Polder
Welfare
Abstracts
Worksite of Willem Blok (Netherlands), about social work, social policy and citizen participation
The term polderwelfare is invented and described by Willem Blok of NHL University of professional education in Leeuwarden. Polderwelfare is a variation on the economical term "poldermodel". Polderwelfare is related to the current state of development in social security, care & welfare in The Netherlands. See the definition
Abstract lecture in London, Canada
for the School of Social Work of Kings College,
University of Western Ontario, October 18, 2005
Willem Blok
The democratic functions of Social Work
My lecture is based on my latest article: “The democratic functions of Social Work”. In this article I advance and found the thesis that modern professional social work fulfills important functions in the ongoing policy- and decision making process in society.
To operationalize and illustrate this thesis, I make use of the political system model of the well known American political scientist David Easton. To be precise: I use an updated and extended version of it, made by two Dutch political scientists: Van de Gevel en Van de Goor. While none of these three men even mentioned the word “social work”, the model is very suitable to point out the tasks and position of professional socal work in the different stages of the societal-political cyclus.
Modern social work stimulates and supports participation of individual persons and groups in society on micro, meso and macro level. Participation is not only an element of democratic citizenship, but also a conditio sine qua non for social integration. By empowering vulnerable groups, and liberating suppressed people, social work helps to create and maintain countervailing powers in society, and contributes with that to a balance of powers.
Its contribution to democratic functioning of society is one of the reasons why professional social work is an important instrument for citizens and authorities. The contribution to problem reduction and problem solving is another legitimation for professional social work; and so is the care and help that Social Work offers to vulnerable individuals, young, old, disabled or sick.
It is necessary to emphasize the societal value of professional social work, and especially its contribution to democratic functioning on different levels and in different ways. This important function of the work is not well known and needs emphasizing to improve the public image of the work and to strengthen the position and legitimation toward the financing governments.
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