STORY: Finding connection in disconnection

Keywords: Place, Place Identity, Place Dependence, Place Attachment

In this resource, you will find the stroy “Finding connection in disconnection” and two related themes with questions, exercises and related materials:

Theme 1: Place and its dimensions as part of integration and creating a sense of belonging
Theme 2: Qualified Empathy as a core skill for facilitating a sense of place and belonging when working in social work

You can jump to the theme by clicking the title of the theme you wish to work with.

Read or listen to the story before continuing with the themes:

Perfomed by Duncan Steven – © All rights reserved UrbanSOS
Music by Coma-Media from Pixabay

THEME 1: Place and its dimensions as part of integration and creating a sense of belonging.

In this theme we explore the concept of place is as formulated by Tim Cresswell (2015, p 6), a British human geographer, a word wrapped in common sense and “as we already think we know what it means, it is hard to get beyond that common-sense level in order to understand it in a more developed way.” It is, as he puts it “both simple and complicated” (ibid). A place is both physical, but also encompasses a lot of meaning, activity, negotiations etc.

Place Identity represents a sense of belonging (Twigger.Ross & Uzzell, 1996 as cited in Qian et al., 2011) based on the features of a place. It has to do with how we socialize physical spaces such as cafés, gathering areas and parks.

Based on the story how do you see that Farid has developed his own place identity?
Based on your experiences in the field (or in your personal experiences), how have you seen the people you work or associate with create place identity?
How can place identity support or challenge the integration process?

Lewicka, 2008; Altman and Low, 1992 and Williams, Patterson & Roggenbud, 1992 (as cited in Quian et al. 2011) refer to place attachment as the emotional bond that people develop with places.

Based on the story, what are the indicators in what Farid shares that help you to identify his sense of place attachment. What emotions or emotional bonds can you identify?
Based on your experiences in the field (or in your personal experiences), how have you seen the people you work or associate with create place attachment?
How can place attachment be supported by social services professionals

Place Dependence is related to Farid’s attachment to and reliance on Miitti and Lapinlahti to provide resources and to help him achieve his goal of integration (Stokols & Schuymaker, 1981; Trentelman, 2009 as cited in Qian et al. 2011).

Based on the story, what are the signs that help you to identify Farid’s place dependence. In what ways does he rely on Miitti and Lapinlahti?
Based on your experiences in the field (or in your personal experiences), how have you seen the people you work or associate with show evidence of place attachment?
How can a sense of place dependence support wellbeing? How might it cause problems?

THEME 2: Qualified Empathy as a core skill for facilitating a sense of place and belonging when working in social work.

In this theme we will explore the concepts of Qualified Empathy, sense of place and belonging in an increasingly urbanized Helsinki. Empathy is often believed to occur as if by itself, unconsciously and intuitively as part of social services studies or social work practice and we frequently confuse empathy with sympathy. Qualified Empathy has been used to describe professional empathic working skills and is defined as:

“Qualified Empathy is the ability to reflectively and emotionally separate oneself from another and to understand the context; then in an intentional process, focus on understanding of the other person’s viewpoint both cognitively and emotionally. The three phases of this are:
1) we feel like us …, 2) I feel like you (”as if ”), and 3) I know how you feel but I am not you.”
(Austring & Sørensen, 2006 in Raatikainen, Rauhala & Mäenpää, 2017)

In our previous articles, where we discuss the concept of Qualified Empathy in more detail, we argue:

“Qualified Empathy has its roots in the conventional understanding of the term empathy. According to Rogers (1975), being empathic involves understanding the inner world of the other. For the professional, this involves accuracy of understanding and control of personal emotional components while “feeling “as if” they were the client” during the interaction. If we lose the “as if” state, we would only determine through cognitive recognition but we would not achieve compassionate recognition (Rogers, 1975). According to Howe (2013), empathy resonates with, while sympathy engenders concern for another. He suggests that “whereas empathy puts me in your emotional shoes, sympathy simply tells you that I’ve walked there too. Sympathy is me oriented; empathy is you oriented.””
(Raatikainen, Rauhala & Mäenpää, 2017; Raatikainen et al., 2021)

The ability to use qualified empathy skills in a targeted and sensitive manner supports the worker’s ability to facilitate a sense of belonging. Sense of Belonging has been described in the literature as the extent to which an individual feels included, respected, accepted, and supported by others in different social contexts (Baumeister & Leary 1995; Hagerty et al., 1992). In Farid’s story, the discussion is about how people create a sense of ‘place’ and safety in their new environment. According to Xie (2022), the traditional or common conception of sense of belonging in the literature:

“… does not fully capture the importance of developing a sense of belonging for immigrants in the first place. The abrupt movement and (partial) abandonment of their country of origin that characterizes most immigrants’ experiences ruptures traditional conceptualizations of belonging. For immigrants, the answer to the question of to where they belong is not as simple as a country or a place, but rather is made up of stacked reasons, histories, and caveats that create complicated and often unexplainable sense of belonging to a variety of places and at a variety of scales.”
(Xia, 2020)

In our later article, we discuss the concept of Qualified Empathy in more detail and argue three areas of progress and a final result that empathy needs action. Below are the three areas of progress:

from an emotional reaction toward an empathic emotional response,
from understanding to empathic acting and
from a client perspective to a more systematic approach, including the workers themselves, co-workers and a global dimension (Raatikainen et al., 2021)

As we work in ever increasingly complicated settings with a growing complexity of issues for the people we serve, Qualified Empathy has been shown to help protect workers from over-identification and burn out. Gerdes and Segal (2011), Howe (2013) and Sinclair et al. (2017) found that clients who experienced empathy while working with professionals manifested better results and higher levels of effectiveness. Wagman et al. (2014) found empathy was able to provide protection against burnout and to improve the balance of professionals’ roles (Wagman et al., 2014).

As you listened to the story, were you able to begin to move from “we feel like us” stage to the “I feel like you (“as if”)” stage?
Based on your experiences in the field (or in your personal experiences), have you been able to take the final steps towards ) “I know how you feel but I am not you”? This last move allows you to use more cognitive skills, rather than reacting emotionally, and take action.
How can a professional’s Qualified Empathy skills support the integration process and the development of a sense of belonging in a new context?

References

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497–529. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497

Cresswell, T. (2004). Place. A short introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Gerdes, K.E. and Segal, E. (2011), “Importance of empathy for social work practice: integrating new science”, Social Work, Vol. 56, pp. 141-148.

Hagerty, B.M., Lynch-Sauer, J., Patusky, K.L., Bouwsema, M., & Collier,P. (1992). Sense of Belonging: A Vital Mental Health Concept. .Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 6 ,172-177. 18) (PDF) The Need of Belonging and Sense of Belonging versus Effectiveness of Coping. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276171045 The Need of Belonging and Sense of Belonging versus Effectiveness of Coping [accessed Feb 15 2023].

Howe, D. (2013), Empathy: What it Is and Why it Matters, Palgrave Macmillan.

Lewicka, M (2008). Place attachment, place identity, and place memory: Restoring the forgotten city past. Journal of Environmental Psychology, Vol 28, 3, 209-231

Low, S.M., Altman, I. (1992). Place Attachment. In: Altman, I., Low, S.M. (eds) Place Attachment. Human Behavior and Environment, vol 12. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8753-4_1

Pesonen, H. (2016). Sense of belonging for students with intensive special education needs An exploration of students’ belonging and teachers’ role in implementing support. Helsinki: Yliopistonpaino Unigrafia.

Qian, J. Zhu, H. & Liu, Y. (2011). Investigating urban migrants’ sense of place through a multi-scalar perspective. Journal of Environmental Psychology 31, 170-183.

Raatikainen e. Rauhala L. and Mäenpää S., (2021). An educational intervention focused on teaching Qualified Empathy to social work students in Finland. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, Vol 14, Is 1. pp. 409-423

Raatikainen, E., Rauhala, L. and Mäenpää, S. (2017), “Qualified Empathy – a key element for an empowerment professional”, Teoksessa Hämäläinen, J. (toim.), Vuosikirja 2017. Sosiaalipedagoginen aikakausikirja, vuosikirja 2017, pp. 113-122.

Rogers, C.R. (1975), “Empathic: an unappreciated way of being”, The Counselling Psychologist, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 2-10.

Sinclair, S., Raffin-Bouchal, S., Venturato, L., Mijovic-Kondejewski, J. and Smith-MacDonald, L. (2017), “Compassion fatigue: a meta-narrative review of the healthcare literature”, International Journal of Nursing Studies, Vol. 69, pp. 9-24.

Wagman, M.A., Geiger, J.M., Shockley, C. and Segal, E.A. (2014), “The role of empathy in burnout, compassion, Satisfaction, and secondary Traumatic stress among social workers”, Social Work, Vol. 60 No. 3, pp. 201-209.

Xia, L. (2020). Immigrants’ Sense of Belonging in Diverse Neighbourhoods and Everyday Spaces. MA Thesis. University of Ottawa. Available at: https://ruor.uottawa.ca/handle/10393/40532 (Accessed: 8.2.2023) http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-24763