Embodied encounters and spatial navigations: proximity as an approach to social work in disasters

Amid the recent chaining and entwining of disasters and crises, social workers navigate close to events, interacting with affected people and inter-professional networks. Despite the increasing prominence of disaster consequences in social work practice, the discipline’s contributions in such scenarios often go unnoticed. In response, this article explores and analyses social work in various disaster contexts from a pragmatic, transnational perspective. Through the thematic analysis of 17 interviews with social work professionals, we examine the street-level operational practices they employ to support people in disaster situations. Our study aims to illuminate the nuanced dynamics of encounters, interventions and approaches informed by the tacit knowledge these professionals utilize to address the diverse needs of individuals and communities during and after disasters. The main finding of this study is that social workers employ proximity as an operational practical approach to disasters, emerging in the dimensions of interaction and spatiality. Through our results, we propose proximity work as a nuanced framework providing insights into social workers’ unique expertise in responding to events of exceptional magnitude. Analysing its dimensions enhances our understanding of aspects of social work practice extending beyond institutionalized, measurable professionalism. This underscores the importance of recognizing and integrating the vital role and expertise social work brings in disaster relief in both national and global contexts.