An increasingly urgent social issue is the rise of inequalities amongst inhabitants of European cities. Due to processes of migration, urbanization and the unequal accumulation of economic growth in many urban areas, cities have become intersections of social stratification. Social workers deal with the challenges of these inequalities every day. On a European level, social workers tend to take the urban context for granted. While social work in urban areas has long been a topic of interest to researchers, very few social workers are educated to relate to and meet the challenges of the ‘Urban Age’. Yet, if we wish to generate opportunities for socially sustainable lives, there is an urgency to educate social workers to be knowledgeable about the ways in which cities create, and are created by, social issues and inequality. In short, there is a need for a paradigm shift in urban social work. Urban SOS brings together educational institutions and work place organizations—who work in the cities with social issues caused by life in the City. The objective of the Urban SOS partnership is to contribute to the transnational and transdisciplinary innovation of European social work and social work education. The origin of the Urban SOS partnership dates back to 2015, when 4 European Universities of Applied Sciences developed the 30 ECTS joint semester program ‘Social Work in Urban Areas’ (SWUA). These partners are Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, University College Copenhagen, Metropolia University of Applied Sciences Helsinki and Artevelde University College Ghent. They are joined by 5 work field organisations: Arkin and Combiwel (NL), Kofoeds Skole (DK), Kalliola (FI) and CAW Oost-Vlaanderen (BE). Our partnership will create a closer collaboration between professional practice and higher education to support the objective of educating social work educators and (future) professionals who are competent in creating innovative responses to urban social issues and, thus, contribute to the development of more socially inclusive and sustainable cities. To enhance the scope of the project and support its transnational perspectives, we collaborate with several associated partners from different professional contexts at local/national level. The partnership also involves 5 associated universities from Eastern and Southern Europe. They are ‘critical friends’ in the development of the outputs and will host a multiplier event to enhance the international scope of the project. We are also joined by our expert partner professor Charlotte Williams, one of the leading scholars on urban social work from RMIT Australia. We include the needs and voice of the citizens (clients) by connecting to them during progress meetings and group discussions. We use phronetic analysis, an approach developed in social sciences, as a lens to develop a new paradigm for urban social work. It is helpful in analyses of the interrelated nature of the urban context, policy development and professional norms and values. In the Urban SOS partnership, our objective of applying the phronetic approach is to contribute to improving professionals’ capacity for value-rational deliberation and action. As a partnership, we are committed to contributing to a paradigm shift within urban social work practice through a combination of phronetic analysis, transnational education, collaboration and knowledge transfer. In the project there are 7 project meetings, 10 'multiplier events' in 9 different European countries, 3 pilots and a total of 24 'progress meetings'. The outputs: -O1: A framework for phronetic urban social work; -O2: Train the educators program; -O3: Online training course for professionals; -O4: Online learning platform; Impact and results of the project: The current inability of social workers to respond to the challenges of the ‘Urban Age’ from a citizen-based perspective has led to a need for a new paradigm in urban social work. The desired impact of the Urban SOS project is to contribute to this change, creating place sensitive social work professionals and social work educators through developing training programs and -materials. By contributing to the (re)-education of both social work educators and (future) social work professionals, the project will result in the development of a more socially inclusive practice within urban social work. The long term benefit is the improvement of the quality of life in urban areas for citizens in Europe. After the project: The open source availability of the project outputs, especially the training programs and the online learning platform, will make the project outputs available to social work educators, professionals and students throughout Europe for at least 5 years after the project. This availability is partly guaranteed by making the outcomes available on the platform, and integrating all the relevant project results in the national curricula and the international SWUA program.
The current inability of social workers to respond to the challenges of the ‘Urban Age’ from a citizen-based perspective has led to a need for a new paradigm in urban social work. The desired impact of the Urban SOS project is to contribute to this change, creating place sensitive social work professionals and social work educators through developing training programs and -materials. Our partnership set out to create a closer collaboration between professional practice and higher education to support the objective of educating social work educators and (future) professionals who are competent in creating innovative responses to urban social issues and, thus, contribute to the development of more socially inclusive and sustainable cities. To enhance the scope of the project and support its transnational perspectives, we have collaborated with several associated partners from different professional contexts at local/national level. The partnership also involved 4 associated universities from Eastern and Southern Europe. They were ‘critical friends’ in the development of the outputs.
We identified an increasingly urgent social issue, the rise of inequalities amongst inhabitants of European cities. Due to processes of migration, urbanization, and the unequal accumulation of economic growth in many urban areas, cities have become intersections of social stratification. Social workers deal with the challenges of these inequalities every day. On a European level, social workers tend to take the urban context for granted. While social work in urban areas has long been a topic of interest to researchers, very few social workers are educated to relate to and meet the challenges of the ‘Urban Age’. Yet, if we wish to generate opportunities for socially sustainable lives, there is an urgency to educate social workers to be knowledgeable about the ways in which cities create, and are created by, social issues and inequality. In short, there is a need for a paradigm shift in urban social work. Urban SOS brings together educational institutions and work place organizations—who work in the cities with social issues caused by life in the City. The objective of the Urban SOS partnership is to contribute to the transnational and transdisciplinary innovation of European social work and social work education.