Abstract
Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to present this compiled update of the recent activities and progress of our association from June to September 2013. The highlights of this quarter are the collaborative international conference on ‘Disability’ and Board meeting at University of Ljubljana, the regional conferences and the success of the online Social Dialogue Magazine. The increase in membership is slow but steady and we look forward to more support from social work schools and individual members in IASSW in the coming years.
International symposium on ‘Against Social Suffering: Social Work in Alliance with the People with Disabilities in the Times of Crisis’
In keeping with the mission of the IASSW, a collaborative symposium was organized by the University of Ljubljana along with the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), European Association of Social Work (EASSW) and Eastern European Sub-Regional Association of the Schools of Social Work (EESrASSW). The members on the Education Committee of the IASSW worked along with the organizer Darja to finalize the programme. IASSW and EASSW partly funded the programme. The symposium was held prior to the Board meeting from June 17-18, 2013 at the School of Social Work of University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
The international scientific and organization committee members included Vimla Nadkarni (India), Sue Lawrence (UK), Janet E. Williams (UK), Antoinette Lombard (South Africa), Elena Iarskaia Smirnova (Russia), Suada Buljubašić (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Julia Watkins (USA), Ljiljana Igrić (Croatia), and Darja Zaviršek (Slovenia).
The symposium focused on the burning issues in the region which today faces growing inequalities, poverty, political crises and engendering of democratic standards. The speakers from the region as well as from the global social work arena reflected on the societal changes and wider notion of disablement caused by social inequalities and human rights violations. Bodily and civic disability was addressed and explored by different speakers who viewed disability as a bodily fact as well as focused on the social policy and societal responses to people’s needs. The main purpose of the symposium was the global exchange of ideas, concepts, research and visions for a just society.
The symposium was attended by social work researchers, practitioners from different health fields, social policy officers, pedagogues, sociologists, alumni of the faculty, students, as well as service users, parents and people living with disability. High quality intellectual contributions were made by the presenters primarily from Eastern Europe focusing on disability as an advantage; cultural construction in disability; mental health services and social protection; gender, media portrayal of disability, social entrepreneurship and livelihood.
The details of the papers and other materials are presented in the E-Book compendium of the Symposium and can be accessed from the following URL https://www.dropbox.com/s/57z2nrhn3km5mk0/Against_Social_Suffering-EBOOK.pdf. The compendium contains all recorded lectures, power points, pictures and video shown at the symposium along with the abstracts.
Report from Regional Associations
11th Biennial Caribbean and International Conference on Social Work and Social Development at Curacao (July 8-12, 2013)
This biennial conference, sponsored by the Association of Caribbean Social Work Educators (ACSWE), holds a distinctly prestigious position on the calendars of Social Work educators, researchers and practitioners in the Caribbean Community and its diaspora. Since 1993, it has been hosted by Institutions that teach and conduct research on Social Work in the Caribbean. Previous conferences have been held in Barbados (1993), Guyana (1995), Trinidad and Tobago (1997), Jamaica (1999), The Bahamas (2001), Barbados (2003) and Jamaica (2005) Trinidad and Tobago (2007), Guyana (2009) and Martinique (2011)
The theme for the 2013 Conference was: “Continuing Sustainable Social Transformation: Promoting Innovative Social Development Praxis in the Caribbean and Latin American”. In her keynote video message, Vimla Nadkarni, IASSW President, congratulated the collaborating organizations and emphasized that the theme was most relevant and in consonance with the Global Agenda on Social Work and Social Development. She said: “The theme reflects our major concerns regarding the role of social work in people-centered movements and development, in policy and structural change interventions. We need clarity and critiquing of our theoretical and practice frameworks to address social and developmental issues arising from globalization processes”. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qelEX0cG5No),
Other keynote addresses were presented by Lena Domenelli (University of Durham, UK), Malcolm Payne (Director, Psychosocial and Spiritual Care, St. Christopher Hospice, London) and ACSWE President Letnie Rock (former Board Member of IASSW based in Barbados). There was a great deal of discussion about the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development as well as the new Global Definition of Social Work. More details are available at: http://www.acswecuracao.com/
25th Nordic Conference of Social Work Schools (August 28-30, 2013)
The 25th Nordic Conference of Social Work Schools was organized by University of Tampere. The theme of the conference was “Social Work Teaching at the Intersection between Research and Practice”. The Chair of the local organizing committee was Anna Metteri, who is also president of Nordic Association of Schools of Social Work and IASSW board member.
The IASSW president Vimla Nadkarni’s video message was presented in the opening ceremony of the conference. She emphasized the benefits of joining the International Association of Schools of Social Work and helping it to promote social work education all over the world. She stated to the audience that “The sub-themes in your conference reflect global concerns in social work education, practice and research. Are we able to envisage an educator who is skilled both in practice and research and is able to thread the two together to create a synergy which contributes to the development of social work knowledge, especially indigenous knowledge”. The video message is available on YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_koCfNgIrU. The video message was also presented in the Annual Meeting of the Nordic Association.
IASSW board members, namely; Synnöve Karvinen-Niinikoski, Vasilios Ioakimidis and Vishanthie Sewpaul were among the key speakers in the conference.
A new network on North South relations in social work education was established in the North South workshop of the conference. Anna Metteri and Heli Valokivi have made a draft summary of the content of the conference and are preparing an overview article of the entire programme. This Conference brought together social work educators, researchers, practitioners and students from all the Nordic countries and beyond.
Major contributions of the IASSW Committees
The Education Committee’s guidelines for capacity building, programme consultations and development of regional resource centres were finalized and posted on the IASSW website. Dr. Janet Williams, chairperson of the capacity-building committee has been working very closely with Dr. Le Thi Quy, Director of the Institute for Gender and Development (INGAD), Hanoi, Dr. Fentiny Nugroho, President of APASWE and Dr. Angie Yuen, IASSW, to organize the international symposium on social work education in Hanoi in January 2014. The symposium will precede the IASSW Board meeting and will be attended by about 200 social work educators and practitioners from schools across Vietnam.
Four International projects were selected in the June 2013 Board meeting for IASSW funding covering collaborations between Schools in New Zealand and Australia; Schools in Norway, Sweden and Zambia; the USA and China. The topics cover teaching international social work using online technology, social work dialogue in teaching and practice research, field education and collaboration in MSW teaching and field education.
The IASSW members of the Global Agenda Steering Committee are producing a special issue on “Social and Economic Inequalities”, the first theme of the Global Agenda with articles from all over the world. Along with this special issue, a report (sponsored by SAGE, UK) on the global agenda activities will be released at the 2014 World Conference on Social Work and Social Development in Melbourne. The European Association of Schools of Social Work has set-up the Global Agenda Observatory for the European region, while other regional associations are in the process. The Global Agenda Observatory is the mechanism for monitoring and reporting on the implementation of The Agenda Commitments.
The Indian states, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and the Far western region of Nepal were hard hit by the recent Himalayan flood devastation on June 16-17, 2013. As a response, the Sustainability, Climate Change, Disaster Intervention Committee of IASSW coordinated with schools of social work in these regions to extend solidarity and onsite help to the victims of disasters. The committee has prepared a detailed proposal titled ‘Building Knowledge and Skills of Social Work faculty’. The proposal has been submitted to the IASSW International Project Funding Committee for their review and response.
a. Membership
By the end of August 31, 2013 IASSW has 406 Institutional and 141 individual members from 62 countries. Its largest member schools are from Japan, China and the United States.
b. Publications
Online Social Dialogue Magazine
The fifth issue of ‘Social Dialogue’ IASSW’s free online magazine was launched in June, 2013. This issue focused on “Environment, Social Work and Sustainable Development” with a cover story by Dr. Gautama Yadama from GWB School of Social Work, St. Louis, USA. The magazine can be downloaded at http://www.social-dialogue.com/
This quarterly magazine has received a lot of attention, thanks to the quality maintained by the Editor Carolyn Noble, the Publisher Angie Yuen, Website manager Hillming Li, and the editorial team based in Hong Kong.