Karen H. Lyons, Terry Hokenstad et al. (Eds.): Sage Handbook of International Social Work
Reviewed by
Prof. Dr. Ute Straub, 2014-12-30
Translated from German version by Claudia Mehlmann
Karen H. Lyons, Terry Hokenstad, Nigel Hall, Manohar S. Pawar (Eds.):Sage Handbook of International Social Work. SAGE Publications, Ltd (London) 2012. 564 pages. ISBN 978-0-85702-333-9.
There is a detailed German review for this work. Read here
Subject
Social work is increasingly influenced by global developments and many fields of practice arising in the context of transnational activities and international mobility, this refers to professionals as well as recipients.
Thus international social work as a concept and approach of social work is becoming more and more important, which is reflected by the growing number of relevant manuals (more on this in section discussion).
Formation background
The background for this English publication is a request of the Sage Publishing House to publish a handbook on international social work. In addition to the idea, to let as many experts as possible have their say, which resulted in a participation of more than 50 authors, it was the editors“ concern, to put teams together on the various topics: this should be done internationally on the one hand, on the other thematically acknowledged and less relevant known authors should cooperate in tandem. These self-imposed guidelines could be complied with although not consistently, but show an effort to include as many expert opinions and perspectives as possible. The editors agree, that they are not able yet to create a final definition or even work through all relevant issues. However, an attempt is made in the introductory chapter to work out at least a minimum consensus.
Editors
The editors Karen Lyons, former school social worker, now emerita professor of the London Metropolitan University, Manohar Pawar, professor of social work at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, North South Wales, Australia and president of the Asia-Pacific section of the International Consortium for social development, and Nigel Hall, senior lecturer at the School of Social Work, Kingston University, London, and representative of the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IFWS) in a wide variety of contexts, are absolut luminaries of the international social work. Terry Hokenstadt is known above all for his Board activities in the IASSW and national associations. Nathalie Hügler is a social worker from Germany and writes her doctoral thesis at the London Metropolitan University dealing with separated children in a comparison Germany-UK.
Structure
The handbook is divided into five sections:
1. Concepts, Processes and Values
2. Professional Contexts
3. Key Issues for Social Work internationally
4. Life-Course Perspectives
5. Regional Perspectives
The first four sections are more topical and less comparatively oriented, the last section is geographically devided by continents/regions.
Each section (with an introduction) and each of the 30 chapters are independent units, so that the readers can - so the editors – select according to their interests in view of the plethora of issues.
At the end of the book those subjects are taken up in six appendices which had the most references in the single chapters. Here we find (critical) remarks on the three basis papers of the international umbrella organisations International Federations of Socialworkers (IFSW) and International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) regarding the global definition of social work (unfortunately not the new version of 2014), the ethical principles and the training standards. A fourth appendix illustrates the structures of the United Nations, a fifth of human rights and the sixth is devoted to the Millennium Development Goals. A register in which keywords and persons are summarized, facilitates the search.
The objective of the manual is to address social issues with an international dimension. International organizations, conventions, and political developments are analysed which have an impact on regional, transnational, and national/local social realities. Last but not least we need to question and illustrate the concept of „International Social Work“ (ISA), which has remained vague despite its long history. Space, time, and diversity can be defined as determining comprehensive dimensions. The main contextual factors and environmental disasters, global economy, and international relations as well as demographic factors and migration are named.
The first introductory section consequently focuses on the orientation: the different concepts discussed so far by ISA and their representatives are summarized and compared. The ISA related terms such as globalization and indigenization, global North and South, as well as constructs such as ethnicity (race), culture, and religion are placed in the context of the dimensions of diversity, values and power relations in the international social work.
One specification by the editors was to bring diversity and anti-oppressive practice not as a separate topic, but to provide them as cross-cutting issues for all contributions.
Selected content
One chapter should be selected from each of the five segments and be explained briefly – a subjective choice, but based on the fact that those topics are chosen which are less common in the local professional debate.
The following topics are discussed in the section Concepts, Processes, and Values:
· Globalisaton and Indigenisation:
· Reconciling the Irreconcilable in Social Work;
· Environment and Sustainability;
· Human Rights, Poverty, Development and Social Justice und Migration, Minorities and Citizenship.
Dominelli is attempting to reconcile the ostensibly irreconcilable, namely globalization and indigenization, with each other (Lena Dominelli: Globalisaton and Indigenisation: Reconciling the Irreconcilable in Social Work, S.39-55). She takes a critical look at the concept of indigenous social work and tries to locate the position of the social workers - also pointing far beyond the dual mandate – between the conflicting demands of calls for liberation and self-determination, heterogeneous interdependencies, and global homogenization. She sees the relevance of indigenous social work in locally specific and culturally relevant concepts being generally transferable. She also notes a growing influence of these approaches into the mainstream of social work. An indication of this assumption is the inclusion of indigenous social work as theory-generating concept in the new global definition of Social Work of the IASSW and the IFSW.
The section Professional Contexts deals with
· Politically and Organisational Contexts of Social Work Internationally;
· Social Work Theories, Research/ Methods and New Challenges;
· Social Work Values, Ethics and Professional Regulation;
· Social Work Education: The International Dimension und Social Work Research.
Badwall and Razack set social work in the context of Critical Whiteness (Harjeet Badwall and Narda Razack: Social Work Theories, Research/ Methods and New Challenges, S.136-149). This approach evolved from the research on racism and anti-racist commitment and places the exclusionary/privileged (the white subject) instead of excluded (people of color as objects) in the center of the discourse, where the contrast black-white is metaphorically used. The „white subject“ is defined as „virtuous, moral and free“ and the perspective that „helping, caring and empathy“, the (benevolent, well-intentioned) professional obligations of social work reproduce post-colonial attitudes from this perspective is worth pondering. This „virtuous“ social work is described in a comparison of the historical philanthropic approaches in Hull-House and the Settlement Movement. While Mary Richmond through her assessment – based on the medical/diagnostic process would have exactly those views of the „re-education“ of individuals in accordance with „white“ values, the approach of Jane Addams would have been social reformist and empowerment-oriented. Here are the origins of the different development of social work in a clinical psychotherapy or a system-theoretical strand. Altogether the contribution to the theory foil of Critical Whiteness continues to point out the link between social work and post-colonial attitudes.
The section Key issues for Social Work in an international context is dedicated to
· Social Work, Economic Conditions and Livelihood;
· Social Work and Health;
· Social Work and Education;
· Social Work, Social Justice and Protection: A Reflective Review;
· Social Work and Changing Environments;
· Social Work, Religion, Culture and Spirituality;
· Disaster Management and Humanitarian Action und
· Social Work, Political Conflict and Displacement.
Here the aspect social work and religion/spirituality will be discussed (Michel L. Shier und John R. Graham: Social Work, Religion, Culture and Spirituality, S.279-293). Shier and Graham deal with several aspects of this ambivalent relationship: charity has its basis in religious motifs, professional social work is seen as renunciation of it toward secular professionalism and social science. On the other hand, there are, for example, currently many religious communities (from the Pentecostal to the Islamic brotherhoods), who take care of the social. Another aspect is that indigenous or colonized groups often had support systems led by spirituality, which were not perceived by the Western social work, were discredited or suppressed. Basic is the assumption that religion and spirituality can often play a role for the recipients of social work in their individual and collective identity, as well as in socio-cultural interactions. The authors advocate for greater consideration of this area in research, teaching and practice not only in the context of diversity and intersectionality, but also as an independent subject.
The section CV perspectives ranging from family, childhood and adolescence, adulthood to older people. Rock, Karabanow and Manion focus on childhood and youth in the international context. (Letnie Rock, Jeff Karabanow and Kathleen Manion: Childhood and Youth in International Context: Life-course Perspectives, S.323-357). This chapter shows how the understanding of childhood in the Global North affects the concepts of (diferently lived childhood) in the developing countries. It is emphasized that, e.g. street children are to be classified not as people with deviant behaviour, but as „workers“ in many countries. Other topics include supporting children after natural disasters and children, who are affected themselves or through the loss of their parents from HIV/AIDS. Child soldiers are a group that unfortunately is not recorded. (UN) children„s rights will be discussed, including whether children will be awarded the same rights as adults, or whether it was contrary to the idea of childhood, that children should be granted the right to receive support, but not the rights of freedom. An essential aspect is that children are indeed recognized as worthy of protection, but at the same time promoting their resilience should be in the forefront.
The section on the Regional Perspectives contains essays on social work in Africa, South and East Asia, Australasia, Europe, Latin America, North America and the Caribbean and the Middle East. Latin America (Mahia Saracostti, Taly Reininger and Henry Parada: Social Work in Latin America, S. 466-479) is therefore pointed out, because on the one hand there is a independent, long-standing social work, whereas the continent is only marginally represented in the IASSW, namely with only two universities. (Africa 23, Europe/Midle East and North Amerca/the Caribbean each 81, Asia/the Pacific 202; IASSW-Presentation in Melbourne 2014). In retrospect, the different stages of development of social work are presented, which can be exemplary for Social Work in former colonies. In the first phase since the opening of the first school in Chile 1925 social work was clinically oriented and influenced strongly by Europe. „Traditional“ Social Work in the 1940s and 1950s was under the positivist influence of the United States, that focused on the individual. The movement of „Reconceptualisacion“, critical towards the former, developed an approach that brought ethical and political dimensions of social work throughout Latin America into discussion, looking for approaches that would meet the needs of the region and its specific problems, including the idea that a revolutionary change would be a prerequisite. Community- and grass-roots-oriented approaches were developed – and this interestingly is the opposite direction from the global South in the North – and also discussed in Europe. The dictatorships between 1964-1989 put an end to the movement. Altogether social work is still much more oriented towards social change than in most other regions. Although one of the outstanding issues is the gap between the theoretical-analytical and practical intervening representatives of the profession.
Discussion
This handbook is not necessarily a competitor to other manuals of this type, because the most handbook authors are included. Karen Lyons (International Social Work: Themes and Perspectives von 1999) and Manohar Pawar (International Social Work: Issues, Strategies and Programs from 2006, along with David Cox, second edition at Sage 2012, ) act as co-editors and Lynne Healey (International Social Work: Professional Action in an Interdependent World, second edition 2008, along with Rosemary Link, editor of anthology Handbook of International Social Work: Human Rights, Development, and the Global Profession von 2011) is on the advisory board. Natalie Hügler published together with Karen Lyons the anthology emanating from UK relations (Introducing International Social Work, 2009).
This shows that even in the area of international social work there exists an inner circle, with all advantages and disadvantages, issues referring to inclusion and exclusion.
But what distinguishes the handbook now from all the others? On the one hand, there are the efforts to include also less well known authors (see above). Secondly more clearly than in other publications critically discussed topics such as indigenization, Critical Whiteness, professional imperialism and hegemony of the English language are included (so it is pointed out that „social GRRAACCES“, ie gender, race, religion, age, ability, class, culture, ethnicity, education, sexuality, language needs to be added as a feature of diversity). It should be noted also that diversity and anti-oppressive practice are incorporated as cross-cutting issues. And the effort to not report about the regions but as authentical as possible from them should be recognized.
Conclusion
This handbook is interesting for German/European readers because many issues from the international professional discussions are addressed, which have not yet really reached us.
Review by
Prof. Dr. Ute Straub
Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences
Fachbereich 4: Soziale Arbeit und Gesundheit
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