Sven Hessle (b. 1941) is now Emeritus Professor of Social Work, Department of Social Work, Stockholm University, having been appointed Professor of Social Work there in 1993. His education led to qualification as a clinical psychologist (1968) and a PhD in pedagogy (1975). Research and leadership roles include work in family and child welfare in areas affected by poverty as well as in international social work in Europe, the Middle and Far East, Latin America and other parts of the world. Publications include 40 books as author, editor and coauthor, articles, mostly in Swedish, but some translated into different languages, and many research and consultancy reports. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Social Welfare for more than two decades.

When did you receive the award and on what basis?

I received the award in 2006 during the Santiago de Chile IASSW World Congress. Lots of Latin American, Spanish-speaking Marxists were at the congress, reminding me of what it was like in the late 1960s in Sweden. Latin America might still be one of the last bastions of Marxism, I think.

I guess the award was given to me for my international engagement in different parts of the world, for example in the former Yugoslavia since the peace agreement in December 1995 after the terrible war, maybe also for the engagement in the International Journal of Social Welfare. I have been writing, lecturing and doing research in different parts of the world.

What has the award meant to you?

For me personally, it meant a lot to have been given this award. It is the most honoured recognition internationally in our discipline, but I am afraid that only a few people in Sweden know about it and its merits. I would put it like this: one of the challenges I had in social work has been to persuade my Swedish colleagues that this award is one of the most important international ones we can receive in social work. This kind of challenge in turn shows how rudimentary the level of international social work was at that time in Sweden. I had to persuade people to understand that this is a kind of Nobel Prize in social work.