The focus of the Socio Summit conference was on the social impact of the social services provider sector and the current national and international challenges related to it. In the program, together with renowned researchers and practitioners of the field, we reflected on current issues affecting the role of social service providers in relation to the community and/or society; internal and external resources; synergies among the human sectors in national and international arenas; furthermore, we made an attempt to present the opportunities for developing resilient operating models. The event hosted 3 opening presentations, 25 professional presentations (19 national, 6 international), 4 session discussions with 3 patrons and 5 moderators. On both days of the conference, 75 people were present, 20 people online joined.
The aim of the Socio Summit conference and of this volume is twofold: on the one hand, to present and transfer existing knowledge on the resilience functioning of social service providers, and on the other hand, to generate cooperations and co-creations for the sustainable development of the sector. In its approach and ambitions, the initiative fits in quite well with the Kraft concept of the Institute, which highlights the interoperability and the potential for interdependence between sectors at regional levels. The volume presents in detail the conference theme, abstracts of the presentations, brief introductions of the speakers, and includes publications based partly on the presentations given at the conference and partly on further research on the topics at individual, organisational and community levels and support the resilient functioning of social service providers.
The first Socio Summit conference volume is also the first in the Socio Summit series. As the conference itself is not intended to be a one-off event, but rather a launching event for the series, the programme has been consciously designed not to present a well-defi ned sub-topic in depth, but to ensure that the invited speakers and the topics covered are representative of the extraordinary diversity of the concept of resilience. This conference volume, although not based exclusively on the presentations given at the conference, also follows this concept, so that the reader is presented with an extremely colourful and varied volume in terms of content, scope and genre. In this spirit, the spectrum ranges from theoretical, conceptual and overview articles, research reports, to case studies and presentations of the scientific and professional dilemmas of a particular subfield. Theory and practice, borderline issues, global, national, regional and individual aspects are presented in alternating and complementary ways – in Hungarian and in English.
We are convinced that the volume is a niche in the field of human services, and we hope that its publications will support the development of new research directions and strengthening of old and new links between the social sciences and related disciplines, as well as between the various actors in the (public) services. We are committed to this endeavour and invite the readers of this volume to join us as partners!
Organizers of the conference
Editors of the volume
The book is available HERE.