Sabine Hering Livres

At the conference for social work in Mainz 2001 („Designing the Social Sphere, a Challenge for Europe“) a workshop took place, which was dedi cated to the historiography of welfare in Europe in the years between 1900 and 1950. This workshop was organized by the editors of this book and vis ited by more than 30 experts from 14 European countries. The exchange of knowledge during the workshop was meant as a first step to an internationally shaped organisation for historical studies on social work - and all participants agreed that beside the merits of general founda tions the contribution of the female pioneers of welfare should playa domi nant role in the further research activities. To give this idea a strong perspective we decided to establish a „Network for Historical Studies of Gender and Social Work“ which has in the mean time over 60 members from 21 European countries.

The bi-lingual book describes the results of case studies about the history of social work in Eastern Europe between 1900 and 1960 in eight countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Slovenia. In diesem zweisprachigen Buch geht es um die Zusammenfassung der Ergebnisse eines Forschungsprojekts über die Geschichte der Sozialen Arbeit in Osteuropa in den Jahren zwischen 1900 und 1960, an dem acht Länder beteiligt waren: Bulgarien, Kroatien, Lettland, Polen, Rumänien, Russland, Slowenien und Ungarn.

In the period of State Socialism in Eastern Europe (1945- 1989) Social Welfare was exercised on two levels: The dominant level was the system of governmental Social Policy, because individual and private structures of so - cial help were considered as a dispensable bourgeois tradition. According to this perception, social welfare should include an extensive system of support and social services, although, in reality, special groups of ´´asocials´´ and ´´parasites´´ were excluded. Although - except for Yugoslavia - social work as a profession was nearly totally eliminated, modulated forms of social care had to be provided, because people like handicapped, elderly or mentally disabled still were in need. There - fore, Social Care was realised on a subordinated level - mostly allocated to proximate vocations or organisations like teachers, nurses and mass organisations. Experts from the respective countries explain what it was like. Countries under scrutiny: Bulgaria, Czechoslowakia, GDR, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Soviet Union, Yugoslavia

Die AutorInnen präsentieren in Form eines Lehrbuchs eine systematische Übersicht über die wichtigsten Traditionen, Widersprüche und Wirkungsweisen Sozialer Arbeit. Sie widmen sich den Fragen, wie und warum Soziale Arbeit entsteht, was die theoretischen Fundamente der Profession sind und wie es mit der Sozialen Arbeit aufgrund aktueller gesellschaftlicher Entwicklungen weitergehen wird.

In diesem Buch stellen 23 AutorInnen aus elf Ländern Beiträge zu Biografien von Pionierinnen der Sozialen Arbeit und zu ihrem Einfluss auf die Entwicklung von Organisationen und Strukturen der Wohlfahrtspflege vor.

Klappentext„Die lebensgeschichtlichen Gespräche in diesem Band, die zu interpretieren sich seine Autoren enthalten haben, fordern die LeserInnen heraus, in den Widersprüchen und begrenzten Reichweiten der politischen Erziehungsansätze der Nachkriegszeit die schlummernden Potentiale zu entdecken und sich selbst etwas daraus zu machen.“ (Lutz Niethammer)