Abstract
During 2013 and 2014, five focus-group interviews were conducted in Norway, Chile and Argentina in order to understand better how professors at social work programs understand professional issues and controversial social policy issues in their countries. In the focus groups, the participants were asked to reflect upon a vignette which was a fictitious discussion about professional issues and dilemmas in social work practices. Three themes were deployed in the vignette. The first related to different attitudes with respect to how social problems in society should be approached and treated (with a special focus on the relationship between the public, private and civil sectors in solving welfare problems). The second was about social work dilemmas in the contested space between universal equality values and local freedom values/discretion embedded in local self-determination. The third focused on welfare states’ principles distinguishing welfare benefits and services and how public welfare policies should be designed. The three countries are very different with respect to variables affecting welfare policies and social work practices. The most profound difference is likely that Chile (and to a lesser degree Argentina) since the dictatorship is highly influenced by neo-liberal policies advocating small public involvement in social policy, whereas Norway is a typical social-democratic welfare state. This fact, however, does not affect the reflections and apprehensions of the issues in a substantial way. The professional attitudes of the professors are surprisingly equal in spite of their different backgrounds.
Highlights
The paper takes as its point of departure some key issues very much debated within a public and academic audience in the Nordic countries
All five groups assert that social problems mostly have societal causes; all groups agree that, in principle, the public sector should be the main provider of services and benefits in society
Norwegian groups especially agree that elected politicians and public agencies need to take the main responsibility even though more collaboration with actors from the civil sector will be more compelling in the future
Summary
The paper takes as its point of departure some key issues very much debated within a public and academic audience in the Nordic countries. The issues are controversial among politicians as well as scholars working with welfare topics, social work and local democracy. The issues relate to three themes and contested issues and questions: What are the relationships between the public, private and civil sectors in solving social problems in society?. The attitudes to and conceptions of these themes will have some contingencies. At least two main factors will probably affect the attitudes and conceptions. It is likely that the comprehension of the issues will be affected by the societal circumstances, such as cultural traditions, national policies, economic situations and welfare regimes. The study will not, treat these factors as independent variables affecting the conceptions, but use the societal circumstances as a backdrop to understand the attitudes and reflections of the professors
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