Studying Empowerment in a Socially and Ethnically Diverse Social Work Community in Copenhagen, Denmark

Abstract

In this article I analyze empowerment in Copenhagen's “wild” social work community and I develop the role of expansive learning to understand how to transcend marginalization. The notion of expansive activity developed by Engeström and Holzkamp contributes to the further development of Cultural‐Historical Activity Theory. I use a social practice theory of boundary communities to analyze empowerment as a dialectic between individual and collective movement. I define boundary communities as communities that overlap two or more groups and thereby offer potential for border crossing and collaboration among communities. I analyze the personal trajectory of a social street worker, Anas, focusing on dilemmas and possibilities for expansive learning. The “wild” social work community to which he belongs is constituted by an overlap of different groups in Copenhagen such as the social street workers, professionals from the “established welfare system,” and local street communities of young men with ethnic minority and Muslim backgrounds. Social street work is analyzed at the time of the street riots that occurred in Copenhagen in February 2008; social street workers facilitated meetings of opposing factions, parties who usually do not enter into dialogue. I discuss how boundary communities may support empowerment of individuals and groups by moving these parties in expansive directions.

What is the role of a case manager in community aged care? A qualitative study in Australia

“…Empowering clients has been widely accepted as an important case management practice though it has not been explicitly defined as a role of case managers (Grün & Maier , Morck ). The possible reason why participants highlighted it as a role of case managers was that the Australian government was introducing consumer‐directed care (emphasising client empowerment) into the community aged care system during the study period (DoHA ).…”

Capsular Polysaccharide Expression in CommensalStreptococcusSpecies: Genetic and Antigenic Similarities to Streptococcus pneumoniae

“…Survival of the population of pneumococci in their constant competition with the human adaptive immune system is enhanced by the extensive structural diversity of the capsular polysaccharide resulting in the currently known 97 capsular serotypes (4). The individual serotypes differ with regard to experimental virulence in mice and disease outcome and prevalence in humans, which do not necessarily follow their carriage prevalence (5–9). The current conjugated vaccines against pneumococcus infections include from 10 to 13 of the most prevalent types (4).…”

Leisure and youth clubs’ work with young people of ethnic minority background living in socially deprived housing areas: creating processes of hope and empowerment through social pedagogical work

“…When analysing how social pedagogical work unfolds in specific social practice (Schwartz, 2014), two interrelated efforts emerge: efforts aimed at counteracting experiences of hopelessness among young men and efforts that initiate processes of empowerment to create changes in young people's lives, through their own active participation and action (Lagermann, 2014;Mørck, 2011;Petersen, 2021).…”

“…The tradition of critical psychology, as developed particularly in a German-Danish context (Dreier, 1997;Holzkamp, 1983;Schraube and Osterkamp, 2013), is related to the socio-cultural approaches defined as cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT). In this context, both Stetsenko (2008) and Mørck (2011) emphasise on a variety of theoretical perspectives that explore the importance of culture and society in relation to human learning, development and participation in society.…”