Summary

Relationships between representatives of minorities and the police in democracies have been tainted by many events of un-just treatment, excessive and discriminative violence. In order, at least in principle, to overcome these problems, independent police complaint bodies (IPCBs) started to emerge in democratic settings by the end of the 1990’s as a necessary balance mechanism for the betterment of relationships between the police and the citizen in general, and representatives of minorities in particular. It seems then, logically, that the more these mechanisms are known to the public, the easier it is to get access to complaint procedures, the more efficient they are and the higher democratic control over coercion mechanisms such as the police are. But opinions of police representatives are somewhat deceiving in this regard: while no one ever really criticize the mere existence of IPCBs, they present on the other hand, too powerful outside police control mechanisms as potential infringements of police duties and mission efficiency. While it is highly debatable that this is really the case, there will always be two other important variables in this equation: first, to which extent does the public really know the existence of IPBCs, and, second, to which extent do they really trust these mechanisms when time comes to file a formal complaint against a police officer or a police organization? Our presentation will be devoted to results emanating from public surveys conducted in Canada, France, Germany and the U.K. After a short methodology section, we will present the main elements coming out of the results one country at a time, to get after that to those of these elements that might be compared within these three national contexts.\ 

Keywords (separate with commas)

police control - democracies - radicalized minorities - independent complaint mechanisms - public surveys

Summary

This presentation will describe course assignments within three graduate level macro social work courses, Community and Global Theory and Practice, Social Work Practice with Organizations, Communities and Societies, and Executive Leadership Practice and this author’s delivery of the courses through unique assignments aimed at helping students embrace community-based social work approaches to addressing global social work issues, social development approaches, human rights concepts and application and learning that advances inclusive practices. The assignments and overall course delivery are consistent with the themes of the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development Framework for 2020-2030.\ The MSW Program in Fort Wayne is situated in the midwestern part of the United States, in a politically conservative medium sized urban area that draws MSW students from the city as well as from its surrounding rural counties with varying degrees of diverse people groups. The majority of the MSW students attending this program have had limited international travel experiences and the geographic location of the program combined with the politically conservative mood of the state and the region, have influenced students’ awareness of and investment in global social issues impacting communities as well as exposure to diverse people groups. Though innovative course delivery and unique assignments, these three courses encourage students toward global mindedness, embracing diversity and culture, recognizing the value of community based social development approaches, enhanced understandings of international human rights instruments and their application, the need for global citizenship, and active use of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Workshop attendees will be provided with assignment details that can be tangibly replicated or modified for future use in social work education at undergraduate and graduate levels and adapted to individual country settings. The impact of the assignments on student learning will be shared with workshop attendees.

Keywords (separate with commas)

social work education; human rights; social development; global mindedness.

Summary

This research seeks to understand the democratic crisis from a reflection on the capitalist system and the repercussion of this conception in the professional performance of social workers. The capitalist system causes obstacles to the practice of full citizenship; thus, the expressions of the social question condition and reduce political participation. Therefore, the objective is to study the current democratic crisis as a political expression of the class structure and to identify the reflexes in the professional practice. Thus, in line with the study, it is necessary to understand Democracy, interpreting it as something alien to capitalism, which does not correspond to the conditions of political life created in this system, reflecting on the cultural composition of a "false democracy". In addition, in recent years, with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world and the advancement of neoconservadorism in Brazil, driven by the Bolsonaro government’s necropolitical project (2019-2022), the fragility of the democratic process becomes more evident, as well as precariousness, depoliticization and lack of criticality in the various fields of work of social workers. Having said that, it is fundamental to develop an investigation on the indicators that show the situation of the social workers' labor activity, contextualized in this framework of correlation of antagonistic forces, thus recognizing a culture of democracy fostered by liberalism as a structural impasse in the operationalization of the ethical-political project, aiming at overcoming the condition of the profession as an active part in maintaining the status quo.

Keywords (separate with commas)

Democracy, Capitalism, Citizenship, crisis, ethical-political project, social workers.

Summary

Social work spaces have maintained a steady commitment to conformity that uphold the hegemony of dominant practices of coloniality and white supremacy. These spaces serve to facilitate the normalization of colonial, racist, ableist and other oppressive discourses and practices that continue to construct the “Other” and facilitate their othering process under the gaze of help and care. Facilitated by the rhetoric of social justice and challenging oppression, social work spaces play a significant role in the operation of conformity to white supremacy and coloniality in ways that erase and silence voices of meaningful resistance. Neoliberal policies and practices have intensified the hegemonic role of social work and implicated the profession in the creation and maintaining process of conformity and intensified assimilation to whiteness while normalizing the erasure of the “Other” and their experiences. In this presentation, we outline hegemony in social work spaces that play out through extreme exoticization of the “Other” or through delegitimization of their calls for justice and inclusion that are preformed through “equity, diversity and inclusion” rhetoric. Utilizing coloniality and postcolonial thinking, we call out the weaponizing of competency discourses that manifest in upholding whiteness and white standards and trouble social work spaces as spaces of coloniality and white supremacy. \ We interrogate social work education, practice and research as professional spaces that \ perpetuate coloniality and conformity to white supremacy and highlight their role in silencing resistance and erasing calls for justice. We also demonstrate the gap between social justice-oriented theories knowledge bases and question how they are translated into performative practice in social work spaces. We end the presentation by calling on the profession to redeem itself and claim its role as a profession that has the potential to create spaces of justices and maintain social transformation.\ 

Keywords (separate with commas)

White Supremacy, Coloniality, Social Work spaces, Resistances, Decoloniziation\