Symposium 2025

The Faculty of Applied Social Sciences at Hochschule RheinMain has organized a symposium on the topic of methods.

Last Friday, Hochschule RheinMain (HSRM) hosted the "Method Festival Democracy in Social Work - Shaping Living Environments in a Participatory Way through Methodical Action". "The development of methods in social work has always been closely linked to social development," said Prof. Dr. Kathrin Witek, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences, at the opening of the symposium on classic methods such as individual case help, social group work and community work. "In the faculty, we succeed in creating a strong connection between theory and practical experience," said Prof. Dr. Witek. The dialog between academia and practical experience is also an important contribution to justice and strengthening democracy. This was to be demonstrated in the workshops as central elements of the symposium.

Four method strands

The workshops on the four methodological strands ("Enabling participation, shaping democracy", "Advising, moderating, shaping crises", "Working in a team, reflecting on situations, planning interventions" and "Developing creativity, shaping relationships") addressed current socio-political developments and focused on democracy building, solidarity and participation as cross-cutting tasks of social work.

Prof. Dr. Arzu Çiçek and Ibrahim Kızılgöz, Chairman of the Wiesbaden Foreigners' Advisory Council, presented in their working group, for example, how democracy can be shaped by enabling participation. With the project Walking the Dots, a city walk through Wiesbaden that is critical of racism, they showed how remembrance can take place in a migration society. The workshop by Prof. Dr. Kathrin Witek and Prof. Dr. Tanja Grendel in collaboration with representatives of Spiegelbild e. V. focused on the topic of all-day schooling and democracy education. "As a central instance of socialization, school is the place where democratic and human rights values and norms are lived, exemplified and learned," said Prof. Dr. Grendel. Democracy education in all-day education and its integration is a joint task of schools and Social Work. The focus here is on social group work in particular.

Eight workshops

In further workshops, the method strands were discussed and developed in the context of different projects:

• Serious games for the (primary) prevention of intimate partner violence (Prof. Dr. Regina Dackweiler, Mascha Holly)
• Experience space ambiguity tolerance - an artistic-aesthetic game with ambiguity (Alexandra Division)
• Discourses on anti-feminism and anti-climate protection - digital media and their possibilities for discourse interventions? (Prof. Dr. Florin Kerle, Prof. Dr. Marion Kamphans)
• Diversity at the end of life, possibilities and limits in dealing with illness, dying, death and grief using the example of the curriculum "Last Aid Diversity" (Prof. Dr. Christian Schütte-Bäumner, Carsten Müller, Cristina Ramalho)
• GestaltungsSpielRäume - Discovering and shaping participation and democracy in reflexive casework! (Prof. Dr. Cornelia Füssenhäuser, Diana Bruski)
• Change of perspective in Social Work as an aspect of democracy education (Prof. Dr. Kathrin Witek, Jörg Brandt)

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Wiesbaden Institute for Social Work Methods (wims)

Prof. Dr. Ingo Neupert and Prof. Dr. Kerstin Herzog also gave a keynote speech to introduce the Wiesbaden Institute for Social Work Methods (wims), the only institute in Germany to focus on social work methods. They also showed how the method strands that formed the framework of the workshops will determine the future design of the Bachelor's degree program in Social Work at Hochschule RheinMain.