Knowledge generation as a contribution of social work to social policies: community social innovation and disability

Social work critically engages with disability, promoting autonomy, justice, and rights through relational approaches. Despite UN-driven inclusive policies, exclusion persists. This contribution highlights how social work knowledge can strategically inform public policy design, using community indicators to connect empowerment, structural change, and active participation.

Identifying links between social work and people with disabilities

Social work has historically developed a perspective on disability that predates even the contemporary debate on social or medical models. From its origins, figures such as Mary Richmond proposed contextualised intervention, understanding disability as a relational construct between the individual and their environment. In her work ‘Individual Social Case,’ Richmond introduced concepts that were advanced for her time, such as the need to adapt the environment and not just the person, and the approach of focusing on abilities rather than limitations, aspects that early on linked her to what decades later would become known as the social approach to disability.

These ideas spread throughout the 20th century with authors such as Adams (1960) and Toods (1968), who contributed reflections from individualised social work, emphasising the importance of the family, self-determination and criticism of institutionalisation, identifying that the problem of disability lies more in institutional limitations than in personal ones, recognising the arbitrariness of classifications and promoting community integration.

In Europe in the second half of the 20th century, social work contributed to raising awareness of the situation of this group of people from a social justice perspective, moving away from a welfare approach and promoting person-centred care models. Positions based on the social model of disability, promoted by authors such as Oliver and Sapey (2006), argue that social work has failed to redefine its practice in the face of individual models, perpetuating deficit-centred approaches. Instead, they advocate a citizenship- and rights-based approach that recognises the self-determination and political participation of people with disabilities.

From this perspective, social work must adopt emancipatory values, promote services focused on independent living and overcome the logic of provision based on minimum standards or institutional control. In line with authors such as Zavirsêk (2009) and Hallahan (2010), the role of social work in community inclusion, the development of inclusive policies and the active defence of rights is highlighted, challenging paternalistic and bureaucratic professional practices.

The debate also identifies criticisms of resilient models when they reproduce individualistic discourses of the ‘disabled hero’ (Wendell, 1997), which render structural barriers invisible and suggest that everything can be overcome with effort. Mackelprang and Salsgiver (1996) propose instead a professional strategy based on education, resource management and political activism, compatible with the ecological approach but with a critical awareness.

Bigby and his team (2010) denounce the historical marginalisation of this group within the disability rights movement due to an implicit hierarchy that subordinates their needs. They propose specific scenarios for intervention from social work: promotion of self-determination, person-centred planning, community support and active advocacy from institutions. These approaches, they point out, must incorporate tools such as support assessment, case management and person-centred planning to achieve effective inclusion. Likewise, concepts such as normalisation, self-determination and quality of life are positioned as pillars of intervention.

Within this framework, institutionalisation is identified as an obstacle that perpetuates exclusion. However, deinstitutionalisation has not always been accompanied by adequate community support, which has led to precariousness and new forms of exclusion. Social work is in a key position to promote the transition to community-based support models by coordinating services, raising awareness in society and promoting inclusive public policies.

In conclusion, social work has evolved from welfare-based approaches to proposals focused on rights, autonomy and social justice. The profession has the conceptual and methodological tools to act in complex contexts and must continue to strengthen its role in transforming exclusionary environments, accompanying people in their processes of empowerment and social participation.

Social work and disability policies

The conceptual framework that redefines disability as a human rights issue is directly reflected in social policies, which are the space where theoretical concepts are translated into concrete measures aimed at guaranteeing the inclusion, autonomy and participation of persons with disabilities. This process of institutionalising rights has direct consequences for social service systems, shaping them into key structures for community inclusion.

The adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2006 establishes the obligation of States to guarantee autonomy, independent living, full participation and equal opportunities for persons with disabilities. This orientation represents a definitive departure from welfare and charitable models. In line with the CRPD, the United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy (2022–2025) promotes the inclusion of disability protection in all pillars of the United Nations system. It also links inclusion to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

At the European level, progress is being made through strategic plans (2003) and the European Disability Strategy (2010–2020). The 2021–2030 Strategy is currently in force, addressing accessibility, independent living, deinstitutionalisation, access to justice, culture, employment and health services.

This normative declaration represents a revolution in traditional conceptions oriented towards the provision of discretionary services with a paternalistic and rehabilitative approach, but the reality still presents significant shortcomings in terms of effective coverage and implementation, with social work playing a key role in the adaptation of support systems. In most regions, social services play a central role in support policies for people with disabilities, with a focus on human rights, scientific evidence and independent living. However, there are still shortcomings that mean these principles remain declaratory and do not translate into effective equality of rights and access to opportunities.

Social work, social services and regulatory frameworks must be coherently coordinated to ensure personalised and community-based support. Accessibility, intersectionality and the centrality of the individual are principles that must guide this transformation. Public policies must evolve not only in their statements but also in their implementation, ensuring that all persons with disabilities can exercise their citizenship on an equal footing.

Knowledge generation as a link between social work and disability policies

Knowledge generation can be used by social work to advocate for public policies, developing arguments that can influence the agenda, implementation and evaluation of public policies (Vázquez-Aguado et. al, 2018). Specifically, the proposal is to generate knowledge aimed at formulating intervention strategies focused on persons with disabilities and their rights to an independent life through a model for analysing independent living support services for persons with disabilities.

The aim is to identify useful indicators for evaluating inclusive social policies in European contexts using a qualitative methodology based on case studies. In this way, and applying the community social innovation model developed by Herrera, Díaz and Rodríguez (2016), interventions in the field of disability are analysed using a matrix of 24 indicators organised into the following dimensions:

1. Creativity and social transformation (Zubero, 2015; Morales, 2009)
2. Intervention strategy (Aguilar, 2014)
3. Generation of collective goods (Brown, 2015; Pastor-Seller, 2010)
4. Symbolic redefinition of the problem and visibility (Llovet, 2014; Aliena and Pérez, 2006)
5. Community origin and empowerment (Subirats, 2015; Carballeda, 2006)
6. Social capital and transformation of power relations (Villalba, 1993; Durston, 1999)

This matrix has been applied in a pilot process with 18 experiences in Portugal, Spain and Italy. These interventions relate to education, employment, interpersonal relationships, housing, gender, empowerment and participation.

The results provide ideas that could be useful for social policy planning, such as the strong correlation between community empowerment and structural transformation, which suggests that when communities actively participate, changes in power relations also occur. Similarly, it was found that creativity in the design of interventions leads to greater public visibility of the problem.

When the analysis was segmented, different patterns were identified: interventions related to housing and interpersonal relations were more closely correlated with community participation. In contrast, those focused on employment consistently scored lower on indicators related to empowerment and structural transformation or change.

This indicates that certain areas present more obstacles to social innovation, especially when institutional systems are more rigid or technocratic. The model includes discourse analysis that highlights, among other issues, the need to give a voice to historically invisible and marginalised groups such as women with disabilities, and to value the role of associations as agents that promote autonomy and family empowerment. However, it also highlights the need to strengthen the sustainability of interventions, avoiding their exclusive dependence on voluntarism or clientelist decisions.

The analysis of experiences demonstrates the usefulness of the proposed model for generating knowledge that allows for the evaluation and guidance of public policies at the community level. It highlights the importance of incorporating indicators that capture not only immediate results, but also processes of empowerment, social cohesion and cultural transformation.

This approach positions social work as a key discipline in the design, implementation and evaluation of inclusive social policies. Committing to community social innovation not only improves the effectiveness of interventions, but also transforms the symbolic and structural frameworks of exclusion, thus contributing to the full exercise of rights by persons with disabilities.

References

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