The ERIS Annual Conference 2025

In honor of Emerit Director of ERIS Network Professor Oldřich Chytil

* Abstract of your contribution (max. 300 words). Please include the following: objectives, theoretical framework, methods, outcomes, and implications for social work.

The European Research Institute for Social Work (ERIS) and the Faculty of Social Studies (FSS) cordially invite you to participate in the ERIS Annual Conference 2025, which will take place from October 8 to 10, 2025, in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

The theme of the conference is: Building Resilience in Social Work in a Divided Society.

This international conference will bring together researchers, experts, and practitioners from diverse backgrounds to discuss key topics including deinstitutionalization, resilience building in social work, artificial intelligence, and disinformation.

The program will feature a keynote lecture by Prof. Walter Lorenz, M.Sc., Ph.D., as well as interactive workshops, thematic sessions, roundtable discussions, and networking opportunities, offering a dynamic platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration. A social and cultural program is also planned.

Ways to Participate

Participants are invited to:

• Submit a research paper or presentation
• Join one of two thematic panels, each focused on a specific dimension of the main theme
• Present their work in a poster session, offering an interactive and visual format for scholarly exchange
  
  

Conference Theme in Focus

Building Resilience in Social Work in a Divided Society

As a part of this conference, we want to focus on resilience building in and through contemporary social work. In contemporary society, social work meets unfulfilled hopes, which arose at the beginning of modernity, for social change in the form of equality, freedom and solidarity. These unfulfilled hopes create the context of the emergence of a divided society in which contemporary social work tries to fulfill its missions.

Social workers face a number of challenges such as persistent inequalities that appear in all functional systems of society. There is also an increase in socio-cultural polarization, which creates a split between important communities of society, whereby communities perceive members of other communities as "the others", alien and dangerous. Another challenge in social work is the existence of asymmetries in the distribution of power, which leads to the escalation of control mechanisms by which "the powerful" control not only material resources, but also the ways of perceiving the world among the less powerful in various groups or institutions. The above-mentioned phenomena of the contemporary divided society create a very dynamic environment of intermingling of various forms of inclusion and exclusion.

We understand the resilience building in contemporary social work as the sum of all possibilities and actions for building resilience of the social work profession, persons, families and communities cooperating with social workers to improve their living situation. Resilience building can also be seen as an effort to perform the profession of social work well, despite all the challenging circumstances. We welcome contributions that analyze challenges in contemporary social work as well as description of good practice in creating resilience in and through the social work.

Thematic Panels

1. Social Work and Deinstitutionalization

Many adults and children across Europe still live in institutions. Institutional settings lead to de-individualisation, loss of control, a feeling of harm, and segregation into often isolated locations. How can social workers support the deinstitutionalisation and restructuring of social services, which is still not finished in many countries? How can they contribute to overcoming the division between the institutionalised and non-institutionalised social world, and what do they need to be successful?

2. Social work in the era of artificial intelligence and disinformation

Disinformation and artificial intelligence are bringing significant changes in the practice of social work, especially in the era of digitalization of social work. People at risk of social exclusion, living in poverty or in disadvantaged neighborhoods are the most vulnerable groups in relation to described phenomena. How can social work help to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable groups in relation to disinformation and misinformation? What is the role of social workers in the information seeking behavior of different social work target groups? How is artificial intelligence impacting social work practice?

Scientific Council of the Conference

Updated: 08. 04. 2025