Sociology of Social Work

Teacher(s)

Franssen Abraham (compensates Merla Laura); Merla Laura;

Language

French

Main themes

- Main paradigms, theories and concepts of the sociology of social work. Key-words: "social-assistance", cultural model, ideologies, system, image of the subject ; - History and historicity of social work: " métamorphoses de la question sociale " (R.Castel), " invention du social " (J. Donzelot). Key-words : social question, exclusion (production of -) , - Characterization of the contemporary evolutions of the "social-assistance" sector : Key-words : from the Institution to the systems, Social Active State, subjectivation, responsibility, territory, network, risks management, supervision of the intimate ; - Analysis of the construction of the profession and of professional identities in the field of social work. Key-words: professionalisation, role, identity tensions ; - Micro-sociological analysis of the "assistance" relation. Key-words: interaction, social actor, trick ; - Analysis of the social subjected's modes of identity construction . Key-words: shame, relational management, recogni-tion.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	- To master the main classical and contemporary paradigms, theories and concepts for the analysis of social work ; - To put social work practices in their general and historical context and to characterize contemporary systems (Active Social State) - To be able to analyse systems and social work practices a) making a distinction between, and articulating, macro, meso and micro levels of analysis ; b) according to the institutional (public policies entry) and "praxeological" ap-proaches (agents and the public entry) ; c) according to the sequential approach (upstream: the construction of categories of intervention, downstream: analysis of the effects) - To master and be able to put into practice evaluation criteria (including social and political philosophy) for policies and practices of social work ; - To have the knowledge and access to resources to locate oneself in the field of social work in Belgium, with elements of comparison with European (France, UK) and North-American models. - To appropriate theoretical concepts and methodological tools for the understanding of the social worker and its publics' personnel history and construction of identity.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Content

Poverty is first and foremost the result of a process of political, social and mediatical construction and categorization which leads to the designation of social categories considered as marginal, and which defines the " appropriate " treatment (sanc-tion or help…), and distinguishes " good " and " bad " poors. For a few years, the " Social Active State " vocabulary has imposed itself for the legitimization of new modes of State inter-vention, increasingly based on encouragement measures and systems of follow-up encouraging the activation of social beneficiaries (unemployed, social assisted). The leading questions will be the following: -How are social policies constructed ? How do images of "good" and "bad " poor evolve ? What are the ideological divisions on the Active Social State ? - Which normative transformations affect social work professionals ? How do they impact on their professional roles and identities? How do they react to recompose their roles and identities (individually and collectively, discursively and practi-cally)? - What are the modes of identity management of one's social experience ? How do people construct themselves as subjects when they are " subjected " ? Pedagogically, each lecture will include a detailed report on a selected theme, based on existing research on public policies (social policies, " prevention and security " policies, criminal law policies) and on their conse-quences for their operators and beneficiaries. The lecture will also rely on the analysis of documents, visual or written, and of research material (interviews, observation reports) submitted to the students.

Evaluation methods

The evaluation will rely on the making of a personal work. The students will be asked, individually or in sub-groups, to analyse a concrete system in the field of social work, in relation to the catego-ries of analysis and of questioning described in the course. This work will be subject to a first oral presentation by the student, allowing a critical discussion and a formative evaluation. The formative and certificative evaluation will be based on explicit criteria of (i) quality of the sys-tem description, (ii) of conceptual mastery and (iii) of reasoning coherence. - A synthetic syllabus including the structure of the course and theoretical contributions; - A portfolio of readings, constituted of texts of reference, will serve as a basis or as an illustra-tion for the presentation. Students may be requested to prepare the texts' reading and analy-sis; - A portfolio of illustrative and iconographical material.

Bibliography

• Un syllabus synthétique reprenant la structure du cours et les apports théoriques
• Un portefeuille de lecture, constitué de textes de référence

Teaching materials

• Un syllabus synthétique reprenant la structure du cours et les apports théoriques
• Un portefeuille de lecture, constitué de textes de référence

Faculty or entity

PSAD