Empowering collaboration within a Danish workfare paradigm: a challenge in social-work research

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article explores how the concept of empowerment is understood and interpreted by social workers in a Danish welfare context. Empowerment is a broad concept that allows for varying interpretations. In this article, empowerment as a reinforcer of critical thinking in social work is discussed. The theory of whether empowerment influences service users to take more responsibility for their employability within a workfare paradigm is also discussed. The study comprises a small-scale participatory practice research project conducted at a job centre in Denmark. The study focused on meetings between service users and social workers and on the opportunities for critical reflection and action provided by these social workers in terms of the service users’ involvement in their own employment opportunities. The article argues that empowerment, when enacted in collaboration with social workers, can be operationalised in ways that might strengthen the critical approach and engagement of social workers within a Danish welfare context. This argument does not solve the contradictions inherent in empowerment as a concept or solve its asymmetric power relations, but it can strengthen opportunities for critical reflection and learning in employment-oriented social work and activation.