“Social work is a school for democracy”

Society’s swing to the right and increasingly authoritarian tendencies not only threaten our democracy but also pose major challenges for social work. How can social workers and teachers deal with right-wing views, racist violence, anti-feminism, conspiracy theories and a worsening social and political climate? In workshops, lectures and discussions, teaching and administrative staff along with students from h_da’s Faculty of Social Work will explore these questions during Faculty Day on 26 May. The event is also open to guests.

By Astrid Ludwig, 16.5.2025

No one had expected it. At the end of the campus rally, when the large screen traditionally put up for comments from new students gradually filled up, a swastika could be seen. Was it a provocation, a stupid joke or even someone’s genuine attitude? In any case, people were horrified, recalls Christoph Goltz, who is studying for a Bachelor’s degree in social work. “It was an incident that occupied the entire faculty,” says Torsten Bewernitz, political scientist, sociologist and Professor of Social Transformation Processes and Collective Action in Social Work at h_da. A Student General Assembly and the Faculty Council also dealt with the matter and collected ideas on how to react. One suggestion was to stage a Faculty Day, such as will now take place on 26 May. Students alongside teaching and administrative staff at the faculty as well as the “Student Working Group Against Right-Wing Extremism” have been involved in organising the event and planning the programme. The students suggested a lot of different topics for the workshops and working groups, including entry and exit processes in right-wing extremism, possible ways to react to right-wing remarks, as well as racially motivated police brutality and strategies for action.

As Bewernitz and Goltz report, the title of the event, which is also intended to send a signal beyond the faculty and the university, is “Social Work Against Right-Wing Hegemony”. Topics that have attracted a lot of media attention, such as the meeting of Alternative für Deutschland politicians with right-wing extremists, at which the remigration of people in Germany with a migration background was discussed, the dispute over turning back refugees at the country’s borders, cuts in benefits and the result of the federal elections, have given further cause for a large-scale debate at the faculty. “We are reacting to our students’ needs,” says Torsten Bewernitz. So far, 80 people have registered for the event, including many students, but also graduates in their probationary year and the interested public. “The response is tremendous,” he says

Presumably also because many students as well as individuals working in professional practice feel increasingly helpless. “People are at a loss as to how to deal with this in social work.” How do I react to right-wing comments from clients or fellow students, how does this affect my daily life and the climate in social work, where and how can I intervene? Undergraduate Christoph Goltz reports great concern among students “and sometimes also a feeling that too much is expected of them.” “As social workers, this social transformation has an immediate impact on us.” The presentations and discussions at Faculty Day will examine various strategies. Goltz expects a lot of takeaways from the debate and the interaction with professionals. “The university’s commitment is very helpful,” he says.

For Torsten Bewernitz, 50, who has a lot of experience in professional and voluntary trade union work, a possible solution lies in “practising democracy through participation”. For him, this means “participation not only on paper but also in everyday life.” He draws here on studies that corroborate that right-wing tendencies among staff are less pronounced above all in companies where co-determination works well. That society is experiencing a shift to the right is due to many different factors – apart from the current political situation worldwide, thinks Bewernitz. Such attitudes were latent before, “but now there is a sounding board for them, and when they are voiced, they are voiced loudly. In addition, there is a political party that represents this opinion.”

He also ascribes a significant part of this to hatred, smear campaigns and fake news in social networks, which are overflowing with unverified information, “where we no longer know what is true and what is not.” Added to this are the shifting conditions for social work – such as cuts in benefits or a more stringent refugee policy. “Social work is a school for democracy,” says Bewernitz, warning at the same time, however, against the infiltration of social work by right-wing forces. To rally support for their ideology, right-wing parties in local politics are trying, for example, to enforce cuts in the social work performed by official institutions, he says.

According to Torsten Bewernitz, the ideal solution or reaction to right-wing hegemony hardly exists and Faculty Day will clearly not be able to produce any either. “Each individual and each situation is different,” he says. However, the exchange of ideas during the event should, for example, boost the self-confidence of social work professionals, which they should also demonstrate in the public debate. “We must position ourselves as individuals, express our opinion and intervene accordingly.” For Bewernitz as a political scientist, it is important “to take our opposite numbers seriously without humbling ourselves substantively.” His remedy against authoritarian thinking is to actively practise democracy. Incidentally, he doesn’t think much of the current debate on banning the Alternative für Deutschland party. “In my opinion, that’s the last resort and not a particularly democratic proposition. It doesn’t solve the problem, and right-wing thinking remains. Such a procedure can also fail and would then have the opposite effect.”

On Faculty Day itself, the organisers want to gather as much participant feedback as possible. These findings are to be incorporated into teaching in the follow-up phase and into future project weeks at the university. Documentation and some kind of handout are planned – in digital or paper form. Organising such Faculty Days more frequently again is also under consideration. “We want to contribute to ensuring that social work professionals and students are better prepared,” say Bewernitz and Goltz.