The public relations profession as discursive boundary work

Public relations (PR) has spent more than a century as a professional project, marked by a struggle with adjacent professional fields for market control, social closure and elite status. However, the wider literature on professionalisation lacks a systematic account of how professions discursively construct their boundaries, or how differences in field position can influence a profession’s use of discursive strategies to defend or contest its boundaries. This matters for the deepening of PR scholarship, since an effective exploration of the PR profession must include studies of PR’s jurisdictions and its jurisdictional disputes. This article introduces into PR theory, a discourse analytical framework for deconstructing boundary work between PR and adjacent professions. The discourse framework, and accompanying discussion, answers the call to dismantle silo thinking about PR activity, through a methodology designed to examine PR’s intersections with other fields.     

Looking for ‘social work’ in school social work

School social workers can be seen as a professional group operating on the margin of an educational logic that dominates schools as institutions. This conditions what tasks they are assigned and what aspects of social work knowledge they will find relevant. On the other hand, the role as a sole professional and relative outsider in the organization provides a potential for school social workers to transcend established theories of social work practice. This article aims to investigate how social work theory is applied in school social work. Twelve semi-structured interviews with school social workers were analysed in terms of how they relate to four knowledge approaches derived from the literature: task-centred, systems theory, strengths and anti-oppressive. Contrary to claims within the sociology of professions that social work practice is formed largely by organizational context rather than a discipline-specific knowledge base, the interviewees seemed to lean on a robust professional foundation within social work theory. Interviewees strongly emphasised their role as working for the individual pupil and positioned themselves as somewhat in opposition to a somewhat oppressive school environment.     

Career choice in the context of political conflict: the case of Palestinians social workers in Israel

The helping professions in general and social work in particular pose particular challenges and opportunities for national minority group members. This article adds to the present knowledge in the literature concerning the interaction between career choice in the welfare professions and minority status, by looking at the voices of Palestinian Israeli social workers. The article is based on data gathered through in-depth interviews with 32 Palestinian Israeli social workers, describes the motivations, the process of choosing social work as a profession and the barriers that Palestinian Israeli professionals face in the context of the political, social and economic factors shaping their lives as belonging to a national minority in Israel.     

Rethinking Social Work's Interpretation of ‘Environmental Justice’: From Local to Global

This article challenges social workers to expand their understanding of the ‘person-in-environment’ perspective and become more active in addressing current environmental crises. Although social work scholars have begun to explore the relationship between social work and the natural and built environment and professional organizations mandate the integration of this content into practice and education, these goals remain unrealized, particularly in the USA. To address these issues more effectively, social work educators will need to distinguish between understanding persons in their environment and environmentalism, and between environmentalism and environmental justice. This article analyzes the emergence of the environmental justice movement in the USA and other nations and its relationship to environmental racism. It presents a case study of a local environmental justice effort to demonstrate how social workers can use their knowledge and skills to make important contributions to environmental justice and sustainability. It also discusses the potential of ‘green social work’ and transformative learning theory as tools to help social work educators better equip students to make strategic alliances across professions, disciplines, and systems to address contemporary environmental crises.     

Resolving uncertainties? The contribution of some recent feminist ethical theory to the social professions

Uncertainty is a long-recognized hazard of working life in the social professions and, as post-modernists have re-emphasized, is not to be dissolved away, but celebrated, as in a recent address to the Amsterdam School of Social Work (Bauman 2000). Ethical theories, it has been suggested, can contribute to a better understanding of the depth and complexity of uncertainty in social work, and that uncertainty is a condition of ethical responsibility. However, in the difficult circumstances commonly encountered, some of the uncertainty needs to be resolved as well as possible. The intention of this paper is to demonstrate the relevance of some recent feminist ethical theory to the practices of the social professions, not only in relation to the ethics of practice but also with reference to the epistemological and research methodological issues with which they are intimately connected. I will contend that what they have to offer significantly advances issues discussed by postmodernist theorists, providing practical and theoretical guidance through a framework of concepts which assists the interrelated tasks of understanding and intervention in the social world. This paper is part of a wider project, providing an ethical dimension to work already published by the author on social assessment (Clifford 1998).     

After the Bologna Reform: Employability of Bachelors in Social and Educational Work in Luxembourg

The present paper treats employability and the relevance of this concept with regard to the social professions in Luxembourg subsequent to the Bologna reform. Two studies were conducted to examine the employability of Bachelors in social and educational work in terms of their (a) rate of entry in to the labour market and (b) self-reports of practice proficiency as acquired at university. The results showed a high employment rate and further suggested that employability was perceived largely in terms of self-assessed knowledge and skills. The implications of a systematic follow-up of recently qualified practitioners are discussed as well as the need to adapt the curriculum more efficiently to the demands brought about by the evolution of the social professions.     

Social closure,micro‐class immobility and the intergenerational reproduction of the upper class: a comparative study

This article assesses how processes of social closure enhance intergenerational immobility in the regulated professions and thus promote persistence at the top of the occupational hierarchy. We compare four European countries (GB, Germany, Denmark and Sweden) that differ considerably in their degree of professional regulation and in their broader institutional arrangements. We run log‐linear and logistic regression models on a cumulative dataset based on three large‐scale surveys with detailed and highly comparable information at the level of unit occupations. Our analyses indicate that children of licensed professionals are far more likely to inherit the occupation of their parents and that this stronger micro‐class immobility translates into higher chances of persistence in the upper class. These results support social closure theory and confirm the relevance of a micro‐class approach for the explanation of social fluidity and of its cross‐national variations. Moreover, we find that, when children of professionals do not reproduce the micro‐class of their parents, they still display disproportionate chances of persistence in professional employment. Hence, on the one hand, processes of social closure erect barriers between professions and fuel micro‐class immobility at the top. On the other hand, the cultural proximity of different professional groups drives intense intergenerational exchanges between them. Our analyses indicate that these micro‐ and meso‐class rigidities work as complementary routes to immobility at the top.     

Invisible children? Professional bricolage in child protection

In the last decades, child protection has been heavily criticized in many countries as fatal cases have caused public debates and political revisions. A study on the child protection system in Germany is presented. Responding to public criticism of fatal cases, new laws aimed for a stronger involvement of further professions beyond social workers who are traditionally holding the main responsibility. The study enquires in how far these revisions allow for a higher level of attention given to the children's conditions and sufferings. Data was gathered in five communities by interviewing practitioners of the social work profession, pediatric medicine, and midwifery on recent cases. By applying concepts of interpretive sociology of professions, 93 cases were systematically reconstructed. A typology of the different “mandates” of the occupations was developed, referring to the practitioners' interpretation of their main tasks in their case work. Validation of the qualitative analysis was sought by quantifying important characteristics of case trajectories. The results show that a mere addition of professional groups does not lead to a comprehensive consideration of the child's situation. The three professions only take specific aspects of children and according to their ‘mandates’ into account. Furthermore, social workers, having the competence of case coordination, occasionally exclude the knowledge of other professions from further proceedings.     

Social workers and intercultural mediators: challenges for collaboration and intercultural awareness

ABSTRACT

Social work in Europe is facing numerous challenges in terms of promoting the participation of migrants and their descendants in super-diverse societies. This study investigates collaboration between social workers and intercultural mediators based on international debate and fieldwork in Italy. Does social work require collaboration with other professions specialised in intercultural relations? What are the characteristics of intercultural professionals? What are the pros and cons of collaboration between social workers and intercultural mediators? This study shows that local social services need to work with intercultural mediators, allowing local social services to implement various strategies for tackling cultural and linguistic barriers with their clients and rely on professionals inside or outside their own. Furthermore, intercultural mediators tend to have weak and heterogeneous training backgrounds and working conditions. This article aims to contribute to the debate on the welfare reform process to support migrants and their descendants’ equal rights and participation in society, highlighting the need for collaboration between interculturally aware social workers and intercultural mediators to tackle institutional structural weaknesses in such professions as part of an organisational innovation process in social-welfare institutions.     

The profession of medicine and the public: examining Americans' changing confidence in physician authority from the beginning of the 'health care crisis' to the era of health care reform

Recent work on the sociology of the professions, in general, and on the profession of medicine, in particular, target dramatic changes in the organization of social institutions, "boundary work" among professionals, and the implications of both for professional power. However, public attitudes cited in theories as a critical linchpin of professional status remain relatively unexplored in the face of these changes and widespread contentions of public dissatisfaction. Using data from the 1976 National Survey of Access to Care (Aday, Andersen, and Fleming 1980) and the 1998 General Social Survey (Davis, Smith, and Mardsen 1998), we take advantage of a unique opportunity to compare the public's attitudes across a 20-year period. We examine individuals' evaluations of the way physicians do their work and their ability to confront health problems. Three findings support a complex view of public sentiments. First, while public confidence in physicians remains relatively high, we document a crystallization of attitudes reflecting greater negative and fewer positive sentiments. Second, while neither the structure of attitudes nor the role of sociodemographic characteristics in explaining attitudes has significantly shifted over time, in 1998 health status and insurance status are correlated with negative attitudes. Third, using General Social Survey time trend data on the confidence in medicine compared to other professions (science and education), we find support for a general public response to social institutions, with confidence in medicine tracking closely with confidence in science in level, and education in pattern. We end with four possible explanations of our findings, including and a general discussion of the role of the public in the professional status of physicians and its implications for social change in the institution of medicine.     

On social work and what gender has got to do with it

Living in gendered societies makes it necessary to take into account the specific ways in which social problems and social issues affect the lives of women and men, girls and boys. Not only are social problems and social issues very often gender biased; this is also true for the professions dealing with these problems and issues, and for the training programmes for professions like social work. Sociological analysis of society and philosophical understanding of a good life are permeated by gender-specific perceptions -- often without those involved being aware of them. Furthermore, social policies reinforce gender-specific biases because they are based on gender-specific (i.e. male) standards. Gender as an analytical category has been brought into scientific and public discourse by feminist theoreticians and activists making women -- and thus also men -- visible with regard to structure and subject issues. The development of gender theory and research highlights the significance of gender arrangements to understand social phenomena and to support gender-equality ways of thinking and policies. At the same time, men and women are not only confronted with gendered structures, but via socialization processes and personal development they also reproduce these gender differences in their daily lives by 'doing gender'.     

A case for psychodynamic social work

Abstract

Psychodynamic casework is not as popular in social work theory and practice as it once was. It is considered by some to be impractical, unscientific, and not suitable for those customarily receiving a social work service. Task-centred casework, behavioural approaches, the newer psychotherapies, and family therapy have all taken over as major paradigms of social work method. This is especially so, I think, for the social worker working in a psychiatric setting, where many clients stay only for a short time and where emphasis is placed on assessment and short-term intervention.

In this paper I shall argue that a psychodynamic approach in social work is still relevant; that it is important for its humanizing qualities, for understanding and working with people with severe problems and for, perhaps, helping us to locate the position of social work vis-a-vis other mental health professions. I shall do this by focusing on a particular case I had as a social work student on placement in a psychiatric day hospital.     

Fetishizing the health sciences: Queer theory as an intervention

Queer theory often falls impotent in its palatability across disciplinary lines. I offer a conceptual article that interrogates the dis-ease and divide when considering queer theory in and for the health sciences. In so doing, I look to foster a process of making queer theory more tenable to applied practice—and to make practice in social work, at least, more queer. The exemplar of HIV is deconstructed as a preeminent discourse and health disparity. In the end, it is argued that queer theory may be an essential intervention in the arsenal of the helping professions.     

Les professions sociales en France: Du modèle de la qualification au modèle de la compétence?

In the social professions, is the qualifications model going to be driven out by a second model, that of the management of skills, as seen in many other sectors of activity? The social professions used to be accepted in their employment sectors in line with the statutory logic of qualifications. However, the recent introduction of a skills management logic privileging individual aptitudes, advantages gained from a variety of professional experiences, and the capacity to conform to the objectives of an employing organization could lead to less regard for original qualifications, and to a decline in any correspondence between a diploma or degree and the individual's position within the repertory of salaried jobs and classifications. One can in fact note an increased disjunction between titles, functions, and status, especially in the newer activity areas (insertion, city/town, policies, mediation, etc.). In contrast, one can still observe a very firmly maintained linkage between the qualification and the job in the traditional sectors (social services, work with the disabled, specialized education, etc.). However, the widening of social interventions beyond the frames of classical action areas, and their extension to areas such as accommodation and home help, along with the progressive modification of organizational models, leads one to wonder whether the social professions will retain their special character, or whether, to the contrary, they will experience a process of differentiation into sub-sectors with reference to alternative operational logics. Will the future of the social professions oscillate between assignation to employment sectors where the qualifications logic reigns (and which could become residual), and entry into new intervention areas where the 'battle of the skills' will be fought? Whatever the outcome, the debate about the professionalism of social workers should surely rise above any such presumed antagonisms.     

Understanding Symbolic Boundaries and Improving Quantitative Analysis of Social Exclusion by Improving the Operationalization of Boundary Work

In survey research, how can we measure actors' judgments concerning who is a member of a particular social group and who is not? How can we measure changes in this process over time? Within the sociology of culture, the operationalization of boundary work, or decisions of group membership, has been relatively overlooked. Similarly, measurement of changes in boundaries has been relatively overlooked as well. An important first step is to better match the operationalization of boundary work with theory. To do so, I argue that survey items concerning decisions of social exclusion measured in the Likert scale can be used. In addition to allowing scholars to compare those who exclude with those who include (often measured as Strongly Agree/Agree vs. Disagree/Strongly Disagree), the Likert scale offers a measurement of boundary strength: how strongly respondents are committed to their exclusionary judgments (Agree vs. Strongly Agree, Disagree vs. Strongly Disagree). A novel element of boundary change can then be measured as variation over time in commitment to exclusionary judgment in time series data. A boundary that has increased in strength would be one for which respondents increase in their emotional commitment to their exclusionary judgment over time.     

ETHNOGRAPHIES OF PRACTICE—PRACTISING ETHNOGRAPHY

This paper argues that acquiring competencies in different approaches and procedures in qualitative or interpretative social research provides a strong foundation for case analysis in professional social work practice. When students of social work become familiar with such research and are encouraged to engage in their own supervised projects they develop skills for a circumspect and sensitive practice with clients. The paper reports on work with students of social work in Germany, which can be described as an attempt to help them to become self‐reflective ethnographers in their own affairs, of their own emergent social work practice. It spells out different phases of a process in which they learn to make their own practice strange. This process consists of developing different competencies in observing, analysing and writing, and requires a setting in which students' written observations and reflections can be shared and discussed by their peers in a critical, egalitarian and supportive manner. The author thinks that such a critical and self‐critical discourse which addresses professional issues in general, as well as the individual student's (or practioner's) experiences and reflections, can have important implications for the collective development of social work and its relationship with other professions.     

INDEX TO VOLUME 45

The authors describe an instructional model designed to promote interdisciplinary collaboration among students pursuing master's degrees in social work and journalism. This unique model involved active collaboration among social work and journalism graduate students and faculty to create a single-issue magazine focused on a diverse range of social welfare issues. After describing the development and format of the model as well as requisite resources, the authors discuss emergent learning opportunities for both groups of students, including identification of role tensions between the 2 professions, deepened understanding of the social work profession and its associated roles, and methods for collaboration to advance the social justice purposes of both professions.     

Ecologies of Boundaries: Modes of Boundary Work in Professional Proto‐Jurisdictions

Ecological approaches to professional work, authority, and regulation have seen a resurgence in the sociology of professions, as epitomized in the linked ecologies framework of Andrew Abbott. Alongside this resurgence comes a renewed attention to the way symbolic and material boundaries within and between professions, as well as between professional, university, and political institutions, come to be defined, negotiated, and changed as part of ongoing professional projects. Building on and comparing case studies set in Denmark into three emerging professional “proto‐jurisdictions”—of water‐related climate adaptation, lifestyle disease prevention, and innovation management—this article identifies three key modes of interprofessional boundary work important for such projects. In doing so, it grounds Abbott's meso‐level framework of linked ecologies in more situated accounts of workplace‐level boundary interaction, by reconnecting to a wider tradition of symbolic interactionist studies of professions.     

Professional Self‐regulation in North America: The Cases of Law and Accounting

Professional and expert work holds the potential for misconduct that can harm clients or the public. According to the traditional model of professional self‐regulation, developed during the “golden age” of the professions in the mid‐20th century, societies grant professional communities freedom from external regulation in return for their commitment to regulate their members' conduct. Professions were said to cultivate distinctive ethical norms, socialize new practitioners, and engage in social control of deviant behavior. In light of dramatic changes in the professional world since that time, this essay reviews research on the legal and accounting professions in North America to assess the extent to which this traditional model still holds. The two professions continue to resemble the traditional model in some respects but diverge from it in others, and on some points, there is insufficient evidence to draw a conclusion. The traditional model of self‐regulation is probably best viewed as an ideal type that can serve as a standard of reference, not as an accurate representation of social reality. This conclusion opens up new topics for research and opportunities to inform policy.     

Social Work Practice and Education in the US and Canada

This paper discusses shared origins and differences in the social work professions and education programs in the United States and Canada. Consideration is given to how the social work professions in the two countries attempt to resolve the possible inherent conflict between an emphasis on dealing with problems of individuals, with intervention approaches such as casework and therapy, and an emphasis on addressing the problems of society, with social reform intervention approaches. The paper also discusses social work employment in the U.S. and Canada and the structure of social work education in both countries, including consideration of how the profession is legally regulated in each country.