Social informatics

Social informatics , more rarely informatics in social work, is a subject area of social work that emerged around the mid-1990s. Social informatics deals on the one hand with IT operations in social organizations, on the other hand with technology and informatics as an instrument of social work, such as in ambient assisted living .

History and definition

There are only a few systematic explanations of the genesis of the term social informatics. The first publications on the subject of social informatics appeared as early as the 1980s in the form of individual articles in specialist journals. So far, it is mainly these that still primarily contribute to the clarification and delimitation of the specialist area. The term social informatics was first used by Mehlich and Halfar. However, the strongly interdisciplinary character of social informatics means that attempts to define the term more clearly are repeatedly watered down. This is not conducive to delimiting the subject area on a scientific level. Social informatics is closely related to the general debate about technology (especially informatics), but above all to the real socio-cultural and socio-technical developments in society. The sociological discussion on the computerization of work is particularly helpful for further clarifying the term and content . Wendt (2000)
provided an initial definition and description of the area of responsibility . According to this, social informatics deals “with the systematic processing of information in social affairs in its technical conception, implementation and evaluation, and [...] related to this, looks into the conditions, effects and side effects of the use of technology. In short: Social informatics assumes professional responsibility for the production factor information in the system of social services and their environment ”. A uniform definition of the term is not yet available and an interdisciplinary agreement on this term has not yet been reached either.

overview

Social informatics sees itself as an interdisciplinary specialist discipline in the context of theory and methodology of applied computer science . There are bridges in the requirements of such a discipline, not only from the engineering sciences of (core) computer science to the economic aspects, but also and above all to the subject matter and methods of social work . In addition to (core) computer science, there is another compulsory relationship to socio-informatics , which, however, is more focused on the quality of the interaction between social systems in relation to society. We find further relationships in social informatics e.g. B. in business informatics , administrative informatics , medical informatics and nursing informatics . There are very clear differences between social informatics and technology sociology, media education and, above all, empirical social research . In addition to the basic claim to become a scientific discipline and to conduct research, social informatics does not want to be the subject of social research itself .

Reference points of social informatics

From the elementary relationship between social informatics and the “mother discipline” of social work, the claim to be a scientific partner in practice and to carry out scientific research in a technical, process-oriented sense develops. It is therefore undisputed that social informatics primarily draws its questions from the field of social work. The extent to which it also includes aspects from the areas of IT business management, IT management or business administration is controversial.

In the development of integrated software systems in other industries and areas, however, it is also evident in the field of social work that these areas should not be viewed separately from one another. Specifically, social informatics, like other specialist informatics, deals with the implementation and development of organization and process-oriented, subject-specific IT applications. In addition to the management-oriented areas, these include the special requirements of controlling and corporate management, e.g. B. in non-profit organizations , professional associations and administrations on the nursing and educational components such. B. the documentation and the client files, also interfaces for the support and involvement of clients up to ambient assisted living . In the order of the focal points, IT management and technical administration are primarily to be mentioned, directly linked to the special requirements of social management . Below is the area of assistance technologies for clients and IT technical questions from practice.

The primary nature of social informatics is a high level of practical relevance. The IT-mediating client work is, however, to be seen more as a marginal area. IT in society, i.e. in the client's environment, is not, or only to a very limited extent, part of social informatics. This is where the content of socio-informatics comes into play . The actors in social informatics are science such as faculties for social work, social institutions and social administrations, specialist software and other IT providers, as well as industry and professional associations. The addressees are to be found in the work practice of social work, social management, social administration and specialist software manufacturers.

Contents and areas of application

In the area of social informatics, specialists are to be trained in handling human-computer interfaces. Especially in the social area, but also in public administration, there is - at least for now - a competence gap. Several different ideas are associated with the term social informatics:

This can include the scientific occupation with computerization efforts of social work. This definition of social informatics raises questions about the optimal informatics solutions for social work (social work, social pedagogy and socio-cultural animation) as well as for the administration and management of social organizations. In particular, it is about supporting processes of social work and the administration of social organizations with the help of software systems.
However, it can also be understood as a specialist area that is about making information and communication technologies usable in the sense of improved social participation of those affected. This is to prevent a progression of "digital poverty" or the social "digital divide". In the context of this presentation, social opportunities for participation are linked to the possibilities of being able to actively use information technology.
Third, you can use it to focus on the interlinking of technological and social developments. In this context, the term “sociotechnology” is sometimes used. In the current social science discourse, the social consequences of technological innovations and the technological consequences of social developments play a rather subordinate role.
More recently, integrative approaches have also been added, which integrate the aforementioned orientations on the basis of social work science and want to develop their own competencies in terms of subject-specific application creation, research and theory building with a clear client reference. Such an approach harbors a further emancipatory component as well as profession-building aspects.

“Professional social work includes the ability to use information and communication technology.” More and more university chairs are offering the discipline of social informatics as an independent subject or at least as a supplement to social work studies. The curricula then contain offers for introducing common computer technologies such as

typical application programs (word processing or spreadsheet),
industry-specific information technologies (client management, case management) or
Discussion of the effects of information technology on the work organization of social institutions.

Social work and computer science

When people think of computer science, the first thing that usually comes to mind is programming, here a typical program code (Java).

Formally, social informatics counts as a hyphenated discipline. This means first of all that a fundamental discipline experiences a special focus. In the context of social informatics, computer science is usually regarded as a fundamental discipline in relation to the fields of social work. "However, the question arises whether the use of new technologies in social work requires the establishment of a separate social informatics". If you take a closer look at the content of the term social informatics, it basically has very little to do with the established concept of informatics . So it is mostly not about applied computer science in the field of social work. Among other things, this has to do with how one fundamentally understands technology, IT and social work.

Technology as a social practice

Technologies as they exist in the form of social networks do not only exist in the sense of physical components ( artifacts ), such as computers and the Internet . They always consist of the associated social institutions and behaviors that are mediated through them. For example, although social networks have spread via the technology of the Internet, at the level of real use they are socio-cultural technologies of forging and maintaining social relationships. A social (or cultural) practice sees people's actions in this temporal and social context. The practice is "embedded from the outset in routine complexes of repetitive practices that have been pushed away from classical action theory into the apparently under-complex area of traditional action". When exercising, the social practices usually get a "material anchoring" in the objects of daily use. The use of social networks is the other way around, if you use them, sooner or later it is pretty much "built into our everyday actions ". And thus a central field of social informatics. Only when computer science itself is described as a social activity that has its seat in everyday practices and, for example, brings people into contact with one another or communicative exchange, does it become an object of investigation.

Informatization as a socio-technical process

This is very clearly reflected in the so-called computerization of work . The world of work today, and even more likely the world of the future, is heavily influenced by information technology . This relates not only to the purely technical equipment of the workplaces, but also to the social practice of dealing with information in work processes. The more complex and mediating the underlying information system, the more “nonsensical” and abstract the work process becomes. This is also reflected in daily work practice in different design modes and usage habits. The media-mediated work structures lead in parallel to a delimitation of spatial structures, which can ultimately be solved via appropriate platforms in the sense of social collaboration . The computerization of work as a socio-technical process of everyday action inevitably has repercussions on how social work is performed or offered.

Future tasks and criticism

One of the characteristics of applied computer science is its respective design task. So far, social informatics has not been able to fulfill this, as it sets other priorities and, for example, does not create (programming) its own subject-specific applications. "The idea of expanding one's ability to act through one's own developments appears so remote in the previous drafts of social informatics that it is no longer even considered to acquire the necessary languages".

Social informatics as a developer task

If one looks at the development of industry-specific solutions, so far there is a deficit in social informatics. In particular, the active design of communication and information needs in the field of social work suggest not only using available applications in practice, but also developing them independently or adapting them sensibly. Appropriate know-how, for example basic programming languages, is required for this. Or a knowledge of how to create apps. Just as one needs a knowledge of the technical basics in order to actively use the corresponding programs or to be able to meet the participatory claim in real life. A fully developed social informatics system will ultimately not be able to avoid meeting these requirements.

criticism

Some authors deny social informatics the status of applied informatics. Or it is simply referred to as the division of labor between the software industry and social organizations. “Social informatics” is a word creation created by social pedagogues , which tries to emphasize the primacy of social pedagogy in the monopoly process and tries to keep profound specialist knowledge aside. Another criticism is that the market for social informatics concerns an area financed by taxpayers' money and private and public subsidies of various origins (private donors, foundations, municipalities, states, federal government, EU), which is large and lucrative, but ancient, structured hierarchically and monopoly. It should also be noted that the term “social informatics” cannot simply be equated with the Anglo-Saxon “social informatics”. The latter denotes a social science that u. a. the question of the socio-technical interrelationships is pursued, which in Germany is more likely to be assigned to (technical) sociology. A social informatics under the primacy of a science of social work would probably be understood more as a subdiscipline of an action science that has social science-theoretical references.

Web links

Commons : Social work - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Office for social informatics at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt: www.sozialinformatik.de

Socioinformatics working group at the Technology Center for Informatics and Information Technology at the University of Bremen

Professional association for information technology in the social economy and social administration FINSOZ eV

literature

Klaus Bredl: International Social Informatics: Learning Opportunities for Research, Teaching and Practice . Contribution presented at the 3rd symposium for social informatics at the Catholic University of Eichstätt, March 13th – 14th. 2008.

Bernd Halfar: Social informatics is essential . In: Blätter der Wohlfahrtspflege , 144 vol., 6, pp. 113–114, 1997.

Uwe Janatzek: Social informatics - an epistemological location . In: Standpunkt: Sozial (2014), 3/2013, pp. 36-45. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-382159

Uwe Janatzek: Social informatics - empirically based assignments and ways of understanding. With special consideration of an epistemological positioning of managerial social informatics as protoscience . Dissertation University of Bielefeld. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0070-pub-29096064

Uwe Janatzek: Social informatics in social work . Vdm Verlag Dr. Müller (Saarbrücken), 2007, ISBN 978-3-8364-0584-3

Manfred Jurgovsky: What is social informatics? In: Neue Praxis, H. 3, 32nd vol., Pp. 297-303, 2002.

Manfred Jurgovsky: Socioinformatics . A proposal for the repositioning of computer science in social work (PDF; 112 kB) . In: Archive for Science and Practice of Social Work, H. 1/2004, pp. 40–48.

Helmut Kreidenweis: Textbook social informatics . UTB / Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft (Baden-Baden) Publ. in the textbook series study course Management in the Social Economy, 2012

Thomas Ley (2003): Social Informatics. Way into the new professionalism !? Diploma thesis at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences in Mainz

Christiane Rudlof: Social informatics - Shaping social organizations . IN: EMISA Forum (communications from the GI specialist group development methods for information systems and their applications) Volume 25, Issue 1, January 2005, ISSN 1610-3351

Harald Steffens: Social work in the context of IT technologies: Requirements for a profession in the digitized world . Shaker Media Verlag, Aachen, 2009, ISBN 978-3-86858-240-6

Wolf R. Wendt : Social informatics - status and perspectives. With contributions by Silke Axhausen, Josef Hilbert, Helmut Kreidenweis and others Edition SocialManagement Vol. 15. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft (Baden-Baden), 2000

Quotes and individual references

↑ See Mehlich 1996, p. 180
↑ See Halfar 1997, p. 113
↑ See above all Janatzek 2007
↑ Wendt 2000, p. 20
↑ See Jurgovsky 2002, p. 1 in the PDF document
↑ See Kolhoff 2003, Jurgovsky 2002, Ley 2004
↑ Wendt 2000, p. 51
↑ Jurgovsky 2002, p. 2 in the PDF document
↑ Reckwitz 2004, p. 43
↑ Rammert 2006, p. 6, italics in the original
↑ There are many points of reference to socio-informatics here. See Jurgovsky 2004.
↑ Jurgovsky 2002, p. 4

Quotes:

↑ "It is striking that in the previous training drafts the development of one's own projects, programs or products is not seen as a task of social informatics" (Jurgovsky 2002, p. 3).
↑ "Strictly speaking, this is not a matter of determining or justifying a new discipline, but only a description of a cooperation between two traditional disciplines, the areas of which are essentially unaffected" (Jurgovsky 2002, p. 3).
↑ This "can be seen, for example, as a change in the workforce structure, which is expressed in a decline in directly production-related activities and in the growth of different forms of information work, or as a fundamental change in qualifications and professional structures or as a polarization of the social structure of work" ( Baukrowitz, Boes & Schmiede 2000).
↑ "Just like the training in the other hyphenated computer science, training in social informatics must enable its students to develop their own practice-oriented solutions as quickly as possible" (Jurgovsky 2002, p. 3).

[1] See Mehlich 1996, p. 180

[2] See Halfar 1997, p. 113

[3] See above all Janatzek 2007

[4] Wendt 2000, p. 20

[5] See Jurgovsky 2002, p. 1 in the PDF document

[6] See Kolhoff 2003, Jurgovsky 2002, Ley 2004

[7] Wendt 2000, p. 51

[10] Jurgovsky 2002, p. 2 in the PDF document

[11] Reckwitz 2004, p. 43

[12] Rammert 2006, p. 6, italics in the original

[13] There are many points of reference to socio-informatics here. See Jurgovsky 2004.

[15] Jurgovsky 2002, p. 4

[8] "It is striking that in the previous training drafts the development of one's own projects, programs or products is not seen as a task of social informatics" (Jurgovsky 2002, p. 3).

[9] "Strictly speaking, this is not a matter of determining or justifying a new discipline, but only a description of a cooperation between two traditional disciplines, the areas of which are essentially unaffected" (Jurgovsky 2002, p. 3).

[14] This "can be seen, for example, as a change in the workforce structure, which is expressed in a decline in directly production-related activities and in the growth of different forms of information work, or as a fundamental change in qualifications and professional structures or as a polarization of the social structure of work" ( Baukrowitz, Boes & Schmiede 2000).

[16] "Just like the training in the other hyphenated computer science, training in social informatics must enable its students to develop their own practice-oriented solutions as quickly as possible" (Jurgovsky 2002, p. 3).