User of Social Services in Postmodern Times

Mirka Nečasová, Zdeňka Dohnalová, Renáta Rídlová

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User of Social Services in Postmodern Times

Mirka Nečasová, Zdeňka Dohnalová, Renáta Rídlová

Medailon autora:

PhDr. Mirka Nečasová, Ph.D. is an assistant professor at the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, teaches at CARITAS – College of Social Work in Olomouc. The major focus of her scientific research and practical activities encompasses the ethics of social work, supervision, negotiation and mediation, and social integration of immigrants in the Czech Republic.

Mgr. Zdeňka Dohnalová, Ph.D. is an assistant professor at the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, teaches at Evangelical Academy, College of Social and Legal Studies in Brno. The major focus of her scientific research and practical activities encompasses the ethics of caring professions, supervision and counselling service to surviving relatives.

Mgr. Renáta Rídlová is a PhD student at the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University. She works as a probation officer at the Probation and Mediation Service of the Czech Republic. Her major scientific research and practical activities focus on the concept of restorative justice, social work within the penal system and work with convicted persons.

Abstrakt:

At present, a time characterised by the transition from modern to postmodern society, social work finds itself in a situation full of changes and uncertainties. The postmodern era is distinguished from the modern one by e.g. radical plurality of world views and associated loss of confidence in the Grand Narratives, including the concept of a social welfare state, emphasis put on presence and individualised projects, deconstruction and reconstruction of meanings, divergence from the bipolar perception of the world and preference given to expertise, etc. Based on the changed concept of a human being who uses the services provided by social workers, and based on the related characteristics of modern and postmodern times, the authors of this paper point out the potential impacts and risks arising from this new situation, which they see predominantly in the danger of irresponsible handling of power on the part of the social worker as well as of the service user.