Professionalisierung im Kontext von Hilfe und Kontrolle

The paradoxes of social work in a securitised setting: the example of prevention and radicalisation in German prisons

“…One basic dilemma in this respect is the need to act as an example (with the goal of independence), and the danger that doing so may itself cause clients to become more dependent (Schütze, 2000). Therefore, the activities of social work are also founded on the general paradox between irreconcilable orientations, between trust and compulsion (Schütze, 1996), aid and social control (Scherr, 2015) or closeness and distance (Dörr and Müller, 2012;Helsper, 2004) 3 . Emphasising that such dilemmas are fundamentally irreconcilable, Schütze (2000) argues that the only way to engage in professional activities is to work through the fundamental problems 'on a project by project, case by case, situational and biographically specific basis, through a cautious balancing act' (p. 65) and to act in a reflexive manner.…”

“…The chances of success for social pedagogical work are dependent to a fairly significant extent on the success of establishing a working alliance between professionals and clients that is 'voluntary' at least on the basis of 'idea and imputation' (Schütze, 1996, p. 184). However, the voluntary nature of this working alliance and personal motivations for participating in it must be first developed in different contexts in social work practice, as Scherr (2015) noted. For instance, it must be developed in contexts where the affected person does not ask for aid themselves, but where a formal willingness to participate is gained through external interventions -including in conjunction with threats of sanctions.…”

“…As a 'total institution' (Goffman, 1973), the prison is a world in and of itself where everyday life is essentially cut off from the rest of society and governed according to highly restricted and regulated processes, characterised by heteronomy, hierarchy and control. The question of how social work can adhere to its own standards and principles in prison, owing to the power imbalance between prisoners and personnel and the primacy of security as a concept, has been described as a challenge (Scherr, 2015;Schneider, 2014), but it has not been investigated thoroughly from an empirical standpoint (Kaplan and Schneider, 2016).…”