Many people would agree that we live in uncertain times. This has become once more apparent during the COVID-19 crisis. In all areas of our life, people experience shifts and changes of an unprecedented scale such as the fear to become incapable of working, to lose your current job position or status in family and society. Also, companies have become more often victims of cyber-attacks that suddenly shut down infrastructure and demand money in return for the release of stolen data.

In today’s episode, we will explore the social economy and have a deeper look at social enterprises that provide individual social services for the people in need of care. In particular, care workers have to deal constructively with uncertainty and insecurity, ambivalence and ambiguity. Recently, Herbert Effinger has suggested in his new book that ‘Social Work Management in the Uncertain’ could even be better understood as one of the basic competencies of social workers. In this episode, we will review this book and draw some conclusions regarding the question of how can the current and future workforce be prepared for the management of the uncertain. We will start with a summary of the book before we continue to evaluate the consequences.

References:

Effinger, Herbert (2021). Soziale Arbeit im Ungewissen – Mit Selbstkompetenz aus Eindeutigkeitsfallen. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa. [Book under review]

Effinger, Herbert (2018). Beratung in der Sozialwirtschaft: Ungewissheiten als Chance kreativer Problemlösungsstrategien. Göttingen: V&R.

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