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The international Social Work & Society Academy in Vilnius, Lithuania:

New culture of welfare:
the clash between managerial ideology, public image and professional identity

Welfare regimes are facing a fundamental transformation on a global scale.
The shift of paradigms, procedures and perspectives becomes obvious in analysing the dominant
social political terms like audit-system, efficiency and effectiveness, self-responsibility and
activating. Moreover, the contradictory constructions of citizens on the one hand as powerful,
flexible and responsible members in their communities and on the other hand as unpredictable,
detached and threatening individuals mark a strain in current welfare formations.
Social professions are challenged to positioning themselves within this new culture of welfare.
The managerial ideology squeezes social professions to become more standardized,
(specialized) and fragmented in order to implement evidence-based, countable and calculable
practice in social services.
The public image of social professions increasingly focuses on prevention and control. Social
services are perceived as institutions of policing rather than institutions of civil society,
characterized by the pressure of `demand and support`.
Along with these utilization, attribution and perception social professions are confronted with a
degradation of their interpretative authority in the struggle of the definition of social problems.
The professional identity is continuously developed in the triangle of education, organisation
and individual practice. In its progressive way, it comprises critical theory and practice as well
as ethical and political contexts, includes a strong mode of reflexivity and the orientation on
social justice and empowerment. But within the new culture of welfare, the professional
identity is a contested claim. To keep the disposal of the definition and interpretation of
professional identity is the central challenge of current social professions, emancipatory social
practice and social work policy.

August 26 to 28, 2009  TiSSA Plenum
August 23 to 25, 2009  PreConference of the TiSSA PhD-Network

Abstracts
Submissions can either represent reflected practical experiences, empirical research or theoretical
concerns. The international scientific committee will validate all incoming abstracts. Presentations will be
limited to max. 20 minutes. Points for subsequent discussions are welcome.
All colleagues are cordially invited to send an abstract (1-2 pages) as word- or pdf-file to the TiSSA co-
ordinator: melanie.abeling@uni-bielefeld.de.
For all colleagues intending to give a paper either for the TiSSA Plenum or for the PreConference of PhD-
Network the deadline for the announcement of the abstract is July 1, 2009.

For further information and the easy-online registration please see http://www.TiSSA.net.