Decolonising Social Work In Finland

Introduction and Chapter 10 available open access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. This book examines the contemporary social care realities and practices of Finland, a small nation with a history enmeshed in social relations as both coloniser and colonised. Decolonising Social Work in Finland: · Interrogates coloniality, racialisation and diversity in the context of Finnish social work and social care. · Brings together racialised and mainstream White Finnish researchers, activists and community members to challenge relations of epistemic violence on racialised populations in Finland. · Critically unpacks colonial views of care and wellbeing. It will be essential reading for international scholars and students in the fields of Social Work, Sociology, Indigenous Studies, Health Sciences, Social Sciences and Education.

Introduction and Chapter 10 available open access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. This book examines the contemporary social care realities and practices of Finland, a small nation with a history enmeshed in social relations as both coloniser and colonised. Decolonising Social Work in Finland: · Interrogates coloniality, racialisation and diversity in the context of Finnish social work and social care. · Brings together racialised and mainstream White Finnish researchers, activists and community members to challenge relations of epistemic violence on racialised populations in Finland. · Critically unpacks colonial views of care and wellbeing. It will be essential reading for international scholars and students in the fields of Social Work, Sociology, Indigenous Studies, Health Sciences, Social Sciences and Education.

In this volume, Indigenous and non-Indigenous social work scholars examine local cultures, beliefs, values, and practices as central to decolonization. Supported by a growing interest in spirituality and ecological awareness in international social work, they interrogate trends, issues, and debates in Indigenous social work theory, practice methods, and education models including a section on Indigenous research approaches.

Taking a new and innovative angle on social work, this book seeks to remedy the lack of holistic perspectives currently used in Western social work practice by exploring Indigenous and other culturally diverse understandings and experiences of healing. This book examines six core areas of healing through a holistic lens that is grounded in a decolonizing perspective. Situating integrative healing within social work education and theory, the book takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from social memory and historical trauma, contemplative traditions, storytelling, healing literatures, integrative health, and the traditional environmental knowledge of Indigenous Peoples. In exploring issues of water, creative expression, movement, contemplation, animals, and the natural world in relation to social work practice, the book will appeal to all scholars, practitioners, and community members interested in decolonization and Indigenous studies.

Decolonizing Data yields valuable insights into the decolonization of research methods by addressing and examining health inequalities from an anti-racist and anti-oppressive standpoint.

Drawing on contemporary research and debates from different Nordic countries, this book examines how social work and child welfare politics are produced and challenged as both global and local ideas and practices.

In an effort to challenge the ways in which colonial power relations and Eurocentric knowledges are reproduced in participatory research, this book explores whether and how it is possible to use arts-based methods for creating more horizontal and democratic research practices. In discussing both the transformative potential and limitations of arts-based methods, the book asks: What can arts-based methods contribute to decolonising participatory research and its processes and practices? The book takes part in ongoing debates related to the need to decolonise research, and investigates practical contributions of arts-based methods in the practice-led research domain. Further, it discusses the role of artistic research in depth, locating it in a decolonising context. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, design, fine arts, service design, social sciences and development studies.

"This book explores contemporary debates on decolonisation and indigenisation of social work in Africa and provides readers with alternative models, values, and epistemologies for reimagining social work practice and education that can be applicable to a wide range of countries struggling with similar concerns. It examines how indigenisation without decolonisation is just tokenistic since it is concerned with adapting, modifying Western models to fit local contexts or generating local models to integrate into the already predominantly contextually irrelevant and culturally inappropriate mainstream Western social work. By exploring decolonisation, which calls for dismantling colonialism and colonial thinking to create central space for indigenous social work as mainstream social work, especially in Africa, it goes beyond tokenistic decolonisation to articulate some of the indigenous social work practice and social policy models, values, ethics, and oral epistemologies that should take centre stage as locally relevant and culturally appropriate social work in African countries. It also addresses the question of decolonising research methodologies, highlighting some of the methods embedded in African indigenous perspectives for adoption when researching African social work. It will be of interest to all social work academics, students and practitioners and others interested in gaining insights into how colonisation persists in social work and why it is necessary to find ways to disrupt it"--