The project ‘Urban diversities: challenges for social work’ involves 6 European Universities in urban areas. Today’s European cities are more diverse than ever. Immigration, socio-economic inequality, increasing diversity of identities, activities, mobilities and lifestyles, all contribute to a state of superdiversity. This demands the particular attention of social work in terms of solidarities, social mobility, cohesion and appropriate cross-cultural responses (Vertovec, 2007, 2011). Tensions and challenges, such as clashing lifestyles, forms of racial discrimination, radicalization or conflicts between ethnic and religious groups appear, as well as a growing sense of detachment and disillusion within marginalized communities. Tensions in urban settings are often framed in a biased way through (social) media and policy makers, whereas they express and intensify vulnerabilities of precarious groups and mirror huge challenges for social workers, whose competencies to deal with the complexities of urban tensions are generally limited. The strategic partnership seeks to bring students, residents of super diverse urban neighbourhoods, practitioners and researchers together in order to co-create a fresh understanding of urban complexities and tensions, and to identify, create and refine skills for recognizing and effectively working with urban tensions and polarizations. The strategic partnership also aims at establishing cooperation between education, practice and applied research. This cooperation and co-creation will contribute to innovation in social work education and practice. Concretely, the project aims at developing and implementing a ‘blended learning course’ that strengthens the capabilities of (future) social professionals to intervene in situations that involve urban tensions and complexities. The course will consist of a ‘community service learning’ trajectory at the local level, combined with transnational exchange on a digital platform. In order to obtain this goal, the following actions will be realized: • The design of a ‘questionnaire’ to get more insight into the different urban tensions at stake in the cities where the project partners are located, the related challenges for social professionals and the specific educational question on this topic. • The design of a guidebook on ‘Community Service Learning’ (CSL) and a two-day training course for all the partners involved. • The design and development of a ‘transnational digital platform’, through which the training material of the course will be offered and where transnational communication and exchange will take place. • The design of a joint ‘conceptual framework’ on urban tensions and conflicts, which will be used in the blended learning course that will be developed during this project. • A one-semester ‘blended learning course’ on dealing with urban tensions will be designed and piloted. The designed course will be piloted in the educational programmes of all partners involved. Based on the pilot, the designed course will be evaluated on the extent to which it meets the aims of the project, and improved. The final ‘blended learning course’ on dealing with urban tensions will be disseminated in multiple ways: an open course description, (scientific) publications, presentations in European seminars and conferences. The project is carried out by a consortium of six schools for social work spread across Europe. All partners have conducted research on the increased diversity of urban communities and on tensions in diverse urban neighbourhoods and/or pay attention to these topics in their educational programs. Central to this project is the development of social work education. By linking education, practice and applied research through community-service learning and transnational learning, this project contributes to innovation in social work education and practice.
The aim of our project was to develop and implement an international 'blended learning course' that would promote, at different levels (academic / student / neighbourhood / professional), the acquisition of flexible intercultural skills and practical know-how that enable social workers to analyse the complexity of urban neighborhoods; disentangle different tensions; enter into the lives of urban residents, their aspirations and horizons of meaning; combine social and educational perspectives and practices; and strengthen the capabilities of (future) social professionals when intervening in urban tensions and complexities. The project aimed to open educational structures by developing structures of mutual learning in which social work students, together with social work professionals, lecturers and residents, would integrate theoretical, practical and tacit knowledge. By combining local CSL trajectories and transnational exchange, the aim was that students could learn from each other and reflect together on understanding urban complexities and tensions, and further develop skills for recognising and working effectively with urban tensions and polarisation.
Throughout Europe, urban and suburban areas are facing complex challenges. These challenges manifest themselves in an accumulation and intersection of conflicts and fault lines. For social workers and the educators whose responsibility it is to prepare them for practice, these (sub)urban complexities and diversities present many challenges: How should the needs and assets in an urban neigbhourhood be assessed? In what circumstances and to what end should social workers intervene, or interfere, in people’s lives? What competencies are required to assess when and how to intervene? Adequate knowledge about urban complexities is fragmented, fluid, and in many cases unavailable. We applied for this project to bring together students, residents of super diverse urban neighbourhoods, practitioners and researchers to co-create a new understanding of urban complexities and tensions, and to identify, create and refine skills for recognising and effectively working with urban tensions and polarisation.