Social Pedagogy
Authors: Hämäläinen Juha , Nivala Elina 
Published: November 2015

The concept of social pedagogy has been used for different meanings and in different contexts. It refers, for example, to a particular tradition of educational thought and theory building, a field of professional institutions and activities, a special area of civil affairs, mobilization of community development, and a reformist movement of education. The common element in all meanings is, generally speaking, viewing social and educational questions together in terms of combining homo socialis and homo educandus. The human being is seen, by nature, as being fundamentally social but in need of education to be able to live together with others in a society. Education is thus seen as a crucial factor in social development and well-being, and it is understood in its broadest sense as support for human development in a lifelong process. Social problems are believed to have an educational dimension, so that seeking educational means for the prevention and alleviation of social misery becomes essential. Interconnection between education and welfare is emphasized. Understandings of social pedagogy are influenced by different understandings of human nature and society, different social theories, philosophies of science, moral philosophies, and political interests. Social pedagogy has been developed, in theory and practice, in different country-specific contexts, and different countries have their own traditions of social-pedagogical discussion. The most important—and the oldest—tradition is in Germany. Therefore, German literature plays a big role in this article (Philipp Sandermann, Professor of Social Pedagogy, and Onno Husen, Research Assistant at Leuphana University, have assisted in identifying and outlining the German publications displayed in this article). Another important area of social-pedagogical discussion is the Romance-language area, especially Spain but also Latin America and France, as is shown in the selection of citations, too (Xavier Úcar, Professor of Social Pedagogy at Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, has assisted in identifying and outlining the most recent Spanish-written publications, and Sanna Ryynänen, Senior lecturer at the University of Eastern Finland, the Portuguese-written publications displayed in this article). During the 1990s and the first fourteen years of the 21st century, the discussion has also become more and more lively in the Nordic countries, in the Slavonic language area, and finally also in the English-speaking world. (Lisbeth Eriksson, Senior lecturer at University West, has assisted in identifying and outlining the most recent Swedish publications; Tatiana Sklyarova, Professor of Social Pedagogy, the Russian-written publications; and Claire Cameron, Professor of social pedagogy at University College London, the most recent British publications displayed in this article.) In addition to these areas there is social-pedagogical theory building in some other countries, such as Japan. (Lan Xiao, Assistant Professor at Hokkaido University; Yaka Matsuda, Assistant Professor at Kochi University; and Akiko Kosaka, MSW, have assisted in identifying and outlining the Japanese-written publications displayed in this article.) We have to admit, however, that the selection of literature in this article is Eurocentric. As the article will show, the scope of the questions dealt with in social-pedagogical literature is wide, since the concept covers the whole human lifespan.