This book analyses the types of and possibilities for care in social work with families in situations where evidence-based programmes, standardised forms of risk-assessment and intervention, performance management and incentives to increase cost-effectiveness take precedence.
Offering a new framework for understanding and exploring theories and practices of care in social work with families, it is structured into
- A comprehensive introduction to care theory and its relevance for social work. This includes critical reflections on "the missing link" between care theory and social work theory and the need for care theory in research on and social work with families.
- A new framework for understanding core elements, dimensions and dilemmas of care in social work. This is based in theory and international research and is illustrated with exemplary "thick" ethnographic cases of statutory social work, homebased social work and family treatment.
- Suggestions for enabling social change of the conditions for and practices of care in social work with families.
By allowing critical reflection on this topic, this book will be of interest to all scholars, students and academics of social work and other professions dealing with child protection.
About the Author: Maria Appel Nissen (b. 1971) is PhD in Sociology and Professor of Social Work at the Department of Sociology and Social Work, Aalborg University. She has over 20 years of experience in research on social work with children and families with a particular interest in knowledge, power, conflicts and the possibility of a holistic view on social problems and human beings. Before that she was an independent consultant conducting evaluations of social work with vulnerable children, young people and families (1997-2001). She is the head of the research group Shaping Concepts, Practices, and Advances in Social Work (SCOPAS) and of the Bachelor of Social Work at Aalborg University, and has many years of experience in teaching and supervising social workers at all levels.
Mie Engen (b. 1975) is PhD in Sociology and Social Work and Associate Professor of Social Work at the Department of Sociology and Social Work, Aalborg University. She works with both qualitative and quantitative methods, is specialised in ethnographic field studies and particularly interested in care in professional social work, social work practices with vulnerable children and families and their connections with social policy and broader societal developments. She is head of the Master's in Vulnerable Children and Young People, Professional Management (adult/continuing higher education) at Aalborg University, coordinator of the Bachelor of Social Work and has many years of experience in teaching social workers.
Andreas Møller Jørgensen (b. 1981) is PhD in Arctic Studies - Culture, Language and Society, Department of Social Sciences, Ilisimatusarfik, Nuuk, Greenland, and Associate Professor of Social Work at the Department of Sociology and Social Work, Aalborg University. He is particularly interested in technologies and power in professional social work, and in how core values and concepts of care, welfare and views of socially marginalised people change over time. He is coordinator and teacher at the Master's programme in Social Work and a teacher at the Bachelor of Social Work and Sociology programme at Aalborg University.
