Ships passing in the night? Improving scholarly conversations between social work, nonprofit studies and public administration

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Discussion

Abstract

The academic disciplines of social work, nonprofit studies, and public administration have much in common. They are motivated by the study of mission-driven action, promoting the public good, and addressing complex social problems. The connection between the practice of social work, nonprofit organizations operating at the community level, and the public agencies that fund and regulate their action is essential to how societies address social issues such as family well-being, poverty, and homelessness. It is surprising, then, the degree to which these academic fields operate in silos. While in North America there is a growing connection between nonprofit studies and public administration, this is less true in Europe, and social work remains a field apart on both continents.
This is a missed opportunity because all three fields have much to offer each other. For example: Research in social work has a rich history of studying relationships between workers and clients. The growing literature on coproduction in nonprofit studies and public administration could benefit from this work. The literature on legitimacy and accountability in public administration and nonprofit studies could move forward the attempts of social work researchers to study how social workers legitimize their work to the multiple actors they are accountable to. Nonprofit studies has focused much attention on conflict and collaboration between the state and civil society. Those insights could be applied to the problems and challenges experienced by social workers in their institutional environment, particularly as social work scholars are increasingly interested in the political role of the profession.
We would like to propose a roundtable between scholars working at the intersections of these fields to further elaborate where there may be fruitful opportunity for these scholarly traditions to inform one another. Currently, each of these disciplines are organized around their own set of journals, conferences, and associations and to date very few attempts have been made to explore the value of combining insights and theoretical frameworks of these academic disciplines.
Questions to discuss include:
• Where is there currently overlap in topics addressed by the different fields? Which concepts or theories may be useful across fields (e.g., legitimacy, accountability, institutionalization, collaboration)
• Are there particular scholarly traditions coming from one field that may be helpful for scholars in operating in a different field?
• What infrastructure is needed to help promote dialogue across these three fields?

References

NA

Sub Unit

• Social work, social innovations, and activism in the pursuit of human rights, social justice, equity and diversity

Moderators

• Jennifer Mosley, University of Chicago

• Peter Raeymaeckers, University of Antwerp

Presenters

• Ingo Bode, University of Kassel

• Michal Almog-Bar, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

• Sunggeun Ethan Park, University of Michigan

• Håkan Johansson, Lund university