Abstrakt
Social work has a specific place in society on account of its position on the boundary between the private sphere, civil society and the public sphere. This chapter examines particularly its historical and contemporary relationship to the nation state and to civil society from a European perspective and with that to non-governmental organisations and social movements like feminism.
These in turn assume varying significance in relation to prevailing "welfare regimes" that developed in Europe. This has particular significance for the understanding of social citizenship which the profession is mandated to promote.
It concludes that under current political conditions it is particularly important for the profession to connect personal social difficulties to wider political issues in order to re-establish a balance of rights and obligations as the hallmark of citizenship.