Dorothee Hölscher
Biographic Data
| ID | 1260059 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dorothee Hölscher |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dorothee |
| FAMILY NAME | Hölscher |
| SIGNATURE | HÖLSCHER D |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Queensland |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8989-7269 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 25 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Strengthening Zimbabwean migrant families in South Africa
This article explores the strengthening of Zimbabwean migrant families through a qualitative study on the integration experiences of second-generation migrants in Johannesburg and Pretoria, South Africa. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 16 second-generation migrants from various socio-economic backgrounds, who were born in or migrated to South Africa before adolescence, as well as with 10 expert contributors from the fiel…
The Politics of Camp-Based Refugee Income Generation Activities
Refugee camps are intended to provide safety and temporary protection for forcibly displaced people. Yet little is known about the complex power dynamics that shape livelihoods in these settings. This paper examines formal and informal, entrenched and evolving, power relations in Zimbabwe’s Tongogara camp. Based on qualitative interviews with 47 camp residents, frontline workers, and managers, we demonstrate how members of different stakeholder g…
From the margins to the centre
Social Work Theory and Ethics
Social Work Theory and Ethics
Displacement
It probably did not require COVID-19 to highlight that the world is experiencing a systemic crisis of global reach and historic scale: one in which economic, social, political, cultural, and ecological crisis nodes are entangled and unfolding in complex and destructive dynamics (Fraser and Jaeggi 2018). However, for a special issue on displacement, and on the historical and contemporary responsibilities that arise from it for social work and huma…
A Critical Ethics of Care Perspective on Refugee Income Generation
This article critiques Zimbabwe's refugee policy and practice context, with a focus on the ideological underpinnings of aided income generation activities in Zimbabwe's Tongogara refugee camp. We apply the lenses of Joan Tronto's political, or democratic ethics of care, and Fiona Robinson's critical ethics of care, to conduct an ideology critique of the aid agencies' expressed goal of refugees' economic ‘self-reliance’. We demonstrate that their …
A Matter of lies and death - Necropolitics and the question of engagement with the aftermath of Rwanda's Genocide
This article explores Achille Mbembe’s notion of necropolitics in conjunction with Avery Gordon’s figures of spectres and the haunting of ghosts. These concepts are applied to consider different acts of subversion and resistance, performed in the face of dominant discourses and practices in the realm of refugee governance, which work to silence certain experiences; and in the knowledge that breaking such silences can have deadly consequences. The…
Ethical Challenges and Human Rights in Africa
In September 2010, social workers from across Africa and its diaspora took part in an online discussion of the extent to which there could be, or should be, a pan-African social work code of ethics. While the debate remained inconclusive, it did suggest that the time was ripe for more dedicated exploration of the nature of ethical challenges and social work responses thereto in Africa. Yet, in view of its diverse historical, social, political, ec…
Assuming Responsibility for Justice in the Context of South Africa's Refugee Receiving Regime
This paper explores Iris Marion Young's social connection model of responsibility for justice. Its purpose is to contribute to the development of an ethics of responsibility for social work and other caring professions. Our arguments are grounded in an auto-ethnographic study conducted in 2008 by one of the authors while practicing as a social worker with a South African refugee services provider. We ask: What did it mean for the care workers to …
Considering Nancy Fraser's Notion of Social Justice for Social Work
This article explores the implications of cross-border migration for social work's normative commitment to social justice. Specifically, it interrogates Nancy Fraser's conceptualisation of social justice in guiding social work practice with refugees. The paper is grounded in an ethnographic study conducted from 2008 to 2009 in a South African church which had provided shelter to a group of refugees following their displacement by an outbreak of x…
Encountering the Other across the Divides
This article is based on an ethnographic study conducted in a South African church following the May 2008 xenophobic violence and subsequent displacement of over 100,000 foreigners. It explores the relationships between a group of established, privileged members of the church and a group of displaced refugees, who had found shelter in the church. Our aim is to contribute to an enriched conceptualisation of social justice for social work with refu…
The Emperor's new clothes
This article critically interrogates the depth and quality of change of post‐apartheid welfare policy and social work practice towards a social development paradigm against the background of inequality and poverty in South Africa. It asks several questions: what kind of welfare system has the current welfare dispensation created? How far has it moved from a residual, ameliorative system to an institutional developmental system, in keeping with th…
Reflections on human rights and professional solidarity
English Using human rights violations in Eritrea as a point of reference, this article reflects on current discourses on human rights and professional solidarity in international social work. The notion of universal human rights is asserted, and the authors call for a more participatory and egalitarian dialogue on human rights within the profession. French En s'appuyant sur les violations des droits de la personne en Érythrée, cet article se penc…
Encountering the Other across the Divides
This article is based on an ethnographic study conducted in a South African church following the May 2008 xenophobic violence and subsequent displacement of over 100,000 foreigners. It explores the relationships between a group of established, privileged members of the church and a group of displaced refugees, who had found shelter in the church. Our aim is to contribute to an enriched conceptualisation of social justice for social work with refu…
Considering Nancy Fraser's Notion of Social Justice for Social Work
This article explores the implications of cross-border migration for social work's normative commitment to social justice. Specifically, it interrogates Nancy Fraser's conceptualisation of social justice in guiding social work practice with refugees. The paper is grounded in an ethnographic study conducted from 2008 to 2009 in a South African church which had provided shelter to a group of refugees following their displacement by an outbreak of x…
Reflections on human rights and professional solidarity
English Using human rights violations in Eritrea as a point of reference, this article reflects on current discourses on human rights and professional solidarity in international social work. The notion of universal human rights is asserted, and the authors call for a more participatory and egalitarian dialogue on human rights within the profession. French En s'appuyant sur les violations des droits de la personne en Érythrée, cet article se penc…
A Critical Ethics of Care Perspective on Refugee Income Generation
This article critiques Zimbabwe's refugee policy and practice context, with a focus on the ideological underpinnings of aided income generation activities in Zimbabwe's Tongogara refugee camp. We apply the lenses of Joan Tronto's political, or democratic ethics of care, and Fiona Robinson's critical ethics of care, to conduct an ideology critique of the aid agencies' expressed goal of refugees' economic ‘self-reliance’. We demonstrate that their …
A Matter of lies and death - Necropolitics and the question of engagement with the aftermath of Rwanda's Genocide
This article explores Achille Mbembe’s notion of necropolitics in conjunction with Avery Gordon’s figures of spectres and the haunting of ghosts. These concepts are applied to consider different acts of subversion and resistance, performed in the face of dominant discourses and practices in the realm of refugee governance, which work to silence certain experiences; and in the knowledge that breaking such silences can have deadly consequences. The…
The Emperor's new clothes
This article critically interrogates the depth and quality of change of post‐apartheid welfare policy and social work practice towards a social development paradigm against the background of inequality and poverty in South Africa. It asks several questions: what kind of welfare system has the current welfare dispensation created? How far has it moved from a residual, ameliorative system to an institutional developmental system, in keeping with th…
The Emperor's new clothes
This article critically interrogates the depth and quality of change of post‐apartheid welfare policy and social work practice towards a social development paradigm against the background of inequality and poverty in South Africa. It asks several questions: what kind of welfare system has the current welfare dispensation created? How far has it moved from a residual, ameliorative system to an institutional developmental system, in keeping with th…
Reflections on human rights and professional solidarity
English Using human rights violations in Eritrea as a point of reference, this article reflects on current discourses on human rights and professional solidarity in international social work. The notion of universal human rights is asserted, and the authors call for a more participatory and egalitarian dialogue on human rights within the profession. French En s'appuyant sur les violations des droits de la personne en Érythrée, cet article se penc…
Considering Nancy Fraser's Notion of Social Justice for Social Work
This article explores the implications of cross-border migration for social work's normative commitment to social justice. Specifically, it interrogates Nancy Fraser's conceptualisation of social justice in guiding social work practice with refugees. The paper is grounded in an ethnographic study conducted from 2008 to 2009 in a South African church which had provided shelter to a group of refugees following their displacement by an outbreak of x…
Encountering the Other across the Divides
This article is based on an ethnographic study conducted in a South African church following the May 2008 xenophobic violence and subsequent displacement of over 100,000 foreigners. It explores the relationships between a group of established, privileged members of the church and a group of displaced refugees, who had found shelter in the church. Our aim is to contribute to an enriched conceptualisation of social justice for social work with refu…
Ethical Challenges and Human Rights in Africa
In September 2010, social workers from across Africa and its diaspora took part in an online discussion of the extent to which there could be, or should be, a pan-African social work code of ethics. While the debate remained inconclusive, it did suggest that the time was ripe for more dedicated exploration of the nature of ethical challenges and social work responses thereto in Africa. Yet, in view of its diverse historical, social, political, ec…
Assuming Responsibility for Justice in the Context of South Africa's Refugee Receiving Regime
This paper explores Iris Marion Young's social connection model of responsibility for justice. Its purpose is to contribute to the development of an ethics of responsibility for social work and other caring professions. Our arguments are grounded in an auto-ethnographic study conducted in 2008 by one of the authors while practicing as a social worker with a South African refugee services provider. We ask: What did it mean for the care workers to …
A Matter of lies and death - Necropolitics and the question of engagement with the aftermath of Rwanda's Genocide
This article explores Achille Mbembe’s notion of necropolitics in conjunction with Avery Gordon’s figures of spectres and the haunting of ghosts. These concepts are applied to consider different acts of subversion and resistance, performed in the face of dominant discourses and practices in the realm of refugee governance, which work to silence certain experiences; and in the knowledge that breaking such silences can have deadly consequences. The…
Displacement
It probably did not require COVID-19 to highlight that the world is experiencing a systemic crisis of global reach and historic scale: one in which economic, social, political, cultural, and ecological crisis nodes are entangled and unfolding in complex and destructive dynamics (Fraser and Jaeggi 2018). However, for a special issue on displacement, and on the historical and contemporary responsibilities that arise from it for social work and huma…
A Critical Ethics of Care Perspective on Refugee Income Generation
This article critiques Zimbabwe's refugee policy and practice context, with a focus on the ideological underpinnings of aided income generation activities in Zimbabwe's Tongogara refugee camp. We apply the lenses of Joan Tronto's political, or democratic ethics of care, and Fiona Robinson's critical ethics of care, to conduct an ideology critique of the aid agencies' expressed goal of refugees' economic ‘self-reliance’. We demonstrate that their …
Social Work Theory and Ethics
Social Work Theory and Ethics
From the margins to the centre
Strengthening Zimbabwean migrant families in South Africa
This article explores the strengthening of Zimbabwean migrant families through a qualitative study on the integration experiences of second-generation migrants in Johannesburg and Pretoria, South Africa. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 16 second-generation migrants from various socio-economic backgrounds, who were born in or migrated to South Africa before adolescence, as well as with 10 expert contributors from the fiel…
The Politics of Camp-Based Refugee Income Generation Activities
Refugee camps are intended to provide safety and temporary protection for forcibly displaced people. Yet little is known about the complex power dynamics that shape livelihoods in these settings. This paper examines formal and informal, entrenched and evolving, power relations in Zimbabwe’s Tongogara camp. Based on qualitative interviews with 47 camp residents, frontline workers, and managers, we demonstrate how members of different stakeholder g…
Law (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Social Work Education and Practice (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Politics (5 works) · Refugee (5 works) · Social Work (5 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (4 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (3 works)