European Social
Work Identity
Dr. Elizabeth Frost,
University of The West of England,
Bristol, UK
This talk will consider
 How can we best understand the notion of
a ‘collective identity’
 Is there such a thing as a ‘European
identity’
 Is there such a thing as a ‘European social
work identity’?
Identity – both individual and group -is a
slippery concept with multiple meanings.
The idea of group ‘identities’ includes:
• the external position of people –
geographical, political, cultural, structural• and the subjective experience of inhabiting
these places and ideas.
For example ‘a social work identity’ would include
• issues such as skills, attributes and a body of
knowledge dictated by policy, law and practice
contexts, interpreted through training and
experience
• self-concept and ethical issues, to do with a
subjective understanding of who social workers
see themselves as being, what they believe and
believe in, what symbolic meanings form their
understanding and how these things ‘mesh’ with
the practices of being a social worker.
Another way of thinking about identity as a concept,
then, is that it looks inward and outward.
‘Identity’ is both about belonging – what we have in
common with some people - with what/whom do
we ‘identify’, and what differentiates us from
others (Jenkins, 1996).
Collective identities are collective hopes, dreams
and affiliations as well as objective similarities and
shared activities.
Understanding collective (European)
identities
The notion of European identity is an
evolving one – like all identities, a process.
There is currently ‘an unfolding process’ of
European identity, formed partially by the
act of discussion and reflection upon the
ideas of Europe/Europeans in itself
(Preston, 2005, p 498)
In what ways can collective identity be discovered
and understood? Can we really talk about a
European collective identity?
1.
1) First let us approach collective identity as
finding commonalities
Commonalities of, for example, history, culture,
shared experience and so on . What kinds of
commonalities and shared beliefs do we have in
Europe?
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Wintle: values that link to being the first
industrialised countries, the first modern
democratic countries and the first Christian
cultures. ‘European culture is modernity –
cumulative knowledge and progress,
technology and wealth –along with nation
states and ideas of freedom and equality’
(Wintle, 1996:11)
Steiner: (literary)
‘the coffee house; the landscape on a
traversable and human scale; these
streets and squares named after
statesmen scientists artists and writers of
the past; our twofold descent from Athens
and Jerusalem ; (2006, p7)
2) A second way of understanding (European)
collective identity is that seeking to be united in
itself constitutes a useful indicator of collective
identity.
Identity is a process not simply a product, and
making attempts to collectivise is a register of
how people(s) perceive their identities, who they
see themselves as connected to and what they
wish to develop with them.
Shared identity is demonstrable in the joint
attempt to forge that very thing. In relation
to European identity, it is possible to
consider a group of countries themselves
seeking to be united. ‘Since the second
world war (itself a curiously unifying factor)
there have been persistent attempts to
create a European union…’( Macionis and
Plummer, 2002; p88)
3) Another way of understanding collective identities
such as ‘European’ is to consider the formal and
informal collectivisation: the ‘top down’ and
bottom up’
It is not just the success of the process of
attempting to politically forge a collective identity
from the top that indicates collective identity
It is equally significant to analyses the ‘bottom up’
activities – the informal, people generated
collective acts and organisation – which show a
sense of the collective.
For example ‘top-down’ attempts to impose a
shared currency, laws and policies, taxes
and immigration controls, suggest
collectivisation in Europe
But at the same time the informal’ (‘bottom-up’) is
evident:
Sporting, cultural and educational networks and
activities have proliferated in Europe over the last
few decades. Grass roots politics including tradeunions, European unions of socialists and
conservatives all reflect collective political
identities. Bottom up organisations are both
ubiquitous and burgeoning. (Wintle, 2000, p. 2021.)
On the basis of using these three analytical
frameworks for considering collective
identity – shared cultures/histories; working
towards collectivisation; ‘top down’ and
‘bottom up’ activities – there is some
evidence of a collective European identity
at this point in time
European social work identities ?
So then I am claiming at least some kinds of
European identities. Is it possible to also
establish that there are European social work
identities?
Using Macionis’s first measure of what collective
identity means (outlined above: tracing shared
histories, languages, cultures, etc.) Can this be
claimed for pan-European social work? Or is
there little common ground?
Unlikely that social work across Europe would share a great
many ‘cultural’ features. Social work as a profession and
institution is constructed through nation states – in terms of
policy, legal systems, economics and practice (Erath et. al.
2001) and therefore must reflect the diversity of European
national politics.
From this ‘top-down’ perspective, social work is likely to reflect
its separate national identities. As such, it will present a
nationally defined and circumscribed range of differing
historical and policy specifics which are reflected in
education, research and practice.
However, if we consider further the kinds of
ethical, practice, self-identity and related
issues within European social work – the
‘bottom-up’ aspects – there may be
significant commonalities at work too.
In 2003, the social work thematic network cosponsoring this conference undertook an
impressionistic project on similarity and diversity.
Each of the twenty-four European countries involved
in the network were asked to describe, from their
own viewpoint, the history, definition, education,
roles, status and activities of social work in their
country. (Campanini and Frost, 2004).
This produced a picture of both similarity and
differences in the whole notion of social work
Overall, what the project suggested is that in
terms of the ‘top-down’- the laws policy,
history and the very definition of the term
‘social worker’- there was little evidence of
collective identity in Europe.
For example, even what the term ‘social
worker’ means has enormous variation
between countries.
However when we considered more subtle and more meaningbased issues the picture was more blurred. For example
in most countries social work identity was changing and fluid
and the process of professional identity definition was subject
to regular variation and over-haul
Does the notion of similarly experienced instability and change –
‘we are all equally unsettled about who we are’’ - constitute a
shared identity?
It may help to generate a shared sense of threat/excitement – a
shared idea that change is possible, and redefinition, which
may also include working towards a common redefinition.

If a ‘bottom-up’ analysis is applied, the
common struggles, mutual problems and
themes become evident. ‘Bottom-up’ here
would include the intellectual and
ideological underpinnings and the ethical,
moral and philosophical beliefs found in
social work(ers), with which the profession
itself identifies and through which it defines
itself .
Intellectually and ideologically, the ‘two-fold descent
from Athens and Jerusalem’ refered to above,
impacts on most pan-European social work
identities to some extent. However, European
social work’s inheritance (one might argue the
whole European intellectual tradition including
social analysis) is equally dominated by the
immeasurable, continuing modernist inheitance:
the ‘two-fold descent’ from Vienna and Germany:
that of Freud and Marx.
Ethically and morally
The social work profession promotes social change, problem
solving in human relationships, and the empowerment and
liberation of people in order to enhance well-being.
‘… Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental
to social work.’ Of the IASSW’s ‘Core purposes of the Social
Work Profession’, at the top of the list is to, ‘facilitate the
inclusion of marginalized, socially excluded dispossessed,
vulnerable and at-risk groups of people, and the successive
point is to ‘address and challenge barriers to inequalities and
injustices existing in society.’ (IASSW, 2004, p2).
It is possible then to trace cultural and historical
themes, intellectual traditions and common
practices, as well as a shared ethical and moral
base to establish a collective European social
work
Using the ‘attempts to collectivise as a register of
collectivity’ approach to collective identity, there is
also evidence of a European social work identity
being currently forged
Social Work Education developing European social
work identity
One of the issues which became evident in the
project mentioned above, was that all European
countries who discussed the social work of that
country, commented upon the role social work
education plays in this process of
‘Europeanisation’. There is evidence to suggest
that an increased International/European
orientation in most of the European countries
(Labonte-Roset, 2004).
For example The European section of the
association, EASSW, has established a
European accreditation agency, called the
‘European Network for Quality Assurance
for Social Professions’ (ENQASP),
Involvement in student mobility and teaching
staff exchange. Modules that address
various aspects of social work from a
comparative perspective.
Programs carried out in the English language
and summer schools European social work
training at Masters level
Additonally educational projects, such as,
‘The European Centre for Resources and
Research in Social Work’ with the aim of
developing a database of research in the
area of social work or related areas.
Us here now!
Given the models of collective identity
outlined above, which highlight the process
of developing collective actions as being
indicative of collective identities, as well as
shared beliefs, values and cultures, a
collective European social work identity can
certainly be demonstrated.
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References
Campanini, A. and Frost, E. Eds. (2004) European Social Work:
Diversity and Commonalities. Rome: Carocci
Labonte-Roset, R. (2004-unpublished) The European Higher
Education Area and Research-oriented Social Work training.
Magdeburg: Conference paper
International Association of Schools of Social Work (2004) Global
Standards For The Education and Training of The Social Work
Profession. Adelaide
Macionis, J and Plummer, K (2002) Sociology: a Global
Introduction. Harlow: Prentice Hall
Preston, P. (2005) Reading the Ongoing Changes: European
Identity, The Political Quarterly, Spring.
Steiner, G. (2006) The Ideal of Europe. The Liberal. Hay Festival
Edition, pp4-8