Stories and conflicts have a mutually constitutive nature. Stories often unfold in the portrayal ... more Stories and conflicts have a mutually constitutive nature. Stories often unfold in the portrayal of conflicts just as conflicts get performed as stories. Both these themes, though addressed in academic discussions of social work, have not been studied in their interconnectivity and not as empowering concepts for social workers and their addressees. More often than not, they have hugely centred on producing and sustaining hegemonic power-relations, that lead to inequality and injustice in society. In an attempt to tap the subversive potential of stories and conflicts in research, theory and professional practice of social work, this thesis seeks to understand how and why social work performs and masks certain stories about the conflicts of refugees in Germany. For this it examines the documentation of five conflict situations by social workers in a refugee-camp as narrative performances. Based on conflictoriented perspektives, this research underlines the involvement of social work in the dispossession and camouflage of conflicts. Using the interactional approach to narrative analysis, it outlines firstly, the narrative strategies and tecniques used to reframe and transform the conflicts of refugees into 'cases' and stories of danger and deviance, thus invoking compliance and competence in social work performances. Secondly the study serves to examine how social work brings about the narrative silencing of refugee stories and perspectives in the context of sociopolitical interests of racist regimes of migration that govern contemporary migration policies and practices. The thesis ends with a call to social work to occupy and reclaim the potential of conflicts by telling ambivalent, uncomfortable and subversive stories that expose the hegemonic interests that usurp conflicts.
The question, how a mystic poet like Rumi would respond to the Occupy protests, brings about a ge... more The question, how a mystic poet like Rumi would respond to the Occupy protests, brings about a general irritation in the academic reflections of social work. For one, religion and protest don't seem to get along well together. Secondly, the interplay of religion and protest with social change has not been a very popular theme for research in the theories of social work. The term religion often invokes feelings of piety or sublimation and protest is generally associated with worldly agitation and resistance. The dichotomy between the personal and the political as well as between the transcendent and the immanent aspects of life dominate public and academic discussions. However on closer examination, especially of religious and social movements, these notions make way for alternative possibilities of perceiving these highly dynamic, complex, ambivalent and volatile social phenomenon.
Examples of religious rebellion and spiritual protest in mystic traditions, make not just interesting exceptions, they also suggest the dialectic relationship of religion and protest to social change. Similarly social protest movements sometimes submit to the dictates of power-politics and can be seen as rather complacent in their approach.
This thesis seeks to outline the contradictions inherent in the common binary conceptions of religion and protest as social phenomenon by examining the interplay between the two and their role in stimulating or diffusing social change. After considering interdisciplinary theories about the social constitution, construction and contexts of religion and protest, an analysis of Sufism as a religious movement, the civilrights- and the occupy movement as social protest movements is undertaken, to clarify the role of religion in triggering, fostering and sustaining social change. The results of this study are then placed in the context of the theories and practices of social work to reflect on the subservient and subversive ways in which social work influences the process of social change. The thesis concludes with suggestions for social work to occupy itself with characteristics like authenticity, radical imagination and collective effervescence.
Stories and conflicts have a mutually constitutive nature. Stories often unfold in the portrayal ... more Stories and conflicts have a mutually constitutive nature. Stories often unfold in the portrayal of conflicts just as conflicts get performed as stories. Both these themes, though addressed in academic discussions of social work, have not been studied in their interconnectivity and not as empowering concepts for social workers and their addressees. More often than not, they have hugely centred on producing and sustaining hegemonic power-relations, that lead to inequality and injustice in society. In an attempt to tap the subversive potential of stories and conflicts in research, theory and professional practice of social work, this thesis seeks to understand how and why social work performs and masks certain stories about the conflicts of refugees in Germany. For this it examines the documentation of five conflict situations by social workers in a refugee-camp as narrative performances. Based on conflictoriented perspektives, this research underlines the involvement of social work in the dispossession and camouflage of conflicts. Using the interactional approach to narrative analysis, it outlines firstly, the narrative strategies and tecniques used to reframe and transform the conflicts of refugees into 'cases' and stories of danger and deviance, thus invoking compliance and competence in social work performances. Secondly the study serves to examine how social work brings about the narrative silencing of refugee stories and perspectives in the context of sociopolitical interests of racist regimes of migration that govern contemporary migration policies and practices. The thesis ends with a call to social work to occupy and reclaim the potential of conflicts by telling ambivalent, uncomfortable and subversive stories that expose the hegemonic interests that usurp conflicts.
The question, how a mystic poet like Rumi would respond to the Occupy protests, brings about a ge... more The question, how a mystic poet like Rumi would respond to the Occupy protests, brings about a general irritation in the academic reflections of social work. For one, religion and protest don't seem to get along well together. Secondly, the interplay of religion and protest with social change has not been a very popular theme for research in the theories of social work. The term religion often invokes feelings of piety or sublimation and protest is generally associated with worldly agitation and resistance. The dichotomy between the personal and the political as well as between the transcendent and the immanent aspects of life dominate public and academic discussions. However on closer examination, especially of religious and social movements, these notions make way for alternative possibilities of perceiving these highly dynamic, complex, ambivalent and volatile social phenomenon.
Examples of religious rebellion and spiritual protest in mystic traditions, make not just interesting exceptions, they also suggest the dialectic relationship of religion and protest to social change. Similarly social protest movements sometimes submit to the dictates of power-politics and can be seen as rather complacent in their approach.
This thesis seeks to outline the contradictions inherent in the common binary conceptions of religion and protest as social phenomenon by examining the interplay between the two and their role in stimulating or diffusing social change. After considering interdisciplinary theories about the social constitution, construction and contexts of religion and protest, an analysis of Sufism as a religious movement, the civilrights- and the occupy movement as social protest movements is undertaken, to clarify the role of religion in triggering, fostering and sustaining social change. The results of this study are then placed in the context of the theories and practices of social work to reflect on the subservient and subversive ways in which social work influences the process of social change. The thesis concludes with suggestions for social work to occupy itself with characteristics like authenticity, radical imagination and collective effervescence.
Uploads
Papers by Serene Mosell
Examples of religious rebellion and spiritual protest in mystic traditions, make not just interesting exceptions, they also suggest the dialectic relationship of religion and protest to social change. Similarly social protest movements sometimes submit to the dictates of power-politics and can be seen as rather complacent in their approach.
This thesis seeks to outline the contradictions inherent in the common binary conceptions of religion and protest as social phenomenon by examining the interplay between the two and their role in stimulating or diffusing social change. After considering interdisciplinary theories about the social constitution, construction and contexts of religion and protest, an analysis of Sufism as a religious movement, the civilrights- and the occupy movement as social protest movements is undertaken, to clarify the role of religion in triggering, fostering and sustaining social change. The results of this study are then placed in the context of the theories and practices of social work to reflect on the subservient and subversive ways in which social work influences the process of social change. The thesis concludes with suggestions for social work to occupy itself with characteristics like authenticity, radical imagination and collective effervescence.
Examples of religious rebellion and spiritual protest in mystic traditions, make not just interesting exceptions, they also suggest the dialectic relationship of religion and protest to social change. Similarly social protest movements sometimes submit to the dictates of power-politics and can be seen as rather complacent in their approach.
This thesis seeks to outline the contradictions inherent in the common binary conceptions of religion and protest as social phenomenon by examining the interplay between the two and their role in stimulating or diffusing social change. After considering interdisciplinary theories about the social constitution, construction and contexts of religion and protest, an analysis of Sufism as a religious movement, the civilrights- and the occupy movement as social protest movements is undertaken, to clarify the role of religion in triggering, fostering and sustaining social change. The results of this study are then placed in the context of the theories and practices of social work to reflect on the subservient and subversive ways in which social work influences the process of social change. The thesis concludes with suggestions for social work to occupy itself with characteristics like authenticity, radical imagination and collective effervescence.