URBAN SOS: Towards a transdisciplinary, inclusive, sustainable future
Traditionally, social work has focused on social issues originating from different processes of modernity, especially those related to urbanization and industrialization. One of the main historical roots of the profession is the use of methods to help people and communities flourish as well as to question unfair structures
Social workers—especially through the social settlement movement—have been involved in dealing with social challenges in urban areas since the late 1800’s, however, few social workers or other social services professionals today are educated to understand, analyze and act on the specific urban dimensions of social challenges and conflicts.
Over the years, the methods of casework and community work have become central to the social work profession and our focus has moved away from examination of the wider social and societal structures.
We are seeing an increased individualization of social problems and social policies that focus more on workfare than welfare. In the Netherlands, this development has been called ‘the participation state,’ in Denmark ‘the competition state,’ in Finland ‘the wellbeing state,’ and in Belgium ‘the active welfare state’.
Our framework seeks to address this weakness, rests on the roots of emancipatory and critical social work, and draws from multiple academic disciplines such as geography, sociology/economics/political science and anthropology.
It is based on theories from these disciplines, which are not commonly used in social work. It is multidisciplinary in nature because the challenges we are facing are multifaceted. It brings together perspectives from these different disciplines to help workers become more place-sensitive.
We believe this framework can be used in different social services disciplines as an aid for locating power inequalities in service provision as well as areas where advocacy is needed. Traditionally, social work has focused on social issues, which have appeared due to different processes of modernity, such as urbanization and industrialization.
The Urban SOS project came about to provide academics, social work students and professionals in the field with a theoretical and analytical framework based on solid research data, which can be used to identify and question unfair policies, or structures, which get in the way of individual, community, and societal prosperity.
The framework is needed to help us counterbalance, and be critical of, the very individualized, neo-liberal (economic), and goal oriented/evidence based thinking that has dominated social work and social services provision in the European welfare states. Our ambition is to revive and reinforce already existing theory and methods such as advocacy and activism, which historically have been effective in the struggle for creating more socially just cities—in any given national or local context.