Social work: a problem-oriented introduction

In many regions of the world the twenty-first century has started with a structure of endless challenges for social work. Social work seems to be in demand almost everywhere, from support schemes for children and young people into adulthood and on to support for elderly people, in community work in cities and rural regions, in disaster relief and in care for refugees. This book describes the field of social work – its themes, problems and methods – in the face of the concept of the second, reflexive modernisation. The question needs to be asked of how, and whether, social work's success story from the first modernity can continue. We discuss the second modernity as a time of blurring boundaries. Today, it frequently faces the problem that the organised terms of its approaches come up against a social reality where the frameworks of social life are becoming dynamic. Normalised structures are dissolving or becoming mixed with new ones; boundaries are blurring and new ones appearing.

Intro -- Contents -- 1 Normalization and Dissolution of Boundaries: Social Work at the Start of the Twenty-First Century -- 1.1 From Normalization to the Dissolution of Boundaries -- 1.2 Rediscovery of Welfare Policy and the Welfare State -- 1.3 Disembedding and Reformulation -- 1.4 From the Term "Identity" to the Concept of Agency -- 2 Critical Living Circumstances: Distress, Vulnerability and Neediness -- 2.1 Vulnerability -- 2.2 Neediness and Failure -- 3 Coping with Life as a Social Pedagogical Concept -- 3.1 The Personal-Psychodynamic Zone -- 3.2 The Relational/Intermediary Zone: Coping Cultures -- 3.2.1 Familial Coping Cultures -- 3.2.2 The Group -- 3.2.3 Organizational Cultures -- 3.2.4 The Internet -- 3.3 The Socio-structural-Socio-political Zone: The Concepts of Situation in Life and Situation of Coping -- 3.3.1 Situation in Life -- 3.3.2 Situation of Coping -- 4 The Four Dimensions of the Situation of Coping as Means of Access for Social Work -- 4.1 Dependency -- 4.2 Expression -- 4.3 Appropriation -- 4.4 Recognition -- 4.5 Situation in Life, Situation of Coping and Status as a Client -- 4.6 Excursus: The Situation in Life Approach and the Capability Approach -- 5 The Socio-Political, Socio-Ethical Perspective: Social and Generational Justice -- 6 Recommendations for Action -- 6.1 Case Assessment from the Perspective of the Coping Concept -- 6.2 Functional Equivalents -- 6.3 Empowerment -- 6.4 Social Space Orientation and Milieu Formation -- 6.5 Conflict Orientation -- 6.6 Excursus: New Spaces, Different Times? -- 7 Enablement in Light of the Blurring Life Stage Borders -- 7.1 Enabling Childhood -- 7.2 Enabling Youth -- 7.3 Enabling Adults and People of Working Age from the Perspective of Agency -- 7.4 Enabling Ageing -- 7.5 Enabling Agency during Transitions which Have Grown Unpredictable and Riskier.