Koen Hermans
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 377064 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Koen Hermans |
| PRENOMES | Koen |
| SOBRENOME | Hermans |
| ASSINATURA | HERMANS K |
| AFILIAÇÕES | KU Leuven |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2992-8972 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 42 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 66 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 42 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2005 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 4 |
Walking Praxis as Community‐Based Research
The rapid transformation of suburban neighborhoods, driven by development and changing demographics, is causing feelings of loss, disconnect, and a perceived diminution of political representation. This study examines socio‐spatial relationalities that affect the sense of belonging in such neighborhoods‐in‐flux. We propose a re‐imagined participatory research process with residents from the perspective of “walkability.” Go‐along walking methodolo…
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…
Revisiting the threefold typology? An exploratory analysis of homelessness duration and recurrence in Belgium using administrative data
This study explores administrative data from 2010 to 2018 to examine homelessness duration and recurrence in Belgium. We focus on people experiencing homelessness (PEH) with a reference address at a local welfare agency. By critically revisiting the classic threefold typology – transitional, episodic, and chronic, which is often derived from limited shelter-based data – the study adopts a four-group classification: first-timers, re-enterers, chro…
The contribution of the social network of care leavers to a successful transition to adulthood
Algorithmic Decision‐Making and Harmonization in Multi‐Level Governance Welfare Practices
Algorithmic decision‐making (ADM) is increasingly used by public organizations to allocate social benefits. However, it remains unclear whether ADM leads to more harmonized decisions, especially in multi‐level governance contexts like Belgium. Therefore, we ask whether, and to what extent, ADM is linked to the harmonization of welfare decisions across local social agencies. More specifically, we analyze decisions related to additional financial s…
Planning the Journey to Adulthood
Emerging adulthood presents unique challenges, especially for young people leaving youth care (YLC). Transitioning from a protective care setting to independent living can be overwhelming. Although YLC have uncertain feelings about their future, they also aspire to take further steps in life. Prior research emphasizes the importance of positive future expectations and goal planning to foster a sense of stability after leaving care. It is for thes…
(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…
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)
Policy responses to youth homelessness
The influence of sociodemographic variables and traumatic life events on the alcohol consumption of homeless people in Spain
This article uses the latest Spanish Survey on Homeless People to address whether traumatic experiences, sociodemographic characteristics, and homeless categories are associated with being an abstainer, a risky drinker, or a high-risk drinker. The sample was composed of 3,407 Spanish homeless adults ranging from 18 to 93 years old ( M age = 41.30, SD = 13.86). A multinomial logistic regression model was used. Results showed that experiencing chil…
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…
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…
Housing quality and homelessness among people who beg
The poverty literature often overlooks the relationship between housing insecurity and income-generating activities. The often informal sources of income among the homeless strongly connect to other aspects of their lives. Nonetheless, these groups of severely deprived people are often missing from large-scale studies and official statistics. Using an original and comprehensive survey, we document the complex interaction between living conditions…
Hidden Homelessness
Traditional interpretations of homelessness focus on people living on the streets or in shelters. However, homelessness encompasses many more living situations. This article reports on a scoping review of studies on hidden homelessness. A systematic search in scientific databanks was combined with an exploration of Google Scholar. The results of the review reveal a lack of consensus regarding the definition of the concept. Moreover, since most st…
A Mixed-Method Study on the Palliative Care Capacity of Social Workers in Flanders (Belgium)
This study explores the palliative care capacity of social workers in Flanders. First, it examines the frequency with which social workers in Flanders are currently performing palliative care tasks. Second, this study assesses their attitudes and competencies regarding the performance of these tasks. Third, as contextual factors also influence this performance, this study explores the level of appreciation experienced by social workers in Flander…
The StoryMapper
As aresponse to traditional (top‐down) urban planning processes, placemaking engages local citizens in the process of shaping the form, social activity, and meaning of places around them. However, placemaking practices similarly face political challenges regarding inclusion and emplacement. These challenges relate to who participates, facilitation through linguistic discourse, and place engagement itself. Attempting to address these challenges, t…
Including the Most Excluded? A Qualitative Study on the Address Registration for People Experiencing Homelessness in Belgium
In many European countries, one needs a permanent address to be entitled to social rights. To address this minimum prerequisite, mechanisms for administrative inclusion are in place for persons experiencing homelessness, such as the reference address in Belgium. This paper disentangles the non-take-up mechanisms behind this reference address by drawing on interviews with professionals. Our evidence suggests this is a minimum minimorum of social p…
In Search of Social justice-informed Services
One of the main characteristics of social work is the fundamental tension between the profession’s conservative and critical rationales. In the last three decades, this tension has informed the development of critical resistance to the deprofessionalisation effects of neo-managerial rationality, which establishes cost reduction and fiscal accountability as the basis for professional practice. However, the theoretical conceptualisation of such cri…
Without an address, you do not exist
Population registries have become essential instruments in the expansion of welfare states to determine a person’s eligibility for social rights and benefits. To (temporarily) register people without a residential address, Belgium introduced an alternative registration system: the ‘reference address’. By using data from interviews with 80 experts from two research projects, we focus on the reference address and the implications of registration an…
Social workers as state and citizen-agents. How social workers in a German, Dutch and Flemish public welfare organisation manage this dual responsibility in practice
Professional standards state that social workers in public welfare organisations should act as state and citizen-agents. However, the literature provides little insight into how social workers navigate this dual responsibility in their daily work. To address this gap, we used Maynard-Moody and Musheno’s theory on state and citizens-agent narratives to analyse street-level practices of social workers in three local welfare organisations in Germany…
Applying transdisciplinary sustainability transitions research in international social work doctoral training
In the last 15 years, transdisciplinary research of sustainability transitions has become an increasingly powerful approach. We discuss it as a perspective for social work discipline, and as a theoretical-conceptual frame of a new international doctoral training and research programme in social work taking place in seven European countries. In our qualitative study, we investigate how the participating social work doctoral students reflect upon t…
Exploring the Usefulness and Validity of Democratic Professionalism for Social Work Practice
Democratic professionalism challenges social workers to see social institutions as potential fields for democratic action and to act as bridge agents between citizens and social institutions. Although scholars have identified democratic professionalism as a promising theory, the relevance of this approach has hardly been empirically explored and operationalised in social work practice. To address this gap, this article explores empirical examples…
Researching the Non-Take up of Social Rights
In the face of growing social, economic, political and demographic challenges, many European welfare states have been confronted with barriers in realising the social rights of certain groups of citizens. This phenomenon has often been referred to as ‘the non-take up of social rights’. Considering the core mandate and key principles of social work as a practice-based profession and academic discipline, we argue that social work should have a key …
Overcoming non-take-up of rights
In contemporary welfare states, the non-take-up of rights is a pervasive and considerable problem. Yet, our empirical and theoretical understanding of this phenomenon is still rather limited. In this context, the historical role of social work practice in bridging between citizens and the welfare state cannot be overlooked. To adequately tackle non-take-up, there is an urgency for usable knowledge that is oriented towards practice. In this articl…
Managing multiple accountability perspectives and expectations in practice. A scoping review of the use of accountability mechanisms by social workers
Social workers are accountable to many different actors (e.g. service users, peers, employer, government) who all have their own perspective on practice and how it should be accounted for. Little is known about how social workers account their work to these multiple actors. Therefore, we conducted a scoping review of recent studies to review which type of accountability mechanisms come to the fore and how social workers use these mechanisms in pr…
In Search of Social justice-informed Services
One of the main characteristics of social work is the fundamental tension between the profession’s conservative and critical rationales. In the last three decades, this tension has informed the development of critical resistance to the deprofessionalisation effects of neo-managerial rationality, which establishes cost reduction and fiscal accountability as the basis for professional practice. However, the theoretical conceptualisation of such cri…
Street-Level Strategies of Child Welfare Social Workers in Flanders
The use of information and communication technology (ICT) in child welfare services has increased significantly during the last decades, and so have the possibilities to process health data. Parton (2009) states that this evolution has led to a shift in the nature of social work itself: from 'the social' to 'the informational'. It is claimed that social workers primarily are becoming information processors concerned with the gathering, sharing an…
The DNA of social work as a human rights practice from a frontline social workers’ perspective in Flanders
Societal and political developments in European welfare states challenge the core principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversity that underpin social work. At the same time, however, in many European countries, there is a revival of a more transformative social work discourse aimed at the fight for social justice and the realisation of human rights. Gaining insight into the implementation of this h…
Linking macro‐level mechanisms to street‐level accountability practices. A cross‐national case study of street‐level accountability of social workers in government funded homeless shelters
Available studies on the accountability relation between social work and the government are mainly conducted in Anglo‐Saxion countries. This limits the generalizability of these findings to other countries. Moreover, these studies hardly descent to the street‐level, making the perceptions and actions of social workers barely visible. To address this gap, this article explores how three elements of governance interact with street‐level accountabil…
Researching the Non-Take up of Social Rights
In the face of growing social, economic, political and demographic challenges, many European welfare states have been confronted with barriers in realising the social rights of certain groups of citizens. This phenomenon has often been referred to as ‘the non-take up of social rights’. Considering the core mandate and key principles of social work as a practice-based profession and academic discipline, we argue that social work should have a key …
Social work research and human rights
status: Published
Bifurcated commitment, priorities, and social contagion
In spite of a progressive institutionalisation of community‐based learning into higher education, relatively little is known about the actual dynamics and correlates of volunteering by students. The study presented seeks a more in‐depth understanding of the spontaneous, extracurricular involvement within a university student population. Data are drawn from a postal survey of a representative sample of third‐year university students enrolled at a …
Beyond the Research–Practice Gap
The gap between research and practice has been a long-standing challenge in social work (e.g. Richmond, 1917; Rubin, 2014). Partnership structures between research facilities and social care organisations are seen as a possible way forward, but knowledge on how such partnerships can be successfully elaborated and implemented in local social work practices is scarce. In this article, we elaborate on our experiences in building an academic collabor…
Building a working alliance between professionals and service users in family preservation. A multiple case study
In the margin of the ongoing experimental and quasi‐experimental research projects on family preservation, some research projects focus on the process through which families accomplish change and acknowledge the importance of the working alliance. There is, however, little information about barriers and facilitators in building this working alliance. To fill this gap, we performed a multiple case study with a triangulation of ethnographical metho…
Social work research as a practice of transparency
Social work research is inherently normative and as such the assumptions about social problems in social work research should be open to scrutiny and contestation. But although researchers often face tussles and huge contradictions, they rarely articulate them. In this article, we report on a small research project in which a collective of social work researchers in Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium) tried to think critically through s…
Algorithmic Decision‐Making and Harmonization in Multi‐Level Governance Welfare Practices
Algorithmic decision‐making (ADM) is increasingly used by public organizations to allocate social benefits. However, it remains unclear whether ADM leads to more harmonized decisions, especially in multi‐level governance contexts like Belgium. Therefore, we ask whether, and to what extent, ADM is linked to the harmonization of welfare decisions across local social agencies. More specifically, we analyze decisions related to additional financial s…
(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…
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…
The StoryMapper
As aresponse to traditional (top‐down) urban planning processes, placemaking engages local citizens in the process of shaping the form, social activity, and meaning of places around them. However, placemaking practices similarly face political challenges regarding inclusion and emplacement. These challenges relate to who participates, facilitation through linguistic discourse, and place engagement itself. Attempting to address these challenges, t…
Including the Most Excluded? A Qualitative Study on the Address Registration for People Experiencing Homelessness in Belgium
In many European countries, one needs a permanent address to be entitled to social rights. To address this minimum prerequisite, mechanisms for administrative inclusion are in place for persons experiencing homelessness, such as the reference address in Belgium. This paper disentangles the non-take-up mechanisms behind this reference address by drawing on interviews with professionals. Our evidence suggests this is a minimum minimorum of social p…
Without an address, you do not exist
Population registries have become essential instruments in the expansion of welfare states to determine a person’s eligibility for social rights and benefits. To (temporarily) register people without a residential address, Belgium introduced an alternative registration system: the ‘reference address’. By using data from interviews with 80 experts from two research projects, we focus on the reference address and the implications of registration an…
Exploring the Usefulness and Validity of Democratic Professionalism for Social Work Practice
Democratic professionalism challenges social workers to see social institutions as potential fields for democratic action and to act as bridge agents between citizens and social institutions. Although scholars have identified democratic professionalism as a promising theory, the relevance of this approach has hardly been empirically explored and operationalised in social work practice. To address this gap, this article explores empirical examples…
The Discursive Construction of Accessibility and its Implications for Outreach Work
Homeless individuals often find that welfare services are inaccessible, despite being designed to meet their needs. This frictions with access which is a fundamental principle in western welfare states. Adaptations in social policy and service delivery are therefore made to deal with the problem of inaccessibility to services and welfare rights. One such adaptation is outreach work and is often developed to engage with homeless people and link th…
Social differences in postponing a General Practitioner visit in Flanders, Belgium
One of the main goals of primary care is providing equitable health-care, meaning equal access, equal treatment and equal outcomes of healthcare for all in equal need. Some studies show that patients from lower socioeconomic groups visit a GP more often, while other studies show that they are more likely to postpone a visit to a GP. In this study, we want to explore within the social group of low-income patients living in Flanders, Belgium, which…
Bifurcated commitment, priorities, and social contagion
In spite of a progressive institutionalisation of community‐based learning into higher education, relatively little is known about the actual dynamics and correlates of volunteering by students. The study presented seeks a more in‐depth understanding of the spontaneous, extracurricular involvement within a university student population. Data are drawn from a postal survey of a representative sample of third‐year university students enrolled at a …
Social differences in postponing a General Practitioner visit in Flanders, Belgium
One of the main goals of primary care is providing equitable health-care, meaning equal access, equal treatment and equal outcomes of healthcare for all in equal need. Some studies show that patients from lower socioeconomic groups visit a GP more often, while other studies show that they are more likely to postpone a visit to a GP. In this study, we want to explore within the social group of low-income patients living in Flanders, Belgium, which…
Cortexs
The International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC) is an online, open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes original articles in the field of integrated care on a continuous basis.IJIC has an Impact Factor of 5.120 (2020 JCR, received in June 2021)The IJIC 20th Anniversary Issue was published in 2021
The development and implementation of an integral framework of quality for the Flemish nursing homes
Background: In line with international developments, the Flemish government is concerned about the quality of care in Flemish nursing homes. In 2003, new legislation shifted the attention from structural quality aspects to introducing quality processes. From from 2010 on, this evolved further with growing interest in the outcomes of quality management. This presentation will describe the subsequent steps taken towards the development and implemen…
Realising demand-driven care
The International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC) is an online, open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes original articles in the field of integrated care on a continuous basis.IJIC has an Impact Factor of 2.913 (2021 JCR, received in June 2022)The IJIC 20th Anniversary Issue was published in 2021
Social work research as a practice of transparency
Social work research is inherently normative and as such the assumptions about social problems in social work research should be open to scrutiny and contestation. But although researchers often face tussles and huge contradictions, they rarely articulate them. In this article, we report on a small research project in which a collective of social work researchers in Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium) tried to think critically through s…
Street-Level Strategies of Child Welfare Social Workers in Flanders
The use of information and communication technology (ICT) in child welfare services has increased significantly during the last decades, and so have the possibilities to process health data. Parton (2009) states that this evolution has led to a shift in the nature of social work itself: from 'the social' to 'the informational'. It is claimed that social workers primarily are becoming information processors concerned with the gathering, sharing an…
Participation of patients with chronic diseases in integrated care – a systematic review
Organizing Care Integration. A Social Systems Based Approach
The International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC) is an online, open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes original articles in the field of integrated care on a continuous basis.IJIC has an Impact Factor of 5.120 (2020 JCR, received in June 2021)
Building a working alliance between professionals and service users in family preservation. A multiple case study
In the margin of the ongoing experimental and quasi‐experimental research projects on family preservation, some research projects focus on the process through which families accomplish change and acknowledge the importance of the working alliance. There is, however, little information about barriers and facilitators in building this working alliance. To fill this gap, we performed a multiple case study with a triangulation of ethnographical metho…
Meeting (or not) at the street level? A literature review on street‐level research in public management, social policy and social work
This literature review analyses the adoption and development of a street‐level perspective in public management, social policy and social work. The last years have seen a prominent revival of a perspective based on Michael Lipsky's street‐level bureaucracy approach in the debates conducted within all three disciplinary fields. Based on 71 key publications in public management, social policy and social work, the review analyses the adoption of the…
Stimulating the problem-solving abilities of users in an online environment. A study of a Dutch online social casework intervention
Despite the growing interest of users in online services, social workers are still reluctant to offer their services in an online environment. Moreover, little is known about online working methods and their contribution to an effective online session. This paper reports on the findings of a Dutch case study of the online intervention "Clickforhelp". The first aim of this paper is to explore whether social workers believe that they are able to st…
Beyond the Research–Practice Gap
The gap between research and practice has been a long-standing challenge in social work (e.g. Richmond, 1917; Rubin, 2014). Partnership structures between research facilities and social care organisations are seen as a possible way forward, but knowledge on how such partnerships can be successfully elaborated and implemented in local social work practices is scarce. In this article, we elaborate on our experiences in building an academic collabor…
The DNA of social work as a human rights practice from a frontline social workers’ perspective in Flanders
Societal and political developments in European welfare states challenge the core principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversity that underpin social work. At the same time, however, in many European countries, there is a revival of a more transformative social work discourse aimed at the fight for social justice and the realisation of human rights. Gaining insight into the implementation of this h…
Social work research and human rights
status: Published
The Discursive Construction of Accessibility and its Implications for Outreach Work
Homeless individuals often find that welfare services are inaccessible, despite being designed to meet their needs. This frictions with access which is a fundamental principle in western welfare states. Adaptations in social policy and service delivery are therefore made to deal with the problem of inaccessibility to services and welfare rights. One such adaptation is outreach work and is often developed to engage with homeless people and link th…
Overcoming non-take-up of rights
In contemporary welfare states, the non-take-up of rights is a pervasive and considerable problem. Yet, our empirical and theoretical understanding of this phenomenon is still rather limited. In this context, the historical role of social work practice in bridging between citizens and the welfare state cannot be overlooked. To adequately tackle non-take-up, there is an urgency for usable knowledge that is oriented towards practice. In this articl…
Managing multiple accountability perspectives and expectations in practice. A scoping review of the use of accountability mechanisms by social workers
Social workers are accountable to many different actors (e.g. service users, peers, employer, government) who all have their own perspective on practice and how it should be accounted for. Little is known about how social workers account their work to these multiple actors. Therefore, we conducted a scoping review of recent studies to review which type of accountability mechanisms come to the fore and how social workers use these mechanisms in pr…
Linking macro‐level mechanisms to street‐level accountability practices. A cross‐national case study of street‐level accountability of social workers in government funded homeless shelters
Available studies on the accountability relation between social work and the government are mainly conducted in Anglo‐Saxion countries. This limits the generalizability of these findings to other countries. Moreover, these studies hardly descent to the street‐level, making the perceptions and actions of social workers barely visible. To address this gap, this article explores how three elements of governance interact with street‐level accountabil…
Social workers as state and citizen-agents. How social workers in a German, Dutch and Flemish public welfare organisation manage this dual responsibility in practice
Professional standards state that social workers in public welfare organisations should act as state and citizen-agents. However, the literature provides little insight into how social workers navigate this dual responsibility in their daily work. To address this gap, we used Maynard-Moody and Musheno’s theory on state and citizens-agent narratives to analyse street-level practices of social workers in three local welfare organisations in Germany…
Applying transdisciplinary sustainability transitions research in international social work doctoral training
In the last 15 years, transdisciplinary research of sustainability transitions has become an increasingly powerful approach. We discuss it as a perspective for social work discipline, and as a theoretical-conceptual frame of a new international doctoral training and research programme in social work taking place in seven European countries. In our qualitative study, we investigate how the participating social work doctoral students reflect upon t…
Exploring the Usefulness and Validity of Democratic Professionalism for Social Work Practice
Democratic professionalism challenges social workers to see social institutions as potential fields for democratic action and to act as bridge agents between citizens and social institutions. Although scholars have identified democratic professionalism as a promising theory, the relevance of this approach has hardly been empirically explored and operationalised in social work practice. To address this gap, this article explores empirical examples…
Researching the Non-Take up of Social Rights
In the face of growing social, economic, political and demographic challenges, many European welfare states have been confronted with barriers in realising the social rights of certain groups of citizens. This phenomenon has often been referred to as ‘the non-take up of social rights’. Considering the core mandate and key principles of social work as a practice-based profession and academic discipline, we argue that social work should have a key …
Hidden Homelessness
Traditional interpretations of homelessness focus on people living on the streets or in shelters. However, homelessness encompasses many more living situations. This article reports on a scoping review of studies on hidden homelessness. A systematic search in scientific databanks was combined with an exploration of Google Scholar. The results of the review reveal a lack of consensus regarding the definition of the concept. Moreover, since most st…
A Mixed-Method Study on the Palliative Care Capacity of Social Workers in Flanders (Belgium)
This study explores the palliative care capacity of social workers in Flanders. First, it examines the frequency with which social workers in Flanders are currently performing palliative care tasks. Second, this study assesses their attitudes and competencies regarding the performance of these tasks. Third, as contextual factors also influence this performance, this study explores the level of appreciation experienced by social workers in Flander…
Sociology (32 obras) · Political science (31 obras) · Psychology (19 obras) · Public relations (19 obras) · Social Work (19 obras) · Law (18 obras) · Homelessness and Social Issues (17 obras) · Social Work Education and Practice (17 obras) · Healthcare innovation and challenges (13 obras) · Medicine (10 obras)