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Vasilios Ioakimidis is the Founding Professor of Social Work and Director of the Centre for Social Work at the University of Essex in the UK. He qualified as a social worker in Greece and completed his PhD at the University of Liverpool. ​

Ioakimidis is a founding member of the steering committee of the Social Work Action Network (SWAN), a radical social work organization which brings together social work practitioners, service users, academics and students united in their commitment to promote social justice and defend welfare rights. He is also involved in a very special publishing project that attempts to give voice to the most politically progressive voices in social work; the Critical and Radical Social Work Journal (Policy Press).

Most of Ioakimidis’ research revolves around the broad theme of Social Work in Extremis, an exploration of social work practice in the context of unpredictable and extraordinary political, social, economic and environmental change. According to Ioakimidis –

“Social Work, a socially constructed and politically shaped activity, has been subjected to the same contradictions, changes and challenges as society itself. Despite the simplified mainstream narratives, it is important to appreciate that the evolution of social work has been dialectic and not linear; internal and external to the profession’s contradictions and tensions which constantly shape its nature. The most defining and fundamental tension is this between the “social care and social control dimensions of the profession.”

During this talk, Ioakimidis will discuss the content of his article – “A Guide to Radical Social work” from The Guardian and update it for today’s context. https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2016/may/24/radical-social-work-quick-guide-change-poverty-inequality

Information about the Social Welfare Action Network SWAN can be found here: socialworkfuture.org/about-us/

Emcee/Facilitator
Joanne Hessmiller, PhD, LCSW, was Associate Professor of Social Work at North Carolina A&T State University (retired). She is on the National Steering Committee for SWAA and Co-Chair of the Educators Network of the Social Welfare Action Alliance. She is a reviewer for the Journal of Progressive Human Services and Co-Chair of the Faculty Network of the Social Welfare Action Alliance.