The neglected paraphernalia of practice? Objects and artefacts in social work identity, practice and research

Although the home is the most common place where social work goes on, research has largely ignored the home visit. Drawing on a participant observation study of child protection work, this article reveals the complex hidden practices of social work on home visits. It is argued that home visits do not simply involve an extension of the social work organisation, policies and procedures into the domestic domain but the home constitutes a distinct sphere of practice and experience in its own right. Home visiting is shown to be a deeply embodied practice in which all the senses and emotions come into play and movement is central. Through the use of creativity, craft and improvisation practitioners ‘make’ home visits by skilfully enacting a series of transitions from the office to the doorstep, and into the house, where complex interactions with service users and their domestic space and other objects occur. Looking around houses and working with children alone in their bedrooms were common. Drawing upon sensory and mobile methods and a material culture studies approach, the article shows how effective practice was sometimes blocked and also how the home was skilfully negotiated, moved around and creatively used by social workers to ensure parents were engaged with and children seen, held and kept safe.

Section: Home Rules: Improvisation and The 'Making' Of Home Visitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Entering the Home: Ritual And The Full Engagement Of The Bodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making home visits: Creativity and the embodied practices of home visiting in social work and child protection

Ferguson

2016

“…Objects are important for the development of a sense of identity for LAC and to provide them with feelings of security, continuity and belonging. This paper contributes to the importance of children’s objects in the UK literature on LSW (Ward, 2011), in direct work with children (Lefevre, 2010), and to a growing interest in material culture and objects in social work practice (Doel, 2018; Scholar, 2017). The approach taken is deliberately eclectic, combining perspectives from many disciplines.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…He claims that far from being obvious and ever-present, material culture is largely ‘ familiar and taken-for-granted ’ (50) and that what makes us who we are is the material world that operates as ‘ an exterior environment that habituates and prompts us ’ (51). This suggests not only the symbolic nature of objects and the relationship between symbolic objects and social life (Miller, 2010) but that objects have agency and ‘ can make their presence felt ’ (Scholar, 2017: 637).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Storying special objects: Material culture, narrative identity and life story work for children in care

Watson

Hahn

Staines

2019

This paper considers the importance of material objects for looked after and adopted children integrated as part of life story work practices. Conducting life story work is believed to be good practice within direct work with looked after children in England and there are a range of diverse practices, including life story books, later life letters and memory boxes. Through a creative design project developing a playful memory product for looked after children, we have had the opportunity to capture sector perspectives on life story work approaches and these are interspersed throughout this commentary. Combining multi-disciplinary theoretical perspectives and these sector insights, we explore how special material objects are important for children’s identity and continuity of sense of self. The paper highlights the importance of children telling their own stories of these objects, giving them agency and control over their life story narratives. In a context of austerity, life story work may not be prioritised by social workers who have many other competing demands and limited resources. We emphasise the need for professionals to recognise the value children give to objects and to provide them with opportunities to both keep these safe during placement moves and to tell their own story through their objects alongside more traditional, formal life story work. The recommendations have implications for children in out of home care in many country contexts, not just England where the research has been conducted.

“…Objects and artefacts feature in the topic of sensory or material aspects of Social Work practice, again, only implicitly addressing, but still relevant to, the specific topic of Sensemaking. Building on commentary that “things” can influence interactions in practice (Ferguson, 2011: 62), there has been a growing recognition that objects and artefacts have attracted little attention in social work (Scholar, 2010: 631). Where they do appear, as in Watson et al.’s (2020) discussion of life story work, they have been a secondary feature.…”

Section: Social Work and Sensemakingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving Sensemaking in Social Work: A worked example with Deleuze and Art

Robson

2020

Social Work is all about Sensemaking, but Sensemaking, as we currently know it, is not fit for purpose in Social Work. Developed by Karl E. Weick, Sensemaking describes the process of coming to understand and act in circumstances that are confusing or otherwise problematic. In this article, the author provides a creative and inventive response to the limitations of Sensemaking in Social Work through the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, and the use of artistic practices. In this article, he presents two stories; firstly, a story about overcoming ‘stuckness’ in a study of English Children’s Centre practitioners, and secondly, a bigger story about the limitations of Sensemaking in Social Work. These two stories are connected by Deleuze, and Art. The author responds to the opportunities presented by Deleuze by creating a series of visual Motifs, which act as idea-objects, used in his Sensemaking. He argues that whilst Social Workers do not need to be artists to make better sense of situations, they can use their own Motifs to better consider materiality, sense and affect in situations.