Author:

Keywords:

legal aid, social work

Abstract:

An interdisciplinary approach is required to manage social work agencies. Today “value for money” and evidence based standards are supply-led organizational features of “professionalized” agencies. It determines the way people should be helped and at the same time it leads to the social exclusion of the weakest people with difficult, time consuming cases which are not cost-effective and do not lead to immediate success. Commodification of social work practice legitimizes the entrepreneurial logic of the legal and organizational demands of a subsidizing and strongly intervening government. As we are researching the legal aspects of social work, the emphasis is on responsible acting within the institutional framework of contemporary society . There are many tensions between social work goals and the political and legal influence on the organization of social work practice. It is up to social work agencies to act in a sense that the legal framework fits social work values, called vertical responsibility. This way of critical acting which is more difficult in collective institutions controlling, limiting and sanctioning peoples autonomy, leads to more responsible behavior and brings the social and cultural capital of social work within the legal and political discourse. In this field social work needs to collaborate with other professions, like lawyers. Studying the interference between legal aid and social work, it is not only the interdisciplinary, but also the intra-disciplinary approach that opens a discretionary space for helping people with very difficult problems. The intra-disciplinary approach brings social work methods and values within the legal practice and at the same time improves the legal knowledge of social workers. This shared knowledge which is innovating and sets up connections with other professionals, strengthens social work practice in general and demands for a holistic view on social work agency. This organizational setting makes social work more responsive to society. The way this organization and corporation can be researched is through post-normal science and communities of practice (e.g. research circles in Sweden). It does not immediately lead to evidence based “codes”, but motivates professionals of all kinds who work in a social work setting by sharing their knowledge, competences and values and by acting more responsible and responsive from a bottom - up approach.