Abstract
Sietske Dijkstra argues in this chapter for the application of Michael Polanyi’s idea of tacit knowledge and Lik Kuen Tong’s idea of Field-Being—a series of non-substantial interrelated fields—as a way to address ‘stuck’ relationships in cases of high-conflict or complex divorce. She asserts that social work professionals think about the cases they manage using too few concepts and concepts too rigid to fit the emotionally volatile and ever-shifting situations with which they must work. She proposes that professionals working in the welfare field should broaden their counseling tools to include thinking about the ways in which embodied emotions and tacit knowledge of relationships inform the behavior of both counselors and clients, and to recognize dynamic field-relations among persons, emotional states, and patterns of behavior in the context of intra-family conflicts.
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Notes
- 1.
Dijkstra, S. 2014: “Reaching out for skillful performance. The importance of tacit knowing in the handling of domestic violence.” Appraisal. 10, March, pp. 33–42.
- 2.
- 3.
Dijkstra, S., 2012: “Handling Domestic Violence: the power and fragility of tacit knowing.” In: Good Work and the Ethics of Craftsmanship. Amsterdam: Künneman, H. Utrecht: University of Humanities SWP. pp. 157–169.
- 4.
Polanyi, M. 1966: The Tacit Dimension, new foreword by Sen, A. 2009: Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press.
- 5.
Tong, L.K. 2022: Introduction to Field-Being Philosophy, an Anthology of Lik Kuen Tong’s Thought. New Castle on Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press. eds. Therese Dykeman, Laura Weed and David White, p. 46.
- 6.
Based on the training of 100 academically trained youth care workers in the Netherlands with an average of ten years of working experience in the field.
- 7.
Thiara, R. and Humphreys C. 2015: “Absent presence: the ongoing impact of men’s violence on the mother-child relationship.” Child and Family Social Work Online ISSN: 1365-220.
- 8.
Polanyi, M. 1958/1962: Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-critical Philosophy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. and Polanyi, M., 1966: The Tacit Dimension, new foreword by Sen, A. 2009: Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press.
- 9.
This paragraph partly follows the logic of a passage about the fiduciary aspect of Polanyi’s theory of knowledge, in Kitchen, W.H. 2014: Authority and the Teacher. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 80.
- 10.
Polanyi, M. 1958/1962: Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. and Polanyi, M., 1966: The Tacit Dimension.
- 11.
Munro, E. 2002: “Effective child protection.” London/California/New Delhi: Sage. The questions are: 1. What happened, according to whom? 2. What can happen in the (near) future? 3. How probable is this? 4. How severe is this? 5. Give a danger score from 1 to 10 (one is very safe, 10 is extremely dangerous) and explain the given score.
- 12.
Dijkstra, S. and Verhoeven W. 2014: Gescheiden werelden, gespannen verhoudingen. Ouderschap na scheiding en geweld met dodelijke afloop. Maatwerk 1, pp. 2–6. See also http://www.cyf.govt.nz/documents/about-us/publications/social-work-now/social-work-now-mach-r2015.pdf
- 13.
Dijkstra, S., and van Dartel, N. 2011: “Verborgen schatten. Wat professionals doen en clienten ervaren bij de aanpak van huiselijk geweld.” Utrecht: SWP.
- 14.
Polanyi, M., 1966: The Tacit Dimension. p. 4.
- 15.
Dijkstra, S. 2016: “Listening to Children and Parents: Seven Dimensions to Untangle High-Conflict Divorce.” in Liefaard, T. and Sloth-Nielsen J. eds. 201:, The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Taking Stock after 25 Years and Looking Ahead. Leiden: Brill Nijhoff. pp. 855–876.
- 16.
Dijkstra, S. 2012: “Handling Domestic Violence: the power and fragility of tacit knowing.” In: Good Work and the Ethics of Craftsmanship. Amsterdam: Künneman, H. Utrecht: University of Humanities, SWP. pp. 157–169.
- 17.
Polanyi, M. 1969: Knowing and Being, ed. Grene, M. Chicago/London University of Chicago Press.
- 18.
Polanyi, M. 1969: Knowing and Being. p. 139.
- 19.
“The field of new potential meanings was so rich that this enterprise, once started, swept on toward an infinite range of higher meanings, unceasingly pouring them into existence, for the better part of a billion years.” Polanyi, M. 1966: p. 91.
- 20.
“Specifiability remains incomplete in two ways. First, there is always a residue of particulars left unspecified; and second, even when particulars can be identified, isolation changes their appearance to some extent.” Polanyi, M. 1966: p. 124.
- 21.
Polanyi, M., 1966. The Tacit Dimension.
References
Dijkstra, S., and van Dartel, N. (2011) ‘Verborgen schatten. Wat professionals doen en clienten ervaren bij de aanpak van huiselijk geweld’, SWP, Utrecht.
Dijkstra, S., (2012) Handling Domestic Violence: the power and fragility of tacit knowing. In: Good Work and the Ethics of Craftsmanship, Amsterdam: Künneman, H. Utrecht, University of Humanities SWP.
———., (2014) ‘Reaching out for skillful performance. The importance of tacit knowing in the handling of domestic violence’, Appraisal, 10, March, 33–42.
———., (2016). ‘Listening to Children and Parents: Seven Dimensions to Untangle High-Conflict Divorce’, in Liefaard, T. & J. Sloth-Nielsen (Eds.) 2016, The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Taking Stock after 25 Years and Looking Ahead, (Leiden: Brill Nijhoff), 855–876.
Dijkstra, S. and Verhoeven, W., (2014) Gescheiden werelden, gespannen verhoudingen. Ouderschap na scheiding en geweld met dodelijke afloop, Maatwerk. See also http://www.cyf.govt.nz/documents/about-us/publications/social-work-now/social-work-now-mach-r2015.pdf
Kitchen, W.H., (2014), Authority and the Teacher, London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Polanyi, M. (1958/1962) Personal Knowledge: towards a post-critical philosophy, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press
———. (1966) The Tacit Dimension, with a new foreword by A. Sen, (2009) Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press.
———. (1969) Knowing and Being, edited by Marjorie Grene, Chicago/London University of Chicago Press.
Thiara, R. and Humphreys C. (2015), ‘Absent presence: the ongoing impact of men’s violence on the mother-child relationship’ in Child and Family Social Work Online ISSN: 1365-220.
Tong, L.K. (2022) Introduction to Field-Being Philosophy, an Anthology of Lik Kuen Tong’s Thought, eds., Dykeman, T., Weed, L., and White, D., New Castle on Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press. Also see http://fieldbeing.org
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Dijkstra, S. (2023). Injured Love Beyond Language: Exploring the Tacit Dimension in the Amelioration of High-Conflict Divorce. In: Weed, L.E. (eds) Mysticism, Ineffability and Silence in Philosophy of Religion. Comparative Philosophy of Religion, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18013-2_9
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