Annual of social work, Vol. 14 No. 1, 2007.
Review article
THE MEANING AND FEATURES OF THE POSTMODERN APPROACH TO SOCIAL WORK
Kristina Urbanc
Abstract
Unlike previous “stages of development” of social work, in which we intensely dealt with the discovery of the pathological and with the search for problems and their solving, one of the current approaches to modern social work, the postmodern approach, is focused on the relationships between participants in the helping process. Help is realised with joint forces through the relationship within the framework of which the social worker and the user find new solutions in the user’s existing historical, social and cultural context. The paper describes the features of the postmodern approach to the helping process, during which a qualitatively new interaction is being developed out of the relationship between the social worker and the user, so-called “working relationship” with all the specific features that the participants themselves introduce to it. With the usage of the term “working relationships”, the social worker and the person asking for help became collaborators in a joint “project”, as they discover, plan changes, problematize, reflect, conduct a dialogue and conclude the relationship. In that joint “project”, the social worker invests his or her professional knowledge and skills, but also his or her positive personal experiences, while the user invests his or her knowledge of himself or herself, the situation and one’s own resources.
Keywords
working relationship; the postmodern; the perspective of power; reflection; the process of helping
Hrčak ID:
11499
URI
Publication date:
1.4.2007.
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