Under the title "Social Work as Emancipatory Practice - Creating Pathways towards Social Justice", the "2024 International Conference on Social Work Research, Education, and Practice" was recently held in Gothenburg by the Nordic Association for Schools of Social Work (NASSW) and the Swedish Association for Social Work Research (FORSA) in cooperation with the Department for Social Work at the University of Gothenburg. With over 300 participants from 19 nations and numerous distinguished keynote speakers, the conference provided an interesting and significant setting for this year's gathering of the participating organizations.
The conference is the largest annual event for Social Work Research in Europe and the primary space for members of the European Social Work Research Association (ESWRA) to meet and get to know each other, share high quality research and expertise, and build collaborative relationships and networks.
The central theme of this year's conference highlighted Social Work research in the context of emancipative practices to realize socially just and inclusive societal change.
Dealing with ecological, economic and political crises are key societal challenges where Social Work can act as a catalyst for change. Communicating values and ideals of justice, equality, freedom and human rights is a task to which the Department of Social Work at MCI is also committed and is continuously working in various research projects and in teaching to realize spaces for emancipative practices with the aim of an inclusive society based on democratic values. International networking and exchange on these topics, which are fundamental to Social Work, is an important pillar of this work.
Moritz Reisberger, teaching & research assistant at the MCI Department of Social Work, gave a presentation on this topic at the conference in Gothenburg together with Denise Lehmann (RheinMain University of Applied Sciences). The focus was on questions of knowledge generation for Social Work professionals.
In addition, the conference offered the opportunity to exchange ideas with researchers and practitioners from the field of Social Work about current challenges in research and teaching, to establish new contacts and networks and to generate numerous inspirations for future teaching and research projects.
Impressions of the 2024 International Conference on Social Work Research, Education, and Practice in Gothenburg | Moritz Reisberger with Denise Lehmann Photo © MCI/Reisberger
