IMPLICATIONS OF THE REVISED GLOBAL DEFINITION OF SOCIAL WORK: PARADIGM SHIFT


This study examines the global definition of social work revised by the International Federation of Social Workers and International Association of Schools of Social Work in 2014 as an indicator of a paradigm shift in social work. The clues of such a paradigm shift are first the points which are added to the revised definition and second those which are removed from the previous one. Those that are added to the new definition are the following: social development, social cohesion, social work as an academic discipline, collective responsibility, respect for diversity, social work theories, theories of social sciences and humanities, indigenous knowledge, life challenges, and interaction between people and structures. And those that are removed from the previous definition are the following: problem solving, theories of human behavior and social systems, interaction with the environment, and intervention. The study discusses the paradigm shift under the following categories: from structures to agency, from problem based approach to solution focused one/from problems to strengths, from practice to theory, from social state to managerialism/from individual to community. It may be argued that the emphasis in the revised definition on “liberation of people”, “social justice” and “human rights” reveals that social work keeps its critical and liberationist nature despite neo-liberal political economy context and/or against it. As to the liberation of people, anti-oppression and discrimination, gender equality and human rights advocacy in general continue to be the distinguishing characteristics of social work. The change that the revised definition brought about in the relationship between social work and theory puts forth the claim that theory seizes to be a contribution to the eclectic knowledge base of social work and directly transforms the social work practice into a theoretical production. The new definiton’s identification of social work as an academic discipline, inclusion of human and social sciences in the knowledge body of social work, and more importantly highlighting the local knowledge should be evaluated as a theoretical turn in social work.


Keywords


Global Definition of Social Work, Paradigm Shift, Agency, IFSW, IASSW

Author : Emrah AKBAŞ
Number of pages: 1945-1956
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.29228/TurkishStudies.30191
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Turkish Studies-Social Sciences
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