Walter Lorenz – Wegbegleiter und Orientierungspunkt in der interkulturellen Sozialen Arbeit

First meeting, common interests and ways together The European Centre for Social Welfare, Training and Research situated in Vienna, was our first meeting place. W. Lorenz was interested in the international comparison of the different concepts and perspectives of social welfare problems in the European countries and the different developments in the training of social professions in Europe. The challenge of intercultural, antiracist social work in the context of Erasmus-Intensive Seminars To organize an intensive seminar with the aim to train students and colleagues for intercultural and antiracist competence in social professions, we formed an European network of European universities and schools of s.w. in Vienna (VIENNET), with the support of ECCE (European Centre of Community Education) in Koblenz. “The group discovered that working on these issues in an international context raises issues of ‘difference’ with renewed acuteness”(cit. W. Lorenz). We learned to cope with a variety of differences: biographical, language, theoretical and institutional backgrounds and discourse traditions. A Venue for an Intensive Seminar In choosing a venue for an Intensive Seminar we were relatively free. We locked for a place, “one dream about”, to support in the best way our seminar aims, to promote a base built on knowledge, skills and values particularly in the area of inner/outer borders, disadvantage, ignorance, minorities, majorities, vulnerable groups, racism and xenophobia. In a small village in Burgenland (Austria), very close to the Hungarian border, we thought to have found it. Future Prospect Are we only representatives of our background institutions or did we act and exposed ourselves as persons with a very specific biography and training experience. Can we sustain this created network, as a network of experts and friends in the field of intercultural, antiracist social work? This question is still open.

The European League for Non-Western Studies and E-learning

Leiden’s Faculty of Arts invited on May 20th the members of the ELNWS for a workshop on e-learning for Non-Western studies. The aim of the workshop was to take a closer look at the possibilities of e-learning as a means of realizing co-operation between our universities. During our discussions, and looking back on the past academic years, we attempted to position our own academic community on the Internet, in the sense of 'looking for, finding and putting it on, or giving it a location' in the omnipresent Internet. In order to investigate the ways in which e-learning can be used as a tool to stimulate European co-operation within the field of Non-Western studies, Leiden’s Faculty of Arts rewards one initiative between two or more European universities of the ELNWS with financial support.

Implementing Swedish Models of Social Work in a Russian Context

The economic and social changes taking place in Russia in recent decades have implied a restructuring of the Russian society. Among other things, Russian leaders have expressed a need for the reorientation of social development. In the 1990’s, cooperation was initiated on a number of social work and social welfare projects with international support, a process further speeded up during President Jeltsin’s state visit to Sweden in 1997. Discussions between the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Russian authorities dealing with welfare issues started from the assumption that Russian professional social work was weak and needed to be strengthened. In the 1990's Sida was also given a stronger general mandate to work with other former Soviet countries in Eastern Europe, for example the Baltic States. The Russian-Swedish discussions resulted in projects aiming to raise social work competencies in public authorities, managements and among social workers in Russia. One of the areas chosen for these projects was Saint Petersburg, where several projects aiming to develop new models for social work were launched. The point of departure has been to transfer and adjust Swedish models of social work to the Russian context. The Stockholm University Department of Social Work became responsible for a number of such projects and besides using academic teachers also involved a number of practitioners, such as social workers in disablement services and reformatory staff who could meet and match Russian authorities and partners.