Описание: Foreword by Charlotte Williams
1989 as a key moment in the development of international dimensions of social work
Walter Lorenz
Communist ideology had denied the existence of social needs and hence suppressed pre-existing forms of social work, which, before in CEE countries, had often developed through international and European exchanges among pioneers. The political hiatus and the newly emerging opportunities for implementing personal social services raises the fundamental question if and in what form social work is needed against this historical background. Reflecting on these developments on the basis of the authors early participation in exchanges after 1989 demonstrates social works embedding in political processes. The chapter explores how cross-national exchanges can give insights into the extent to which social work can be scientifically neutral and hence universally valid, and the extent to which part attention to cultural, historical, and political specificities plays. They can thereby stimulate a constructive confrontation of social work with national and international politics so that solidarity based on rights is promoted through person-centred interventions.
Beginning anew - Social Work Education in the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution
Oldrich Matousek, Zuzana Havrdova
Changes in Czech social work education after 1989 were radical and partly influenced by ideas and practical proposals by Western colleagues. However, new concepts and changes in institutions had to confront prevailing values, habits, and normative expectations in the local and national context. Examples demonstrate how the cultural background and collective memory in the country filtered, modified, and integrated the new influences. The changes manifested themselves on several levels -- some were the result of planned institutional changes in education since social work education was clearly located in universities, which opened up research. Others were the more subtle result of attitudes and behaviour patterns by social workers and teachers, which were influenced, more or less, by having lived under different political conditions. This line of analysis focuses particularly on selected major topics in social work education that were discussed in the newly founded Czech Association of Social Work Education.
Nurturing opportunities to advance the European values in specific social and health service contexts -- examples from the Czech Republic
Matěj Lejsal, Zuzana Havrdovб
The success of introducing so-called European values, which also constitute basic social work values, in Czech social service contexts depended greatly on pre-existing values and on those habits and institutions that developed newly after 1989. Each ideal based on specific values requires its embodiment under actual conditions, which promote the realization of some while blocking others. This chapter focuses on two examples where opportunities for introducing social work values in newly developing fields were nurtured through networking and successfully defended against blocking forces. The selected example projects are palliative care in homes for elderly persons and professional supervision in social work. In these examples, the authors picture the multilateral forces, cultural, institutional, legal, and human, which were in action while the European values were being advanced, and draw conclusions for current transformation processes in European societies.
After the divorce -- social work in Slovakia since the peaceful separation of Czechoslovakia
Peter Brnula, Ladislav Vaska
After the divorce of Czechoslovakia, the assumption that the common history would set approximately the same pace and directi
