Socio-digital challenges for social work in the metaverse

Abstract

The metaverse will have a direct impact on the way we relate to each other as. The interest of the young population explains the extent to which this new developing technological paradigm is already present in our society, generating environments where people will feel part of them and where interactions will be more authentic, immersive, and it remains to be seen whether these relationships will also be more inclusive. The article identifies these challenges through a literature review, making a categorical comparison with the professional competences of social work drawn from the professional codes of standards and competences. A qualitative analysis has been carried out to identify those competences that may be affected by one or more social challenges arising from the popularisation of the metaverse. It presents important challenges for social work, such as changes in community, governance and individual behaviour, as well as implications for ethics, privacy and the way we understand social intervention that require an epistemological, methodological and practical debate in the profession, as yet unpublished, to adapt to this new socio-virtual dimension in which millions of people have already settled. Finally, v-social work is proposed as a new professional field with specific competences.