Social worker as a sociologist — Pioneer from the 1950's

This paper is about the academic career of a Finnish sociologist, Dr. Faina Jyrkilä (1917-2008). Professor Jyrkilä’s research interests were strongly influenced by her social work background. The academic traditions of... [ view full abstract ]

This paper is about the academic career of a Finnish sociologist, Dr. Faina Jyrkilä (1917-2008). Professor Jyrkilä’s research interests were strongly influenced by her social work background. The academic traditions of social work developed slowly in Northern Europe — first started the professional education, and only after many decades, research of social work emerged. This was what happened in Finland, too: first university degrees were professionally oriented BA-level socionom degrees (from 1940’s to beginning of 1990’s). The research-oriented degrees (MA,PhD) had to be finished in other sciences.

Faina Jyrkilä graduated as a social worker in 1945 among the first in Finland, had her Ph.D in sociology in 1960 as a first woman in Finland. She was appointed as a first Finnish (and among first in Europe) female professor of sociology in University of Jyväskylä in 1964. She was one of the first modern Finnish social scientists publishing in English because she prepared her PhD research when studying in Columbia University and Harvard, in 1952-53. During her stay in USA, she was strongly inspired from (then very modern) Parsonian structural functional theory.

Nowadays her research is more or less forgotten in Finland, not to speak of European social work research community. This should not be the case, because she was a pioneer in several ways (being the first female in a male-dominated academic world; path-breaking social gerontologist, research methodologist).
Her research career is an example of identity problems which social work research are still facing. The interdependence of sociological research and social work (or social welfare) interests are clearly present in Jyrkilä’s thoughts. She is an interesting figure as an example of oscillation between social work, social policy and sociological thinking.