Institutionalisation under Transformation: The German Case of Education and Care

Department of Education and Social Work (DESW)

DESW Lecture Series

Abstract

Education and social care in contemporary societies are subject to an ongoing process of institutionalisation. Since the end of the 18th
century at the latest, European societies have been able to [a] ‘legalise’ education and social care (e.g. social laws, school laws, college/university laws), albeit in very different ways and at different speeds; [b] provide education and social care professionally (provision through academically trained professions); and [c] organise the provision of it in specific ways (spatial and temporal organisation). On the one hand, this process leads to the establishment of certain institutions (“facilities”) and, on the other hand, the institutionalisation of education and social care remains a controversial area. This becomes particularly clear in transformation periods, such as the period since the 1980s and 1990s in many European countries. The previous institutionalisation of education and social care has since been confronted with fundamental questions that have led to a delegitimation of existing institutions, new demands for professionalisation or changed legislation. Based on these current changes in the institutionalisation of educational practice and the practice of social caring, as it can be observed particularly in the German context, the lecture will examine the question of their institutionalisation.