Abstract

In the context of a study conducted in Brazil on the impact of the “Bolsa Família” Transfer Program reflections on the analysis and evaluation of social work interventions have emerged. In light of these considerations, it is imperative that social work interventions be evaluated in accordance with their capacity to address the client's needs, which are to be understood as always situated within the client's individual perspective. The findings that inform this assumption were made possible through the application of a biographically open approach. In particular, the ana-lytical distinction between interpretation and experience allowed to monitor the practical effects of the measure on the living conditions of the beneficiaries.

Keywords

Bolsa Família-Program; impact; intervention; needs; biographical case reconstruction; capabilities

Abstract
This article examines the concepts of participation and empowerment, confronting the relationship between social workers and their clients together with the self-conception of social work practice by offering reflection questions. These are grounded in the historical roots of the concept of citizenship and placed within the broader context of contemporary developments, including the activating state and theories of governmentality. At the end stands the task to transfer these questions into practice and to learn from such reflection. For achieving this goal, tools from political education are presented.

Keywords
Participation; Empowerment; Citizenship; Political Education; Social Work; Activating State; Justice; Self-Empowerment

Abstract

The article addresses the question of what contribution ethnography can make to interventi-on-theoretical considerations in relation to gender-reflected work in nursery schools with children up to three years of age. To this end, selected ethnographically collected sequences of children's experiences of conflict are presented and discussed. Furthermore, methodolo-gical dilemmas in this hitherto little recognised field of research are discussed.

Keywords

Ethnography; nursery school; peers; (un)doing gender

Abstract

The article discusses the impact of social policy on the living conditions of informal cares from the perspective of care. It will do so by analysing the impact of Pflegegeld (care allowance) and Familienpflegezeit (family care time) on informal carers' scope of action based on empiri-cal data. It will thereby show how informal carers with ample financial resources benefit from such policies while others remain in precarious living conditions. The article will conclude with discussing general principles of social policy within informal care settings.

Keywords

Informal carer; social policy; gender; living conditions; relative care

Abstract

At the action level, relational work is the backbone of social work. A qualitative study leads to a lived understanding of intervention in practice. Professionals were asked to reflect on their principles and experiences working with homeless young adults living in severe exclusion. Their social lives are particularly fragile, and many clients have relationship problems. In this context, the interviewed social workers act with a strong presence and socio-political profes-sional understanding to stimulate self-empowerment through relationship work.

Keywords

Relationship work; bottum-up process; ethnographic attitude; concept of intervention; young homeless; professional identity

Abstract

This article brings out excerpts from the participatory transfer research process in the pilot transfer project "Versorgungsbrücken statt Versorgungslücken" (Supply bridges instead of supply gaps). Transfer research activities are discussed in terms of their chances and limitations in cultivating an intended second-order disturbance in organizational contexts. In doing so, they enable meaningful access to both existing and hidden heterotopias of everyday life and, in the differentiation between transfer processes, products and strategies, provide impulses for socially relevant conflicts and conflict resolution potential.

Keywords

care research; care work; ethnography; organizational transfer learning processes; research transfer; social innovations; spiritual care; transdisciplinary

Abstract

In this article, narrative (individual or family) diagnosis and reconstructive case understanding are proposed as a way to recognize, to methodologically design, and to reflect on the interaction process between social work professionals and addressees as a component of social inter-vention - in a sense, to understand social intervention research as a case-related research practice.

Keywords

narration; diagnosis; dialogue; self-understanding; understanding others; case understanding; reconstruction; exploratory practice;  intervention

Abstract

Referring to current research projects on gender*knowledge formation, the article focuses on the researchers who are trying to develop participatory research claims of a mutual pro-duction of knowledge at the interface of university and professional practice of social work. It is reconstructed how researchers articulate their research claims in the research situation and thereby are testing a reciprocal gender*knowledge production. Powerful orders of knowledge can be identified as pitfalls.

Keywords

Abstract Instructing Professionals; Accompanied practical phases; Co-productive gender knowledge formation; Participatory research claims; Interrelation of knowledge; The inter-face of University and professional practice; Reciprocal Understanding; Knowledge hierarchies

Abstract

The article presents selected results of the DFG-funded research project "Child Protection Careers". The empirical basis consisted of 5000 case files of a multi-professional diagnostic facility, 900 corresponding case files of a youth welfare office and nine biographical inter-views. The study reconstructed not only the complexity of case histories and the influence of structural framing and professional action concepts on them, but also their significance for the children's biography.

Keywords

File analysis; biographical Interviews; case courses; child protection; interinstitutional cooper-ation; multiprofessional cooperation; crisis intervention

Abstract

Based on some observations in social work practice and education, the thesis is put forward that social work has so far not progressed beyond the stage of a "proto-profession". Accord-ing to a further thesis, this is connected to the fact that the science of social work is also in the stage of a "proto-science". Against this background, intervention research and the relat-ed development of a systematic (consolidated) professional body of knowledge are consid-ered to be of outstanding importance. Research and development as an alternative designa-tion of intervention research forms the central dynamic element with which such a corpus of knowledge could be built. In order to get there, however, a joint effort of science and prac-tice of social work is needed - or in other words: a "learning profession" is required.

Keywords

Intervention research; technological knowledge; professionalization of social work; social work science; professional knowledge base

Abstract

Even senior citizens (60+) experience intimate partner violence. Until now especially the el-derly found it difficult to access existing intervention and support systems and are barely accommodated by them. This leads to a care gap as well as a gap of justice for elderly women and men in question. Starting point of our research project, which was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, were (international) research findings pinpointing the need for low-threshold support services to fil this gap. In cooperation with three local practice partners, we have been examining the question of whether volunteer guides in the senior/health/integration area can reach this target group more effectively, and make it easier for those affected to access the help system in a low-threshold aid setting. Following the principles of feminist practice research, i.e. dialogical participation we were involved in a tight field of tensions and conflicts because of emerging contradictory requests and expectations between scientists and practitioners. Referring to insights of the research process and crucial findings, this article aims to illuminate and critically reflect equally on the chances of gaining knowledge and the potential of conflicts of feminist practice research.

Keywords

Intimate partner violence of senior citizens; care gap; advancement of the profession through low-threshold aid setting; successful outcome of practical as intervention research

Abstract

The VISION-RA practice research network experiments with forms of enlightenment of interactions between professionals of (community) psychiatry and psychiatrically experienced users of their services with the aim of promoting recovery-supporting working alliances. The understanding of intervention, which is the basis of this enlightenment aimed at the relationship itself, is presented, as well as the methodology and the first findings in this regard.

Keywords

Recovery; working alliance; enlightenment

Abstract

Social intervention usually takes place as a personal service in an organizational framework. Since intervention can be understood as a form of "control", the problem of "double control" arises, i.e. the (controlling) intervention itself is controlled within the organization. This regularly results in distortions that must be the subject of research if “intervention” is not to be conceived one-dimensionally. Research into social interventions often faces the problem of mediating between theory and practice, which must be approached in the sense of “critical theory”.

Keywords

Social service; Co-Production; Service technology; practical ideology; professional knowledge; double control