From a global perspective, social pedagogy relates to traveling philosophical ideas and has a transnational history of approaches. At the same time, social pedagogy has been frequently described as of “multifaceted nature” (Hämäläinen 2015), mirroring differing language contexts, political and cultural frames that are linked to historically divergent institutionalizations of (national) welfare states. Against this contradictious background, it is possible to find multiple consistent answers to the question what social pedagogy is (Janer & Úcar 2016). So, in many respects, asking for the relation of social pedagogy and social work is a key question to follow when it is the aim to reify and define social pedagogy in international terms. The contributions to this special series of the International Journal of Social Pedagogy mark relations of social pedagogy and social work in practice and academia in various countries. On the basis of these contributions, international differences and commonalities become more obvious. Overall, we hope to provide elaborate and more systematic insights into globally different contexts of social pedagogy, and to contribute to an internationally comparative perspective on global relation(s) of social pedagogy and social work.

References
Hämäläinen, J. (2015): Defining Social Pedagogy: Historical, Theoretical and Practical Considerations. British Journal of Social Work, 45, 1022–1038
Janer, À., Úcar, X. (2016). Analysing the dimensions of Social Pedagogy from an international perspective. European Journal of Social Work, 20(2), 203–218. 

Publication date: From February 2021 - March 2022. 

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Guest Editor

Dr Onno Husen, Institute of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, University of Lueneburg, Germany.
Prof Philipp Sandermann, Institute of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, University of Lueneburg, Germany.

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Article list 

Research article

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