Beyond spaces of counselling

Abstract

The article articulates experiments with spatial constructions in two Danish social work agencies, basing on (a) a sketchy genealogical reconstruction of conceptualisations and uses of space in social work and counselling, (b) a search for theoretical resources to articulate new spaces, and (c) data from a long-standing collaboration with the social workers working with youth and drugs. Beside a critical analysis of how disciplinary and pastoral spaces make it difficult to engage in helpful conversations with young drug users, we show how spaces of attunement, spaces of production, and public spaces are forms of spatialisations which might be taken as prototypical in attempts to develop social work and counselling.