Polibienestar visits the University of Nuuk in Greenland

Jorge Garces, director of the Social Welfare Policy Research Institute (Polibienestar), visits the University of Nuuk in Greenland
Polibienestar’s relationship with this university began approximately two years ago when professors Jorge Garcés, Annamaria Campanini and Francisco Rodenas invited professors Steven Arnfjord and Kevin Perry to participate in the book International Handbook of Social Work, a global treatise featuring 93 experts in social policy from 30 countries across five continents, including Greenland. The book has been published by Tirant Lo Blanch in Valencia in English and features contributions from experts in social work and social policy from Hong Kong, Japan, Zambia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Haiti, Chile, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Angola, Iran, Bosnia, Malaysia, South Africa, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Trinidad and Tobago, India and New Zealand, among others, as well as Spain.
This academic relationship has opened up a future avenue of work between the Polibienestar Institute and the ICAW – Ilisimatusarfik Centre for Arctic Welfare, whose objective is to provide a framework for research and methodological development in the field of welfare in close collaboration with practitioners. The book will be presented on 16 June at a lunch discussion at the University of Nuuk before the Greenlandic academic and scientific community.
The ICAW researches contemporary welfare issues related to social welfare in the Arctic environment. This centre has very similar connotations to the Polibienestar Social Welfare Policy Research Institute at the University of Valencia, as it approaches public policy research from an interdisciplinary and inter-institutional perspective, combining it with sustainability and European governance.
The Centre for Arctic Wellbeing is also interested in issues that Polibienestar has been researching for 20 years, such as population ageing and comprehensive social and health care, linking health services and social services. In this regard, one of Polibienestar’s objectives will be to propose to the University of Nuuk a collaboration agreement between the Centre for Arctic Wellbeing and the Institute for Research on Social Welfare Policies (Polibienestar) to promote joint research within the framework of the European research framework programme.
Polibienestar’s research stay at the University of Nuuk had to be expressly authorised by the Greenlandic Minister of Education, given the restrictions imposed by new regulations that prevent international visits by teachers who do not belong to Nordic countries without the express authorisation of the Danish (Greenland) authorities, due to the political climate generated by the US administration. ‘Polibienestar’s visit to the University of Nuuk is our academic and scientific gesture towards Greenland. That is why we proposed that this international treaty be presented for the first time in Greenland,’ said Professor Garcés-Ferrer.
Polibienestar is a public research institute specialising in social welfare policies belonging to the University of Valencia, which is celebrating the 15th anniversary of its creation this year.

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