OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development
Open-access peer-reviewed journal
https://doi.org/10.64211/oidaijsd190715
Social Work in the Context of Societal Change: Between Tradition and Innovation
Renate Vainola 1*, Andrii Zamozhskyi 2, Inna Ivzhenko 3, Tetiana Holubenko 4, Ivanna Tkach 5
1,2,3,4,5 Department of Social Work, Faculty of Special Education and Social Politics, Dragomanov Ukrainian State University, Kyiv, Ukraine.
*Corresponding author: vainola@ukr.net
Volume 19, Issue 07, Pg. 193-206, 2026.
Abstract: Present-day social work is carried out in the environment of a quickly changing society influenced by the phenomena of globalization, modernization, demographic changes, immigration, and economic crisis. These structural transformations pose an inherent conflict between traditional ethical principles of the profession, which are most insulated in relational practice, human dignity, and social justice, and the new approaches of innovation, which are based on managerial governance and information-oriented systems and algorithmic decision-making. The current research will look at the dynamics of transitions between the tradition and innovation of social work in the conditions of digitalized societal change. Through the qualitative research design grounded on secondary analysis of academic literature, policy frameworks, and professional documents, the study builds an interpretive synthesis of long-term professional transformation. The results indicate that social work develops in a cyclical and not a linear way. Rather than being replaced by new paradigms, traditional paradigms have been revised as part of the ongoing waves of reform, such as institutional expansion, rationalization of management, and digital innovation. The digitalization is introduced as the disruptive force that is both more efficient and accessible, and creates moral threats of depersonalization and algorithmic bias. The paper presents a metaphorical-analytical model, which is based on the relationships of the musical catalogue and the piano cycle with a view to conceptualizing the cumulative and differentiated change in professional knowledge over historical periods. This framework has added to theoretical discussions of professional identity and transformation of governance and provides a practical path to finding a way of interlacing technological innovation with long-term ethical engagements.
Keywords: cyclical thinking, digitalization, musical catalogue, professional identity, societal change, social work
Full-text paper download here