Sociální pedagogika | Social Education 25

Volume 4, Issue 1, pp. 25–37, April 2016

ISSN 1805-8825 | doi:10.7441/soced.2016.04.01.02

German version/Německá verze

The Relationship Between Social Work and Social

Pedagogy – Similarities in Theory and Profession

from a German Perspective

Klaus Kraimer^1

Lena Altmeyer^2

Contacts to authors

1,2 University of Applied Sciences,

Faculty of Social Sciences,

Rastpfuhl 12a,

D-66113 Saarbrücken

klaus.kraimer@htw-saarland.de

lena.altmeyer@htwsaar.de

Abstract: The contribution focuses on similarities of social work and

social pedagogy in the German-speaking area and with relation or

reference to International classic authors such as Mary E. Richmond

and Alice Salomon. The similarities that were elaborated point in

particular to a concentration on “education to maturity” (Adorno,

1969), which should be indispensable in both theoretical traditions.

The article is a short version of the study Case Reconstructive Social

work developed elsewhere (Kraimer, 2000, 2014) which includes

the social-pedagogical perspective as an integral part.

Keywords: social work, social pedagogy, professional work,

vicariously coping with crisis, qualitative respectively reconstructive

social research

Kontakty na autory

1,2 Univerzita aplikovaných studií,

Fakulta sociálních věd,

Rastpfuhl 12a,

D-66113 Saarbrücken

klaus.kraimer@htw-saarland.de

lena.altmeyer@htwsaar.de

Copyright © 2016 by authors

and publisher TBU in Zlín.

This work is licensed under the

Creative Commons Attribution

International License (CC BY).

Vztah mezi sociální pedagogikou a sociální prací

– teoretické a profesní podobnosti z německé

perspektivy

Abstrakt: Příspěvek se zaměřuje na podobnosti mezi sociální prací

a sociální pedagogikou v německy mluvící oblasti a na jejich vztah

k mezinárodně uznávaným autorům jako jsou Mary E. Richmond

a Alice Salomon či odkazy na tyto autory. Podobnosti, které jsou

rozpracovány, poukazují v první řadě na důležitost „vzdělávání

k dospívání“ (Adorno 1969), které je v obou teoretických tradicích

nepostradatelné. Příspěvek je zkrácenou verzí studie

Fallrekonstruktive Soziale Arbeit (Rekonstrukce případu jakožto

metoda sociální práce) publikované jinde (Kraimer, 2000, 2014)

která zahrnuje sociálně-pedagogickou perspektivu jako svoji

nedělitelnou část.

Klíčová slova: sociální práce, sociální pedagogika, profesionální

práce, zprostředkované zvládání krizí, kvalitativní respektive

rekonstrukčně sociální výzkum

1 Introduction

“Vicariously coping with crisis because these activities... are about dealing with the crises of others,

be it specific other persons or groups subject to sovereign collectivisation, or even future generations”

(Oevermann, 2009, p. 114).

Kraimer & Altmeyer / The Relationship Between Social Work and Social Pedagogy … 26

This contribution aims at providing a brief insight into the relationship between social pedagogy and

social work. In the German-speaking area, the term “Social Work” is by now used as a heading for

both social work and social pedagogy^1. The focus is on both the historical genesis (Section 2) and on

current research and treatment methods which are presented based on their characteristics (Section

3). The explanations will look at case-oriented – in contrast to classificatory – research and treatment

methods. The two theoretical traditions discussed (social work and social pedagogy) have similarities

particularly in terms of their case orientation. The fourth part – largely in the shape of a thesis – deals

with disciplinary and profession-related bases for “case-reconstructive Social Work”. A case-

reconstructive process implies the establishment or re-establishment of an autonomous life practice.

Pedagogy and Social Work professionals should enable this e.g., in nurseries or at schools and as

such, early on in a person’s life. Autonomy must be re-established in a person’s life where this has

been lost or become impossible and should continue throughout their life. Collective disasters

(epidemics, wars) and human tragedies accompanying these are examples of situations in which a

person’s autonomy can suffer damage or destruction. This can also be caused by political and social

deficiencies, such as socialising interaction if deficient child-raising and educational processes prevail.

Overall, the aim is to present a current model that we consider to be internationally forward-looking:

Social Work as vicarious coping with crisis, in which social pedagogy and social work professionals

work in the hybrid work relationships of social aids to perceive social activities (such as in special

needs and curative pedagogy or in adult education) in order to estimate and promote the autonomy

options of their service users. As a result, we believe that “case-reconstructive Social Work”

constitutes a comprehensive model for designing Social Work because this offers support in coping

with crisis for different ages. “Case-reconstructive Social Work” relates to three dimensions of

professional action, which Oevermann (2009, p. 120) developed in the context of his

professionalisation research. These are the dimensions of: Somato-psycho-social integrity, law and

justice based on applicable laws, and methodically explicit verification of applicability in notional and

sensual perception (science and art) (cf. Section 4).

At the moment, the current debate in the Federal Republic of Germany only reflects these

perspectives rudimentarily. For instance – in the context of the primary social work discourse at

(specialised) universities – the socio-political development characterised by the neoliberal

restructuring of macrosocial conflicts and crises is increasingly a topic of discussions (cf. e.g., the

agenda of the 9th Federal Congress for Social Work in Darmstadt; 30 September to 2 October 2015).

The focus of educational science, which continues to dominate the socio-pedagogical discourse at

universities (cf. the topic Spaces for education. Spaces of education – 25th DGfE^2 Congress 2016 at

the University of Kassel), is currently on education. Discussions primarily deal with how education is

granted or withdrawn, as well as with how the rooms used for education are or could be designed

and what an optimal modulation of the cultures of education and child-raising could look like within

the given socio-spatial structures and the conditions for designing public education and child-raising

in social institutions.

2 Short historical outline: Social Work, social work and social pedagogy

From the 1960s, professional practice of social work and social pedagogy in Germany – nowadays

frequently combined under the heading of Social Work – undergoes a quantitative expansion (across

its life span and from cradle to grave) as well as a qualitative differentiation (such as school social

work). This applies increasingly from the 1980s, especially in the field of social work and social

pedagogy services, resulting in a summary of the formerly separate education and work areas.

Historically speaking, both the development of social work and that of social pedagogy can be

1 In the essay at hand the term “Social Work” when used for the german term “Soziale Arbeit” is capitalized.

When used for the german term “Sozialarbeit” it is not capitalized.

2 German Society for Educational Science (DGfE).

Kraimer & Altmeyer / The Relationship Between Social Work and Social Pedagogy … 27

interpreted as the systematisation of honorary and professional activities on an ethical basis – initial

similarities in the two traditions also become apparent here. Nevertheless, the two traditions have

a different focus as regards content. In social pedagogy, the reconstruction of educational and child-

raising crises is significant, whereas social work looks at the reconstruction of crises resulting from

poverty and hardship. Little by little, based on the anthropological fact that humans are dependent

on help in a crisis, methodical models arise in the context of historically grown, social reactions which

demonstrate increasing efforts towards professionalism. This is true of both theoretical traditions.

The aim here is to examine these different threads in more detail from a case-reconstructive

perspective by way of example – for further perspectives on the genesis of social pedagogy see Reyer

(2002), Dollinger (2006) and of social work see Lüssi (1991); for the genesis of Social Work see

Engelke (1992).

The origins of traditional social work are identified in the “poor relief by 19th century communities,

free acts of love and aid work, the... feminist movement and... welfare” (Bock, 1986, p. 746).

Key figures include Mary Richmond, Jane Addams and Alice Salomon. They trigger a collective

professionalisation, specifically because they establish connections with the classics of philosophy,

sociology and empirical social research, which are significant for the methodical context of theory

and practice. As a result, conventional social work is based primarily on sociological, socio-political

and legal knowledge, making reference to social connections, social co-habitation, social acts

or regulation by written norms and laws as well as opportunities for the provision of social aid. Social

work is centred around public welfare and social aid, which in the Republic of Germany is organised

primarily where private care or care by the family is disrupted or unavailable based on the principle

of subsidiarity; as a regulatory factor, this principle aims to characterise the need for, provision or

refusal of aid alongside the possibility of a person coping independently. At the heart of this tradition

are efforts to humanise living conditions through practical social work and its disciplinary reflection in

relation to principles such as a focus on the common good, social justice or opportunities for

everyone to participate in property, culture, child-raising and education. The current “social security”

system used in many countries in Europe – albeit applied very differently in each country – basically

follows this idea.

In contrast to social work in the traditional sense, social pedagogy focuses primarily on the pedagogic

body of thought and – more or less explicitly – follows a basic thought process based on theories of

education. This corresponds to the body of knowledge of general or systematic pedagogy, and above

all in pedagogic anthropology. This body of knowledge largely relates to matters of child-raising

and on pedagogical action as well as on theoretical statements about education, child-raising

and learning processes. Particularly Klaus Mollenhauer, Hans Thiersch and Burkhard Müller form part

of this tradition of social pedagogy – along the lines of a democratisation of living conditions – and in

favour of a more academic approach towards the discipline and profession now called Social Work.

These authors are turning hermeneutic and phenomenological approaches with connections to

earlier traditions into integral parts of the development of theories, practical research and practical

design relating to the two original traditions.

For instance, Thiersch is clearly speaking up in favour of a pedagogic focus of Social Work. In 1959,

Mollenhauer also suggests pedagogy, and more specifically social pedagogy, as the sole “basic

theoretical reflection” for Social Work as a whole. Mollenhauer in a later paper: “What we summarily

assign to the sphere of social pedagogy/social work is in fact a highly heterogeneous field of actions,

measures and institutions. Only part of this can be related to pedagogy” (Mollenhauer, 1988, p. 54).

With this, Mollenhauer opens up the opportunity of a re-alignment, which is expressed in today’s use

of the term Social Work. Niemeyer agrees: “For a long time, the term social pedagogy was closely

linked to the pedagogic knowledge base and argumentation culture and, if we focus on the

theoretical tradition for which Nohl has provided evidence, can be interpreted as finding its origins in

reform pedagogy and the German Civic Youth Movement. By contrast, social work – respectively

Kraimer & Altmeyer / The Relationship Between Social Work and Social Pedagogy … 28

Social Work – is founded in the tradition of poverty relief and its origins lie in the civic feminist

movement” (Niemeyer, 2012, p. 146).

E.g., the ground-breaking compendium by Otto and Thiersch (2011) shows that nowadays, the term

Social Work is used to denote both social work and social pedagogy: Whereas the titles of the first

three editions (1984 with Hanns Eyerth, 2001, 2005) include the terms social work and social

pedagogy, the title of the fourth edition (2011; 5th edition 2014) only uses the term Social Work. “An

approximation in terms of content is also apparent in that phrases such as ‘social pedagogy/social

work’ are frequently used as if they are synonyms. Even universities, which Nohl – during his time in

Göttingen in the Weimar epoch – still recommended should emphasize social pedagogy as a sub-

discipline of pedagogy to distinguish it from the ‘science of welfare’ (Salomon) taught at Women's

Social Colleges, nowadays often combine these two terms“ (Niemeyer, 2012, p. 147). In terms of the

historic development of professional associations, it becomes apparent that the German Professional

Association for Social Work (DBSH) founded in 1995 combined the then existing professional

associations DBS (German Professional Association for social work) and BSH (German Professional

Association for Social workers/Social pedagogues, Curative Pedagogues – United Representation of

Social Pedagogy Professions e. V.). As such, the generic term Social Work also takes hold in this area.

As an interim conclusion, it can be stated that, while social pedagogy and social work developed as

distinct entities, today they have merged into one research and behavioural framework as Social

Work. This can e.g., be demonstrated as follows: When Social Work looks at the migration crisis,

it discusses macro-societal questions in the context of socio-scientific knowledge; if the topic is

education and raising the next generation, then the themes of education sciences are prioritised.

The two scientific reference systems act as two drives of one hybrid knowledge and behavioural

framework (cf. Schütze, 2014). As a result, this paper takes the approach that, given the current

heterogeneity and hybridity of Social Work, some of these areas cannot be substantiated in terms of

either pedagogy or education science.

3 Case reconstruction as a model for Social Work research and practice

– between abstraction and reification

“Case structures are always case structures of a historically concrete life practice... and as such

contradictory units of decision-making pressure and justification obligations as well as centres for

coping with crisis” (Oevermann, 2000, p. 148).

Today, Social Work – as a community of the two previously separate areas of social pedagogy and

social work – is basically dominated by two types of methods: They are research and behavioural

methods which have developed over time with more or less reference to each other and which

currently, within the meaning of habit^3 creation (see Figure 1), are essential for ensuring the long-

term autonomy of Social Work as research and behavioural practice. In order to understand this

connection, a distinction must first be made between “abstraction” (theory) and “reification”

(practice): This differentiation is required at all times in this regard in order to clearly underline what

can and should be achieved in each case so that an amalgamation that might damage the purity of

the process can be avoided. Research methods – using the mode of abstraction – require an

unconditional relief from the tasks of concrete practice. In principle, this is about developing

3 According to Bourdieu, habit describes the interplay of routines, habitualities and attitudes characterising

a person's manner. “The cognitive structures used by social actors in their practical cognition are

incorporated social structures,” which “work beyond consciousness and discursive thinking” (Bourdieu,

1984, p. 730). In his revised professionalisation theory, Oevermann describes a habit formation which

ideally employs the components of hermeneutic case understanding and theoretical understanding to form

a routine in professionalised practice applying the logic of vicarious coping with crisis (1996) (professional

habit).

Kraimer & Altmeyer / The Relationship Between Social Work and Social Pedagogy … 29

scientific findings which are brought to bear independently of political or institutional expectations.

In this respect, scientific practice is free from the pressures of expectations, time or results in order

to be able to research the “matter itself” without being patronised. The aim is to develop theoretical

models, ideally through a prior reconstruction of practice, which operate in the reality of practice

and which can be taught to those studying the subject in the course of their studies – such as in

research workshops (cf. Kraimer & Wyssen-Kaufmann, 2012) so that the mentioned habit creation

becomes possible and is facilitated. The methods used are primarily research processes based on

reconstruction logic and hermeneutically inspired case work.

Habit creation as mediation instance between

Scientific Knowledge (competence of

theoretical understanding)

To understand scientific findings

(interpretation options of the

professional as knowledge which can

be generalized, extensive

development of models)

Research methods in the insight

finding mode

Professional Skills

(competence of case understanding)

To professionally handle actual

practice (client difficulties in their life

practice as “individual case”,

e.g., disadvantage, illness)

Action methods in vicarious coping

with crisis mode

Tensions can not be resolved technically

Figure 1 Habit creation in discipline and profession (Kraimer, 2014, p. 19)

Professional practice experiences time pressure and as such focuses on dealing with practical life

problems. As a result, methods for action – using the mode of reification – require the person acting

in professional practice to find relief by accessing methods which have previously been founded in

the discipline and whose approach has been habitualised. In principle, this is about practising

vicarious coping with crisis applying the knowledge basis of academic studies. The aim is to create

a work alliance to (re-)establish autonomous life practice. Accordingly, professional practice is bound

by the ethics of action, the disciplinary empiricism of research ethics.

The process of case reconstruction can be useful for both method types. The process of case

reconstruction, which constitutes a theory of art, is aimed at revealing case-specific social

connections in terms of meaning and actions, which are embedded in the structural system

and system of rules. This makes it possible to examine the relevant materials of expression

– corresponding primarily to the context of social aids, social prevention or social services – in

relation to their structural logic (research) and then apply this to the conceptualisation of an

intervention (practice), e.g., as vicarious coping with crisis or as biographical guidance.

Ulrich Oevermann (2000) introduces the method of sequence analysis, a process which can be used

to determine the analytical difference between the varied options of a given empirical reality and the

actual choices made (as a result of decisions). A distinction must be made between two characteristic

dimensions (parameters). The dimensions presented as creation and selection parameters are:

(1) Rules for creating meaning, which create possible connections in the relevant sequences

(thought-experimental generation of choices).

(2) The totality of options available as a togetherness necessitating a choice.

Kraimer & Altmeyer / The Relationship Between Social Work and Social Pedagogy … 30

Selection option A

Simultaneous

generation of new

connection options

Rules for creating

meaning

Selection option B

(factual selection)

Simultaneous

generation of new

connection options

Simultaneous

generation of new

connection options

Selection option C

Simultaneous

generation of new

connection options

Generation parameters

Selection parameters

Figure 2 Generation and selection parameters, own presentation based on Oevermann (2000)

The sequence analysis method follows the sequential nature of life. As such, it is based around the

idea that human action is structured sequentially by rules. “Every apparently single action is

sequentially linked to a previous action within the meaning of a well-formed, rule-like connection.

In turn, it opens up scope for well-formed, regular connections” (Oevermann, 2000, p. 64).

The reconstruction of the material of expression is based on this.

The essential characteristic of case reconstruction is the approach that a case to be examined is

analysed in relation to its differentiation by practical decisions and based on objective data to

identify latent and manifest structures of meaning.

The aim of the methodically controlled reconstruction process is to reveal the origins of a case as

structural genesis. This is achieved by formulating key structural characteristics, which can be set out

in the shape of case structural hypotheses (cf. in detail: Kraimer, 2014; Oevermann, 2000). As a result

of a case reconstruction, a scientific object can be delineated explicitly and identifiably in its historical

development and in a characteristic, definable shape and rule-relatedness. This brings about the

essential difference compared to case descriptions, case studies or procedures whose aim is to

analyse content or to categorise, which merely allocated individual phenomena by applying

subsumption logic (normally terms or categories classified in advance) and which are missing

a dimension which unlocks the matter itself. In contrast to quantifying research (which applies

subsumption logic), an empirical generalisation is not the aim – instead, a structural generalisation

according to the methodology of objective hermeneutics is intended. A case reconstruction shows

how practice/a case operates or proceeds from a structural perspective – different from, or even

adding to, the presentation of the case history by the case itself or the person presenting the case

or the biography. Practice can also become involved in the course and on the basis of a case

reconstruction so as to reveal alternative options for action or develop suggestions for vicarious

coping with crisis/biographical consultations, as intended as part of Social Diagnostics. However,

above all, professional practice can be designed as case-reconstructive to begin with.

The reconstructive process can be used to find types of readings (using thought experiments) which

help to reconstruct the choice and reasoning of decisions. The aim is to read a text artistically

and creatively in order to identify the structure of meaning contained within it – no additional

Kraimer & Altmeyer / The Relationship Between Social Work and Social Pedagogy … 31

meaning should be “superimposed” on the text. Oevermann has developed principles of

interpretation for just this purpose (cf. Oevermann, 2000): Absence of context, literalness, economy,

totality/extensivity, and sequentiality. The meaning is stored within a text, it is discovered

sequentially by different types of readings and finally it is revealed in its structuredness: Early on in

an interpretation, many different types of readings are still possible; in the course of the

reconstruction, the number reduces as inapplicable types of readings are excluded until the case

structure becomes clear.

4 Disciplinary and profession-related basis of Social Work: Vicariously

coping with crisis as a model of professional practice

The model of vicarious coping with crisis can be said to constitute a basis for Social Work

as a theoretical discipline and a professionalised activity as far as research on autonomy options and

the establishment or re-establishment of a somato-psycho-social integrity is concerned. The aim is

essentially to relate professional action in Social Work to the following dimensions in this context:

Table 1

Functional areas of focus of professionalization (Oevermann, 2009, p. 120)

Functional focus Client

Central type of

practice

Dominant type Mode of

of crisis

experience

(1) somato-psycho- particular life

social integrity practice

work cooperation

traumatic crisis

experience of

nature

and body

(2) law and justice

based on

applicable laws

community

based on law

processes based on crisis of

religious

formal/rational rules decision-making experience

(3) methodically universe of

methodical criticism crisis due to

explicit

discourse

of deliberative

inactivity

verification of (represented by discourse (logic of

applicability in the sovereign the better argument

notional and community

and suggestiveness

sensual

based on law) of sensual presence

perception

(science and art)

aesthetic

experience

Below, three theses will be presented for this context, which could lead a future development

of social work as a discipline and a profession along the lines of a case-reconstructive process:

Thesis 1: The project of professionalising “case-reconstructive Social Work” must be designed

based on the principle of vicarious coping with crisis.

“At the heart of our version of a professionalisation theory is the simple thesis that all

professional practice in need of professionalisation basically deals with the tasks of vicarious

coping with crisis for a client based on explicitly methodical knowledge, and that the manifest

professional state of these professions is linked to the perception of such vicarious coping with

crisis” (Oevermann, 2013, p. 119).

The regulating idea of vicarious coping with crisis, whose aim is to construct an autonomous life

practice, determines action for “case-reconstructive Social Work”.

Kraimer & Altmeyer / The Relationship Between Social Work and Social Pedagogy … 32

Vicarious coping with crisis^4 constitutes a regulating principle which guides the professional’s action.

In the course of life, this is expressed in different ways and qualities in the support to cope with the

crises of appropriation, loss and regaining of autonomy. In this context, we must also ask about the

viability dynamics of a specific life practice – assuming a professional intervention – which can be

developed by reconstructing the individual history in interacting with professionally offered support

in an institutional context. Vicarious coping with crisis is based on “case-reconstructive Social Work”

action by a social lawyer. As a representative of those objectively or subjectively in need of help,

it has a duty to balance out any impairments of a humane life and to obtain the funds required for

this purpose and allocated by the legislator (cf. Oevermann, 2009).

Disciplinary autonomy

Explicit mandate

Problems of the mandate

- Paradox constellation of actions

- Cannot be standardised

Professional expertise

Theoretical understanding

Ability to understand abstract

knowledge

Overall competence

Case understanding

Ability to understand cases

Work cooperation

Simultaneously diffuse and specific

Committed role distance: help to help themselves

(Re-established) autonomy

Figure 3 The logic of vicarious coping with crisis (Kraimer, 2012, p. 92)

A client deficient in autonomy (see table 2) requires a type of help provided based on a mandate

which ensures the kind of expertise that does not lead to a de-autonomisation of the client but

instead contributes to the identification of options and their realisation for an autonomous life.

4 By way of example for this model, cf. the study by Czarny and Marks (2015) and the paper by Kraimer

and Altmeyer (2016).

Kraimer & Altmeyer / The Relationship Between Social Work and Social Pedagogy … 33

The habit formation of the aide professionalised in this manner enables a work cooperation to be

established, enabling a factual dealing with the problem through help but not through control.

It is extremely important in this context for intervention practice which becomes effective in the

work cooperation to always remain aware of a realistic estimate of the client’s autonomy options

and mobilisation. This assumes an awareness of the conditions of an autonomous life practice and of

the term “free action”. The conceptualisation of a work cooperation requires the mentioned

knowledge as well as an ideal model based on an awareness of the theoretical foundations. Both of

these must be acquired during studies, as does knowledge of potential obstacles to such

a cooperation (cf. ibid).

Table 2

Theoretical process based on Liebermann and Loer (2009)

Phase

Client

Professional

Objective

Initial phase

Client must realise

that help is needed

(psychological strain)

Attitude of waiting

Mutual

communication

Anamnestic-diagnostic Reveals his need for

phase

help

Anamnesis and

diagnosis

Clarity about the crisis

to be resolved

together

Constellation phase

Contributes potential

for crisis

resolution/realises

own options

Professional

Verbal identification of

maieutically promotes the crisis to open up

the potential

scope for a solution

Modelling phase

Releasing

potential/move to

independent crisis

resolution

Promoting the client's Joint modelling of

autonomy

crisis resolution

Conclusion phase

Client acceptance of

responsibility

Recognition of

autonomy to be re-

established

Autonomy of life

practice

The process shown in table 2 shows an organisational model which constitutes an ideal process.

This process might be hampered in practice. The difficulties in contrast to the model developed by

Liebermann and Loer (2009) with reference to Oevermann can be found primarily in the specifics

of the type of social work practice so far (cf. Oevermann, 2009; Wigger, 2013). To summarise, these

are primarily the following problems:

- The problem of incompatibility between help and control.

- The problem of the stigmatising effect of help.

- The problem of a (frequent) lack of voluntary involvement.

For the latter reason alone, initiating a work cooperation – fundamentally based on voluntary

involvement – is made more difficult largely due to social control and help, creating a potential to

traumatise, particularly where help results in obligations to show gratefulness or shame and control

becomes overpowering.

Thesis 2: The logic of case reconstruction aims to reveal realistic options for an autonomous

lifestyle in practical Social Work.

The stylistic features of a case-reconstructive focus consist in showing that a dialectic context exists

between “what is” (mode of existence) and “what could be” (options for the future). The logic of

Kraimer & Altmeyer / The Relationship Between Social Work and Social Pedagogy … 34

case reconstruction largely apply in that differentiated evaluation of a case is performed from

different perspectives. The case-reconstructive process thus serves the purpose of offering a realistic

insight into a life practice subject to crises and requiring help (cf. table 3).

Table 3

Perspectives of “case-reconstructive social work”

Perspective

(1) Humans and society as the subject

Activity

Reconstruction of appearance and entity – of what

is latent and what is manifest

(2) Constructive criticism of the ‘given’

Comparison between the reconstructed situation

with what is possible, between idea (target)

and reality (actual).

(3) Creating options for change

Realistic evaluation to change the given conditions

Knowledge gained through reconstructing a case serves the purpose of enabling an examination

of biographical processes, courses of action of a practice or institutional types of responses from the

perspective of coping with crisis as well as staying true to a realistic evaluation of a case. A social

worker who in light of this is introduced to the logic of “case-reconstructive Social Work”, “must still

get to know the factual situational principles of considerate social work action – e.g., assuming the

clients’ definitions of situations” (Schütze, 2002, p. 147). He can use case reconstruction as a tool to

identify the biographical sources of meaning with regard to the case in question and to become

aware of his own biographical traumatic dispositions (traumatic childhood experiences which appear

in a present case in a structurally similar way). Case reconstruction must be used to reveal this during

the case-handling process in the same way as paradoxes^5 and typically sources or tendencies towards

mistakes in professional work (cf. Schütze, 1997). A sober reconstruction of objective data, authentic

materials for expression and biographical conditions – on both sides – in the relevant case problem

enables new, structurally realistic options to be determined, which solidify the work cooperation.

Once responsibility for oneself has been factually achieved in work, parenthood and citizenship,

coinciding with the end of the moratorium of coping with the crises of adolescence, any autonomy

already achieved generally takes effect. This “logic of autonomisation” in broader versions contrasts

with the propagation of “lifelong learning”, whose principles are structurally contrary to an

autonomy already achieved.

Thesis 3: “Case-reconstructive Social Work” serves the purpose of promoting autonomous thinking

and action in the discipline and the profession.

Autonomous thinking and action are based on the anthropological basis of freedom. In the battle to

gain recognition, as described by Hegel, it becomes apparent that freedom is related to the ability of

humans to cross the borders of self-preservation and having to choose to maintain one’s freedom^6.

Language provides the means to achieve this. The method of objective hermeneutics make it

possible to reconstruct this battle for recognition as well as the history of decisions (individual or

collective choices) and to draw conclusions for Social Work. An interpretation may never be entirely

complete, but it can reach a temporary end point if no further general or specific statements are

possible – until a newly discovered context opens up a convincing reinterpretation. Identifying such

a structure, which delineates a pattern of meaning with the “mode of existence of a meaning”

according to Schleiermacher (2000), requires an act of methodically controlled understanding,

5 Schütze defines the paradoxes of prof. action as “difficulties and dilemmas in the work process, which

cannot be undone or avoided, and in which the professional necessarily becomes enmeshed” (Schütze,

1992, p. 137).

6 “Hegel was the first to correctly present the relationship between freedom and necessity. For him, freedom

is the insight into necessity” (Engels, 1990, p. 106).

Kraimer & Altmeyer / The Relationship Between Social Work and Social Pedagogy … 35

enabled not by empathy but by strictly methodical control and substantiality. The objective richness

of meanings – revealed by the hermeneutic method of case reconstruction – opens up because

subjective imagination is triggered early on in the cognitive process (relating to a life practice in

crisis). This is required to enable interpretation and is provided by the theory of art. In this way,

options to uncover what is new or “latent” are revealed. This is achieved through participation in an

educational process which decrypts latent meaning – represented in case and in theories – using case

reconstruction. The realisation of an objective meaning thus unfolds its effect step by step if

discursive communication based on the material of expression occurs. For instance, this is essential

when conceptualising a social diagnostic which requires as rich a data basis as possible and which if

possible must take into account all perspectives affecting a case, situation or event – meaning a set

of data about a social act. In this context, autonomous thinking and action are apparent in that

reconstruction logic is asserted against the usual subsumption logic. Whereas the latter subsumes

using theoretical terminology or commonly used definitions, the former analyses is based on

sequence and aims to identify the laws which a case represents in its totality “with reference to

readable, audible and visible symbols and markings” (Oevermann, 2002a, p. 23). Vicarious coping

with crisis is to make the crisis process of child-raising and socialising individuals, which offers an

opportunity to create autonomy in life practice, easier – as demonstrated. This assumes autonomous

thinking and action on the part of the professional actors – these can be social workers or

researchers who in the individual case act with the tradition of hermeneutic empirical science.

The realisation of a typological core case, the reconstruction of further cases to expand and modify

experience and the focus on structural generalisation logic in order to imagine an educational

process whose future is characterised by the case structures of a specific life, are the contents

and objectives of a case-reconstructive activity, which can commence its (Social) Work in life

practice.

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