Vol. 19 No. 1 (2021): Is Out-of-Home Care in a Crisis? Perspectives on Child and Youth Welfare Systems in northern Europe and Germany

NEW: SW&S Special Issue on “Is Out-of-Home Care in a Crisis? Perspectives on Child and Youth Welfare Systems in northern Europe and Germany” (Vol. 19, Issue 1, 2021)

Current societies are based on the family household. The everyday family care and its economy ensure the reproduction of existing societies in fundamental ways. This is evident not least in the family orientation of social services and social work. At the same time, families are the greatest source of hazard for children and adolescents. This is also reflected in the provision of social support by welfare states. The field of out-of-home care is located in this contradicting context and shaped by these contradictions between family orientation and an alternative provision for the socialisation in the private sphere of the family. If you look at the current pandemic situation, these relationships become particularly clear: Families are thrown back on themselves and at the same time the need for public support for children and young people increases significantly. It is therefore not only appropriate, but urgently necessary, to address the issue of out-of-home care, especially in an international comparison perspective. We are therefore extremely pleased that Social Work & Society (SW&S) is able to open its 19th volume with a SW&S.Special Issue on “Out-of Home Care in Crisis”, edited by Zoe Clark (Siegen / GER).

All papers in our new Special Issue, titled “Is Out-of-Home Care in a Crisis? Perspectives Child and Youth Welfare Systems in northern Europe and Germany”, come from the European context, so they reflect the question of out-of-home care against the background of expanded welfare states and their transformation in the recent past. Their common interest is also in the question of possible and necessary research perspectives in this field.

SW&S Forum

The new issue of SW&S is completed by contributions from Elia Sepúlveda, Roxana Contreras & Alejandra Mora about “Socio-natural Disasters and Poverty: An Analysis from Emergency Decrees Issued in Chile”; Angela K. Louw & Izanette Van Schalkwyk concerning “Guidelines to enhance the psychosocial wellbeing of the San community living at Platfontein in the Northern Cape Province”; and Alevtina V. Starshinova, Olga I. Borodkina & Elena B. Arkhipova on “Youth as Social Service Consumers: the Case of Russia.”

Reading the new issue is highly informative and enlightening. Therefore, take the time and devote yourself to the contributions of the Issue 1, Volume 19 of Social Work & Society. We wish all of our readers a very fruitful and stimulating insights.

Thanks a lot for your interest,
your SW&S.Co-Ordinating Office