Social work in a superdiverse society: a conceptual exploration of cooperation in professional practice

Superdiversity is a rapidly expanding social phenomenon with major implications for social work practice. In this paper, we outline the key characteristics of superdiversity as it is currently understood and explore its implications for social work practice. Drawing on the seminal work of Richard Sennett we consider how his conceptual ideas about cooperation, as a vehicle for embracing difference through dialogue, can be translated into everyday social work practice in contexts of superdiversity. Empirical research into contemporary social work practice with urban migrant communities provides rich illustrations of the intricacies of social workers' cooperative mindsets and skillsets and their capacity to respond to the challenges that superdiversity poses to professional practice. This paper considers the affordances of this conceptual approach for social work and superdiversity and closes with an affirmative rallying call to cooperative action and a re-conceptualisation of cooperation based on embracing difference.