Klaipėdos universitetas

The present paper states that social work constitute at same time a political economy and a critical science. The presentation offers some alternative approaches to social work. Current social work faces resource inequality, vital inequality and existential inequality. These inequalities stem from structural and qualitative societal changes due to an aging population, long-term unemployment, globalization, technology developments, production advances, political conflicts as well as to individualization issues in the society. Consequently, social work’s old research approaches and practical strategies are now ineffective. Social work faces a crisis and must endure a “paradigm shift” to return to its standard science practice. By means of a new paradigm, it is possible to arrive at a novel type of ontopraxeology, at a different ontological and practical understanding of social work, which per se is poor in emphasizing personal service along with its ethical and moral aspects. Problems may be simplified and targeted at individuals and families, at the same time when social and individual lives become more complex. Hereafter, social work must perceive itself as an economic factor as well as a societal resource with political characteristics. By solving conflicts and increasing trust, social work increases social capital and furthers equality.

In this article the efforts of social workers to promote inclusive practices in children day care centres is analysed. Changes in education based on life-long learning culture require active and conscious participation of parents in child’s education process. However, this participation becomes overburden if family is socially excluded because of the deviant lifestyle or poverty. Indeed, practical observations together with results of the studies reveal that the collaboration between social professions, which aim to implement child welfare and parents is insufficient. In order to help these families children day care centres were established. The aim of the article is to reveal how social workers construct professional help with parents on the purpose to help overcoming child’s issues at school. The study is based on hermeneutical methodology. During Soviet period development of child’s skills belonged to the educational institutions outside the family. Research participants still struggles for the ownership of these developments, pushing neglectful parents aside. The research revealed that within transformation process social workers adapts the forms of professional posture, however, the content of their performance is inherited from the past experiences and historical development.

This study discusses discursive representations of the inclusion of people with disabilities. Analysing discourses was conducted in the third phase of the author’s mixed-methods study. The study participants lived in a municipality in Northern Finland and were receiving personal assistance services for persons with disabilities. In the analysis results, the participants did not discuss inclusion in their everyday life using formal inclusion-related concepts. Neither did social workers when writing about the participants in their service plans. The findings illustrate how the everyday discourses usually present the inclusion of people with disabilities through and after first representing their exclusion. Representing inclusion of people with disabilities is vague, however dynamic, as representing could eventually lead to the inclusion in the use of language.