Social Pedagogy/Social Work in Germany : Theories and Discourses in Social Pedagogy and Social Work: From disciplinarisation of the poor to an emancipatory democratic perspective

Abstract

The paper reconstructs developments of ideas and practises of social pedagogy/social work in the context of the social history of the German States from the inception of bourgeois-capitalist society up to contemporary times. Against the background of persisting structural social inequality this historical approach builds a bridge between the poor laws of the 16th century and the new labour/green laws 'Hartz IV' at the end of the 20th century. What becomes evident is a common leitmotif: the pedagogisation of the work habits of the ordinary people. Modern social pedagogy approaches fight this attempt as the reconstruction shows in the interest of the defense of real education ("Bildung") and therefore the autonomy of life praxis of all. Social pedagogy can therefore be called - since the beginning of the 20th century - a discipline and profession which is mediated to ideas of real democracy and therefore deals with the question how to change capitalism

Keywords

• Desigualdad social
• educación
• cambio social
• profesionalización
• democracia