Re-positioning the social mandate of social work

This paper traces growing polarizations in the public and political responses to major contemporary global crises. It recognizes in them a widening split, inherent in the process of modernity, between personal autonomy and dependency on social units. The one-sided ideological emphasis on autonomy and individuality promoted by neoliberalism caused a disengagement from social solidarity measures like public welfare designed to reconcile both interests. It thereby weakened democracy and a shared positive understanding of the term social. The restricting impact of polarizations and autocratisation of social work practice get illustrated, leading to the proposal that reflections on core social work competences in terms of its ability to engage with ambiguity can lead to an ‘agonistic’ understanding of social work practice. This approach promotes shared learning processes of practised democracy in the course of social work interventions and represents a re-positioning of the understanding of ‘social’ from an essentialised quality to an evolving, connecting process.