ABSTRACT
The history of social work in Cyprus provides us with a unique representation of the country’s multiple political transitions over the last seventy years. Initially developed as a colonial tool for social control by the British Empire, social work eventually followed the fate of all public institutions in the country: segregation and division along ethnic lines. This chapter will explore the political construction and historical development of social work focusing on the profession’s inherent tension between social care and social control. Such double mission will be explored against the extraordinary circumstances created by the 1974 war and the eventual separation of the two main communities (Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots). Finally, the chapter will critically assess recent developments that have strengthened the peace process and it will propose a more engaged role for social work; a role that goes beyond ethnic divides and re-claims the ‘social’ rather than the ‘national question’.
