The figure of transformation and its effects on the professionalspatial practices in the field of youth welfare

Abstract

Socio-pedagogical spaces such as youth centres or residential group homes are always located in specific places and are established to meet specific local and national needs. Accordingly, the professionals working there are confronted with external demands from both their immediate environment as well as those stemming from professional or social transformations. Drawing on case studies from the research project, ‘Places of Social Pedagogy in society – practices of relationing and (re)shaping’, this article examines how Swiss social workers change and justify their spatial practices in response to transformations in the field of youth welfare. Applying – and relating to each other – both spatial theory and an ethnographic approach to professional practices, this article presents empirical findings on how transformations and the socio-pedagogical places where social work takes place affect to each other. Moreover, it draws on these examples to explore how spatial theory positions social workers as professional space-shapers. This offers potential für reflection both for social work practice and for the debate on spatial theory.