Social Work in the Netherlands

Abstract

The Dutch historiography of social security and social work in the 20^th century is still mainly based upon contemporary monographs and printed sources, such as newspapers and magazines. However, this cannot be attributed to a lack of archival sources, as these are in plentiful supply and, for the most part, easily accessible. The Netherlands also boasts many public archive services that are very well equipped. These employ specialist staff, trained in dealing with and offering guidance to a wide range of visitors, including academics who wish to carry out archival research. Many archives have made finding aids of their collections and sometimes even offer more detailed search facilities such as descriptive lists and indices. In fact, this very profusion of material is a problem that many researchers wrestle with: They just do not know where to start, also because they do not know how the different players in this field are related to one another. In addition to this, so many different bodies were involved in Dutch social work that it is sometimes hard to work out who did what. Nevertheless, archives are of vital importance because archive material can be used to verify information from other sources. Every experienced researcher knows that it is necessary to verify claims made by people during interviews. Memory is, after all, an unreliable source: It often acts like a filter, blocking out certain facts and bringing others to the fore. The past is given a certain twist in the mind of the interviewee and, especially in the case of older people, they tend to become forgetful sometimes.