Działania pozorne w pomocy społecznej – przejawy – mechanizmy – skutki
Apparent actions in the functioning of social welfare – symptoms – mechanisms– effects

Summary/Abstract: The paper investigates the phenomenon of apparent actions in the functioning of the public institutions of social welfare within the conceptual framework posited by Jan Lutyński. A number of questions are addressed, e.g. What is the role of apparent actions in the institutions of social welfare? What are the mechanisms of spreading apparent actions in the institutions of social welfare? What are the effects of these actions? An attempt to formulate answers to these questions are made on the basis of the author’s own qualitative research conducted in 2007, other studies conducted on social welfare institutions, and the author’s own three-year experience as a supervisor of a social welfare institution . The main conclusion is that apparent actions are common in social welfare institutions. They appear among social welfare clients as well as among social workers. Examples are provided of different situations, e.g. apparent social programs and projects – ‘inclusion utopia’; apparent solutions to social problems – the fiction of ‘paper strategies’. The lack of standards and evaluation leads to social work itself being the main area of apparent actions. Another problem is the lack of cooperation, or rather, apparent cooperation, between social welfare institutions and local authorities. One conclusion drawn by the study is that apparent actions exist on every level and in every area of the whole system of social welfare in Poland. The study suggests that although it may be possible and necessary to diminish the scale of apparent actions in social welfare institutions, a great transition in the awareness of many social actors is required.

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