Cooperation as Border-Work. The Example of Social Work Praxes Between Youth Welfare Services and Youth Psychiatry in Germany (East/West)

Initiated by Susanne Maurer and Fabian Kessl (2005), the discourse on social work as boundary- or border-work has now been taken up by the profession and been reflected within scientific audiences especially in Germany. It thereby has experienced theoretical and methodological development, has been also included into empirical analyses, and thus been further defined (see Butow; Maurer 2011; During 2011; Kessl; Maurer 2010). In this article we will try to line out the analytic potential of this concept, and suggest some further differentiations which are based on the theoretical assumptions and first results from our current DFG research project on the challenges of legitimizing social-work competency in areas of cooperative tension, an exemplary study in an East-West-German comparison. Adapted from the source document.