Social pedagogy in transnational translations: the settlement house approach in the transatlantic discourse on national social reforms

Abstract

A new interest in social pedagogy has arisen internationally since the beginning of the twenty-first century. This new development is accompanied with considerations on how to translate abstract notions such as social pedagogy to fit new social contexts. The umbrella term ‘social professions’ helps to gain an international and transnational outlook, as it does not solely focus on a single profession that has become dominant in the social sector of a single nation state. This article aims to show that there are important interconnections in the histories of social professions in the various nation states which have influenced both social work and social pedagogy. Instead of focusing on the distinctions between the various social professions, this approach aims to reveal the boundary objects which have facilitated the links between the different developments without causing the social professions to become homogeneous. During the progressive era in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there was a transatlantic discourse that influenced those professions’ further development. It is argued specifically that the settlement house movement and its understanding of and work with the community affected the development of social pedagogy, as these ideas and practices were adapted to comply with the changing face of social pedagogy in the second decade of the twentieth century.