sociology together in processes of transitional justice. The paper takes studies from Argentina and Peru as its starting point, both countries where important segments of the population were targeted by state- and political violence, and where a range of mechanisms of transitional justice are being implemented. The paper is based mainly on interviews with people affected by political violence, but also with social workers who through their work meet and support survivors of human rights violations and relatives of victims. Tony Stanley. Our tariff will rise: Understanding how risks get reified in the social work office This paper focuses on statutory social workers responding to notifications made about particular children potentially at risk. Initial responses made to these children by statutory child protective services are filtered through everyday heuristics about risk as workers reason with harm and danger probabilities. Sociology provides an explanatory framework to assist social work analyses of this risk work. The paper draws on an ethnographic research project that sociologically explored how child protection social workers discussed decision making about reported risks for children. The workers in this study tended to reify risk early on in the case as an outcome of three interrelated working practises: first, identifying risk factors in the notification, particularly if police or psychology reports 25

26 were supplied; second, paying close attention to any case history held on the child or family; and third, what supervisors had to say in the early stages of case planning. Risk is easily reified, and turned into a virtual object, something workers see as needing to be resolved in order that children are made safe. Professional judgments about risk are therefore critical decision-making points, from which intervention decisions can legitimately follow. However, this can mean harm for families through the disproportionate application of statutory power: in some cases, the unnecessary removal of children. Implications for social work practice, both in the office and in the family home, are discussed. The critical relationship between sociology and social work is illustrated. Jan Storø. A Reflective and Systematic Process. An Investigation of one Tool of the Child Welfare Worker This paper seeks to explore issues concerning the practice of the staff members of institutions of Child Welfare. In what way does the reflective side of the practice connect with the systematic side? Are these two different issues that do not connect, or can they be viewed as mutually dependent for developing practice? The complexity of Child Welfare work gives us the obligation to explore the actual practice within the field, the theory used, and, last but not least, the ways in which these interconnect. I will draw upon a model for systematic work with children and young people in a Child Welfare context, published in my last book (Grønvold & Storø 2010). I will also discuss the connection between theory and practice in this field, and suggest that staff members` practice is far more reflective than we often think of it. In my outline of this perspective, I make comparisons between the practice of the Child Welfare worker and the researcher. I suggest that Child Welfare workers can take use of concepts taken from research methodology, and still preserve the genuine characteristics of their own practice. Grønvold, E. & Storø, J. (2010): Miljøarbeid I barnevernet. Systematikk og refleksjon. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget 26

27 Index of authors A Torunn A. Ask B Margareta Bäck-Wiklund Line Bagø-Rasmussen Kari Baardseth C Fabio Cappello Wei Chen D Elisabeth Hirsch Durrett Kjell-Arne Dybvik F Helge Folkestad Amelie Fougner Ragnhild Fugletveit G Erika K. Gubrium H Marit Haldar Anne Halvorsen. Ingeborg Helgeland Nicole Hennum Mari Dalen Herland Kjeld Høgsbro M Vigdis Madsen N Maria Appel Nissen O Werner Obrecht Søren Peter Olesen Einar Øverbye P Kaare Torgny Pettersen R Benoît Renevey Yuan Rui S Michael Seltzer Pernille Stornæss Skotte Ian Shaw May-Britt Solem Anne Margrethe Sønneland Tony Stanley Jan Storø V Sabine Voélin I Mihai Bogdan Iovu J Michael Hviid Jacobsen Kari Sjøhelle Jevne K Monica Kjørstad Lise Cecilie Kleppe Seyma Ipek Kostekli L Leili Laanemets Irene Levin 27