FABIAN KESSL

TOPIC:
DEMOCRACY OR DISRUPTION: PERSPECTIVES FOR SOCIAL WORK AND SOCIAL PEDAGOGY

BIO

Fabian Kessl is a Professor for Social Pedagogy & Social Policy at the University of Wuppertal, Germany. His research interests are in the transformation of the welfare state, especially due to the institutional change of social services and the dimensions of scale (spatial aspects). He is the Managing Director of the International Open Access-Journal Social Work & Society (www.socwork.net) and the German Journal for Social Work SOZIALE PASSAGEN; also he is a member of different boards (Critical Social Policy, Neue Praxis, Wider-sprüche, Zeitschrift für Diskursforschung). The European Social Work - Compendium was edited by him in 2019 (together with Walter Lorenz, Hans-Uwe Otto & Sue White).

ABSTRACT

A demand for "disruption” can be seductive, if we want to deal with very fundamental questions - like the climate change - in the 21st century. But at the same time it is not without danger. Because the "desire for disruption” (Charim) is one of the main sources for authoritarian and right extreme policies in current times. On the background of this assumption the keynote argues for a critical perspective on institutionalisation and democratisation for social work and social pedagogy.