Social work? “The opposite of a long quiet river, a battlefield, a disorderly world”assures Marcel Jaeger, professor emeritus at the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts (CNAM) in the preface to the book. For unruly social work. In fact, this essay by Jean-Louis Laville, sociologist and economist at the CNAM, and Anne Salmon, philosopher and sociologist at the CNAM, presents us with a vibrant sector of activity, traversed by intense reflections and debates on what should define their actions.
A central question sums up this introspection: “What practices, what methods, what theories can enter into a fruitful dialogue to move towards interventions in which a broader set of actors – accompanied people, social work specialists, social science researchers – reflect and act effectively in concert? »
It is this problem of the association of the actors present which is at the source of the work, and particularly that of the involvement of the public beneficiaries in the design of social actions. Because, the authors point out, we are at a turning point, characterized by “a strong demand for participation and consideration of experiential knowledge” and or “The public aspires more than ever to be recognized as citizens, thinking and acting subjects”. The book therefore questions the passage from ” influence “ to “working with people”.
To do this, Mr. Laville and Mme Salmon undertake an epistemological approach and invite readers to go back in time, to grasp how different currents of thought have structured the methods of action of social work up to the present day. This “critical work” is particularly interested in the philosophy of Plato and the classical metaphysics inaugurated by Descartes (1596-1650).
A thirst for participatory projects
The elitist theories of knowledge find their origin there. Knowledge is perceived as immutable, the fruit of theory and not of practice, and cannot be delivered by “ordinary man”. Sociologist Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) “don’t say anything else”underline the authors, who quote him: “Social life must be explained not by the conception that those who participate in it have of it, but by deep causes which escape consciousness. » A cultural heritage that invites people not to be included in the reflection on social action.
It is impossible, on such bases, to “build participatory-type interventions”. However, the essay highlights several developments deemed favorable. Currents of thought, first of all, which invite « delay[er] overhanging science to prefer a science in action” and to carry out a “emancipation” against existing models. The objective being to develop “an undisciplined social intervention defying orthodoxies”.
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