Abstract

Social work often faces a problem of legitimacy, as its services are rarely evaluated and examined for their usefulness. Working with people in difficult situations makes it difficult to assess the effectiveness of the methods used, as the beneficiaries do not return when the work is successful. As Andreas Schaarschuch (cf. 1998, among others) points out, social work services are unique in the service sector because they are not about long-term customer loyalty, but rather about using the specific service for as short a time as possible.

Until the 1970s, the focus was primarily on institutions and professionals in the social sector and their views on what was good for their clients. However, over the last 30 years, a paradigm shift has taken place. It has been recognised that services are only accepted and considered useful if they are tailored to the needs and life situations of their clients. Consequently, both research and practice are increasingly oriented towards the living environment of the target group, and as a result, practical social work is increasingly located where the users live. This has led, for example, to the emergence of community work and school social work, which have been greatly expanded in recent years. Against the backdrop of life-world orientation, the question must be asked how services must be designed so that they are of real benefit to those for whom they are developed.

Since German rap is currently the most popular music genre among young people, it can be considered part of their everyday lives. Music also plays a special role in adolescence, both in terms of identification and group formation processes and in regulating emotions. From puberty onwards, adolescents increasingly detach themselves from adults such as parents and teachers and turn to their peer group and like-minded people in order to develop their own life plan. Developmental psychologist Erik H. Erikson speaks of personality development as a series of crises that must be overcome. During adolescence, young people experience a crisis due to physical changes and new individual and social challenges, which he calls ‘identity versus identity diffusion’ (Erikson 1981: 96). Support from social work may be particularly indicated in this crisis-ridden process, for example in the form of rap workshops aimed at empowerment. The focus of this work should be on empowering girls in districts with a particular need for renewal, as they represent a relevant target group for social work services. Social work has a political mandate to support the most vulnerable members of society, as they usually lack economic, cultural and social capital according to Bourdieu (cf. Bourdieu 1992: 49 f.) and should therefore be supported by professionals in participation processes.

In most of the lyrics written by mainstream male rappers, women are still subject to clear role models, and so girls searching for adolescent guidance encounter gender stereotypes that were thought to be outdated but are repeatedly revived in the media. The girls' own use of rap is intended to empower them to tell their own stories and stand up for both their rights and their own life plans.

The aim of the doctoral thesis is to highlight the benefits of social education programmes for the target group and to answer the question of under what conditions programmes must take place in order to achieve the desired outcome. Of interest here are both the factors that promote appropriation processes and those that hinder or even prevent them. The rap workshops for girls with the aim of empowerment, which were selected as the subject of research, represent a programme that is relevant to the target group's everyday lives, which – according to theory – promotes learning processes. Using the selected example, the question of which programmes are accepted, how and by whom, and under what conditions, will be answered, thus addressing an issue that is relevant to social work.

References

Bourdieu, P., 1992. Ökonomisches Kapital - Kulturelles Kapital - Soziales Kapital. In: P. Bourdieu, Eds. Die verborgenen Mechanismen der Macht. Hamburg: VSA, pp. 49 - 80.

Erikson, E. H., 1981. Jugend und Krise. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.

Schaarschuch, A., 1998. Theoretische Grundelemente Sozialer Arbeit als Dienstleistung. Perspektiven eines sozialpädagogischen Handlungsmodus. Universität Bielefeld: postdoctoral thesis.