Beyond humanism: transformational and regenerative social work as sensitive public pedagogy

Abstract

In recent years, quite numerous new concepts of social work have emerged, going beyond the framework of humanism, with its traditional privileging of the human. They supportsuch a transformation of social work, which is part of the post-anthropocentric turn and is in line with the assumptions of the regenerative turn in the idea and practice of sustainable development. It is a paradigm that integrates contemporary approaches in science and practice, necessary for systemic transformation and striving to ensure sustainability. The basis here is an ethical sensitivity to a symbiotic community, the participants of which share the world with other, not only-human, always equivalent beings. The author points out that transformational, regenerative social work emphasizes formation issues (such as self-creation, subjective identity). They are the focus of pedagogy. Developed in the thought of constant becoming in the shared world of life, they explicitly reveal the educational nature, for example by referring directly to the challenge of practicing symbiotic community. Therefore, this text argues the thesis that social work that changes in the regenerative turn is profoundly pedagogical. On this basis, the author presents an outline of the concept of transformative, regenerative social work, in which she sees a special type of pedagogy – sensitive public pedagogy, with educationally sensitive to the common world thinking and acting in the area and for the benefit of multi-species eco-justice. The text is developed in the form of a reflective essay, with the thesis argued in the course of the argument and – at the end – with an outlined conceptualization of the social work.