Documentation of a successful event
On November 17 and 18, this year's TRAWOS November Conference on "Genesis East: Transformations of Social Work in East Germany" took place at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences in Görlitz. HSZG professor and deputy TRAWOS director Mandy Schulze welcomed over 120 participants to the two-day event in a packed lecture hall. Social work scientist, sociologist and professor Birgit Bütow, who has been researching the differences between East and West for decades, provided a deep, interesting and, above all, professional introduction to the topic as keynote speaker on Friday. In the ensuing discussion, the first thematic aspects were reflected on and discussed with the conference participants. The different political and financial presence and identity of social work in an East-West comparison or historically evolved administrative structures, which offer practitioners different opportunities and restrictions, were discussed topics that could then be deepened in the workshop format. The dinner and meeting in a cozy and relaxed atmosphere among the 80 or so guests in the Obermühle provided space and opportunity for networking. The published book "Genese Ost. Transformations of Social Work" and its authors were presented once again in this context.
On Saturday morning, Christian Stegmann from the German Center for Astrophysics gave an outlook on future structural development projects in Lusatia with a presentation on the plans to establish a research site in Görlitz. Social work and community processes are an important stabilizer in order to get into conversation with the local people and to open them up mentally to the projects and the transformation processes.
