Social shadowing in the super-diverse city: hybridisation and politicisation among informal and non-formal players in Brussels

"Hybridisation and community initiative in the super-diverse city": what role does social shadow work play in Brussels? Do they mainly deal with service provision and meeting people? Or do they also deal with the political mission of social work?

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PWO (practice-oriented scientific research) impulse

Description

In this study on "Social shadow work in the super-diverse city: hybridisation and politicisation among informal and non-formal actors in Brussels", we explore the role played by informal and non-formal actors in the city's social work field. We ask a series of questions on the basis of the normative human and fundamental rights framework that social professionals use. This applies to social workers, to 'specialised support workers' and to family scientists. We explore three dimensions which interact with each other.

  • HYBRIDISATION

    We start from the actual situation of social shadow work to map out how social professionals deal with new needs from the urban condition of super-diversity. We link this exploration phase and 'mapping' to the issue of hybridisation towards a community focused on informal and non-formal actors on the ground.

    We question a range of organisations working at the seam of the informal, non-formal and formal. These are organisations that operate under the umbrella of "social shadow work": some religious organisations, ethnic-cultural players as well as key figures who organised an informal network around themselves.

  • POLITICISATION

    Next, from this descriptive phase of research, we ask the rather normative question of what that means for "politicisation"? Hybridisation towards community means movements towards "the private", whereas "politicisation" is just a description of "making private issues public". Is it the case that hybridisation towards community means segregation into the private? Or does this seemingly "internal trend" (hybridisation towards community) also mean that external bridges are built to make issues public, and to disrupt the existing order? In social shadow work, social professionals are moving the goalposts, trying to change the way they think and act.

    We build on existing research on "self-organisations", research on the political function of self-organisations and on the role of self-organisations in welfare needs and research on key figures, but also on contributions on social shadow work and transnational social work.

  • ACTION FRAMEWORKS FOR SOCIAL PROFESSIONALS

    We not only do a mapping of the what and how of "hybridisation towards communities" and "politicisation" as making private issues, needs and demands public, but we also map the concrete intervention logics of informal and non-formal actors.

Objectives

  1. Gaining insight into the increasingly complex practice in the field through mapping and in-depth research.
  2. Strengthening exchange and cooperation within SAW regarding themes of hybridisation and politicisation.
  3. Contributing content from the Brussels context to the Social Work Conference 2022 and to a publication by the PARKS research consortium of Flemish social work training institutes, led by SAM vzw.
  4. Developing and providing tools and expertise for coaching, training and forming social workers in the broad social field with a view to dealing professionally with social shadow work within a metropolitan context.
  5. To provide insight into new dynamics, care relationships and challenges in the field through teaching materials. We start from the premise that the social work field should at least know that social shadow work exists. Whether cooperation is possible is a second question. Uncovering some of the blind spots of informal social work is also a goal of this project.

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