The aims of the project

The rural development social work

The aim of an academic specialization project

            The rural development specialization is an in-service training for graduated students or for students in the last year of their studies. This training program gives specialists for the rural society who are able not only to handle the problems of vulnerable groups of the society, but they also support to realise the ideas and plans of social communities which are more sensitive to innovation. Our aim is to train rural development specialists who are the accelerators of settlements with few inhabitants. It is of great importance that these specialists should be able to reorganize the social network which may start the development process of quality life, considering the needs, abilities and interests of the people living there.

            The main competence which can be obtained during the training is that their special knowledge will enable them to make a bridge between the theoretical and practical side of rural development. Social workers usually do not have extensive knowledge about regional and rural development, while the regional development specialists do not acquire the forms of community organization and communication techniques which can be used effectively to involve special target groups (in Hungary, especially the Roma communities) into planning and realising the projects. This aggregated knowledge creates new quality as it integrates interdisciplinary and wide knowledge about project systems, municipal administration and management, and also about the economic and social characteristics of the given area. These specialists will be able to recognize the spatial connections of these interrelated relations, consequently, they will develop more effectively the seriously backward rural regions facing serious social problems. To all this contributes the fact that these social workers are empathetic, understanding and compromise-seeking individuals, who are accepted with confidence also in “problematic” social groups.

The necessity of curriculum development

The following European Union statement stresses the changing micro-environment: “every higher educational institution has to find a balance between training, research and (social) innovation, which mostly suits its role played in the region”. The geographical space where the students at the Faculty of Applied and Professional Arts of Szent István University come from belongs to a region (mainly the Great Hungarian Plain) which is usually characterized by a general feeling of underdevelopment and this image is strongly attached to it. This rural / provincial region was not able to use the opportunity of a new way of development into a totally new socio-economic environment.

           

The following map (Figure 1) shows the recruitment area of the training and its attraction of inner periphery (students in social training and full time and corresponding students):

  Figure 1

Recruitment area of Szent István University, Faculty of Applied and Professional Arts

between 2005-2009

source: Neptun

Some characteristics of the Great Hungarian Plain

            The issue of unemployment belongs closely to the topic of this paper. It is an important fact that the spatial structure of unemployment hardly changed between 1992 and 2008. The areas with the highest unemployment rates are even today the peripheral, rural borderlands with small villages – practically the same regions as they were initially. The only exception is the Western borderland which has the smallest unemployment rate as well as the Central Region (this rate indicates the ratio of the registered unemployment compared to the working age population).

            There are twenty micro-regions which had the highest unemployment in 1992 and they are still in this category more than one and a half decade later. There are nine micro-regions in the North, eight in the Northern Great Plain, two in Southern Transdanubia and one in the Southern Great Plain. If we consider the other extreme (including the capital Budapest), there are 16 regions which had the best unemployment indicator in 1992 and also in 2008, nine of them can be found in the central region, the others are in Western Transdanubia, and there are no other regions on the list (Figure 2):

Figure 2

The average value based on the unemployment indicator in the nationwide rank of micro-regions

(1992 and 2008)

Key to colour code: Position in the nationwide rank

Source: based on the data lines of National Employment Service

            There is a great demand for professionals holding a social work degree and of experts with at least an advanced-level certificate in social work, in particular in small settlements, which to a great extent hinders the integration of settlements, their access to resources, and which increases the inequality in the local populations’ access to appropriate services.

            The basic hypothesis of our training programme is that there are vital communities in the rural areas (although scattered), which can make their own decisions and living, and have their own vision of their own and their forthcoming generations’ future, as well as have a sense of security, can protect their own interests, this way strengthening their ability of the retention of the population in the particular region and settlement. This training project is unique in that it is carried out in the centre of a micro-region where the traditions of the local people called Jass imply strong cohesion.

Connection with academic fields

            Among the aims of rural development formulated in the declaration of the European Regional Development Conference in Cork there are several ones identical to our interpretation of social work and social politics. Of the well-known goals of the Declaration of Cork, the ones that hold special significance for social workers are formulated as follows:

-           the prevention of emigration

-           fight against poverty

-           the stimulation of job creation

-           the creation of equal opportunities

Social work also aims to meet the increasingly higher levels of quality requirements regarding health, safety, personal development, relaxation and welfare in rural areas.

            A social political activity of a settlement or a micro-region cannot undertake the task of creating overall social security. However, autonomous small settlements can solve tasks (concerning financial as well as human resource issues) by common institutions, volunteers and by the full harmonization of their activities (building partnership and local networks). These tasks can be carried out if the economic and social spheres are developed in parallel and not against each other. In this model the civil sphere has a major role and the “local state”, that is the government is present while the market sector has also appeared.

            Rural development social work is community work, which has a two-fold social function. On the one hand, it aims to provide help for the needy, and on the other hand, - with the power of the communities identifying and articulating their own interests in public - it focuses on reforms and decision-making, influences legislation and along with/instead of adaptation, a special emphasis is laid on changes.

            In particular during economic crises, the preventive nature of community work cannot be neglected. This knowledge package, type of knowledge can enhance the population retention power of communities and can improve solidarity among individuals. Furthermore, it enables local communities to identify their own social needs and organize their new institutions, e.g. self-help, volunteer groups, interest and pressure groups, the new institutions of civil society etc.

            Rural development social work enables the excluded, the marginalized, the ones who cannot vindicate their interests properly and the vulnerable social groups to recognize and give voice to their interests and confront with social institutions and groups that inhibit the realization of their interests.

Connection with the labour market

            Our aim is to train professionals who, based on their broad theoretical knowledge, their experience gained through the partner institutions participating in our training programme, as well as mixing the integrated spatial and regional development approach, can more efficiently and appropriately handle social problems, the permanent and/or increasing social tensions in underdeveloped rural regions.

            In our view, the market value of social workers holding a degree is increasing at the labour market: by applying their competences and knowledge developed during their training, these professionals can efficiently take part in the activities of the participants of the regional development (e.g. Leader action groups, local governments, civil organizations, tele-houses, social land programmes, family helpers, micro-region associations, local government institutions, small and medium private enterprises).

Summary

            All the theoretical and practical endeavours of social work serve social and welfare justice. It is an interdisciplinary field to gain and provide knowledge about man, society to provide help for the poor, the vulnerable, the ones deprived from power, the unfree, the ones suffering form prejudices and oppression.

            Meanwhile social work has been keeping its conscience alive by making the majority confront injustice and inequality in society and by highlighting a wide range of forms of human suffering and vulnerability.

            In order to be able to fulfil its role, at present social work must focus on the issues of human rights and mediation between the majority and the minority, the ones who drop behind and the ones who try to keep their heads above water (Pataki, 2009). In other words, rural development social work envisages intellectual professionals, whose mission is to provide help and bridge the gap between different social groups.

References

Balcsók, I. (2007). Munkaerő-piaci modellek és a magyar valóság [Labour-market models and the Hungarian reality]. In M. Balogh (Ed),  Diszciplínák határain innen és túl (pp. 331-332). Budapest:MTA Társadalomkutató Központ.

Kozma, J. (2002). A szociális munka professzionalizációja a jóléti államokban [The professionalization of social work in the welfare states]. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, ELTE University, Budapest.

Pataki, É. (2009). Merre tovább szociális munka? [Which way to go, social work?] In T. Szarvák (Ed), Paideia (pp. 59-67). Jászberény: Szent István Egyetem Alkalmazott Bölcsészeti Kar.