Social Work in 40 Objects – the language of things

Mark created a web-based experimental project called socialworkin40objects.com to see if it was possible to tell the story of social work through objects. To date, over 160 people from 26 countries around the globe have ‘donated’ to this Virtual Exhibition of Social Work. The collection is still growing, so do join in!

The story of how the donated Object connects the person to social work is important and, taken as a collective narrative, can help social work to speak to the wider world. In this presentation Mark will suggest that a collection of objects and their stories can create a deeper impression of social work than traditional texts and definitions.

Mark will introduce examples from the Collection and link his presentation to material culture theory to explore the idea of ‘charged objects’ – ones that powerfully illustrate the attachment between artefact, individual and profession.

The process has much to offer students as they learn about social work as a profession and their developing relationship with it. PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN OBJECT, ONE THAT CONNECTS YOU TO SOCIAL WORK, TO THE SESSION.

About Mark Doel

Professor Doel is a registered social worker and Emeritus Professor at Sheffield Hallam University. He has twenty years’ community-based social work practice, specialising in groupwork and task-centred practice. He has experience as a social work teacher and trainer, practice educator, head of school of social work, a writer (21 books, plus many scholarly articles and chapters), a researcher, project director and external examiner. He leads workshops in groupwork and practice education.

Mark has lived and worked in the US, has extensive experience in eastern Europe and works alongside community activists in Kolkata, India. He is Honorary Professor at Tbilisi State University, Georgia, as well as previous Vice-President of the International Association for Social Work with Groups (IASWG). Mark is co-Chair of Nether Edge Festival, a community celebration in a neighbourhood of Sheffield.

https://www.shu.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-profiles/mark-doel

Publications related to the presentation

Doel, M. (2019) 'Displaying social work through objects’, British Journal of Social Work, 49(3), April 2019, 824–841 (available as a free download).

Doel, M. (ed.) (2017) Social Work in 42 Objects (and more), Lichfield: Kirwin Maclean (available from socialworkin40objects.com – all proceeds to TARA Children's Centre in Delhi).

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Mark Doel: Social Work in 40 Objects - the language of things