Use Arlt

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Ilse Arlt (Ilse von Arlt) (born May 1, 1876 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ; † January 25, 1960 ibid) is one of the pioneers of science-based social work . Based on her economic preoccupation with issues of poverty, she worked to determine the foundations of an independent welfare science, thereby laying central foundations for the development of social work as a scientific professionput. In 1912 she founded the first welfare school in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in Vienna, the "United Specialized Courses for People's Care", and was the author of the first textbooks and specialist books for social work.

Life and historical context

The second youngest of four children of the ophthalmologist Ferdinand von Arlt and his wife Marie (née Hönig Edle von Hönigsberg), a painter, grew up with their family with their paternal grandfather. The grandfather Ferdinand von Arlt , who came from a poor family of mountain blacksmiths , was a famous professor of ophthalmology. Because of his merits, he and his descendants were raised to the nobility in 1870 with the title "Ritter von Bergschmidt". At the age of 20, Arlt got the license to teach English and was supposed to work as an educator. Because of an illness she was unable to take up the position and therefore began to study political economy as an autodidact. Arlt visited many places of poverty in Austria and Germany in order to form a picture of poverty for himself and to research it. The professional world became aware of their articles.

Commemorative plaque for Ilse Arlt and her “Specialist courses for people care” at the former secondary school for girls in Albertgasse 38, Vienna-Josefstadt

From 1901 to 1905 Arlt officially studied political economy, as she had received a special permit to study as a woman at the University of Vienna . From 1910 onwards she endeavored to establish her own profession for welfare workers. In 1912 she founded the first welfare school in Vienna, "Association of specialist courses for people care" as it was called. In 1921 Arlt's book "The Basics of Care" appeared, which she had designed as a kind of textbook. For this she received the title “Bundesfürsorgerat”, and in 1935 her work was honored with a grant from the Marianne Hainisch Foundation.

After the annexation of Austria in 1938, her school was closed by the National Socialists for political reasons and, as a “ half-Jew ”, she was banned from working ; her maternal ancestors were of Jewish origin. During this time, Arlt was supported by her students and their parents; she experienced poverty and persecution first hand. Her books were banned and destroyed by the Nazis. In 1946 she reopened her school.

In 1950 financial difficulties forced them to close their school for good. In 1954 Ilse Arlt was honored with the Karl Renner Prize . In 1958 her book "Ways to a Welfare Science" was published, in which she redeveloped, adopted and supplemented her basic assumptions from 1921/23. After her death, her numerous records were bequeathed to the City of Vienna's Welfare School. She died of an accident at the age of almost 84.

Her life and work were initially forgotten until it was rediscovered as a science for the emerging social work in the early 1990s.

Theory by Ilse Arlt

Ilse von Arlt is one of the first in German-speaking countries to develop, alongside Marie Baum and Alice Salomon, his own theory of welfare science, as social work was still called at that time.

Subject of social work

Arlt defines applied poverty research as the subject of social work. Furthermore, the recognition and description of damage; the understanding of the causes; their further effects (on the environment or the affected individual); the pace ( prognosis ) of the deterioration of the situation; the analysis of (unfavorable) factors; Acknowledgment of the possible or existing aids and their ways ( method ) and finally the evaluation of their effectiveness.

Research interest

Ilse Arlt spent her entire life dealing with people in precarious situations, especially poverty . For example, she visited glassblowers in Lauscha and examined the environment and the occurrences of poverty on research trips. She researched the conditions and triggers of poverty. She distinguished between structural problems and individual problems. For her it was about a worthy look at the clientele and not about a devaluation and condemnation of what often takes place in public back then as well as again in the present. For Ilse Arlt, it was not about individualizing emergencies, but about one of the first person-oriented views in welfare. She began researching herself when she noticed that there was no scientific consensus on the problem of poverty, let alone reliable knowledge. When she also noticed that the economics of her time did not deal deeply enough with the issue of poverty, she began to deal with the methods of descriptive economics and incorporated them into her research work. She compared the actual state with the target state of "human prosperity" to be defined and thus researched the laws governing the creation and maintenance processes of poverty. The aim of this was to locate scientifically sound options for living and helping people. Arlt demanded that research on poverty begin by exploring basic human needs or needs for prosperity. These can be deduced from the observable and measurable failures of growth, among other things. In this context, she laid the foundation for the current biopsychosocial theory of human needs .

Explanation of social problems

To explain social problems, Ilse Arlt cites lifestyle problems, i.e. the requirements and conditions of the environment compared to the requirements of people (groups). For her, poverty is the “lack of means to properly satisfy needs”, by which she understands both the social situation and the psychological problems ( disposition ) of the individual. She postulates that people are “in need from birth” and defines the so-called borderline distress of the individual basic needs, below which a person would be permanently harmed.

Basic human needs according to Ilse Arlt

Ilse von Arlt described the following thirteen basic needs.

  1. Nutrition (food and drink)
  2. Apartment (living space)
  3. Body care (hygiene, wellness, beauty)
  4. clothing
  5. Recreation (leisure, rest)
  6. air
  7. education
  8. Mental care (education, upbringing)
  9. Legal protection
  10. Family life (social networks)
  11. Medical assistance and nursing
  12. Accident prevention and first aid
  13. Training in economic proficiency

Von Arlt sees the inadequate fulfillment of this as the root of poverty. Fulfilling them is for them the task of caring in order to promote the “prosperity of man”. Humans can only "thrive" where needs are met.

Effect of this model in systemic social work

The list of these basic human needs has recently been further developed in a social work science context by Silvia Staub-Bernasconi and Werner Obrecht, among others, with their system-theoretical approaches to social work. Satisfying needs also plays a role in Maslow's hierarchy of needs . While Maslow places basic needs in a hierarchical relationship, von Arlt sees them more as a circular construct.

Metatheoretical Assumptions

Ilse Arlt assumed that the majority of human needs could be reduced to a few basic sizes. Thus, poverty research could be operationalized and meet the scientific quality criteria ( objectivity , reliability , validity ). She took into account and sued her postulate of “respect for the creativity of people” (clients). By this she understood that the clientele's own problem-solving strategies had to be given the necessary appreciation. This was also the reason for their participant orientation in their approach.

Research methods

Ilse Arlt's research methods included, among other things, daily perception, precise data collection of (non-) prosperous life, reception of descriptions of prosperity and misery in fiction , as well as analyzes of travelogues and reform movements .

Works (selection)

Honorary grave in the Vienna Central Cemetery

Appreciation

literature

  • Ernst Engelke : Theories of Social Work . Lambertus, Freiburg / Br. 2002, ISBN 3-7841-0891-1 pp. 272-283.
  • Cornelia Frey: respect for people's creativity - Ilse Arlt: work and effect. Budrich, Leverkusen 2005, ISBN 3-938094-54-0 .
  • Silvia Staub-Bernasconi : Ilse Arlt: Joy of life thanks to a science-based needs study: topicality and explosiveness of an almost forgotten theorist. In: Sabine Hering and Berteke Waaldijk (eds.): The history of social work in Europe (1900–1960). Important pioneers and their influence on the development of international organizations. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2002, ISBN 3-8100-3633-1 , pp. 25-33.
  • Silvia Staub-Bernasconi: Social work as action science: system theory basics and professional practice - a textbook. Haupt-Verlag, Bern / Stuttgart / Vienna 2007, ISBN 3-8252-2786-3 .
  • Ursula Ertl: Ilse Arlt - Studies on the biography of the little-known scientist and founder of welfare training in Austria. Thesis. Würzburg-Schweinfurt 1995.
  • Maria Maiss, Silvia Ursula Ertl (ed.): Ilse Arlt - (auto) biographical and work-related insights. Work edition Ilse Arlt, Vol. 3, LIT, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-643-50254-4 .
  • Maria Maiss: Comments on determining the relationship between care research and practice at Ilse Arlt. In: Walburga Hoff, Ingrid Miethe, Kerstin Bromberg (eds.): Research traditions of social work. Materials, approaches, methods. Verlag Barbara Budrich, Leverkusen-Opladen 2012, ISBN 978-3-866-49339-1 , pp. 203-219.

  • Peter Pantucek, Maria Maiss (ed.): The topicality of thinking by Ilse Arlt. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-531-16514-1 .
  • Gudrun Wolfgruber: Arlt, Ilse. In: Brigitta Keintzel, Ilse Korotin (Ed.): Scientists in and from Austria. Life - work - work. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-205-99467-1 , pp. 23-26.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Ferdinand Arlt in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
  2. ↑ a b c Ilse Arlt Institute for Social Inclusion Research: Background information on putting up a memorial plaque for Ilse (von) Arlt . 2012, PDF 125kb
  3. ↑ Vienna City Hall Correspondence, December 13, 1954, sheet 2165
  4. ↑ Vienna City Hall Correspondence, January 15, 1955, sheet 56
  5. ↑ lse-Arlt-Straße in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
  6. ^ Josefstadt: 100 years of welfare training - memorial plaque for Ilse Arlt . In correspondence with the town hall on December 13, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Arlt, Ilse
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Arlt, Ilse von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian poverty researcher
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH January 25, 1960
PLACE OF DEATH Vienna