Humanities, creative-arts, and social work

Question 1

The humanities:

Answer 1

• Studies that seek to understand ‘humanity’.

- Includes literature, history, philosophy, theology, cultural studies, creative arts and performances.

Question 2

Humanities and sciences:

Answer 2

• This has become a classic binary of Western Modernity. The two have been seen as separate and in opposition
• This was not always so. What we now call ‘science’ was known as ‘natural
  philosophy’. Many intellectuals were both, e.g. Newton. In the earlier
  Enlightenment period scientists and poets worked together and saw their
  work as complementary

Question 3

Literature:

Answer 3

• Novels, drama and poetry are enlightening regarding human thought, perception, feeling and experience.

Question 4

History:

Answer 4

• Helps us understand: where we have come from; perceive change; understand the present and future.
• Social work clients have their own histories and stories.

Question 5

Philosophy:

Answer 5

• Questioning within philosophy can challenge our understanding/our position in society and our purpose.
• An important task for people like social workers is to make philosophy
  relevant and accessible, and to ground it in local cultures. To
  encourage people to question, to think, to discuss, to learn from each
  other
• Because the questions of philosophy are of relevance to everyone:
  What does it mean to be human? How should we live? What is real?
  How do we know the world? What is just?

Question 6

Epistemiology:

Answer 6

• What is knowledge, how did we learn it, and where did it come from.
• Research paradigms: empirical and non-empirical; positivist; interpretive; etc.

Question 7

Theology:

Answer 7

• Theology has been largely ignored in social work, because of the
  secularisation of the West.
• But ideas of ‘God’, the ‘divine’, spirituality, and so on are important for
  most people, including those with whom social workers will work.
• Why are we here? Where has the world/universe come from? What
  happens when we die? How do we explain the inexplicable?

Question 8

Cultural studies:

Answer 8

• Cultural studies occupies the space between the humanities and the social sciences.
• Culture is central in determining who we are and what we do.
• e.g. an older person refusing to go to a nursing home; a woman possibly giving up work to care for a child, etc.

Question 9

Consumer culture:

Answer 9

• Culture and the arts have become commodified. Most of us are passive consumers, and purchasers, of culture rather than active producers.

Question 10

Art:

Answer 10

• Art is important for extending the imagination, breaking boundaries and displaying the unspeakable.

Question 11

Using art in social work:

Answer 11

• Art therapy (especially useful in trauma); community arts; protest arts.
• Art is a form of communication which can convey meanings in a different form.

Question 12

Music:

Answer 12

• Capable of expressing powerful emotions: love, anger, rebellion, sadness, uncertainty, life, death, patriotism.
• Can be powerful.
• It leaves a trace memory (e.g. valuable for working with dementia). Can remind someone of events, places or things.

Question 13

Drama:

Answer 13

• Useful in role-playing.

- Psychodrama: we can act out our personal issues.

Question 14

Dance:

Answer 14

• An expressive form of artistic performance.
• Reveals a lot about customs and norms.
• Enables the release of tension, and promotes serotonin.

Question 15

PhotographY:

Answer 15

• Can be especially powerful. They are capable of changing the world; maintaining memories; communicate; tell stories.

Question 16

Film:

Answer 16

• Useful source for social work knowledge.

- Documentary; docu-drama.

Question 17

Gaming:

Answer 17

• The way that people play games, and the games that they play, tell us a lot about them, what is important, and how they see themselves

Question 18

Theories:

Answer 18

• All these artistic fields have been theorised, and are researched.