News

26 February 2024

The Nordic-Baltic Doctoral Network in Social Work

is inviting doctoral students from Nordic, Baltic and countries beyond

to participate in the XV Summer School

August 19-23, 2024 at Aalborg University, Denmark

The Nordic-Baltic Doctoral Network in Social Work (NBSW) is a joint network of doctoral schools, universities, and other institutions in social work in seven countries. The network provides research training for PhD students in social work in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and other countries.

We invite PhD students to participate in the summer school of the Nordic-Baltic Doctoral Network in Social Work (NBSW). This summer school aims to bring together PhD candidates in social work from Nordic and Baltic countries and countries beyond for five days of intensive lectures and thorough discussions focusing on research about and with people in vulnerable positions.

Participation in the summer school is free of charge, however, submission of a paper connected with the theme of the summer school is a prerequisite for participation.

Research about and with people in vulnerable positions

The 2024 summer school will focus on research about and co-creation with people in vulnerable positions. The course provides 5 ECTS credits and has been developed especially for this summer school.

Research has during the last decades focused more and more on giving voices to and collaborating with people in vulnerable positions – both as informants and as stakeholders in the research process. This focus and the associated processes have challenged both the more traditional perception of informants as objectives in the research process and the researchers’ position as the person managing the research process alone or together with colleagues from academia. Besides it has entailed different and new ethical and practical dilemmas in the research process when involving or co-producing with people who are stigmatized and/or challenged by several physical, mental and/or social issues in their lives.

The summer school will be based on key-note presentations, the participants’ research experiences/reflections and the papers produced by participants for the summer school. The key-note presentations, the discussions and the papers will all focus on the possibilities and the challenges when including people in vulnerable positions as informants and as stakeholders.

The keynotes will present methodological, theoretical, ethical, and experienced-based issues within the overall topic and will through discussions include participants’ experiences. This will be further explored in the parallel sessions where students’ papers will be discussed and given feedback from senior researchers and participating doctoral students in smaller groups. All student papers must relate to both their research and the overall topic of the summer school.

The summer school will each day contain a mixture of keynote presentations related to the perspectives of the overall topic and workshops where the PhD students present and discuss their papers under the guidance of experienced researchers or keynote speakers. Papers will receive feedback from fellow doctoral students and 1-2 senior researchers during the summer school.

TIME

Start Monday, August 19, 2024, at 14:00 CET.

End Friday, August 23, 2024, at 12:30 CET

PLACE

Aalborg University, Department of Sociology and Social Work https://www.en.soc.aau.dk/

Summer school venue: Hotel Højgaarden, Slettestrandvej 50, 9690 Fjerritslev, Denmark http://www.hojgaarden.dk/

PRIZE

The prize is all inclusive covering transportation from and to the airport (42 km each way), accommodation and all meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee breaks) during the summer school. Single room:3800 Danish kroner (€470). Sharing a double room:3400 Danish kroner (€455) pr. person. Participation in the summer school is free.

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS

The maximum number of participants is 25.

The international NBSW Steering Committee will assess all applications and make the final selection of participants.

ORGANISING COMMITTEE

The XV Nordic-Baltic Doctoral Network Summer School is organized by Aalborg University in collaboration with the coordination group of the Nordic-Baltic Doctoral Network in Social Work.

APPLICATION FORM

Please fill in the application until May 12, 2024 (midnight) at the latest:

Link to course and application form: https://phd.moodle.aau.dk/course/view.php?id=2458

PRELIMINARY PAPER INSTRUCTIONS

Paper: 5 ECTS credits (4000-5000 words)

Papers and presentations must connect the participant’s doctoral research project with the theme of the summer school.

KEY DATES:

Application deadline: 12 May midnight

Decision about participation: 31 May

Literature list for reading: 31 May

Registration deadline: 14 June

Paper submission deadline: 22 July 3pm CET