Inter-University Centre Dubrovnik

School of Social Work Theory and Practice

Post-graduate Courses:

Developing Neighbourhood and Community Support Systems

and

Social Work and Social Policy

These two IUC courses, which form part of the programme on Social Work Theories and Practice, will be held in Dubrovnik at the same time in 2012. The core themes for each course are broadly similar, with the possibility of joint lectures, joint workshops to discuss shorter presentations, and joint discussion groups. 

Course description:

Along with the Global agenda on social work and social development which was drafted in 2010, a number of international organisations have campaigned together in the ‘Social Protection Floor Initiative’. Through the initiative, developing and developed countries will be urged to address four key themes: the provision of a minimum income for all, an income for children, a social pension, and access to social services. As a response to the global economic and financial crisis, and the continuing growth of inter- and intra-country inequalities in wealth, power, and participation, the agenda and the initiative offer the possibility of going beyond residual approaches to social policy, and to address financing, capacity, and political will for a renewed commitment to social protection as a key to sustainable development. The European Union has embarked on an ambitious Europe 2020 strategy which aims, amongst other goals, to take 20 million people out of poverty and social exclusion by 2020. At the same time, new fiscal discipline and austerity measures threaten the very foundations of a European social model.  

The course asks:

• ·         What are the challenges posed by the ‘Social Protection Floor Initiative’ initiative, and by more general debates in global social policy, at regional (supranational), national, and local levels?
• ·         How can innovations at the local level be scaled up to have maximum impact?
• ·         What are the impacts of the Europe 2020 agenda and how can the European social model be adapted and defended?
• ·         What are the prospects for different regional blocs developing regional social policies which link with the Social Protection Floor initiative?
• ·         How can social and environmental challenges be integrated into a more progressive social agenda?
• ·         How can the social floor initiative connect with the Global Agenda and also learn from the problems of ensuring that the UN Millennium Development Goals are met?

Course description:

The Global Agenda on social work and social development was drafted during 2010. One of the four framework areas it addresses is environmental sustainability, which includes involvement of local communities in developing relevant welfare responses. This and other challenges is set in the agenda as requiring engagement with local, national, regional and global bodies. Links with the UN and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are stressed as relevant to enable analysis and consolidation of evidence for collective advocacy. However, the role of supranational bodies such as UN, World Bank, the international development organisations and national governments and local communities on issues that concern social work and social welfare is neither straightforward nor simple. This year’s course invites papers that explore the complex relationship between local community needs and involvement of the communities to develop relevant welfare responses with such international interventions and agendas – particularly from the perspective of reclaiming social work as a political action, as stated in the draft Global Agenda. It will also explore the meaning of initiatives and activism such as that witnessed during the «Arab spring», «European Summer» or  «Occupy Wall Street» for the role of social work in achieving community development and social justice. As an example of community response to the challenge of global economic crisis and reduction of social rights concepts of local and ethnic economy in communities and other local community initiatives will be discussed.

The courses encourage broad reflections from teachers, researchers and practitioners on the importance of connecting and reconnecting the global and the local in social policy and social work.

Participants are invited to read:

http://www.un.org/en/ga/second/64/socialprotection.pdf

http://www.globalsocialagenda.org/?page_id=16

http://europa.eu/press_room/pdf/complet_en_barroso___007_-_europe_2020_-_en_version.pdf

To register:

1. 1.       Fill out the registration form on http://www.iuc.hr/programme-application-form.php?progType=course&progId=690
2. 2.       Contact the Organising Directors (‘Developing Neighbourhoods’ – Dr. Reima Ana Maglajlic, rea.mag@gmail.com; (‘Social Work and Social Policy’) – Dr. Paul Stubbs, pstubbs@eizg.hr or riitta.h.vornanen@uef.fi
3. 3.       If a candidate is an undergraduate student, a brief recommendation by at least one professor is required.

Fee for each course:

EU 75 for faculty and practitioners, and EU 55 for students

Grants may be available to scholars and post-graduate doctoral students from HESP for participants from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Republic of Georgia, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine. http://www.iuc.hr/hesp-osi.php

The Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sport may also award scholarship grants to postgraduate students and scholars of Croatian nationality http://www.iuc.hr/croatian-ministry.php

Applicants should make their own travel and accommodation arrangements.

Further details for potential participants are available on:

http://www.dialogueinpraxis.net/index.php?id=35&lang=en

Accommodation: http://www.iuc.hr/accomodation.php

Other useful info: http://www.iuc.hr/useful-info.php

About the School of Social Work Theory and Practice: http://www.dialogueinpraxis.net/index.php?id=2

About IUC: http://www.iuc.hr/about.php

Dr Paul Stubbs

Senior Research Fellow/Znanstveni savjetnik

The Institute of Economics, Zagreb

Tel: +385 (0)1 23 62 239 (direct line)

Tel: +385 (0)1 23 62 200 (switchboard)

Fax: +385 (0)1 23 35 165

skype: paul.zagreb

http://paulstubbs.pbworks.com

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