Digital Social Work: Towards Digital Disruption in Social Work

Authors

Joaquín Castillo de Mesa, University of Málaga

Keywords

Digital social work, digital adaptation, digital transition, digital disruption

Abstract

The digital transformation is posing a challenge to organizations, professionals, and the scientific community within Social Work. Until now, digital solutions have been incorporated spontaneously and arbitrarily, without models to contemplate and guide their incorporation. This has generated great uncertainty amongst social workers, who do not know what media should be adopted, in what form, and under what circumstances. In this article, we will review three digital solution models which Social Work has been adopting in an evolutionary manner: adaptation, transition, and digital disruption. Digital adaptation has meant spontaneously incorporating digital media which were not specifically intended for professional practice. Digital transition has contributed to the digitization of services and procedures, even to behavioral change, whereas digital disruption proposes a radical change in ways of doing things. Using a reflective analysis of what has taken place, and where we are heading, the aim is to shed light on the path ahead, so that the Social Work discipline-profession is not displaced, nor made irrelevant in the future. To this end, we propose the need for a field of specialization—Digital Social Work—to act as a catalyst for change, so that it can instigate Social Work’s digital disruption using a transdisciplinary vision.

Recommended Citation

Castillo de Mesa, Joaquín (2021) "Digital Social Work: Towards Digital Disruption in Social Work," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 48: Iss. 3, Article 8.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15453/0191-5096.4558
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol48/iss3/8