G Roets
Biographic Data
| ID | 18352 |
|---|---|
| NAME | G Roets |
| GIVEN NAMES | G |
| FAMILY NAME | Roets |
| SIGNATURE | ROETS G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ghent University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0746-998X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 106 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 362 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 106 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Gender-responsive addiction treatment
The revival of food support as an anti-poverty strategy
Armoede en sociale ongelijkheid vormen een centrale uitdaging voor de sociale rechtvaardigheidsaspiraties van diverse Europese samenlevingen, en het sociaal werk is historisch sterk betrokken bij deze strijd tegen armoede en sociale ongelijkheid. In de praktijk zijn de rationales van sociale bescherming en sociale zekerheid, verankerd in welvaartsstaatori & euml;ntaties, echter steeds verder naar de achtergrond verschoven. Dit weerspiegelt zich i…
Realizing Rights in the Shadow of the Welfare State
This urban ethnography examines state-led social work's role in engaging precaritized migrants experiencing homelessness within Northern and Western European welfare states. These migrants navigate constrained access to social rights while contending with intersecting forms of class- and race-based discrimination. Integrating the concepts of precarity and social work as a human rights-based profession, the study focuses on outreach social workers…
Examining social identity transition from a relational perspective
Creating a space for human flourishing
status: Published online
(Dis)placement in Youth Care
This research article focuses on young people's lived experiences of displacement in youth care and investigates how social work might counter the dynamics and experiences of displacement in this context. Researching the potential role of social work in residential youth care accordingly shows how young people's right to youth care can be realized while embracing their lifeworld. We build on research insights emerging from a qualitative case stud…
In Search of Reflexive Approaches to Risk in Residential Youth Care
There is a growing body of critical social work research that calls for alternative and more reflexive approaches to dealing with ‘risk’ in the domain of child protection and welfare. This paper responds to this call by proposing rhetorical studies as a fruitful theoretical and methodological perspective to examine the constructed, contested and discursive nature of risk and risk‐based professional practice in youth care. Our contribution is base…
Uncovering the everyday resistance of homeless precaritized migrants through homemaking practices
sponsorship: This study is part of the TRAHOME project, a four-year research initiative (2020-2024) funded through the BRAIN-be 2.0 research program by BELSPO (Federal Public Planning Service for Science Policy) aimed at studying homelessness in Belgium. (BELSPO (Federal Public Planning Service for Science Policy), TRAHOME project)
What do we talk about when we talk about leisure? Conceptualising leisure through the lived experiences of vocational pupils
By adopting a unique approach that allowed participants to define leisure from their own perspective, this study employed semi-structured and photo-elicitation interviews to gain a deeper understanding of how young people from vocational education perceive and conceptualise leisure. The analysis revealed four crucial elements that are essential for experiencing leisure: (1) perceived freedom, where individuals have control over their time and act…
From (in)dependence to interdependence
The concept of agency in substance use recovery remains contested, positioned between deficit-based models emphasizing dependence and recovery paradigms highlighting personal strengths and capacities. However, the latter approach has faced criticism for individualizing responsibility, overemphasizing independence, and promoting normative notions of citizenship. This is particularly visible in the context of recovery without treatment. Commonly re…
The Un/Deserving Child
Child poverty remains a complex social problem in Western societies. In the context of the complex historical transformation of the institutional welfare state framework in Belgium, we discuss a qualitative study on the welfare rationales of a philanthropic foundation for children in extreme poverty situations. Our exploration of the perspectives of the foundation's social partners and administrators shows how a discursive distinction between un/…
Advancing scholarship on rural social work in China
A search of literature spanning 2000-2019 located 45 articles on rural social work in China in peer-reviewed international and Chinese journals, showing that this was an emerging area of research and scholarship. To explore the nature of, and enrich the knowledge base on, rural social work in China, this paper reports on an exploratory study that involved interviews with Chinese researchers (n = 11), who had published on the topic. Thematic analy…
Revealing the freedom of movement of youngsters in residential youth care
Recent research shows the relevance of a socio-spatial citizenship climate in residential youth care to shift the focus from youngsters as objects of care due to their challenging behaviour to youngsters as citizens in their own right who give meaning to the various circumstances in their everyday lives. A socio-spatial citizenship climate acknowledges the synergy between residential youth care and the wider living environment, as residential you…
Institutional pedagogy and the transformation of residential care for, and with, disabled citizens
In this article, we build upon a historical and critical analysis of de-institutionalisation strategies, representing a fundamental shift in disability policy and practice starting in the 1960's. We state that de-institutionalisation has commonly been interpreted and translated as a vital 'transition' - referring to the dismantling of residential care and institutions - in rights discourse, policy, and (self-) advocacy. Whereas de-institutionalis…
Preschool teachers’ beliefs and perspectives on gender in education
Preschool teachers are crucial actors in the socialization process and the construction of gender ideas of young children. Their gender ideas influence interactions with children. Education has a profound gendered nature in which gender stereotypes are often reproduced and enacted. This qualitative study is a critical exploration of preschool teachers' beliefs and perspectives on sex and gender in the classroom. Semi-structured interviews (n = 22…
Revisiting the role of social work in the substantial realization of social rights in local welfare systems
Although diverse European welfare states have institutionalized an extensive infrastructure of public welfare services to redistribute resources, governments have been confronted with barriers in realizing the social rights of certain groups of citizens. Decentralization and increasingly local welfare provision has been promoted as a strategy to substantially realize social rights. In that sense, the vital role of frontline social work has been s…
Carving a Professional Identity for Chinese Social Work Shaped by Universalisation, Indigenisation, and Culturalism
China provides an extremely interesting contemporary case study for the international social work research community, given its questioning of the pertinence of the international definition of social work and stance in relation to the debates surrounding universalisation, internationalisation and indigenisation. This article begins by examining the evolving identity of Chinese social work, grounded as it is in China’s political ideology and socio…
We Reach out but we Also Expect Something in Return’
In this article, we critically explore the research findings of a qualitative study of local social policy and work interventions, called ‘the post-mobile project’ in Ghent, Belgium. The project provided temporary housing for families in container units, accompanied by mandatory integration assistance, and was implemented as a potential solution for Romanian Roma families after the dismantlement of two informal settlements in 2020. Our qualitativ…
Revisiting a Positive Living Group Climate as a Citizenship Climate
The concept of a positive living group climate is currently used as a key strategy to substantially realise the citizenship of youngsters in residential youth care. The concept focuses mainly on what happens inside the residential youth care facility, as the interpersonal relationships between the professionals and the youngsters are identified as the main component of a positive living group climate. How the youngsters practise and experience th…
Hegemony, Common Sense and Good Sense
The existing international research on the prevalence of poverty in Child Welfare and Protection (CWP) services points to a persistent discourse of ‘pedagogicalisation’, meaning that CWP interventions often construct social problems, such as poverty, as emerging from a failing education of families, and leave the social circumstances of the families unchallenged. Although front line practitioners in CWP can exercise professional discretion in dea…
Findings from a European, cross-national project study on service user participation
This article reports on a European project that sought to explore the relationships between social work and service user participation, using a five-country (Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland and Portugal) case study approach. It revealed areas of comparison and contrast depending upon respective histories of social work development, organisation, education and research that determined forms of service user participation. It is argued tha…
Survival strategies at the edge of the capital city of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar
Inspired by the conceptual frame of the capacity to aspire, this study explores how public administrative officers can make formal resources available and accessible for ger residents while recognizing the "capacity to aspire" among migrant ger residents in the Tahilt area of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. We argue that building people's capacity to aspire, consisting of (1) internal efforts to (2) consensus building, resulting in (3) practices of voice …
Realising a responsive social work practice in a non-responsive context
Public welfare actors struggle with the question how they can guarantee children’s wellbeing. The answer to this question depends on the countries’ perspective concerning its responsibility for the care of its citizens. In the Flemish context, a maximalist child protection logic – with a focus on the realisation of rights – is adopted. In this article, we focus on the so-called ‘bottleneck cases’ and use the case of Zoë as a concrete application …
Reflexive professionalisation in social work practice development, research, and education
This paper examines how the renewed critical emphasis on reflexiveprofessionalisation in thefield of social work can take into account thechallenges regarding the politics of democratic participation of serviceusers as citizens while working towards social justice. Our contributionis based on thefindings of a collaborative European research projectinvolving researchers, students, public service organisations, service userorganisations, and educat…
Care and support for older people with intellectual disabilities beyond the pursuit of ageing ‘in place’
Whereas population ageing has been a much debated issue over the last decades, the political and scientific awareness of the longevity of adults with intellectual disabilities is considered relatively new. When the situations of older people with intellectual disabilities are coming into focus, attention has especially been drawn to medical aspects or to expected challenges of their ageing for health and social service providers. In that vein, a …
Outreach social work
A recurring feature of outreach work is that outreach tries to reach people who are left without care and not effectively reached by existing services. In this article, we discuss the importance of outreach practices in the context of changes in society. We suggest that the pressure on the managing of access to social services is increasing along with the demand to avoid an unnecessary inflow, and make a distinction between a residual and structu…
From parental engagement to the engagement of social work services
Social work has moved from a child protection discourse towards a child welfare discourse that views the relationship between social workers and families as a partnership. Partnership with families in the field of child protection and child welfare, however, mirrors diverse ideological motives of social policy, civil society and practice. We engage in a theoretical discussion of different interpretations of partnership. We draw a primary distinct…
Irony and Social Work
The logic of managerialism is seen as a rationale for the limited scope for discretion of social workers and also complicates the recognition of the inherently ambiguous nature of social work. In this article, various strategies in dealing with managerialism and ambiguity are identified: social work can either attempt to escape from ambiguity or embrace (the discussion on) ambiguity as an opportunity. It is stated that, although social work can r…
Challenging the feminisation of the workforce
Despite the political and academic debate on the demands for more male workers in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), no European country has reached the benchmark set for 2006 to have 20% male early childhood workers. This has predominantly been countered by challenging the idea that care for the youngest implies an activity ‘that women naturally do’ and by consequently arguing for a higher status and better working conditions for caring …
Parenting as a performance
The existing critical literature on constructions of childhood and parenthood is only beginning to listen to what parents have to say. As a result, parents may paradoxically be viewed as passive victims and therefore reduced to be the spectators of what is supposed to be their 'problem'. The present study analyses dominant parent advice texts in the Flemish community of Belgium, as well as the voices of parents on the Internet. The study confirms…
Emergence of social work practice in rural China
Following massive socioeconomic reforms over the past three decades, social work in the People’s Republic of China (hereafter China) has developed at an unprecedented pace. To respond to social issues arising from accelerated economic development, the government has launched a large-scale programme to train a professional social work workforce of 1.45 million by 2020. Social work in mainland China has developed, and continues to develop, rapidly …
Do families in poverty need child and family social work
This article attempts to contribute to the historically relevant debate about the role of social work in poverty situations, focusing on the emblematic and radical question whether the poor actually need social work. In the context of the currently dominant policy framework in European welfare states, that is underpinned by the emerging paradigm of social investment, we argue that it is extremely relevant to readdress this question. Within this d…
The Researcher and the Beast
In this article, we discuss not only the complexity of some difficult ethical issues but also the peculiar and reciprocal engagements that emerged during the research process carried out with Jimmy Sax, along with the ways in which we have attempted to deal with the ethics of research to avoid a reproduction of processes of Othering in the field of critical disability studies. In the existing body of qualitative research literature, an increasing…
Implementing a strengths perspective in child welfare and protection
Although it can be observed that the popularity of a strengths perspective in social work is increasing, social work researchers have articulated the necessity to gain empirical knowledge about actual social work practice that claims a strengths perspective. We explore the findings of recent research into a strengths-oriented pilot project in the field of child welfare and protection in Flanders (the Flemish speaking part of Belgium), in which we…
Daisies on the Road
In this article, the authors trace the possible political potential of their post-modernist, feminist approach to life story research with people with the label of "learning difficulties." As a self-advocate with an ally, they define tagging along with each other as discovery science. The authors reflect on how they openly and critically write themselves into their life (story) as subjects in dialogue, which makes the driving force to negotiate o…
Reconstructing the Foundations of Joined-Up Working
In a diversity of European countries, an ambitious pursuit of organisational reform is stressed in the field of social work policy and practice, which is rhetorically rooted in ‘joined-up thinking’. Emerging criticism about joined-up working has been identified in the body of available research, particularly in terms of the construction and pursuit of joint goals. In this article, we discuss the empirical findings that were acquired during a rece…
Empowering the powerful
On the basis of extensive research, we turn a critical eye on often unnoticed processes of marginalization at play in current youth work policy and practice in Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium). Although the historical situation seems different from that in the UK, current policies show similar results: vulnerable youth is increasingly monitored into particular target categories and separated into distinct and professionalized youth w…
Immigrant mothers crossing borders
In a small-scale study we analyse the narratives of three recently-arrived immigrant mothers with young children, making use of child care. Drawing on post-foundational theories and third-wave feminism, the analysis of these narratives enables us to look at how issues of diversity, democracy and citizenship are shaped in micro-events of daily practice. The study shows how reciprocity may be shaped in what is fundamentally an asymmetrical relation…
Mapping constructs of gender in research on Igbo women in Nigeria
Southern feminist theorists make a pertinent call for the democratisation of knowledge between the North and the South. In this article, we embrace a southern perspective in feminist theory while embarking on a genealogical analysis of gender constructs in research about Igbo women in South-Eastern Nigeria. In that sense, the study of gender constructs within feminist scholarship is itself a major source of inspiration. We therefore throw light o…
What families in poverty consider supportive
In current European Welfare states, Child and Family Social Work has been assigned a pivotal role in constructing a route out of (child) poverty. The direction, processes and outcomes of these interventions are, however, rarely negotiated with the families involved. Based on a retrospective biographical research with parents of young children who experienced financial difficulties over time, this paper therefore seeks to uncover and understand ho…
One size fits all? The social construction of dis-employ-abled women
This article is based on an evaluation of a labour-market training programme for women with ‘mental health problems’ in a social workplace in Belgium. The research team explored the retrospective insider perspectives on the work aspirations of the women involved in the programme to identify critical dynamics in their high drop-out from the social workplace. The central findings provide evidence of a prevalent one-size-fits-all discourse in these …
Pawns or Pioneers? The Logic of User Participation in Anti‐poverty Policy‐making in Public Policy Units in Belgium
Since anti‐poverty policy‐making in Belgium is embedded in a logic of user participation, social policy has shown interest in employing users with experience of poverty as experts in public policy units in order to implement and monitor anti‐poverty policies. In this article, we discuss this recent development as a relevant case for contemporary public service delivery in the European context. In the light of the ambiguous practices of user parti…
The (be)comings and goings of 'developmental disabilities
Disability should be a concern for those interested in analysing and subverting the cultural politics of education. In this paper we address this concern through connecting critical analyses of ‘developmental disabilities’ (formerly ‘mental retardation’), disability studies and poststructuralism. We target normative constructions of ‘developmental disabilities’ – and we propose alternative dynamic possibilities – through reference to narratives f…
Living through exposure to toxic psychiatric orthodoxies
This article explores lived experiences and insights of five people with long‐term ‘mental health problems’, focusing on their search for employment in a disabling society. In our qualitative, inductive analysis we investigate why it seems almost impossible to attain a status as respected adult workers. We present five central findings: (1) losing the game before it starts; (2) internalizing the vicious circle of victim blaming; (3) from control …
Hide and Seek
It is argued that recent shifts and changes in welfare paradigms have induced a depolitisation of the problem of poverty, within both society and organisational settings. In this contribution, we adopt the idea that social workers are political actors who co-construct policy in practice rather than passive objects of these developments. While researching their agency, our attempt is to engage in the underexposed question of how front line workers…
Tackling social inequality and exclusion in education
Both in the international context and in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium), research shows that many young people experience social exclusion in relation to education. However, research evidence concerning structural social inequality in education is predominantly underpinned by an outcome-based approach, since educational policies and practices are largely informed by a human capital model. Inspired by the theoretical insights of the…
Poverty and Decision Making in Child Welfare and Protection
The influence of socio-economic background factors, such as poverty, on the risk of children to be disproportionately represented and placed in residential care has increasingly been the subject of international research. This article reports on the findings of a research project that focused on the relationship between poverty and child welfare and protection (CWP) interventions in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). Using logistic re…
The Story of Belle, Minnie, Louise and the Sovjets
Our post-modernist story is composed as a narrative analysis of the lived experiences of Belle and Louise--two women with 'learning difficulties'--and our ethnographic field notes while doing narrative inquiry. The narratives mirror a shared construction of meaning and broaden our understanding--throwing light on the dark side of an institution. The narrative analysis points out a clear illustration of power dynamics and discourses in their lives…
Dealing with the wicked issue of child poverty
In the international realm, inter‐organizational networking is perceived as a highly relevant instrument in social policy that enables welfare organizations to deal with “wicked issues.” In this article, we discuss the central empirical findings acquired from a recent qualitative research project that focuses on inter‐organizational networks that were formed at the local level to deal with the wicked issue of child poverty as a complex and multid…
Enabling the recognition of people in poverty through social work practice. From being on a par to participating on a par
In its engagement towards anti-poverty-strategies, social work has become strongly embedded in a politics of recognition and respect. Nevertheless, this raises critical questions in regard to how such a politics connects to the socio-economic and political dimensions of poverty. We build on an intensive qualitative study in five Associations where People in Poverty Raise their Voice (Belgium), to reveal how practitioners attempt to provide this c…
The Story of Belle, Minnie, Louise and the Sovjets
Our post-modernist story is composed as a narrative analysis of the lived experiences of Belle and Louise--two women with 'learning difficulties'--and our ethnographic field notes while doing narrative inquiry. The narratives mirror a shared construction of meaning and broaden our understanding--throwing light on the dark side of an institution. The narrative analysis points out a clear illustration of power dynamics and discourses in their lives…
Living through exposure to toxic psychiatric orthodoxies
This article explores lived experiences and insights of five people with long‐term ‘mental health problems’, focusing on their search for employment in a disabling society. In our qualitative, inductive analysis we investigate why it seems almost impossible to attain a status as respected adult workers. We present five central findings: (1) losing the game before it starts; (2) internalizing the vicious circle of victim blaming; (3) from control …
Daisies on the Road
In this article, the authors trace the possible political potential of their post-modernist, feminist approach to life story research with people with the label of "learning difficulties." As a self-advocate with an ally, they define tagging along with each other as discovery science. The authors reflect on how they openly and critically write themselves into their life (story) as subjects in dialogue, which makes the driving force to negotiate o…
Disability, Citizenship and Uncivilized Society
People with the label of "intellectual disabilities"1 are often objectified and devalued by master narratives of deviance, tragedy and lack. In this paper, we draw on poststructuralist and feminist resources (e.g. Deleuze & Guattari 1987 and Braidotti 1994, 2002, 2006a) to argue that a disabling society is uncivilized in ways that block the becomings of citizenship. We draw upon our work with self-advocacy groups in England and Belgium where self…
Looking at lived experiences of self‐advocacy through gendered eyes
In this article, we attempt to intersect the interdisciplinary characters of disability studies and gender studies, in order to make sense of the activism and lived knowledge of/with two women with the label of 'learning difficulties'. Inspired by Deleuze and Guattari's anti‐essentialist notion of devenirs‐particules, we find our multiple selves involved in cross‐cutting relational storytelling, as such destabilising essentialist, biological dete…
Living between borderlands
In this paper, we will intersect the disciplinary characters of gender studies and disability studies in order to tackle taken-for-granted discourses which objectify women with 'learning difficulties'. We will draw attention to ongoing debates about the impairment/disability divide which we expose to insights from poststructuralist feminism(s), with the aim of bringing the body-and-mind-in-process back into the socio-political project of disabili…
The (be)comings and goings of 'developmental disabilities
Disability should be a concern for those interested in analysing and subverting the cultural politics of education. In this paper we address this concern through connecting critical analyses of ‘developmental disabilities’ (formerly ‘mental retardation’), disability studies and poststructuralism. We target normative constructions of ‘developmental disabilities’ – and we propose alternative dynamic possibilities – through reference to narratives f…
Unravelling Mr President’s nomad lands
In this article the aim is to challenge essentialist ontological assumptions surrounding the impairment category of ‘learning difficulties’ as it was previously conceptualized in social theory and practice. I ground my knowledge production in self‐advocates connected to the self‐advocacy movement in Flanders (Belgium) and in critical feminist disability studies. Drawing upon the post‐structuralist feminist Rosi Braidotti, who introduced nomadolog…
Empowering the powerful
On the basis of extensive research, we turn a critical eye on often unnoticed processes of marginalization at play in current youth work policy and practice in Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium). Although the historical situation seems different from that in the UK, current policies show similar results: vulnerable youth is increasingly monitored into particular target categories and separated into distinct and professionalized youth w…
Immigrant mothers crossing borders
In a small-scale study we analyse the narratives of three recently-arrived immigrant mothers with young children, making use of child care. Drawing on post-foundational theories and third-wave feminism, the analysis of these narratives enables us to look at how issues of diversity, democracy and citizenship are shaped in micro-events of daily practice. The study shows how reciprocity may be shaped in what is fundamentally an asymmetrical relation…
The Pointer Sisters
In this article, acquired knowledge is considered as a temporary reflection that expresses the enactment of a social life that produces and reproduces social realities. Researchers need to engage with an open-ended process of de- and reconstruction of meanings between many players of the social world. As the poststructuralists Deleuze and Guattari reveal, our knowledge base is inherently trapped in lines of flight, on a voyage for which there pre…
Implementing a strengths perspective in child welfare and protection
Although it can be observed that the popularity of a strengths perspective in social work is increasing, social work researchers have articulated the necessity to gain empirical knowledge about actual social work practice that claims a strengths perspective. We explore the findings of recent research into a strengths-oriented pilot project in the field of child welfare and protection in Flanders (the Flemish speaking part of Belgium), in which we…
From parental engagement to the engagement of social work services
Social work has moved from a child protection discourse towards a child welfare discourse that views the relationship between social workers and families as a partnership. Partnership with families in the field of child protection and child welfare, however, mirrors diverse ideological motives of social policy, civil society and practice. We engage in a theoretical discussion of different interpretations of partnership. We draw a primary distinct…
One size fits all? The social construction of dis-employ-abled women
This article is based on an evaluation of a labour-market training programme for women with ‘mental health problems’ in a social workplace in Belgium. The research team explored the retrospective insider perspectives on the work aspirations of the women involved in the programme to identify critical dynamics in their high drop-out from the social workplace. The central findings provide evidence of a prevalent one-size-fits-all discourse in these …
Acknowledging ambivalence in a multicultural neighbourhood
In this article, we focus on narrative practices in adult education in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium), and reflect on a current project in a multicultural neighbourhood that is socially and economically marked by poverty and where turbulence and conflict are rife amongst local inhabitants. While adult education aims to energize the process of learning to live together in this urban context by making sense of individual narratives o…
The rhetoric of disability
In this article the authors introduce a rhetorical perspective into disability studies by exploring the work of Kenneth Burke (1969). Specifically, the focus is on how Burke's theory of dramatism can be used in disability research as well as in teaching disability studies, as it holds potential for the production of a diversity of social interpretations of the relationship between ‘impairment’, ‘disability’ and a disabling society. The focus shif…
Pawns or Pioneers? The Logic of User Participation in Anti‐poverty Policy‐making in Public Policy Units in Belgium
Since anti‐poverty policy‐making in Belgium is embedded in a logic of user participation, social policy has shown interest in employing users with experience of poverty as experts in public policy units in order to implement and monitor anti‐poverty policies. In this article, we discuss this recent development as a relevant case for contemporary public service delivery in the European context. In the light of the ambiguous practices of user parti…
Reinventing the Employable Citizen
In workfare-as-welfare regimes, welfare states attempt to increase efforts to employ economically inactive individuals, such as people with chronic ‘mental health problems’, through a wide range of activation strategies. In this article, we draw upon insights obtained from a recent research project in Belgium, in which social workers are charged with managing labour market training programmes. In the project, we explored the experiences of people…
Irony and Social Work
The logic of managerialism is seen as a rationale for the limited scope for discretion of social workers and also complicates the recognition of the inherently ambiguous nature of social work. In this article, various strategies in dealing with managerialism and ambiguity are identified: social work can either attempt to escape from ambiguity or embrace (the discussion on) ambiguity as an opportunity. It is stated that, although social work can r…
Researching child poverty
Childhood research with children in poverty involves a diversity of dilemmas and complexities. In the context of a recent research project in Belgium, the authors attempt to embrace child poverty as a normative issue created a crisis of representation. In order to untangle this, they situate different methodological approaches in relation to the constructed epistemological windows on child poverty. The authors differentiate between research in wh…
Do families in poverty need child and family social work
This article attempts to contribute to the historically relevant debate about the role of social work in poverty situations, focusing on the emblematic and radical question whether the poor actually need social work. In the context of the currently dominant policy framework in European welfare states, that is underpinned by the emerging paradigm of social investment, we argue that it is extremely relevant to readdress this question. Within this d…
Informal social support in contexts of diversity
This paper aims to re-examine the social dimension of social support as the shared responsibility of social work and families in shaping social support rather than pressuring parents' individual responsibilities, as this has been a significantly under-theorised issue in social work research. In our qualitative study, we discuss parents' experiences of informal social support in Centres for Children and Parents (CCP) in two cities in Belgium. Duri…
Challenging the feminisation of the workforce
Despite the political and academic debate on the demands for more male workers in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), no European country has reached the benchmark set for 2006 to have 20% male early childhood workers. This has predominantly been countered by challenging the idea that care for the youngest implies an activity ‘that women naturally do’ and by consequently arguing for a higher status and better working conditions for caring …
Between Institutional Inclusion and Invisibility? The Case of Flemish Homelessness Care
Over recent decades, vagrancy has been deinstitutionalised and a welfare approach has been developed in which the problem definition of “vagrancy”, perceived as a criminal problem, has shifted into a problem of “homelessness”, defined as a poverty problem. In this article, we discuss the findings of a case study in Ghent, Belgium, in which the implications of this welfare approach to homelessness in social work practices are examined. The researc…
From Vagrancy to Homelessness
For centuries, the debate about homelessness concentrated on the ways in which the issue of vagrancy could be dealt with as a criminal problem. In recent decades, this perspective faded out and alternative approaches to dealing with vagrancy were argued for and implemented. In this article, we discuss the emerging reconceptualisation of a repressive approach into a welfare approach to the issue of vagrancy—which is called homelessness later on—as…
Sociology (97 works) · Political science (83 works) · Law (51 works) · Psychology (49 works) · Social Work Education and Practice (47 works) · Politics (39 works) · Social Work (39 works) · Social science (38 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (36 works) · Public relations (32 works)