Ammattikorkeakoulut kansalaistoiminnassa - Humanistinen ...

202sustaining of comprehensive approach we have, as would be expected, created a curriculumwhich relates to key competences necessary for professional work in this field as describedin Finnish legislation. But we have used other themes to organise our curriculum throughout.We have tried to ensure that every study module and most elective studies have the followingthree themes in them:• Identity, which is a key theme through which to analyse many developmentsrelated to globalisation and multicultural society. It is also related operationallyto the questions of personal and professional identity. Other themes and issuesrelated to identity include disability, gender and sexual orientation. The issue ofidentity is strongly linked to the phenomena of exclusion, mental health and addiction.The question of professional identity in social service and communitydevelopment work is an important element of the programme.• Community is a central theme because it raises the questions of the relation ofthe person to the wider society. The role of interest and identity groups, neighbourhoodgroups and social networks and the question of social capital are allimportant issues for the programme.• Work and especially employment, which is being transformed by globalisationand migration, are central themes for our programme. The issue of employmentand conditions of work – and of the lack of employment – are critical for welfareand are not sufficiently considered in many social service training programmes.The questions of the gender and racial divisions of labour have to be considered.The issues raised by the transformation of welfare and the impact on workingconditions in welfare services as well as such phenomena as so-called global carechains can be thematised. The issues of voluntary work and work in the third sector& social enterprises are also being addressed.The degree programme is also organised with three analytic and methodological main linesas follows:• Skills & Methods which are developed through community-based approaches(community work, building participation etc) and approaches to social servicebased on empowerment and anti-oppressive practice. The range of interventionmust reach from the personal to the structural/political. There is an emphasis ondeveloping civil society and on innovative models of welfare.• Social Analysis refers to the skills and methods of developing knowledge aboutlocal communities and groups as well as of institutional realities in order to developmore adequately grounded actions.• Structural Analysis is concerned with the understanding of social, political andeconomic structures in order to support social action and to locate the analysis oflocal conditions. It is important to our understanding of professional work, thatthe worker can make the relationship between the local phenomena she is dealingwith (everyday life) and the structural shaping factors which influence thesituation.Ammattikorkeakoulut kansalaistoiminnassa