Social Work and Social Work Education in Times of Crises. A comparative Bi-National Study on Disability, Social Change and Social Policy in Slovenia and Luxembourg.

The current economic and social crisis in the EU has an impact on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD, 2006), a challenge that has only just begun to emerge as a collective task within social work and has matured as an important topic in social work education and research within European social work. This paper brings together findings from two countries (Luxembourg and Slovenia), comparing the situation of persons with disabilities and focusing on the differences and similarities between the two countries.
Description: Both countries are among the smallest within the EU, but are very diverse, both economically and politically. Empirical data, based on national surveys (EU-SILC-2014) and policy analysis emerging from a multi-annual work organized within the ANED group (Academic Network of European Disability Experts, 2014) in which both authors have been involved for several years, demonstrate country-specific realities, social work contexts and approaches within social work education towards promoting human rights, social and economic equalities and the dignity and worth of peoples with disabilities. In both countries, these social work foundations come up against national austerity policies and neo-liberal ideology, which increase the risk of poverty and give rise to social exclusion and the devaluation of persons with disabilities or mental disorders.
Conclusions drawn from the study indicate that social work and social work education can benefit from multi-national comparative approaches. In particular, the net-based tools of the ANED group are a very useful and user-friendly accessible resource that can help students, practitioners and researchers in social work become aware of European inclusion policies and statistical data on inclusion. European Social work education should benefit more from this international database to broaden the view on social problems across Europe and to reflect on different approaches to promote social inclusion.