Social work and systemic crises

In collaboration with Sociographe

Social work, which has long been a shock absorber for the crises of the industrial and then the liberal model, is faced with the question of its historical purpose. Today, this function of social regulation is coming up against the emergence of systemic crises that render this historical role obsolete and call for a radical transformation.

What are the causes of this profession-wide rethink, and what processes can explain it? What happens when the historical role of social regulator collides with the urgency of ecological and social transitions? What is the role of populations marginalized by liberalism, no longer as beneficiaries, but as experts of a sustainable future, because they have not integrated today's deleterious norms?

The end of the productivist model is not an inevitability for social work, but a historic opportunity to reinvent its purpose. But to remedy this, significant obstacles need to be overcome, and therefore understood. The concepts to be analyzed are thus particularly useful, such as that of the social engineer as facilitator, the mobilization of supported people as usage experts, and the collaborative methodologies that follow.

Stéphane Rullac is a social worker, social engineer, doctor of anthropology and ordinary professor of social innovation at the Haute École de Travail Social et de la Santé de Lausanne (HETSL/HES-SO).

His approach is rooted in collaborative action research and the cross-fertilization of knowledge, mobilizing scientific, professional and experiential knowledge. He conceives the social worker as a strategic player and mediator of transitions, capable of co-producing inclusive and sustainable solutions by drawing on the collective intelligence of the populations concerned.

Details on the references and remarks made during the meeting by author Stéphane Rullac are available here.