Place and Space: Critical Interventions in Social Work

We are pleased to invite researchers to submit a paper to Qualitative Social Work for a special issue on how the concepts of place and space advance social work theory, research and practice. Place and space have long been used in social and cultural geography but in more recent times, have gained traction in social work. Place provides an interesting critical lens for social work as social issues emerge at the intersections of local, national and global contexts; social work as a discipline works in and between these spheres (Livholts and Bryant, 2017: 1).

Place can be understood as both a discursive and material phenomenon of social connection [disconnection] and diversity (Liepens, 2000: 326). Social justice and wellbeing are pivotal points of enquiry for place-based research as geographical places are located in histories, climatic and environmental conditions and political and moral economies. Neighbourhoods provide such an example of socio-spatialities and, in particular, for some neighbourhoods there are well documented bodies of evidence of locational disadvantage and the intensification of socio-spatial polarisation (Keaher et al., 2010; Neely and Samura, 2011). In turn, policy responses to neighbourhood or area effects have called for place-based interventions (Atkinson and Kintrea, 2004). However, place is more than geographical location. Place speaks to shifting relationships of belonging/identity and attachment (Jack, 2015) among humans and non-humans, the built and socio-natural environments (e.g. Tilley, 2006).

Space and spatiality are more amorphous concepts than place. However, space like place is often understood as socially produced and spaces have divergent meanings. Pragmatically, space refers to spaces within place, like gardens in a city or rooms in a house to geo-spatialities spreading across international spaces and places. Of interest to social work is that space includes ‘very recognisable geographies of daily movement, which may be local, regional or global, but they also include electronic and insitututional “spaces” that are every bit as palpable’ (Smith and Low, 2006: 3).

We live and operate in spaces such as homes, neighbourhoods, streets, workplaces, cities, regions and countries – and too often we take this for granted (Turunen, 2016). We also live in times of increasing mobilities, displacement, dislocation and also new technologies like robotics all of which change landscapes, workplaces, homes and shape belonging and exclusion.

Social work as a discipline is well positioned to analyse place and space so as to understand how place and space operate requires attention to social relations of power.

We invite submissions that use place and space in social work to shed light on:

Localities. An ethnographic focus on how communities, neighbourhoods and places are shaped in relation to everyday social relations and social service and institutional contexts and/or glocal contexts and conditions. A number of possible starting points exist for consideration of the local in relation to care (see Milligan and Wiles, 2010), disability, environment, place making practices, youth, migration, ageing, spatial justice (see Jeyasingham, 2014) – all of which also point to explorations of contingencies of belonging and questions of social justice.

Innovations in practice. For example, in times of resource constraint, councils and other strategic stakeholders at the local level are being required to think differently and innovatively about how they deliver services. They need to maximise the ability of mainstream tools and mechanisms – such as place leadership, place making, local governance, community budgets, outcomes-based commissioning, co-production and procurement – to address wider challenges in society.

Innovations in Methods and Ways of Presenting Data. For example, methods which focus on the creation of spaces like exhibitions, public posters and digital stories to engage communities in reshaping space and place. Further, inclusion of analyses of multi-modalities of data collection that reduce or protract spatial relations.

Experimental Writing. Writing in ways that draws attention to space and place, writing enmeshed in ‘fleshy bodies’ which draw on for example, emotions, maps and stories. Importantly, writing that challenges academic conventions of disembodied and unlocated research.

Manuscripts are required to reflect the aims of the journal and once accepted to be formatted according to the requirement of Qualitative Social Work. In the first instance please send abstracts of 500 words for this special issue to the guest editors, A/Professor Lia Bryant, University of South Australia, Lia.Bryant@unisa.edu.au and Professor Charlotte Williams, RMIT, Charlotte.Williams@rmit.edu.au.

Abstracts are due by 04 March, 2019. Enquires about this special issue can be directed to Lia.Bryant@unisa.edu.au or Charlotte.Williams@rmit.edu.au. The editors will contact authors who have submitted abstracts within 3 weeks of submission. Authors will be required to submit full articles for review by, 05 August, 2019.

This special edition is planned for publication in early 2020.