Curriculum Vitae
Fabian Kessl studied educational science and politics at the University of Heidelberg. His PhD has been on a governmentality of social work (published in German 2005 at Juventa; second edition in 2020). From 2000 – 2008 he was working as a lecturer in social pedagogy at the Faculty for Educational Science, University of Bielefeld (GER). As a full professor for Social Work Theories and Methods he has been part of the Faculty for Educational Science at University of Duisburg-Essen from 2008 – 2018. Since 2018 he is a full professor for Social Pedagogy and Social Policy at the University of Wuppertal (GER).
His teaching is focused on theories and policy studies in educational sciences and social work, and on questions of education and care child and youth welfare (BA and MA level). Fabian Kessl has been a guest lecturer at Innsbruck University (Austria), University of Applied Science St. Gallen (Switzerland) and different other German speaking universities. As a guest professor he has been invited to the Universities of Vienna, Klagenfurt and Innsbruck (all A).
The main research interests of Fabian Kessl are in the transformation of the welfare state and welfare state agencies, especially due to questions of (de)institutionalisation and the dimensions of scale (spatial aspects). He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Urbana-Champaign (US) and at Royal Holloway, University of London (UK).
Fabian Kessl is Managing Director of Social Work & Society (www.socwork.net), member of the Editorial Boards of Widersprüche and Soziale Passagen and member of the International Advisory Board of Critical Social Policy and The Journal for Discourse Studies. From 2011–2014 Fabian Kessl has been a speaker of the PhD-programme »Widersprüche gesellschaftlicher Integration. Zur Transformation Sozialer Arbeit« (Contradictions of social integration. On the Transformation of Social Work), and a member of the board of the PhD-programme »Leben im transformierten Sozialstaat« (How to live in the Transformed Welfare State, https://www.th-koeln.de/angewandte-sozialwissenschaften/promotionskolleg-leben-im-transformierten-sozialstaat_14994.php).
From 2014 Fabian to 2018 Kessl was part of the executive board of the German Association of Educational Science (DGfE, https://www.dgfe.de/aktuelles) and since 2014 he is a member and one of the speakers of the board of trustees in the Institute of Social Modernity (ISM, www.solidarische-moderne.de/).
He edited different international special issues at European Journal of Social Work (EJSW) and Social Work & Society (SW&S) and the European Social Work – Compendium (together with Walter Lorenz, Hans-Uwe Otto and Sue White) at Barbara Budrich Publisher (Farmington Hills, 2019).
Selected Publications (Only English)
Fabian Kessl & Christian Reutlinger (2024/i.E.): Social Space: Towards a Systematisation. In: Social Space: Creating Condizioni – Milieus – Territorio – Landscapes. Special Issue of European Journal of Social Work
Griet Roets, Fabian Kessl, Walter Lorenz (2024): New charity economy and social work: Reclaiming the social dimension of public life in the context of changing welfare rationales. In: Social Work & Society, Vol. 21, Issue 2
Lance Levenson, Friederike Lorenz-Sinai, Fabian Kessl & Julia Resnik (2024): German Teachers’ Pilgrimage to an Israeli Holocaust Memorial: Emotions, Encounters, and Contested Visions. In: Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 55. Jg., Heft 2
Lore Dewanckel, Tineke Schiettecat, Koen Hermans, Rudi Roose, Wim Van Lancker, Fabian Kessl, Griet Roets (2024): Revisiting the role of social work in the substantial realization of social rights in local welfare systems: Transforming and changing the rules of the institutional game? In: Social Policy & Administration
Fabian Kessl (2022): Elements for a Critical Theory of Social Work. In Stephen Webb (Ed.): The Routledge Handbook of International Critical Social Work New Perspectives and Agendas. Londond: Routledge
Fabian Kessl, Claudia Machold, Nicolle Pfaff, Martina Richter & Anja Tervooren (2022) (Eds.): (De)Institutionalisation of Education and Social Care [Special Issue]. Social Work & Society, Vol. 20, No. 1
Friederike Lorenz, Lance Levenson, Julia /Resnik & Fabian Kessl (2021): German Teachers Learning about the Shoah in Israel An Ethnography of Emotional Heritage and Contemporary Encounters. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and University of Wuppertal [https://doi.org/10.25926/37he-aq36]
Fabian Kessl (2020): Equaliberty under pressure. Challenges for educational science and (social) paedagogy. In: Social Work & Society, Volume 18, Issue 1 [urn:nbn:de:hbz:464-sws-2123]
Fabian Kessl, Stephan Lorenz & Holger Schoneville (2020): Social exclusion, food assistance and welfare deficits in affluent Germany. In Hannah Lambie-Mumford & Tiina Silvasti (Eds.): The rise of food insecurity and food charity across Europe. Bristol and Chicago: Policy Press, pp. 49-78
Fabian Kessl, Walter Lorenz, Hans-Uwe Otto & Sue White (Eds.) (2019): European Social Work - A Compendium. Leverkusen & Farmington Hills: Barbara Budrich Publisher
Fabian Kessl, Melanie, Oechler, Tina Schroeder (2019): Charity Economy. In Kessl Fabian, Walter Lorenz, Hans-Uwe Otto, Sue White (Eds.): European Social Work - A Compendium. Leverkusen & Farmington Hills: Barbara Budrich Publisher
Fabian Kessl (2018): „Charity Economy”: In the Shadow of the Welfare State. In: Global Dialogue, Vol. 8, Issue 3 [https://globaldialogue.isa-sociology.org/articles/charity-economy-in-the-shadow-of-the-welfare-state]
Tony Evans & Fabian Kessl (2016): International Social Work: Understanding Social Work within Social Policy Systems. In: Tony Evans & Frank Keating (Eds.): Policy & Social Work Practice. London: Sage, pp. 123-137
Fabian Kessl & Christian Reutlinger (2015): Professional Social Work in divided cities? In Birgit Bütow, María Luisa Gómez Jiménez (Eds.): Social Policy and Social Dimensions on Vulnerability and Resilience in Europe. Opladen & Farmington Hills, Barbara Budrich Publisher [Reprint in Eris Web Journal, Vol, No 1: http://periodika.osu.cz/eris/dok/2013-01/3-kessl-reutlinger-professional_social-work-in-divided-cities.pdf]
Fabian Kessl & Tony Evans (2015): Travelling Knowledge in Social Work. European Journal of Social Work [Special Issue], Vol 18, No 4
Tony Evans, John Harris, Fabian Kessl, Stefan Schnurr, Tor Sletteboe, Elisabeth Brodtkorb & Olga Borodkina (2015): International travelling knowledge in social work: an analytical framework. In European Journal of Social Work, Vol 18, No 4 10.1080/13691457.2014.949633
Fabian Kessl & Tony Evans (2015): International Social Work: Understanding Social Work within Social Policy Systems. In Tony Evans & Frank Keating (Eds.): Policy and Social Work Practice. London: Sage
Fabian Kessl (2014): Problematizing Social Work: some reactions. In Paul Michael Garrett with responses from Rona Woodward et al.: Children and Families. Bristol: Policy Press
Fabian Kessl & Susanne Maurer (2012): Radical Reflexivity as Key Dimension of a Critical Scientific Understanding of Social Work. In: Social Work & Society, Volume 10, Issue 2, [urn:nbn:de:hbz:464-sws-376]
Fabian Kessl (2009): What's the Use of Studies on Governmentality in Social Work? A Critique on the Critique. In Michael A. Peters et al. (Eds.): Governmentality Studies in Education. Rotterdam: Sense
Fabian Kessl (2009): Critical Reflexivity, Social Work, and the Emerging European Post-welfare States. In European Journal of Social Work, Vol 12, No 3
Fabian Kessl & Michael A. Peters (2009): Space, Critique, Theory: The Reassertion of Space in Social Theory. In Policy Futures of Education, No 1
Fabian Kessl (2009): Marked Silence, Neo-Feudalistic Reactions and the Stabilized Moral Regime – The Current De- and Reformation of „the Social“. In Social Work & Society, Vol 7, No 1 (htttp://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0009-11-20375)
Fabian Kessl & Nadia Kutscher (2008): Rationalities, Practices, and Resistance in Post-Welfarism. A Comment on Kevin Stenson. In: Social Work & Society, Volume 6, Issue 1, [urn:nbn:de:0009-11-14887]
John Clarke & Fabian Kessl (2008): Re- and Deterritorialization of the Social, Special Issue of Social Work & Society, Vol. 6, Issue 1
Fabian Kessl (2007): Social Work as Government. In Michael A. Peters & Tina Besley, (Eds.) Why Foucault? New Directions in Educational Research. Bern et al.: Peter Lang. [translated into Portuguese: Assistência Social Como “Governo”: Uma Perspectiva Analítica do Pode. Artmed, Porto Alegre]
Fabian Kessl (2007): Civil Society. In Social Work & Society, Vol 5, Issue 1, [http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0009-11-11409]
