DECEMBER 1990
THE SOCIAL WORKER : SOCIAL AND COMMUNICATION AGENT IN THE COMMUNITY
Alain ANCIAUX
INTRODUCTION
The promotion of social development through information and education offers the researcher in social work considerable food for thought. Every social worker, whichever his intervention sector, is a mediator, a communication agent.
I would like to discuss three complementary points :
- The objective, aim and finality of communication, stressing the specificity of the diffusion and the increase in well-being of the people involved
- analysis, limitation and evaluation;
-social workers and new communication technology.
Communication doesn't necessarily imply social work, but social work always implies communication. Trying to understand the various aspects of communication leads to better adapted and more efficient social work.
1. THE OBJECTIVE, AIM AND FINALITY
The social worker, as communication agent, is confronted with three factors which condition his action : the pursuit of an objective (communication), the determining of an aim (according to a chosen strategy), and the perspective of a finality (social well-being). This diagram of his action is set in short term (the objective), medium term (the aim) and long term (the finality) perspectives.
I. 1 THE OBJECTIVE : COMMUNICATION
Every form of social, medical or socio-medical work is an act of communication. We must make a distinction, in communication, between two complementary operations : mediation and mediatization. Mediation refers to the ability to create social ties, to be a weaver of social relations. This is perhaps the social woker's most important role.
It requires spotting relational deficiency before or during the operation :
- distinction, i.e. the state of individuals or groups that are isolated, deprived of contact;
- disjunction, i.e. the state of individuals or groups that were united but are now divided, separated of confronted;
- dysfunction, i.e. the existence of relational problems such as dissension, between distinct partners, tension, incomprehension, bad organization, lack of relations or absence of coordination, and so on.
Mediation implies implementing a functional change (gently), a dysfunctional change (via a conflictual approach which primarily exposes the elements at stake), an internal change or a global change.
It results in the creation of social ties which take the form of :
- roles : the sharing out of management tasks (financial, technical and especially human);
- a product : the concrete object produced by the communication operation (such as a film or a meeting and help centre);
- a drive : the bringing about of direct effects (for example, the tightening of psycho-socio-medical ties inside a community) and indirect effects (such as the elaboration of a new social project to meet new needs).
Mediatization is the art of easing mediation by resorting to a medium, and or producing information and knowledge. Mediatization covers both the means of communication (speech, gesture, cinema..) and the communication process which helps mediation. It involves choosing a medium, that is to say using the technology best adapted to the aim and context of the operation (poster, leaflet, slides, gestures, photography, data processing, theatre..).
Mediatization includes four types of action which can complement each other :
- Sensitive making : the operation by which a group of people is made sensitive to certain social health recommandations, or the sensitive making of a possible financial partner;
- information : social work is carried out within the context of optimal information spreading between the various individuals, groups or partners. The social action itself may be centred on information if its aim is to communicate new data to the population or part of the population;
- training : social work may be wholly or partly centred on training (for instance, dispensing technical skills).
- assessment : performing a partial, permanent or final assessment is an important mediatization operation which I will study in the second part of this paper.
Several problems arise regarding the "mediation-mediatization" complementarity.
(1) New technology provides social work with interesting tools (micro-computers for example) but their use is limited on one hand by their experimental aspect in the field of social sciences (with psycho-social effects that are still ill-defined), and on the other hand by the material, financial, legal and political problems linked to buying and using sophisticated technical instruments (the lack of software programs designed for insertion or prevention action is one example).
(2) The succes of mediation seldom depends upon the technical means used (mediatization), and much more frequently upon the user (the mediator). Is the use of new technology an evasion, a refuge or an indispensable asset ?
(3) The development of computer science and of office automation in particular responds to the wish of increasing the social worker's efficiency. Which changes does this bring about in the relations between the social worker and his "client" on one hand and, on the other, doesn't new technology impair psycho-social relations by transposing human beings' physical, mental and social dimensions into technical terms ?
I.2. THE AIM : DIFFUSION
If all social work is an act of communication (in its first phase), it aims at diffusing a message; that is to say firstly at ensuring the message is received by the person (or persons) involved and secondly at provoking a feed-back which could result in, for instance, an inflection or change in behaviour linked to the effects of the message. With a view to this, the social worker chooses one or several diffusion strategies to accompany the act of communication. These will, within the framework of an interactive relationship, come into contact with the reception strategies developed by the person (or persons) involved.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of these strategies :
- the integration strategy : beside improving the social conditions of the population, social work is also sometimes used to forestall claims from one part of the population. The integration strategy may aim at eliminating an existing distinction or disjunction between, for example, several social groups;
- the rationalization strategy : social work is a form of dynamic action which can for example bring about, via coordination and the uniting of various efforts, the implementation of a more coherent social policy. This rationalization, widely used in decision-making techniques, may be applied to technical resources (for example, the most efficient type of operation for a given group or people), financial resources (for example, the most efficient operation at least cost) or human resources (for example the sharing out of tasks by applying each person's individual skills to tasks required in the various stages of the operation);
- the limited rationality strategy : although a social operation has global aims, it can also have personal aims evolved by the mediator, the organizer, the political official, the client...;
- the consensus strategy : the operation is often the result of an agreement between the organizers on one hand and the person or persons involved on the other. The search for agreement, compromise, give and take are of the essence;
- the conflict strategy : some achievements can stem from conflicts or end up in conflicts, confrontations or crises deliberated provoked by one or several actors taking part in the operation. The conflict may also take a symbolical and ritualized form which prevents it from becoming open; a succession of numerous and/or repeated conflicts may lead to halting the operation, but they can also sometimes initiate a process of negociation or even of arbitration, of a legal, political or social nature for example;
- the delocalization strategy : a social operation sometimes is the materialization of a desire of the population or the government (or an institution) to decentralize the centre of power, action, information or decision-making;
- the innovation strategy : social work, particularly in applications stemming from the associative world, can produce new, alternative and original operations. Some of these may be taken up by the public authorities if they yield positive results in the medium term;
- the duplication strategy : an operation may draw its inspiration from another achievement, either by copying an already organized operation, or by adopting the method or results of another group, or by adapting diffusion action carried out in the same field or in another sector of activity;
- the conformity strategy : a social operation may be launched to pursue aims that are favoured by an institution or an authority. The acuteness of a problem or need plays a preponderant role in this process, but other factors include, for instance, fashion or the emphasis put on specific problems or practices.
Awareness of the strategies of the various persons taking part enables to correctly analyse their identity and thus avoid some of the stumbling blocks of social work (such as resistance to change, opposition, lack of concrete results..) : each person is perceived not only as an element in the communication but also as an individual engaged in a social communication process.
I.3. THE FINALITY : SOCIAL WELL-BEING
Social action always centres on a finality : improvement in the social, medical, psychological, cultural, political and economical well-being of the persons involved (Anciaux, 1988a).
Whatever the act of communication the social worker should not overlook this humanistic finality that may be approached via a five-point exposition :
1 - Support of human values is essential :
Support of human values must not be interpreted as a figure of speech or the simple manifestation of good intentions. It is linked to an ethical and political purpose encouraging action that implies the integration of psycho-logical, social, medical, cultural, political and economical data.
"Support of human values" comes as a basis for social development integrating several variables : rewarding book, a satisfying family life (ICSW 1985), good physical and mental health, a protective and well-equipped home, artistic understanding, faith in social values, internal harmony (peace of mind), prosperity, a satisfying relationship with the environment and an inter-national outlook.
These different human values take different forms in each individual, group or community : they are more often hopes than facts. Their order of importance depends upon a series of needs and options that shape the cultural and psycho-social identity.
This viewpoint implies, before any communication intervention, good understanding of the individual and his environment in order to build the palliative, curative or preventive action on solid foundations.
2 - Support of human values is necessary but not sufficient :
Support of human values is necessary (from the point of view of its theoretical elaboration and its defense) but it isn't enough, especially if the manifestation of good intentions only serves to conceal the lack of concrete action.
The social worker used to study the social environment to assist the destitute more efficiently. Today, he can act on this social environment to help allay a need expressed by a member of a community. Within this context, the social worker may have to reveal political and economic considerations which generate or have generated, for instance, the marginalization of a group of individuals. Though an accent must always be put on the efficiency of social or medical measures, we musn't forget that the final objective is the advancement of man.
The sole support of human values is not sufficient, especially if such arguments are used to mask, to overshadow the true social, political and economical problems. To avoid that pitfall, the social worker must transform the "support of human values" into an professed intent to treat each individual as having potential. Supporting human values means first and foremost aknowledging the fact that each and every individual has merits and potential which are ill-exploited, non-exploited or suppressed.
3 - The support of human values leads to social development :
Social development is a dynamic process; it refers to action that is centred on society and promotes a balanced sharing out of resources.
All social action should be undertaken on this principle, presenting itself as a stage in a broader process which englobes health, the reduction in the arms race, promotion of education, housing development, access to a healthy and balanced diet, the defense of individual rights, eradication of poverty, sufficient social security, defense of the environment and promotion of internationalism (encouraging, for example, easier terms for the poorer countries in North-South relations);
The privileged ground for social development is the family and the community. Intervention should be aimed at the community as a whole, mainly trough the family, rather than at isolated individuals. Social development today is integrated : it takes into consideration the sum of problems encountered within a community, and attempts to implement coordinated or complementary operations from different frameworks (legal measures, institutional and associative action).
4 - Social development has to face certain considerations and contradictions :
Social development has undoubtedly to contend with demographical dilemmas, political considerations, the limitations and constraints of social action, the risk of manipulation, the danger of seeing certain operations reinforce the state of dependance, problems and needs of the persons involved, and the deficiencies in coordination that frequently exist between public authorities and private initiative. Social development, furthermore, isn't the ultimate answer. It can't fill in the existing gulfs and solve all the problems that may have been spotted in a community. To present it as a panacea would be dishonest. The importance of political, economical and even international factors is such that they can ruin (but often also help) the realization of social development in a region or a country. This is why any form of communication action undertaken by a social worker must take into account the existence of boundaries, checks and constraints which are often the reflection at a microsocial scale of existing problems at the macrosocial level.
I should like to cite by way of example temporal, spacial, ethical, technological, financial, physical and cultural limitations. Taking these limitations into account and attempting to reduce their effects enables on one hand to free ourselves from an overly candid conception of social action and on the other hand, to optimize its social efficiency.
5 - Social development based on the support of human values leads to social well-being :
Although social development does present certain contradictions and face certain outside considerations, it pursues a noble objective : the social well-being of individuals, groups and communities. Social development appears as a mediatory point between a theoretical pole (the support of human values) and a practical and concrete pole (social well-being).
Social well-being is relative, often subjective, sometimes unstable, always changing. Social development is a drive which is destined to continuously produce and reproduce results because social well-being regularly undergoes losses of energy and attacks which make it fragile and precarious.
Social well-being could be defined as the transposition in everyday life of answers which express the aspirations of a population or individuals born of the way they identify with human values.
As a communication agent, the social worker belongs to this ideological logic : he is a mediator, an interface between good intentions (promotion of the support of human values) and a distant finality (social well-being) or a closer one (social improvement).
II. ANALYSIS, LIMITATIONS AND EVALUATION
Assessment centres on the conformity of the action with the objectives, aims and finalities already mentioned in this paper.
II. 1. ANALYSIS : THE PSYCHO-SOCIAL DIMENSION
Most individuals adapt to their culture and their society. They are socialized or "enculturated". "Enculturation" refers to the learning of society, norms, and obligations. A child is at a stage of permanent enculturation whereas an adult is at a stage of continued enculturation. Enculturation also covers the learning of a new culture or of the modus vivendi of another society. This second form of enculturation is known as "acculturation". Immigrants, for instance, are often confronted with this acculturation, and all that the transition stage implies by way of anxiety, hostility or rejection.
The case of children born of immigrant parents in a host or asylum country is specific : these young people are faced with a series of cultural choices which require them to select and reject elements pertaining to three cultures (that one of the young age-group, that one of the parents and that of the host country).
In the course of his contacts with this particular public the social worker may only operate once he has perceived the elements that are valorized by the individual or the group involved. These elements are the pre-requisite for bilateral communication. However, despite enculturation and acculturation, we aren't all indistinctly cast in the same mould. Once our "individual variations" exceed what our society considers is "normal", we enter the domain of deviance and marginality.
Deviance denotes behaviour which encroaches on the liberty of others (crime is an example) whereas marginality supposes a behaviour or state located on the fringe of "normal" behaviour (such as that of handicapped persons, drug addicts, the down and out, the unemployed...).
The social worker is equipped with a general communicational set of instruments which enable him to ask about needs and find solutions. The psycho-social situation of his client, however, will interfere with the communication process : should a deviant person be addressed in the same way as a dropout ?
In linguistic terms, deviance and marginality possess their own specific languages, expressions and dialects. A social worker can only hope to communicate effectively with a deviant or marginal person if he uses his language. Social workers are not always interchangeable. Two social workers can't always be switched from one day to the next. Just imagine what would happen if a social worker used to working with delinquents were asked to take charge of elderly people while the worker formerly in charge of the elderly took his place. Such an arrangement is unthinkable.
The obstacle doesn't seem to pertain only to methodology, professional practice or the main characteristics of these two groups; the fact is that the universe of communication is different.
Every social worker, as a mediator, is increasingly confronted with a set of psycho-social data and tensions :
- interpersonal relations : every human group experience a structuration of interpersonal relations which exposes the development of leadership, cooperation and even rejection;
- individual and groups norms : these norms define the solidarity of a group, as well as its stability and degree of consensus;
- power and the exercise of power : this power and its exercise will vary according to the norms and tensions of the group involved, with the appearance or existence of relations of dependance or resistance
- hostility or conflict : numerous factors of hostility or conflict can hinder the communication the social worker or his client are trying to establish;
- the process of individual decision : the members of a group involved in social work action must not only exchange information with the social worker, but also take a certain number of decisions if they are indeed to engage in a form of participation.
All these rapidly outlined psycho-social data demonstrate the obvious: any communication between client and social worker is strongly affected by data not directly linked to the communication process but based on the functioning of the individual in society(Proulx,1986).
Another factor complicates the relation between the social worker and the client : the existence of non-verbal communication.
The following modalities should indeed be taken into account :
- optico-visual modalities : facial expressions, gestures and physical attitudes, positioning in space;
- acoustico-auditive modalities : laughter, crying, breathing, tone of voice;
- chimico-olfactive modalities : scents and smells;
- thermic modalities : warm or cool hand.
All these modalities conceal a series of meanings that the social worker must interpret.
II. 2 FRONTIERS : THE OBSTACLES TO COMMUNICATION
I now propose to discuss the topic of communication in social work from a systemic perspective.
Any act of communication emanating from an addresser and directed at an addressee can be coloured by filters which impair emission and feedback. These "filters" can also be referred to as "limitations" or "constraints"...
I use the general term "frontier" : a limitation is a frontier which is definitively closed (red light) whereas a filter is a frontier which is difficult to cross (amber light). Where no problem arises the frontier is open (green light).
I shall pay particular interest to the problematic situations (red and amber lights) : the social worker's job is to spot these obstacles to communication and examine how they may be modified or suppressed so as to make communication as enriching as possible.
Here is an outline of various frontiers :
- the temporal frontier : it is met when, for instance, the social worker asks a client about remote and scarcely remembered events or when the social worker carries out guidance with a householder who is unable to planify his budget (Peeters,1986); - the spatial frontier : the client sometimes refuses to appear at the social service centre because he has the impression this would stigmatize him both economically and socially. More relaxed communication may in such cases have to be arranged at his home or in a public place considered to be neutral ground;
- the ethical frontier : communication between the client and the social worker may go against ethics; for example, if the social worker were to use racist or discriminatory language or if one or both parties were to use foul or abusive terms;
- the deontological frontier : this is a well-known communicational frontier which creates problems when the interests of the social worker or the client are unclear. The case arises, for instance, in situations where the social worker is expected to hand information concerning his client (such as illegal or criminal acts) over to the judicial authorities. Sometimes the social worker may be faced with a dilemma if he wishes to help the person involved and avoid acting like a police informer (assuming the physical, social or moral well-being of third parties isn't endangered);
- the physical or emotional frontier : the social worker must never be a "slave to social well-being". Demotivation, professional exhaustion ("burn out") and the feeling of failure linked to the pursuit of difficult objectives must be avoided. "Burn out" is a physical and emotional exhaustion syndrome which entails a negative self-image, a negative attitude towards work and a loss of interest and preoccupation for the client (Bourgault/Meloche, 1982). Overwork of the social worker is an important obstacle which can distort interviews with a client;
- the political frontier : the social worker's action is sometimes part of a policy defined by a political authority or by the management of his social institution; this policy, which the client doesn't always know about, often modifies the communicational contact with the client as well as the answer to the need or request put forward;
- the technological frontier : the social worker doesn't always have at his disposal the technical equipment he requires. For example, the type of software needed for alphabetizing adults isn't always available;
- the financial frontier : social work is often tied by heavy financial constraints. The agent of development, the social worker or the community worker spends a lot of time gathering the necessary funds for organizing or developing an operation. The social worker isn't just a mediator between a client and, for instance, his social institution, he is also the mediator between persons and/or institutions which only provide funds, food supplies or other goods for underprivileged people against speedy cash payment. In these circumstances the social worker's communication becomes much les "psycho-social" and more "marketing".
II.3. ASSESSMENT
Three topics are analysed in more detail below : types of information, the social worker's mediatization (and mediation) capacity and information channels.
A. Types of information
Jean-Louis Chauchard, in a general essay on human resources management, evolved an information typology which I drew upon (for integrated information) and applied to the field of social work.
We find :
(1) Integrated information : the information which is transmitted via the channels of the hierarchical system.
A distinction may be made between :
- descending information : it takes the forme of notes, reports, interviews, phone calls. Efforts are made to avoid superfluity, ease comprehension, circumvent obstacles and distortion and enable true communication; - ascending information : Jean-Louis Chauchard stresses that "ascending information has never been really promoted. It has borne the weight of the structures and the hierarchical system (...). It also spreads in a less hierarchized way" (1986 : 120).
- horizontal information : indispensable within the context of social work action, it can take the shape, for instance, of multilateral communication between the different social workers taking part or between the social workers and the persons concerned by the results of the action.
(2) External information :
- centrifugal information : the information emanating from, for example, persons who have benefited from the results of a social work operation, and directed towards other potential beneficiaries. This information is disseminated outside hierarchical channels. - centripetal information : the information which, coming from the community, is communicated to, for instance, the social workers involved in community development action (and not to hierarchical authorities). This information comes from the outside.
Jean-Louis Chauchard goes on to specify that information can be of various kinds : technical, economic, regulatory, social, cultural, ... (1986 : 121 - 122).
B. The Social Worker's Mediatization (and Mediation) Capacities
There exist several grids of analysis of the social worker's mediatization (and mediation) capacities.
I have selected the following information mainly from an grid of assessment of the social worker's role in a group (ACW, 1981 : 67 - 68).
The social worker should play all the following roles regarding communication :
- collector of information : he should find out if the group is aware of a number of facts, encourage them to gather information, ask for precise details; - purveyor of information : he should give the group the opportunity of being better informed, offer precise information;
- collector of opinion : he should discover individual opinions, search for opinions;
- purveyor of opinion : he should give the group an opinion enabling it to take a decision, assess and sum up the suggestions of the group members, give his own opinion ;
- clarifier : he should reduce confusion, define terms, interpret ideas, overcome ambiguity, offer solutions, give options, provide examples, explain; - summarizer : he should condense ideas, repeat and recall certain decisions, link the various issues, show contradictions, offer conclusions; -helper : he should help the members realize their contribution to the group, foster understanding, suggest methods of discussion; - expression agent : he should draw the group's attention to certain reactions, ideas or suggestions, express his own feelings, rephrase those of the group;
- assessor : he should make the group realize the direction taken and the progress made, express the interests of the group; - interpreter : he should explain, interpret what has been said, paraphrase the person who has just intervene; - listener : he should provide a stimulating ear for the group interests, accept the group's ideas. This last role deserves to be stressed. In order to be a good communicator the social worker must be above all a good listener; this implies careful attention and open empathy towards the person or group involved.
C. Information Channels
In the course of his communication and diffusion job, the social worker may transmit information not only to the client but also to the authorities which commissioned or organized the operation.
He can also, if he obtains hierarchic authorization, transmit information to other social workers or to the general public.
A series of media are available, as this non-exhaustive list bears out :
1) the daily printed press;
2) magazines and non-specialized periodicals;
3) the associative press;
4) movement-linking bulletins (social bulletins for instance);
5) specialized magazines and journals;
6) the advertizing press (free insertion of social news);
7) the audio-visual media.
Disseminating information also implies drawing upon a series of complementary techniques : press conferences, slide projections, posters, audio-visual showings, photograph expositions (Rijckmans, 1987: 135 - 157).
In short, the assessment of information spreading essentially covers the following points : which type of information has been diffused, using which of the social worker's capacities, to whom and how ?
III. THE SOCIAL WORKER AND NEW COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
The first international conference on new communication technology in human services was held in Birmingham (Great Britain) from September 8 to 11, 1987. The purpose of this conference was to gather together all the people who are concerned with using computers and other new technology in social services (in fact, in training and applied research), as well as in services centred on the public and mental health. Over two hundred persons were thus given the opportunity to assemble and hear numerous interventions (one hundred talks). The following countries were represented : Australia (2), Austria (2), Belgium (3), Brazil (1), Canada (11), Denmark (8), Finland (4), Greece (3), Hong-Kong (3), India (1), Israel (7), Kuwait (1), the Netherlands (14), New Zealand (1), Norway (1), the Philippines (4), Poland (1), Sweden (7), Switzerland (2), the United Kingdom (69), the United States (77), and West Germany (12).
Two remarks deserve mention. On the one hand, booking fees were very high. On the other, only English was used. This explains, for instance, why there were no specialists from France, Spain, Italy, and from low-currency countries (from Latin America for example).
I shall try, in this part of the paper, to give the reader an account of some of the talks made in Birmingham. I will particularly concentrate on problems and resistance regarding the use of new communication technology.
III.1. THE USE OF COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
Numerous talks held during this conference gave an idea of the use of new communication technology in the human services.
The following examples reflect some of the experiments currently under way : Beverly J. Buckles, Gunthe R. Geiss and Joseph L. Vigilante (United States) are studying the use of new communication technology in the field of social work training. The Adelphi University School of Social Work led a survey on this matter, which shows that many American schools have adopted computers. Their number is however still limited, due to social work's particular characteristic : it is mainly pre-technological, and is only starting to turn towards new technology. Possible applications in the field of social work and social practice are beginning to be studied(R.Geiss / N.Viswanathan,1986). NHenk J. Woelders (Netherlands), is demonstrating the use of a computer in a social service dealing with the elderly in the region of Almelo. Data processing is used to register and planify the visits that 170 voluntary workers pay to 2000 elderly persons. In addition, there is a project linking the hospital to the Almelo city bookshop. One of the objectives is to provide a (supervised) service to enable the elderly and/or handicapped to remain in their homes. Jan L. Ames, Alan H. Benston and Rochelle D. Denke (United States) described the experience carried out for handicapped and blind persons in the Washington Library. The aim was to computerize services so as to be able to employ blind staff. This was achieved thanks to a voice synthesizer, a personal computer and a series of programs which made up the interface with the existing classification system.
Sheana M. Latto (Great Britain) is working in the field of occupational therapy. Data processing has proved to be a precious tool for treating various physical and mental complaints. The main objective is to arouse the interest of the patient via the exploration of his own potential which is indirectly "revealed" to him through a set of programs. The therapists which use this "tool" consider that it enables to concentrate on the following objectives : developing of motivation, concentration, memory, conceptual thought, the cognitive function, eye-hand coordination (speed of reaction), interaction and communication, confidence, the acquisition or strengthening of social or moral values. Nevertheless, no systematic assessment has ever been carried out to study the effects related to the use of these programs and the actual impact on the therapy. C. Aaron McNeece and James R. Jolley (United States) are reporting an experience involving severely neglected or battered children. In 1979, the Florida health and rehabilitation services planified the development of a computerized system capable of registering the cases brought before them. Since 1983, social workers can telephone (free of charge) to signal observed cases to the "data bank" : this service operates 24 hours a day seven days a week. Other data are also recorded, such as structural and organizational factors, reference sources, type of ill-treatment, previously observed cases and, finally, the client's personal details (race, sex, age,..).
Catherine Cassel and Mike Fitter (Great Britain) are using new technology in a community work project. In 1985, an information technology resources centre was opened in Sheffield thanks to financial help from local authorities and the European Social Fund. It has several objectives :
1. - working with persons which are not employed in their community so as to increase their qualifications and experience regarding community needs;
2. - developing the production and exploitation of new communication technology which can be of use to basic groups inside a community;
3. - enabling associations and individuals to make the best use of data transmitted by local authorities, by helping them to express their own needs
This ressources centre is currently in operation in six community centres in Sheffield. The project and its progress are being assessed thanks to research-action methodology.
Lars Qvortrup (Sweden) is particularly interested in resources centres based in rural areas of Sweden. The first "Communication House" was opened in Sweden in September 1985. This House possesses the video and hardware equipment needed for computer and telematic operations (satellite TV reception, teleshopping, access to data banks that are useful to citizens...). Such an achievement enables isolated rural communities to have access to telecommunications services; this option was preferred to an interactive system linking the various dwellings. For such an operation to succed, this "Communication House" must be integrated into the village. The inhabitants must become as used to going there as to the village grocery store. There are 18 "Communication Houses" operating today in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark.
III.2. PROBLEMS AND RESISTANCE
Use of this new communication technology is still limited and has to face considerable problems and pitfalls : the social workers' lack of technological qualifications, the risk of seeing technical information take precedence over social contact, the limited number of specialized software programs on the market and, above all, the financial hurdle. The fact of exclusively dealing with a "machine" seems to me to be a serious problem. let me illustrate this point by an example. During the Birmingham conference, a display room gave participants the opportunity of experimenting with several types of computer and various programs (Amstrad and IBM being the most heavily represented firms).
A lot of programs are designed for patients suffering from psychological (stress), sexological or social (in the case of programs devised for department store thiefs) affections. I tried out the program devised for "stress". it is an interactive program, meaning that it enables the user to answer via the keyboard questions addressed to him by the computer (such as "are you afraid of the dark" or "after a violent discussion with colleagues, do you feel stressed, annoyed or angry ?"). According to the answer, the "machine" exposes the social and psychological factors which can affect the user. The program isn't normative; the "machine" doesn't diagnose your state but converses with you. After a quarter of an hour I suddenly realized that I was standing all by myself in front of this machine. I had -according to its assessment- fulfilled its "therapeutic" expectations.It didn't think I was "stressed". I was, however, alone and I suddenly felt stressed because I had just spent quarter of an hour with a machine when I could have been talking with one of the persons present. Within the context of applications related to the social service, I believe that the use of new communication technology can only be effective if it is accompanied by dialogue with the social worker. The "machine" cannot provide this human contact.
The participants at the conference seemed to agree on the following principle : the introduction of new communication technology in a social service doesn't increase the time the social worker spends with his client but rather tends to increase the time he spends on administrative duties. Certain participants called attention to the problems related to the use of new technology. Mr Koon Wah Tsoi (Hong Kong) examined the reasons for hesitation and delay in using this technology in social services. For instance, social workers tend to be indifferent and poorly informed about these "tools". Some of them even consider that data processing is incompatible with the job of ensuring social well-being, which requires subtlety and flexibility.
In the course of my intervention dedicated to achievement in the French-speaking part of Belgium(1988 b), I refrained from sharing such a dogmatic point of view. I believe new technology should be exploited in social work. It is useful and necessary. It must not, though, be allowed to take the place of the empathy and social contact the social worker provides.
CONCLUSION
I believe that I have set, in this paper, a series of topics and questions up for debate. My analysis of the social worker's role as communication agent in the community is far from exhaustive; it stems from personal experience and from discussions with other social workers and researchers in the course of meetings or conferences. I have mainly tried, via an epistemological and methodological approach of social work, to expose instrumental variables such as strategies and frontiers. These variables are identical in all the spheres of social action, whatever the social worker's field of intervention, culture or client system. My students, in Belgium, France and Tunisia are confronted with the same communication diagram : a message or social object (such as social help) is transmitted by an addresser (the social worker) to an addressee (the client) in an environment of communication filters (the frontiers) and more or less sophisticated technological media (voice, gestures, computers, letters,..).
Communication is a universal operator : it is the essential pre-requisite for the organization of social relations, work and development.
_________________
NOTES
ACW. 1981. The Community workers' skills manual. London. The Association of Community Workers.
ANCIAUX, A. 1988a. René Sand and the culture of human values. Ottawa : ICSW .
1988b. "The use of information technology in human services : strategies, borders and effects", in : GLASTONBURY, B./LAMENDOLA, W./TOOLE, S. Information technology and the human services. Chichester, New York, Brisbane, Toronto, Singapore : john Wiley & Sons.
BOURGAULT, D;:MELOCHE, J. 1982. "Burnout or dying of exhaustion like a chameleon on a kilt". Le travail social/The social worker. 50.3. Ottawa
CHAUCHARD, J.L., 1986. Précis de gestion du personnel et des ressources humaines. Paris, Les Editions d'Organisation.
GEISS, R./VISWANATHAN, N., 1986. The human edge (Information technology and helping people, New York : The Haworth Press.
ICSW. 1985. Report on the European meeting of experts on "The impact of the information society and new technologies on the family", Berlin (in collaboration with the European Centre for social welfare, training and research).
PEETERS, H.P., 1986 "Social consequences of new information technologies on private life : lifestyles, time-budgets", New Delhi : XI World Congress of Sociology.
PROULX, S., 1986. "Les usages personnels du micro-ordinateur : vers l'appropriation d'une nouvelle culture technique ?", New Delhi : XI World Congress of Sociology.
RIJCKMANS, F., 1987. "Comment diffuser et accréditer un
projet social" in Comment gérer un projet social ?,
Liège : Les Editions du Centre de Formation Sociale.
BACK TO THE ARTICLES
/ RETOUR AUX ARTICLES