Contextualizing disciplinary histories through the personal stories of forerunners creates compelling narratives of the craft of evolving professions. By looking to our intellectual and practitioner ancestors, we participate in a dialogue with a history that shapes our contemporary professional identities and aspirations for the future. Grounded in a decolonizing approach to social work, this article examines how the discipline shapes its professional identity and ways of knowing by centering the role of canonical founders in the social work curriculum. The global social work origin story in the curriculum often centers on Anglo-American ancestors that illustrate the development of the disciplinary boundaries of the international profession. One method of decolonizing social work epistemology at the intersection of ancestors and professional lineage could be to look to public history as a pedagogical tool in the curriculum. The article concludes by examining the use of podcasts as having the potential to decolonize the process of collecting, analyzing, and disseminating local knowledge of ancestors thus challenging the top-down approach to expert-driven epistemologies.
Needle exchange is one of the most effective public health interventions to prevent the transmission of infectious disease by injecting drug users. Despite the preponderance of scientific evidence, US federal funding for needle exchange programmes has been banned since 1988. This prohibition has resulted in the lack of a centralised policy on needle exchange and has given birth to a patchwork of diverse practices and regulations throughout the nation. This article focuses on how various local players interpreted the meaning of needle exchange through the debate on an unauthorised site in Fresno, California. In exploring a specific context, this study delineates the narratives used to outline competing views about needle exchange and to offer a snapshot of how the issue of widespread injecting drug use was handled in an impoverished and socially conservative region of the United States.
The implications of increased immigration have been at the top of the political agenda in many European countries for the past decade. The boundaries of inclusion in national welfare states are a fraught political issue provoking heated debate on the limits entitlements. Human services workers are thus often thrust into the forefront of national integration efforts by having to act as gatekeepers to social and health interventions to increasingly diverse populations in homogenously constructed welfare states. This article explores integration in the Finnish human services through an analysis of the secondary data obtained from two migrant community research projects produced by migrants themselves, a project facilitated by the author. Utilizing a narrative approach to knowledge development, the migrant researchers outlined their communities' concerns and experiences in the Finnish welfare state. By focusing on how voice and identity was narrated by the migrant researchers, this article explores the relevance of using community research methods to reveal the complexity of migrant community needs. It argues that locally based, community research has the potential to provide a more inclusionary, community-based methodological approach to migrant issues in European social work.
This work examines the social construction of migrants living with HIV/AIDS in the Finnish welfare state through the concepts of postmodern illness, social memory and human rights. Taking a qualitative approach, the study explores how narratives of AIDS have been articulated in public policymaking and social practices concerning HIV/AIDS. Through a close reading of Finnish law and health information texts, the thesis examines how the interaction between cultural practices and social structures articulated meanings and absences on the issue of migrants and HIV in Finland. In-depth interviews of people living with HIV, as well as policymakers and practitioners, are also presented. The four primary research questions are: How has HIV/AIDS been constructed as an exceptional health issue internationally and how has it emerged out of globalized trends in socio-economic development, migration, and the traditions of public health and social work? What kinds of stories have been told about HIV/AIDS and how have they been organized as narratives to emplot AIDS in global and local social and health policies? How are migrant identities and rights constructed in Finland, specifically in the intersection of legal, social and health definitions for migrants living with HIV/AIDS? What sense of cultural identity and belonging is constructed at the core of access to Finnish social and health services for people living with HIV/AIDS and how is it manifested? The dissertation first examines how the meanings of globalization and accompanying socio-economic transformations have been articulated towards the end of the twentieth century. HIV/AIDS is considered as the first disease of globalization where patterns of the pandemic mirror global inequalities. The work examines the fragmenting pressures of the neoliberal push for privatization on public health and the welfare state. It then moves on to explore the growth of transnational migration as a consequence of increasing global income inequality and structural violence, which raises new challenges to citizenship, democracy and the basis of the welfare state. Through a discussion of how the AIDS pandemic was storied, the work suggests that the public policy that emerged in the early days of the AIDS pandemic reflected the complexity of diverse narrative plots. Many of the narrative invisibilities and erasures reveal the inequalities of globalized societies on local levels. HIV/AIDS became an exceptional health issue through the common efforts of community action groups and public health professionals. Despite these efforts to construct HIV/AIDS as an exceptional disease requiring special care as well as unique prevention and harm reduction interventions, it remains highly stigmatized disease in most societies and very expensive to treat. This presents great challenges to social work with people living with HIV/AIDS. Finally, the work focuses on the local level of the global story of AIDS. Through an analysis of Finnish texts, such as newspaper articles and academic theses, as well as personal interviews, it traces the chronology and development of the Finnish epidemic. International narratives of AIDS are tied to the shaping of articulations of AIDS policy in Finland. The work moves on to explore how immigration policy in Finland is mediated through social memory. It then locates migrants in Finnish social and health law, arguing that migrants occupy an ambivalent location in constructions of equality in the Finnish social and health care system. Interviews of Finnish people and migrants living with HIV/AIDS as well as professionals and policymakers in the field are juxtaposed to explore the complex terrain of migrants social and health needs as well as the realities of social care in Finland. Through a close reading of health information material produced by AIDS agencies, the work explores the invisibility of migrants in these activities and policies of these agencies and their material. It argues that migrants access to social care can be seen as limited by the lack of recognition of their needs. The paucity of migrant stakeholders and researchers in the development of HIV/AIDS care policy and national prevention strategy can also be seen as a barrier to empowering migrant communities. The interaction between cultural practices and social structures in the Finnish welfare state tends to articulate a culturally normative consensus on care needs. The lack of acknowledgment of cultural competence as an essential element of care and professional training can be seen as articulating indirect discriminatory practices. Finally, the silence and invisibility of migrants in Finnish HIV services is considered through a reflection of two in-depth interviews with migrants living with HIV/AIDS. ; This work examines the social construction of migrants living with HIV/AIDS in the Finnish welfare state through the concepts of postmodern illness, social memory and human rights. Taking a qualitative approach, the study explores how narratives of AIDS have been articulated in public policymaking and social practices concerning HIV/AIDS. Through a close reading of Finnish law and health information texts, the thesis examines how the interaction between cultural practices and social structures articulated meanings and absences on the issue of migrants and HIV in Finland. In-depth interviews of people living with HIV, as well as policymakers and practitioners, are also presented. The four primary research questions are: How has HIV/AIDS been constructed as an exceptional health issue internationally and how has it emerged out of globalized trends in socio-economic development, migration, and the traditions of public health and social work? What kinds of stories have been told about HIV/AIDS and how have they been organized as narratives to emplot AIDS in global and local social and health policies? How are migrant identities and rights constructed in Finland, specifically in the intersection of legal, social and health definitions for migrants living with HIV/AIDS? What sense of cultural identity and belonging is constructed at the core of access to Finnish social and health services for people living with HIV/AIDS and how is it manifested? The dissertation first examines how the meanings of globalization and accompanying socio-economic transformations have been articulated towards the end of the twentieth century. HIV/AIDS is considered as the first disease of globalization where patterns of the pandemic mirror global inequalities. The work examines the fragmenting pressures of the neoliberal push for privatization on public health and the welfare state. It then moves on to explore the growth of transnational migration as a consequence of increasing global income inequality and structural violence, which raises new challenges to citizenship, democracy and the basis of the welfare state. Through a discussion of how the AIDS pandemic was storied, the work suggests that the public policy that emerged in the early days of the AIDS pandemic reflected the complexity of diverse narrative plots. Many of the narrative invisibilities and erasures reveal the inequalities of globalized societies on local levels. HIV/AIDS became an exceptional health issue through the common efforts of community action groups and public health professionals. Despite these efforts to construct HIV/AIDS as an exceptional disease requiring special care as well as unique prevention and harm reduction interventions, it remains highly stigmatized disease in most societies and very expensive to treat. This presents great challenges to social work with people living with HIV/AIDS. Finally, the work focuses on the local level of the global story of AIDS. Through an analysis of Finnish texts, such as newspaper articles and academic theses, as well as personal interviews, it traces the chronology and development of the Finnish epidemic. International narratives of AIDS are tied to the shaping of articulations of AIDS policy in Finland. The work moves on to explore how immigration policy in Finland is mediated through social memory. It then locates migrants in Finnish social and health law, arguing that migrants occupy an ambivalent location in constructions of equality in the Finnish social and health care system. Interviews of Finnish people and migrants living with HIV/AIDS as well as professionals and policymakers in the field are juxtaposed to explore the complex terrain of migrants social and health needs as well as the realities of social care in Finland. Through a close reading of health information material produced by AIDS agencies, the work explores the invisibility of migrants in these activities and policies of these agencies and their material. It argues that migrants access to social care can be seen as limited by the lack of recognition of their needs. The paucity of migrant stakeholders and researchers in the development of HIV/AIDS care policy and national prevention strategy can also be seen as a barrier to empowering migrant communities. The interaction between cultural practices and social structures in the Finnish welfare state tends to articulate a culturally normative consensus on care needs. The lack of acknowledgment of cultural competence as an essential element of care and professional training can be seen as articulating indirect discriminatory practices. Finally, the silence and invisibility of migrants in Finnish HIV services is considered through a reflection of two in-depth interviews with migrants living with HIV/AIDS.
Grounding modern social work -- Postcolonial trauma and memory work -- Confronting professional imperialism and moving towards integrative healing -- Water -- Creative expression -- Movement -- Quiet and contemplation -- Fellow creatures -- Mother earth.
Taking a new and innovative angle on social work, this book seeks to remedy the lack of holistic perspectives currently used in Western social work practice by exploring Indigenous and other culturally diverse understandings and experiences of healing. This book examines six core areas of healing through a holistic lens that is grounded in a decolonizing perspective. Situating integrative healing within social work education and theory, the book takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from social memory and historical trauma, contemplative traditions, storytelling, healing literatures, integrative health, and the traditional environmental knowledge of Indigenous Peoples. In exploring issues of water, creative expression, movement, contemplation, animals, and the natural world in relation to social work practice, the book will appeal to all scholars, practitioners, and community members interested in decolonization and Indigenous studies.
Abstract Critical race scholars in social work have underlined the importance of race. However, research in social work with older people have often bypassed analysis of the significance of race and racialisation as barriers that marginalised groups encounter due to their complex identities. The lived experiences of older racialised women in Finland are not sufficiently explored to understand how racialisation has an impact in their ageing. This article aims to address the gap in scholarship on how accumulated experiences of racism from the personal to structural levels throughout the life-course contribute to inequalities in ageing of migrant women. It investigates how older women from non-European migrant background narrate their experiences of racialisation in their everyday lives in Finland. It utilises the theoretical concepts of race, racism and racialisation to interpret the research findings. The article presents empirical findings from semi-structured interviews with twenty older women, which were analysed using a thematic analysis. The article concludes that it is key to recognise racism and its ramifications for ageing migrants in structures beyond the personal level. This study sheds light on the need to better understand the structural inequalities, intersecting identities and the lived experiences of older racialised women to promote social justice.
