4th European Conference for Social Work Research, 16 April, 2014 Bolzano, Italy
WORKSHOP: RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIPS AND SOCIAL WORK
The aim of this international and multidisciplinary workshop is to reach out and to generate discussions around the concept of reciprocity in order to enhance our understanding of it as a universally recognized phenomenon, and also to promote future collaboration among this theme. We share the idea that personal experience of social and societal reciprocity has profound ontological significance for an individual and it is one the most important factors in creating well-being.
In order to have a full understanding of how well-being can be created and supported from a citizen-oriented point of view, we need a thorough analysis of how experiences of reciprocity are generated in the 21st century.
Finnish Academy -funded project Reciprocal Relationships and the Construction of Well-being during Critical Periods of Everyday Life (RePro), with its widening network, invites other researchers, teachers, service users and practitioners to join in this conceptual and hopefully also practical effort to open up reciprocity for instance from the perspectives of immigration, childhood and youth or ageing research and who share the interest for social capital, for instance in relation to social bonds, relationships, trust, social support, solidarity and well-being either on micro, meso and/or macro level.
Research into reciprocity can be seen as a contribution to international social welfare research, where the attention is focused on well-being and the communities that hold people together (see Becker 1986; Bruni 2008, Ostrom & Walker 2003). Our workshop will combine both the “public issues” and the “private troubles” as the title of the conference suggests.
Keywords: reciprocity, well-being, social work research
PARTICIPANTS AND ABSTRACTS
Bernhard Babic, Research Associate in the Field of Social Pedagogy, Counselling, and Intervention, Department of Educational Science, University of Salzburg, Austria, bernhard.babic(at)web.de
Capabilities and Reciprocities – Theoretical Reflections on their Compatibility and Relevance for Social Work
The Capability Approach (CA) is currently getting more and more attention in various fields of social work. It was originally formulated by the economist, philosopher, and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen. He developed it explicitly as an alternative draft to neo-liberal and utilitarian policy prescriptions in the field of human development. Accordingly, Sen suggests we ask if and to what extent a certain development or intervention enables people to lead the kind of life they really would like to lead instead of basing assessments in this context primarily on the growth of individual incomes, the availability of commodities or on happiness (see Sen, 2001).
In other words, the CA puts a focus rather on individual freedom, on what people are effectively able to do and to be, that is, on their capabilities, instead of what they have. This includes already a basic notion of reciprocity, as it is not enough to have the necessary material and immaterial resources to realize what could be called a ‘good life’.
Without a society that offers the opportunity/enables people to use the resources at hand as conversion factors to achieve such a life they have reason to choose and value, advancements in this context will not be possible. These and other compatibilities as well as their relevance for Social Work will be the subject of this workshop contribution, inviting participants to take part in a vivid and hopefully fruitful discussion.
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Olga Borodkina, Professor, Faculty of Sociology, Saint Petersburg State University,oiborodkina(at)gmail.com
The main dimensions of reciprocity
Reciprocity is a type of social norm that influence on social behavior rather strong. In social work, there are few main dimensions of reciprocity. (1) For any professional team reciprocity as cooperation is preferable. (2) There is special kind of reciprocity based on trust between social worker and clients. (3) Reciprocity as social support is part of organizational culture characterized giving and receiving support from colleagues. (4) Reciprocity connects with social justice because ideas of fairness, mutual benefits and giving people what they need in an equitable way. (4) Reciprocity is key issue of researchers’ relationship; in this relationship, each should contribute something that others need.
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Claire Cameron, Professor, Reader in Education and co-deputy director, Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London, UK, c.cameron(at)ioe.ac.uk
In what ways can we see reciprocity in residential care for children and young people?
If reciprocity is part of wellbeing, we should be able to see it in all settings, formal and informal. Residential care institutions are generationally profoundly unequal. Inequality can be seen in the way they are organised, in the purpose of them, the use of space, the rights and duties of staff and young people.
In a four country study focusing on the relationship between professionals and children, building relationships was seen by staff as necessary for children to grow and develop, to learn about themselves and others, and to learn communicative and cognitive skills. All study informants talk about trust as essential to relationships. Trusting relationships are ‘the most effective tool for keeping children safe from harm’ (OCC 2012:8).
But what is trust? Trust is a leap of faith about the response of another. It relies on familiarity in another and confidence in them about their responses. Trust is the starting point for negotiating the rules of proper conduct in a world characterised by complexity and uncertainty. In my study, trust had three dimensions: showing authentic interest from a position of mutuality, working in an environment characterised by reliability and continuity, and taking action on behalf of young people. Such conscious effort to mitigate effects of inequality by paying attention to trust relations may be the nearest that residential settings get to reciprocity.
‘trust is the most important thing. If they don’t trust you, there is hardly anything you can do. They have experienced so much rejection by those they loved, if they do not trust, it is very hard to make progress’.
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Eveliina Heino, Doctoral Student, and Minna Veistilä, Doctoral Student, Department of Social Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland, eveliina.heino(at)helsinki.fi, minna.veistila(at)helsinki.fi
Families with a Russian background in Finland
There has been some criticism towards European research on integration, saying that it has been problem-centered and focused on governance-based interests instead of the experiences of the immigrants themselves. In our doctoral dissertations we look at immigration as a family level process that influences family well-being and thus requires a particular focus on the quality of social services. We will be discussing how families with a Russian background experience the reconstruction of their family well-being and the services provided to them in Finland. We are interested in the reciprocal elements that the family processes of immigration include.
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Tarja Juvonen, Doctoral Student, Department of Social Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland, tarja.juvonen(at)helsinki.fi
Relations and relational agency in youth
Tension between individuality and relationality forms an interesting duality when we discuss about agency of young people and in this case the agency of young people who live in troubled and disadvantageous conditions and who need support in their daily living and in broader matters. Youth as a life phase means accepting responsibility for oneself and making more choices of one´s own, which also should signal strengthening agency. This point of view is quite individualistic in its premises.
I perceive young people´s agency rather as being strongly relational and also situational and attached to the place where it is realized. I will be discussing how individuality and relationality are intertwined in the ways we describe and define the agencies of young people. This discussion is based on my social work´s doctoral dissertation (in the works).
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Pirjo Korvela, PhD, University Lecturer, Department of Teacher Education, Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland, pirjo.korvela(at)helsinki.fi
Reciprocity in tutoring unemployed young people during a labor force training program
I will approach the topics of the session from the perspective of unemployed young people in a labor force training program. I will present some preliminary ideas on the analysis of what kinds of elements of interaction between young people and their tutoring teachers can be interpreted as reciprocal relationships. I will also analyze, how the sequence method (that aims to support young people to organize their daily rhythm to better attach to the work life) brings up the elements of reciprocity during the training process.
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Carol Munn-Giddings, professor, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK, carol.munn-giddings(at)anglia.ac.uk
Research with self-help/mutual aid groups (SH/MAGs) in the areas of health & social care
Self-help/mutual aid is a form of activity between peers who share a similar and challenging health or social situation. The dual term SH/MA emphasises an important distinguishing feature of this activity because it is based on reciprocity known as the ‘helper-therapy principle’ (Reissman 1965). This means that those involved in self-help are helped and enabled themselves through the process of helping others (Hastie 2000). I will be discussing how the processes in SH/MA groups and the collective knowledge they build over time, benefits individuals, the collective and the wider community as well as the challenges presented to mainstream service provision.
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Darren Sharpe, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Childhood and Youth Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK, darren.sharpe(at)anglia.ac.uk
Research with young co-inquirers and service users in the areas of health and social care
The valuable role of young people as co-inquirers in a recent study for the Office of the Children Commissioner in England forms the basis of this presentation. The study explored children and young people’s emotional journey through the child protection system.
The young co-inquirers had experience or knowledge of the child protection system which added value to the study but also bought tensions in the co-construction of knowledge. We will look at the micro level at how genuine reciprocity came with real world challenges in building trust, dealing with upset and dispute, navigating a sanitized research process and the unforeseen impact on individuals –both adult and young people.
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Kimiko Tanaka, Ph.D., Marywood University School of Social Work & Administrative Studies, Scranton, PA, U.S.A, kt127(at)caa.columbia.edu
Clubhouse Culture and Psychiatric Recovery: Preliminary Findings
I will highlight some of my research findings on psychiatric recovery pertaining to reciprocity in the everyday life context of mental health clubhouses, particularly their work-ordered day (WOD) program. Qualitative data collected in 2009-2013 from 106 clubhouse members and 25 staff in the U.S. and Finland were analyzed using a grounded theory approach.
Emerging themes included (a) clubhouse ways of daily interactions reflecting reciprocal processes that construct the meanings of WOD, (b) patterns of reciprocity (balanced vs. unbalanced) that may explain recovery processes, and (c) the transformational role, in recovery processes, of an egalitarian culture presented in the clubhouse ways.
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Maritta Törrönen, Professor, Department of Social Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland, maritta.l.torronen(at)helsinki.fi
Reciprocity: The Synthesis of Belonging, Recognition and Legitimation
In this workshop, I will discuss some tentative ideas I have about the theoretical nature of reciprocity. I consider human well-being, encompassing social, cultural, economic (Bourdieu) and health resources (or capital), to be the basis for a person’s status in society as well as the basis for the possibilities open to them or their range of economic opportunities. However, these resources alone are not enough. There is also need for recognition, belonging and legitimation, the things Bourdieu calls symbolic capital.
These types of capital are needed together for reciprocity to emerge, at least for reciprocity that is interpreted as positive. Reciprocity is not only a term for interpersonal interaction; exploring reciprocity also reveals how societies perceive their citizens and the citizens’ roles as producers of welfare for themselves and the society as a whole.
References:
Becker, Lawrence C (1986) Reciprocity. New York: Routledge.
Bruni, Luigino (2008) Reciprocity, Altruism and the Civil Society. In praise of heterogeneity. London and New York: Routledge.
Ostrom, Elinor & Walker, James (2003) Trust and Reciprocity. Interdisciplinary Lessons from Experimental Research. New York: Russel Sage Foundation.