Stefan Sjöberg

PhD, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social WorkDepartment of Social Work and PsychologyUniversity of Gävlestnsjg@hig.se+46 (0)26 64 81 90, +46 (0)73 460 47 77

Joint World Conference on Social Work and Social Development:Action and Impact

Stockholm 2012-07-11

Community Development and Collective empowerment; A comparative analysis of social work in Marginalized Urban Communities in Mumbai and

Stockholm

Komal Singh Rambaree, Stefan Sjöberg, Sanaya SinghUniversity of Gävle

Bipin Jojo, Daniel SainkuparTata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

• Aim:• explore how collective empowerment and social mobilization

are being undertaken by social workers within marginalized urban settings in Mumbai and Stockholm

• Questions:• What are the conditions for community development and

collective empowerment in this context, and how is the concrete social work implemented?

• What kind of impact does neo-liberal globalization have on the conditions for this kind of social work in the two respective communities?

• Which kind of experiences and learnings can social workers in the two countries share with each other, in order to develop social work methods in the respective country?

Method

• Semi-structured interviews• Field observation• Atlas-ti 6.2• Critical discourse analysis

THE PROJECT

Social Work Practice Community

Vulnerable, Marginalised & Oppressed Groups

Critical Approach

Structural Analysis Who are marginalised and oppressed? What are the maginalisation & oppressive factors? What are the mechanisms of marginalisation & oppression? How is power difference created and maintained? How is ‘false consciousness’ created and maintained? How is domination and oppression experienced? What are the manifestations and consequences of marginalisation and oppression?

Self-reflection and Critical Discourse analysis

from interactions/interviews

Analysis of Social Control in Social Work Intervention & Practice

How is collective empowerment seen & conceptualised? How is the power relation between social workers and the oppressed group/s? Are there oppressive/anti-oppressive practice? Are social injustices reproduced through interventions/practice? How are the interventions and strategies for the enhancement of capabilities? What are the possibilities of change in challenging domination & oppression? How social workers relate with the oppressed groups in relation to success/failure of interventions/practice?

Globalisation, Neo-liberalism and Global Forces

Emancipation, Liberation and Social Justice

Social Workers

Community Mobilisation

Who are the main actors in mobilising the community? What strategies, mechanisms, structures, agencies and resources are used to mobilise the community? How the above are identified and planned? What are the roles, responsibilities and functions of social workers with the community mobilisation process? How is the relation between community mobilisation & oppressive/anti-oppressive practice?

MUMBAI

TENSTA- STOCKHOLM

ORGANISATIONS• MUMBAI

• The Vision of Apnalaya: • To build empowered urban

poor communities, having awareness about their basic civic rights and responsibilities, and the capacities to exercise these rights and access the services integral to them.

• Pragatik:• Educate, empower, mobilize

• TENSTA

• Tensta Träff : 15 local • NGOs manage a

Community Development Project at Tensta Träff with the objective of strengthening the civil society by developing a local house for culture.

Findings: Mumbai & Stockholm Areas Similarities Differences

Mumbai Stockholm

Services/Interventions Migrants, stigmatized, and vulnerable population. Marginalization and social exclusion within urban settings. Multiple social problems (housing, education, and unemployment). Project-based activities (youth, education, leisure etc)

Mostly internal migrants (rural to urban). Informal welfare systems. International and national donations and funding.

Mostly inter-country migration (asylum seekers). Linking with formal welfare systems (State, municipality).

Collective Empowerment

Networking as a strategy. Client-centred approach. Enablement as a dominant form.

Approach more focused on basic human rights (security, food and housing) of the clients. Challenging social structures. More community-centred collective consciousness

Approach more focused on clients’ coping ability with difficulties and problems (employment, education and integration) More trust in social structures and social systems. More Individual/family-centred empowerment

Social Mobilization Seen as an important strategy and techniques for social work interventions

More engaged towards transforming social power of their clients into political power. Regular public demonstrations and protests as collective actions. More belief in social changes through social mobilization

Limited encouragement for political participation. Limited collective actions resulting from lack of collective dynamisms. Social change through formal negotiation

Collective Empowerment and Social Mobilization: a comparative analysis of experiences from social work in Mumbai and Stockholm

Abstract:  Cities like Mumbai in India and Stockholm in Sweden have known an increasing level of social exclusion and marginalization of vulnerable groups within the communities as a consequence of both intra and inter country migration resulted by globalization and neo-liberal thrust. Within this particular context, social workers are facing numerous challenges regarding collective empowerment and social mobilization as a strategy for social action. Using a comparative approach, the aim of this study is to explore how collective empowerment and social mobilization are being undertaken by social workers within marginalized urban settings. Deonar-Mumbai, India and Tensta -Stockholm, Sweden were used for data collection. The research participants for this study were 12 key informants from 2 social work organizations from each setting. Semi-structured interview questionnaire was used for collecting the data and the gathered data were analyzed with the help of Atlas-ti 6.2 using critical discourse analysis method. The main findings are that in Mumbai the beneficiary groups mainly consist of intra-country immigrants, while in Stockholm inter-country immigrants are pre-dominant. Social work in Mumbai is conducted in a context of extreme poverty and most of the work is within the informal welfare sector, while in Stockholm most social work is being done within the public sector under a structured welfare model. Informants from both Mumbai and Stockholm described their respective contexts as urban areas of advanced marginality, with social exclusion, unequal living conditions, high rates of unemployment, and multiple social problems. In Stockholm interventions are aimed towards getting people together, strengthening the social networks and trying to relate the vulnerable people to the surrounding “established” communities. But there seems to be no direct aim of social mobilization towards social actions and movements for change at the more structural level. In Mumbai a key aspect of community based social work is organizing people for social mobilization, collective empowerment and social action, in order to strengthen the power of marginalized groups, and to achieve social change and community development. A concluding remark emanating from the study is that, community based social work in Stockholm is generally focused on coping; while social work in Mumbai is more focused on social change through collective social movements and actions.