Introducing International Social Work

Sue Lawrence, Karen Lyons, Graeme Simpson, Nathalie Huegler, Sue Lawrence, Karen Lyons, Graeme Simpson, Nathalie Huegler

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9781844451326
• eBook ISBN: 9781844455492
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

This book guides the reader through the international development of social work and discusses how aspects of globalisation are making it an increasingly international activity and profession. Individual chapters locate the UK population historically and currently as a multicultural community and explore the international issues that social workers in the UK confront in their daily practice with children and families, people with mental health issues and older people. This text helps students meet the academic benchmarks and National Occupational Standards that require them to locate social work practice in a European and international context.

Chapter 1

Understanding
international social work

Janet E Williams and Graeme Simpson

ACHIEVING A SOCIAL WORK DEGREE

---

This chapter will help you to become familiar with the following National Occupational Standards for Social Work.

Key Role 6: Demonstrate professional competence in social work practice.

Unit 18 Research, analyse, evaluate, and use current knowledge of best social work practice.

Unit 20 Manage complex ethical issues, dilemmas and conflicts.

Unit 21 Contribute to the promotion of best social work practice.

It will also introduce you to the following academic standards set out in the Quality Assurance Agency social work subject benchmark statement.

4. Defining principles.

4.3 (…)

• Social work is located within different social welfare contexts. (…) In an international context, distinctive national approaches to social welfare policy, provision and practice have greatly influenced the focus and content of social work degree programmes.

• There are competing views in society at large on the nature of social work and on its place and purpose. Social work practice and education inevitably reflect these differing perspectives on the role of social work in relation to social justice, social care and social order.

5. Subject knowledge, understanding and skills.

5.1.1 Social work services, service users and carers.

• the social processes (associated with, for example, poverty, migration, unemployment, poor health, disablement, lack of education and other sources of disadvantage) that lead to marginalisation, isolation and exclusion, and their impact on the demand for social work services.

5.1.2 The service delivery context.

• the location of contemporary social work within historical, comparative and global perspectives, including European and international contexts;

• the issues and trends in modern public and social policy and their relationship to contemporary practice and service delivery in social work.

5.1.3 Values and ethics.

• the complex relationships between justice, care and control in social welfare and the practical and ethical implications of these, including roles as statutory agents and in upholding the law in respect of discrimination.

5.1.4 Social work theory.

• the relevance of sociological perspectives to understanding societal and structural influences on human behaviour at individual, group and community levels.

5.1.5 The nature of social work practice.

• the place of theoretical perspectives and evidence from international research in assessment and decision-making processes in social work practice.

---

Introduction

In this chapter we explore definitions of international social work and address the question of why it is relevant to social workers. We will introduce you to themes used throughout the book such as ‘the local is global is local’, the significance of journeys and social work’s value base. We look at social work in different environments and consider the values, aims and practices each one incorporates, asking whether or not social work is the same in all parts of the world. The chapter concludes with a list of resources, policies, and the addresses of international organisations to which you can refer as you ‘internationalise’ your everyday practice.

Exploring definitions of international social work

In this section we introduce you to ways of understanding and thinking critically about international social work. International social work is not a single concept or activity, nor is there total agreement about what it is or should be. From current definitions we can identify four aspects.

1. Social work is an international profession because there is an interchange of ideas and people across the world, supported by professional international organisations.

2. Social workers engage with people affected by international events, which means they undertake internationally related domestic practice (Healy, 2001, p7), reflected in the term used throughout this book, ‘the local is global is local’.

3. The profession is required to challenge injustice by advocating for the oppressed and by influencing policy, not only locally but also internationally.

4. International practice is an identifiable element of social work because it takes place, in response to global events, through employment in international organisations such as the United Nations or the Red Cross and Red Crescent.

Healy (2001, p7) offers this definition:

International social work is defined as international professional practice and the capacity for international action by the social work profession and its members. International action has four dimensions: internationally related domestic practice and advocacy, professional exchange, international practice, and international policy development and advocacy.

Gray and Fook say that it is a social work that crosses national boundaries (2004, p630) and which focuses on:

issues of international concern (for example, the problem of refugees, or ecological issues) and/or the way these are worked with at either international or domestic levels. It can refer to social work activities that take place at a global or international level (for example, work with international level organisations). It can also include activities involving international exchanges.

An international profession

We begin by examining what we mean by social work as an ‘international profession’. An international perspective not only informs you about what happens elsewhere, but it allows you to think about your own situation differently (Cochrane and Clarke, 1993). So, internationalising your social work practice can enable you to think of ways of doing things differently in practice in a local situation.

As with all professions social work has changed and developed through the exchange of ideas, and by comparing practice and policies across national boundaries, cultures and traditions. In this way new ideas are debated, promoted and disseminated widely and the profile of the profession is raised. This occurs through international conferences, writing, research and the exchange of social worker practitioners, educators, students, service users and carers, and was marked as early as 1928 with the first international social work conference in Paris (Lyons, 1999). Many organisations support this activity at all levels, regionally and globally, including the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) and the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW).

An example of how ideas originating in one part of the world can impact in another is Family Group Conferencing, a system for supporting children. Its origins lie in the traditions of the Maori culture in New Zealand, but it has been tried and modified in several countries including England and the USA. Another example is the Patients’ Councils in mental health hospitals which were started in the Netherlands by service users and were taken up by service users in the UK.

A benefit of comparing practice and policies is that it helps us to question our own taken for granted practice. Adoption is promoted in the UK to provide children with permanence, yet in Norway, where there is a high level of investment in preventative work to maintain children with their families, adoption is seen very differently. In 2005 there were a total of 890 adoptions, of which 79 per cent were of children born overseas; 15.5 per cent were step-parent adoptions and only 5.5 per cent, just 48, included foster parent adoptions and other types of adoption (Statistics Norway, 2007). This is an example where evidence for good practice has been interpreted in very different ways. Comparative social work, however, has to be more than borrowing ideas wholesale because social work practice is a culturally specific response to culturally defined social problems; it is essentially a local activity. This means that the way we think about, or even define a problem, may differ between countries, and so do the ways we conceptualise solutions.

When we engage in comparisons we need to understand the impact of power relations and imperialism, as discussed in Chapter 2. We see that economically powerful countries, which are often referred to as Northern countries, have considerable influence over less economically developed Southern countries; this influence is evident sometimes in social work. This has resulted in social work values and practice often being linked to the liberal democratic political values of the Northern countries which focus on individual freedom. In many cultures group cohesion, centred on the family, religious organisation, community or kin, may be of greater importance than the individual. We would expect social work in these countries to focus on or be mediated by the group, in contrast to traditional practice in the UK.

Some of the examples in this chapter are from countries where practice is less well resourced, and is more community orientated, to remind us that innovative practice occurs everywhere. We have already suggested that there is no single form of social work and this is also true within Europe, as illustrated by the range of terms given to social workers. Each title refers to a specific, local meaning, approach and set of responsibilities. The title assistente sociale is used in Italy and social pedagogue in parts of central and northern Europe. For convenience, sometimes all of the different titles are grouped under the broader heading of social professional (Lorenz, 1994).

The term pedagogue is used in many European countries. It usually describes practitioners who work with children and young people (though not exclusively with these groups) and in many instances they are called social pedagogues. For English speakers the terms are very difficult to translate and reflect a different cultural and historical approach to aspects of what we would term the social work task. Social pedagogy is drawn from the concept of education in its widest sense. One of the more recent attempts to define the term has been offered by Petrie, et al. (2006) who see it as a holistic response to providing care for children and young people. In many parts of Germany and some other Central and North European countries, social pedagogues also work with elders, again using a holistic approach. Petrie et al. emphasise the whole person approach and stress the vital importance of building positive and meaningful relationships with people. The essential elements of social pedagogy, wherever it is practised, incorporate the following:

• a pedagogy of relationships – the heart;

• listening – the ear;

• a pedagogy of reflection – the head;

• a practical pedagogy – the hands.

Social pedagogy represents a different way of doing social work which is located within the educational and social traditions of mainland Europe. Although it varies in form between countries, these four principles can be found wherever it is practised.

The local is global is local

In this book we argue that international social work is everyday practice for social workers because what happens abroad impacts on the local communities where we work, hence the phrase ‘the local is global is local’. Everyone – social workers, service users and carers – is part of a global network and is touched directly or indirectly by what happens in other parts of the world. This is what we mean when we talk about globalisation. Globalisation has many different manifestations for social workers. You may be working in a team with social workers who were trained and have practised elsewhere and who were recruited to work in the UK because of a national shortage of social workers. You may have family members living elsewhere or you may be learning alongside people who were born or have previously lived elsewhere. Many of the service users and carers in your locality did not begin their lives there. All of these people have made journeys, an idea discussed further in this chapter. Your role as a social worker involves understanding the reasons for, and the impact of, their journeys.

A profession responding to international social problems

Another perspective on international social work is that we belong to a profession which concerns itself with international questions such as ecological disasters, civil war and economic deprivation. Such events trigger the mass movement of people a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Editors and contributors
• IntroductionSue Lawrence and Karen Lyons
• 1 Understanding international social work
• 2 Global is local is global
• 3 Developing an international social work perspective
• 4 International aspects of social work with children, young people and families
• 5 International perspectives on social work with people with mental health issues
• 6 International aspects of social work with elders
• 7 International aspects of social work with people with disabilities
• 8 Social work as an international profession: Origins, organisations and networks
• Web-based resources for international social work
• Glossary
• References
• Index