A micro-analysis of professional and hybrid concepts in social work: How to develop mediations for networking?

Inter-institutional or inter-functional network collaboration at work increasingly provides new challenges for professionals as well as researchers carrying out developmental interventions. A developmental network intervention based on the approach of Developmental Work Research was conducted in the field of Social Services for Divorced Families to examine cross functional limitations through joint reflection of significant examples of client’s trajectories, and to discuss possibilities and directions for developing client-oriented network collaboration between services. With the help of interlocutory analysis, the professional concepts in use were tracked in the sequences of discussions that occurred during the intervention workshops. This analysis revealed how “hybrid concepts”, defined as concepts in use in the professional environment and re-used as intervention tools by the researchers, could support joint reflection by the professionals on the current limits of their professional joint activity. It also reveals how some “professional concepts” serve as symbolic resources to mediate both client-services’ and service-service relations. It is hypothesized that some professional concepts may serve as germs for expanding cross-functional collaborations. Finally, we sketch conditions and challenges for designing developmental, activity theory-based interventions for promoting client-oriented network collaborations. We argue that the ambiguity of intervention tools may contribute to the ability of professionals to elaborate their professional perspectives on a problematic case.