A Question of Feeling? The Legitimization of Digital Technologies in Social Work During the Pandemic
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Abstract
The pandemic has forced many social workers to adopt various digital technologies to overcome the limitations of lockdown and maintain relationships with service users and colleagues. Reactions to this change have been ambivalent: on the one hand, many social workers have appreciated the advantages and innovations that digital technologies can offer but, on the other hand, other practitioners have expressed a strong mistrust of their appropriateness for social work. Based on an empirical research conducted with seventy-five social workers, the article offers an analysis of the steps that have progressively led to the acceptance or rejection of digital technologies, highlighting the main issues on which professionals have questioned themselves. The challenge that remains open is to understand whether the adoption of digital technologies can enrich the repertoire of resources and tools available to professionals and organisations, or whether it corresponds to a fallback to be abandoned.
Keywords
- Digital Social Work
- Digital Technologies
- Innovation
- Pandemic
- Remote Working