Building Social Work Politics in Europe Research Approaches, Practices, and Perspectives

Katrin Toens , Prof. Dr. habil., studied political science at the Free University of Berlin, Germany, and at Fordham University in New York City, USA. After obtaining her doctorate in 1999 with a thesis on workfare reforms in the USA and in Germany, she assisted at the German Foundation of International Development in Berlin. In 2002 she continued her academic career as an Assistant Professor at the University of Hamburg, Department of Political Science. In 2012 she received a post-doctoral degree ("Habilitation"). Since 2011 she works as a Professor of Political Science in the Department of Social Work at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Freiburg, Germany, where she is head of the Master’s Degree Program in Social Work. Her teaching and research include social work relevant topics of policy analysis, European integration, and the politics of interest representation. 

Günter Rieger, Prof. Dr., is a qualified social worker (Dipl. Soz. päd. (BA)) with many years of experience in the fields of probation, case work with criminal offenders and persons with mental health problems. He is also a qualified political scientist (MA and PhD) with a specialization in welfare policy. After completing his PhD in 1998, he took up the post of Professor of Social Work and Politics at Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Stuttgart, Germany (formerly Berufsakademie Stuttgart) in 1999. From 2008 to 2015, he was Dean of the Faculty of Social Work, and since 2008, he has been Head of the Department of Forensic Social Work. He has published books and many articles in the field of social work policy and politics.