It has been about two years since I posted something. My disappearance has been due to starting my Doctorate in Social Work about two years ago. What made me reappear? A conference about the future of social work. This is confluence of events for me as I have spent this semester narrowing the scope of my dissertation topic. Which is certainly related to the future of our amazing profession. This was an interesting and at times uncomfortable conference but I am reminded that change does not always come from comfortable conditions. Also the social work profession has complexities ahead and beginning to think about how we can resolve them is critical.
The Conference
I attended The Social Work Futures Virtual Forum sponsored by The Social Work Futures Lab. I obviously knew of their existence and knew that this was something, eventually, that needed to be caught up on. The scope of their work right now is to use Foresight Practice to grasp what the future may hold for the social work profession. This concept of Foresight Practice was new to me. What is Foresight, specifically the practice of Strategic Foresight?
Being emersed in it the last 4 days this definition…
Strategic foresight is defined as the “structured and explicit exploration of multiple futures in order
Foresight and Anticipatory Governance in Practice (oecd.org)
to inform decision-making.”. Strategic foresight typically involves scanning the horizon for signs of
emerging change, developing and exploring a diversity of possible future scenarios, and identifying
potential implications for the strategies and policies being developed in the present. Strategic foresight can provide a powerful foundation for the development of forward-looking public policies and help to ensure the future-readiness of existing policies, particularly in the context of “environments that are both complex and uncertain”.
Prior to this conference my thoughts about futurism was a notion of guessing or speculating about the future. I found futurism or foresight practice is not about guessing about the future but challenges you through immersive experiences to engage with a future but not necessarily the future. This was a shift in my thinking.
The question was not simply what one future would be but what multiple futures might look like for social work. This is an important question to me a practitioner, educator, and someone who cares deeply about this work. This year I will be celebrating 21 years since I graduated with my MSW (whew). For most of that time I did direct practice work and last year shifted to a program evaluation position. I have also began doing some consulting for a company using wearable technology to understand strong emotions.
I took most of the week off to attend this conference, wrap up stuff for this semester, and try to breathe a bit. In doing so the conference gave me a little more than I bargained for and here are some big takeaways…
Social Work Values and Ethics: Hold on Tight!
As we considered future scenarios (some of them a bit dystopian) one thread was the importance of social work values and ethics. I often regard the values and ethics of our profession as the “true north”. This was something infused in my doctoral work. As I venture to examine a future use of technology, including social work values has been critical. This is true when thinking about the future of our profession.
Several of the scenarios brought social work closer to being part of a police state, which some pointed out is not that far off in places. A reminder that this was not really about simply predicting the future but imagining your (or the professions’) place in several futures. These exercises put the “core values” to the test.
How will service, social justice, importance of human relationships, integrity, competence, and the dignity and worth of individuals mold our profession? In some of the scenarios holding on to those values seemed subversive. In some of those scenarios some would rather quit our job than enter in a “contract” with the state. For example one of the scenarios, during a climate crisis, put social workers in a role of checking in with people about water regulation. In this scenario we were in a a gatekeeping role about monitoring and reporting water intake as this was related to “wellness”. Again these futures challenged us to suspend reality and think about what might happen.
These scenarios had social workers enter spaces where those values are subversive. Currently social work is questioning our role with partnerships with police. How to we hold space for these values in times when they may be directly challenged? This is certainly happening now and I have to believe they will be tested no matter what future we find ourselves in.
Digging Deeper Into “Cultural Competence”
To it’s detriment, the profession is often shaped by western and/or Eurocentric ideals. I appreciate learning about things from different perspective and this conference was no exception. For example, there were considerations about Afro-Futures, Indigenous Futures, and Queer Futures (just to name a few). The social work profession is good at cultural competence but we have a long way to go. I found that immersion in the how other cultures might see the future as an exercise in cultural competence. We are taught so much about the “how to” of engaging with other cultures. That if we don’t know the “how to” we should practice cultural humility.
Driving into the future looking through other cultures is a powerful next step in cultural competence and humility. It should be fairly obvious that much of the potential future is shaped by the past. Looking through a foresight lens requires deeper exploration than simply “those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it”. Foresight thinking becomes less about the simply “what happened” study of history but more of the process. In clinical social work speak, history is the content (the facts we see in front of us) versus the process (how you got there).
For example, in considering an Afro-future, Dr. Jose Ramos talked about Rosa Parks. We often learn about her in history but there is a narrative or a process that got her where she was. Her decision to engage in non-violent protest is a part of her story in her community practice. When shaping the future we need to consider not just history but the process that got that person there. This is not just based on knowing what happened to that culture but what it means to their present and potential futures. For example, different cultures have a different conceptualization of anxiety. This conference taught me that in addition to practice conceptualizations, other cultures have a different conceptualization of space and time.
We are often taught what those differences are but rarely understand the context of how that conceptualization was shaped. This not only has tremendous impact on the present state but also how to think about problems in the future. In that way foresight practice challenges us to think about varying versions of how to get to a future. Much like current practice, the future is not bound by one cultural view.
Is a Utopia that Utopian?
The last day was spent thinking about transformation. What happened if the future was truly based on a community that thrived on cooperation? There was less government oversight of individual choice and there were systems in place to protect vulnerable populations. It was a bit more complex but the role of the social work became this informal role of organizing hyperlocal community. As mentioned earlier the previous days were more dystopian in nature. The dystopian questions were challenging but some of the utopian questions were surprisingly hard to reconcile.
For example we talked about the professionalization of social work. For so long we have fought for title protection. But what if the future of social work was based on something else aside from a license? What if life experiences mattered? What if it was something other than your degree that defined you as a social worker? There are serious concerns about the current ASWB license including if it is racist and long standing question of it’s validity to social work practice.
Sitting with how a utopian future was also challenging. Even a bit uncomfortable. In these “imagining the future” exercise sitting with the discomfort was important. Change is not meant to be comfortable but the social work profession may need to sit with the idea that change is coming. The profession should be prepared.
Future Directions … (see what I did there)
For those who attended the conference know there was so much more! These were just the undercurrents that I observed. I encourage you to stay tuned with the Social Work Work Futures Lab. They will be developing a report based on this conference and will continue do this hard but important foresight practice.
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