Needs, Rights and Democratic Renewal

The way in which a discourse of human needs has been appropriated by neo-liberal perspectives within modernity is well-documented. The construction and definition of “needs” by professionals has been criticised as “the dictatorship of needs”, and has readily excluded people other than professionals and managers from the definition of need. Need becomes objectified, something to be “assessed” by professionals using expert methodologies, rather than involving democratic participation. Here need becomes another excluding professional category, apparently objective and value-free, but in reality ideological. Furthermore, the deficit approach inherent in the idea of “need” runs counter to the more positive “strengths” approach of social work. “Rights” as an alternative to “needs” is superficially a more empowering discourse, and moving from a needs-based to a rights-based approach is therefore intuitively seductive, and has evidently appealed to social workers. However, ideas of “rights”, and especially “human rights” are also embedded within modernity and the privileging of the expert. The conventional discourse of human rights as defined by the UN or other legal bodies, applied universally, and protected through laws and legal institutions, is a negation of any democratic understanding of rights. “Human rights”, like need, thus becomes an objectified discourse of the powerful about the powerless. However the idea of human rights, if constructed from within a more postmodern framing, has the potential to move our understanding of a shared humanity beyond the constraints of modernity. Thus human rights per se is an inadequate, and potentially dangerous, formulation for progressive social work, unless democratic participation is restored to the human rights project. If human rights are understood as being embedded in a community of reciprocal rights and responsibilities, rather than as “things” possessed by individuals, human rights from below can become a powerful framework for the democratic renewal of practice.L’appropriation néolibérale des discours modernes sur les besoins est aujourd’hui bien documentée. De même, de nombreuses voix se sont élevées pour dénoncer ce qu’elles appellent « la dictature des besoins », c’est-à-dire le monopole du pouvoir que détiennent les professionnels et gestionnaires de définir les besoins de ceux et celles auprès de qui ils interviennent. Cette objectivation des besoins fait immédiatement appel aux ressources d’experts, évacuant par le fait même toute ouverture à une approche prviliégiant la participation démocratique. Ici « les besoins » s’ajoutent aux autres catégories construites et idéologiquement investies par les professionnels. En réaction à cela, les travailleurs sociaux ont été séduits par l’idée de suppléer aux approches basées sur les « besoins » des dynamiques d’intervention fondées sur les « droits ». Or, les « droits » et, surtout, les « droits humains » sont aussi des catégories de la modernité qui tendent à être instruites et utilisables uniquement par des experts. Si nous acceptons maintenant de nous pencher sur les « droits humains » dans une perspective davantage postmoderne, nous sommes à même d’en « déplacer » le sens et d’appréhender la solidarité humaine au-delà des contraintes de la modernité. Pour inadéquate et potentiellement dangereuse que puisse être la catégorie des « droits humains », ces derniers peuvent toutefois fonder les pratiques d’intervention du travai social dans la mesure où ils engagent à des pratiques démocratiques. En ce sens, si les droits humains sont partie intégrante du projet d’une communauté de droits et de devoirs réciproques, et non des choses que peuvent détenir les individus, ils peuvent en effet s’imposer comme un levier puissant pour le renouvellement démocratique des pratiques d’intervention

Las nuevas agendas internacionales: ¿qué papel para el trabajo social?

http://revistaseug.ugr.es/index.php/tsg/article/view/904/1042If social work is to be truly international, it needs to address newly emerging international issues, specifically terrorism and global warming. Both of these raise profound implications for human rights and social justice, and hence social workers have significant contributions to make to addressing such issues. However to do so, social workers in western countries will need also to accept the loss of legitimacy of the western modernity, so that their theory and practice can be influenced by post-colonial writers and alternative knowledges and wisdoms from the global south, and from indigenous people. A number of curriculum proposals are made, with a view to developing more appropriate international social work education programs.Si el trabajo social tiene que ser verdaderamente internacional, necesita dirigirse a los emergentes acontecimientos recientes, específicamente al terrorismo y al calentamiento global. Estos dos temas originan profundas implicaciones para los derechos humanos y la justicia social, y por ello, los trabajadores sociales tienen contribuciones significativas al respecto. Aún así, para poder hacer esto, los trabajadores sociales de los países occidentales necesitan aceptar la pérdida de legitimidad de la modernidad occidental, de forma que su teoría y práctica pueda ser influenciada por escritores postcoloniales y conocimientos y saberse alternativos del sur global y de las personas indígenas. Se realizan un número de propuestas curriculares con la perspectiva de desarrollar programas educativos internacionales en el trabajo social más apropiados

Human rights and community work. Complementary theories and practices

Much effort has been placed on developing international understandings of human rights without the corresponding attention to responsibilities. The authors argue that a community development framework may be useful in re-conceiving human rights in a more holistic way, and that social workers and community development workers are well placed to be 'grass roots human rights workers

Community Development

xiv, 297 hlm.; 26 c

Human Rights From Below : Achieving rights through community development

In Human Rights from Below, Jim Ife shows how human rights and community development are problematic terms but powerful ideals, and that each is essential for understanding and practising the other. Ife contests that practitioners – advocates, activists, workers and volunteers – can better empower and protect communities when human rights are treated as more than just a specialist branch of law or international relations, and that human rights can be better realised when community development principles are applied. The book offers a long overdue assessment of how human rights and community development are invariably interconnected. It highlights how critical it is to understand the two as a basis for thinking about and taking action to address the serious challenges facing the world in the twenty-first century. Written both for students and for community development and human rights workers, Human Rights from Below brings together the important fields of human rights and community development, to enrich our thinking of both

[en] The new international agendas: what role for social work?

If social work is to be truly international, it needs to address newly emerging international issues, specifically terrorism and global warming. Both of these raise profound implications for human rights and social justice, and hence social workers have significant contributions to make to addressing such issues. However to do so, social workers in western countries will need also to accept the loss of legitimacy of the western modernity, so that their theory and practice can be influenced by post-colonial writers and alternative knowledges and wisdoms from the global south, and from indigenous people. A number of curriculum proposals are made, with a view to developing more appropriate international social work education programs. Si el trabajo social tiene que ser verdaderamente internacional, necesita dirigirse a los emergentes acontecimientos recientes, específicamente al terrorismo y al calentamiento global. Estos dos temas originan profundas implicaciones para los derechos humanos y la justicia social, y por ello, los trabajadores sociales tienen contribuciones significativas al respecto. Aún así, para poder hacer esto, los trabajadores sociales de los países occidentales necesitan aceptar la pérdida de legitimidad de la modernidad occidental, de forma que su teoría y práctica pueda ser influenciada por escritores postcoloniales y conocimientos y saberse alternativos del sur global y de las personas indígenas. Se realizan un número de propuestas curriculares con la perspectiva de desarrollar programas educativos internacionales en el trabajo social más apropiado

The new international agendas: what role for social work?

Si el trabajo social tiene que ser verdaderamente internacional, necesita dirigirse a los emergentes acontecimientos recientes, específicamente al terrorismo y al calentamiento global. Estos dos temas originan profundas implicaciones para los derechos humanos y la justicia social, y por ello, los trabajadores sociales tienen contribuciones significativas al respecto. Aún así, para poder hacer esto, los trabajadores sociales de los países occidentales necesitan aceptar la pérdida de legitimidad de la modernidad occidental, de forma que su teoría y práctica pueda ser influenciada por escritores postcoloniales y conocimientos y saberse alternativos del sur global y de las personas indígenas. Se realizan un número de propuestas curriculares con la perspectiva de desarrollar programas educativos internacionales en el trabajo social más apropiadosIf social work is to be truly international, it needs to address newly emerging international issues, specifically terrorism and global warming. Both of these raise profound implications for human rights and social justice, and hence social workers have significant contributions to make to addressing such issues. However to do so, social workers in western countries will need also to accept the loss of legitimacy of the western modernity, so that their theory and practice can be influenced by post-colonial writers and alternative knowledges and wisdoms from the global south, and from indigenous people. A number of curriculum proposals are made, with a view to developing more appropriate international social work education programs

ALTERNATIF PENGEMBANGAN MASYARAKAT DI ERA GLOBALISASI COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

xxxii ; 23 cm ; 721 hl