New Labour, Work and the Family

New Labour has put support for the family at the core of its notion of the “strong community”. Across a range of policy areas the Labour government can be seen to be developing a direct and explicit family policy. But what kind of community is the government trying to shape by these policies? On the one hand, Labour appears to support the family as the basis of a more moral, dutiful and cohesive community. On the other hand, the government has given weight to policies that support social inclusion in the community through paid work. This paper examines whether there is a tension in Labour’s social policies between its emphasis on the importance of stable family life and the primacy given to paid work. Are critics like Ruth Levitas right when they argue that the government’s emphasis on paid work devalues, and is unsupportive of, unpaid work, especially caring for children and other family members? Alternatively, can this combination of communitarianisms—community as “stable family” and community as “paid work”—be seen to be marking out some “third way” on the family? We shall show that different aspects of the government’s family policies reflect different perspectives and policy agendas within New Labour and third‐way thinking more broadly. And while recognizing the tensions between work and the family, we shall suggest that they are often overstated and fail to give sufficient weight to the complementary aspects of Labour’s welfare reforms.     

Activation and Local Welfare in Italy: Trends and Issues

This article deals with the development of local welfare in Italy and is grounded on a research project focusing on activation as a main feature of change in Italian social policies. Along with decentralization processes, many Italian regions have been acting as policy laboratories, developing and testing very different approaches according to their political attitude. On the one hand this results in a fragmented policy landscape which is difficult to recompose, and, moreover, in growing inequalities in the Italian welfare system. On the other hand, it opens opportunities for experimentation on institutional and organizational structures on a regional scale, creating a variety of practices for research and policy analysis. In the article we first describe the main trends in national social policies, with a specific focus on the dynamics of change referring to activation. We will then focus on a pilot programme which is aiming at the promotion and implementation of innovative practices in health and social care services in Friuli‐Venezia Giulia, a region in which there is a significant orientation towards enhancing social citizenship and enforcing the central position of the public actor. We investigate how the dynamics of territorialization and personalization, implied by the programme, trigger specific logics and practices of activation. Finally, referring to this case study, we propose an analytical overview of some relevant issues in the development of ‘local active welfare’ in Italy.     

Someone who Treats you as an Ordinary Human Being ... Homeless Youth Examine the Quality of Professional Care

Professor dr. Micha de Winter, Utrecht University, Department of Child and Adolescent Studies, POB 80.140, 3508 TC Utrecht, the Netherlands. Summary In this article we describe a peer-research project, in whichnineteen homeless youngsters interviewed 190 of their ‘colleagues’about the quality of professional care and the improvementsthat, according to them, should be made. The interviews werefollowed by discussion meetings with social workers and policymakers. The youngsters report mixed feelings about the professionalcare system. On the one hand they think they should do morethemselves, there should not be too much professional interferenceand certainly not a patronizing attitude. On the other hand,they want better advice and assistance which is rather basedon a joint effort. The essence of professional care is, accordingto both the young and the professional participants, to finda balance between independence and assistance. From an educationalpoint of view, social workers and adolescents operate at daggersdrawn. Conflict and opposing views are often an inherent partof the road to gaining autonomy. This process, which is oftenpainful, can only be successfully completed in an atmosphereof sincerity, mutual trust and consultation. Dialogue at alllevels is believed to be a sine qua non in the improvement ofprofessional care for homeless youth.     

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS): What's in it for Social Security?

This article explores the implications of the World Trade Organization's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) for social security. It examines what bearing the GATS has, or will have, on social security policy and administration and what the effects might be. These questions are explored through a review of legal, political and policy issues relating to the status of social security within the GATS and the consequences of applying the Agreement's provisions to social security. The discussion distinguishes between the supply of social security services on the one hand and access to and use of social security services on the other hand. It also distinguishes between substantive questions regarding the scope of the GATS and procedural issues regarding governments' scheduling practices. I argue that although the GATS does not yet have a direct material bearing on social security policy and provision, it may do so in the future. However, it is too early to ascertain what the nature or magnitude of the effects might be. More generally, the discussion highlights the difficulties of securing multilateral cooperation among countries with different levels of "development", strategic interests and priorities, and social security systems.     

Using Online Reviews in Social Care

The emphasis placed on choice of social care provider means that there is an increasing need to furnish service users with reliable and up‐to‐date information on provider quality. In England, encouraging users to leave online feedback on providers is seen as one of the ways of improving the supply of information. However, using these channels for social care raises a number of issues, for example, the challenge of generating enough content to be of value, and the need to protect the anonymity of potentially vulnerable users. This article aims to summarize these issues, by drawing upon the experience of an established ratings site (TripAdvisor), and of heath service rating systems, as well as literature on decision‐making and behaviour across social care and related sectors. The article concludes that online ratings can assist users to choose providers, however, they will need to be supported by carefully designed processes to maximize their usefulness.     

马克思主义公正观的基本向度及方法论原则(英文)

在社会公正问题的大讨论中,罗尔斯、诺齐克、哈耶克、麦金泰尔等当代西方思想家的论述被反复引用和申说,而将马克思恩格斯等经典作家的观点置于一种被忽视甚至被忘却的状态。形成这种状态的原因是多方面的。对历史背景和语境不作具体的分析,就难以把握马克思恩格斯对于社会公正问题的真实态度和精神实质,甚至会得出他们不仅没有关于社会公正的理论,而且反对和拒斥从社会公正角度讨论问题的结论。马克思主义作为无产阶级认识和改造世界、求得自身解放和人类解放的世界观和方法论,是真理与价值相统一的理论,也只有从科学向度与价值向度辩证统一的角度,才可能对作为价值之一种表现的公正问题作出合理的理解。公正既是一种价值观念,具有评价标准的功能,也是实际的价值（包括利益、机会、权利等）分配的一种状态,其中会涉及自由与平等的矛盾、形式公正与实质公正的矛盾、一般与特殊的差别、平等与效率的抵牾、公正与不公正的对立,等等,只有运用辩证思维的方法,才能对其复杂性获得正确的认识。     

为什么跨小区的业主组织联盟存在差异 ——一项基于治理结构与政治机会（威胁）的城市比较分析

本文结合社会运动联盟理论和城市治理理论,比较了上海和广州两个城市跨小区的业主组织联盟形态,提出一个基于治理结构与政治机会（威胁）的比较分析框架来理解两个城市业主组织联盟形态的差异。研究发现,与广州相比,上海的物业管理制度更加完善,基层治理组织架构也更加健全,体制内支持者相对缺乏,从而降低了社会冲突发生以及冲突激化为社会性公共议题的可能性。考虑到都市抗争的反应性特征以及中国社会管理体制所具有的社会控制和利益表达双重功能,都市抗争研究应该具体分析行动限制的制度根源、国家在预防社会抗争出现以及在抗争过程中的多重角色。     

Towards the Use and Development of Games for Social Work Practice

Summary This paper reviews games that may be of use to social workersin their work with individuals, couples, families and groups.A typology of games is presented, which categorizes games accordingto their structure and their function. Games are seen as eitherunstructured or structured, and as stressing either cognitiveor behavioural goals. Selected games are presented in more detailas examples and others are presented in brief in an annotatedbibliography. Issues relating to designing games are discussedas well as issues in applying games to social work practice.     

Patterns of social assistance receipt in Sweden

This article analyses the situation of Swedish-born people who became first-time receivers of social assistance in 1987 and 1992. The macroeconomic situation at the time of entry was rather different for the two cohorts and the number of new entrances increased by almost 50%. Much of the increase consisted of young adults and experience of social assistance has been shown to be fairly widespread among persons under the age of 25. Bridging the period when individuals are supported by their parents to their becoming established as wage earners has become an important function of social assistance in Sweden. The pattern of social assistance receipt is rather heterogeneous across new recipients. The complex pattern of receipt means that the duration of social assistance can appear to vary depending on one's choice of perspective. On the one hand, the median duration of social assistance receipt is as low as two years when an eleven-year follow-up period is applied. On the other hand, among people who receive social assistance during a given year, as many as half had entered receipt more than four years earlier.     

The politics of community arts: quilting the power and identity of women

This article attempts to articulate and re-validate the unique social contributions of marginalized and working women to their communities and to society-at-large, contributions which tend to be obscured if not forgotten, given the global dynamics of exclusion as they are at work in the capitalist society of Hong Kong. It looks at how a group of disenfranchised women workers renegotiate their identity, reclaim their dignity and regenerate social power through a community arts project ‘Quilting the Power and Identity’; that is, how through these creative but powerful actions, their transformation from a transient state of imposed victimhood into active agency could be made possible.     

The Work Experiences of Social Workers: Factors Impacting Compassion Satisfaction and Workplace Stress

Abstract

In 2015, over 6,000 licensed social workers in 13?US states responded to an online survey regarding perceptions and feelings about their work, as well as numerous personal and practice issues. Specifically, this study examined participants’ levels of compassion satisfaction and workplace stress, and then determined through multivariate analyses what demographic factors, behavioral and physical health problems, practice issues, fields of practice, and workplace environment issues impacted these two variables.

The findings indicate that participants demonstrated high levels of compassion satisfaction, with a wide range of workplace stress levels. Workplace environment issues had the greatest impact on both variables, with social workers’ mental health problems, physical health status, and certain demographic factors such as race also influencing them. Over 82% of respondents expressed agreement that they were glad that they chose social work as a profession. The results appear to demonstrate that despite being a potentially stressful occupation, licensed social workers tend to experience significant emotional satisfaction from their work. On the other hand, the results also highlight the need for further research to determine how to enhance support for social workers in the workplace in order to not only reduce workplace stress, but also to increase compassion satisfaction.     

派系及其治理:休谟社会政治理论研究的一个视角

基于历史观察和其思想的内在逻辑,休谟将“派系”问题及其治理作为社会政治理论的核心内容。休谟分析了“派系”产生的人性基础和基本类型,进而提出派系治理的三种路径。首先,商业、科学和艺术的发展可以促进人们理性的增长以及相互之间的同情,从而可以瓦解极端的信念和增进社会的团结;其次,文明的政治秩序的构建不应当依赖于道德,而应当建立起派系之间的相互制衡;再次,宗教派系的极端性对社会秩序构成了重大威胁,为了保持社会秩序的稳定,必须在宗教宽容的基础上保持世俗政府对宗教的控制。休谟的派系治理思想具有立足商业社会的现代视野,既致力于减弱和消除极端派系对社会秩序的破坏,又使温和的派系成为促进社会繁荣与发展的动力,在近代西方社会秩序理论中具有重要的历史影响和理论价值。     

约制与建构：环境议题的呈现机制 基于A市市民反建L垃圾焚烧厂的省思

本文在回顾和梳理环境事实论与环境建构论的基础上,剖析了环境议题呈现的社会机制,并以A市市民反对L垃圾焚烧发电厂建设的过程为例诠释这一机制。研究发现,环境议题的呈现机制包括了群体利益冲突、差异性认知和主张竞争、权力和资源及策略运作三个环节。环境议题不仅是客观环境现象的持续再现,更内卷了人们对环境问题的关注、认知和判断;它的提出、表达和形成正逐步由“政府主导型”和“精英主导型”向“环境利益相关者共构型”过渡;环境议题呈现了不确定性和模式化趋势的特征,这既暗示了风险社会的到来,也见证了公众对环境公正和政治平等日渐强烈的呼声,以及市民社会成长与结构性限制之间的张力。     

The Greens and Social Policy: Movements,Politics and Practice?

The central aim of this paper is to show how different types of green movement respond to questions of social policy. An important factor in this is a difference in attitudes to the state between more anarchistic greens and those greens that are prepared to accept a permanent and/or strategic role for the state. The paper is divided into two parts. In part one, after defning the green movement, it outlines how different green social movements from local groups, direct action protestors, established environmental groups and green political parties, have developed analyses, responses and alternatives to social policy issues. Part two of the paper looks at some of the ideological/theoretical debates within green politics with regard to social policy, with particular regard to the role of the state. It goes on to look at some of the ways in which European green parties have viewed social policy, and at proposals they have advanced for moving the aim of social policy from "welfare" to "well-being". It concludes with suggesting that the "post-materialist" characterization of green politics is very wide of the mark in terms of the range of analyses and policy alternatives greens have put forward, from health, education and drugs to transport. The central and long-standing green concern with lessening socioeconomic inequalities (but without relying on indiscriminate and unsustainable "economic growth") means that in terms of social policy, green politics can be seen as an "environmentalism of the poor", concerned with "materialist" issues.     

机构照料青少年社工介入案例分析

机构照料中的青少年是社会中常见的特殊群体,他们一方面由于特殊的生活经历,在行为模式、感情认知、心理倾向等方面存在偏差;另一方面机构照料存在一些缺陷,很难保证他们的健康成长。为使他们正常成长,社工的介入在此显得十分重要。本文作为社工介入该群体的一个案例,运用团体社会工作的方法,从优势视角出发,帮助T市康教中心来自不完整家庭的的七名青少年,发掘潜能,提高能力,以此实现"助人自助"。     

The Role of Social Marketing in Influencing Consumer Behaviour

Commercial marketers have turned their attention to the social welfare sector and are considering ways in which marketing techniques can be used to promote service use, improvements in life-style, and changing public attitudes. This paper examines the concept of what is termed "social marketing", and looks at the difficulties it faces, and finally discusses the need for social policy analysts to become more aware of the uses of and the issues relating to the increased use of social marketing by governments.     

Regulating product markets: a growing challenge for open economies – with special references to agro-food product markets

In the present phase of internationalisation, processes of social construction of product markets are under stress. On one hand, the internationalisation of production processes gives more room for manoeuvre to the producers. On the other hand, the development of scientific technologies, embedded with new risks and uncertainties, makes it difficult to control the quality of products and production processes. The drive for competitiveness in a world where only free trade arguments seem to be heard limits the willingness of individual countries to take action. International institutions have been unable to launch the international co-ordination that could have helped countries to get out of this deadlock, though they need to fight climate change and pollution as well as the pressing new environmental hazards, which are illustrated with the case of the agro-food product markets in Europe. They should foster international processes of social construction of product markets to learn how to strike a better balance between free trade and safe trade principles before it is too late.     

Inflated States and Empty Theories in Social Work

Summary The recommended knowledge base of social work is seen to bewide-ranging on the one hand, and subject to divides and tensionson the other. This state of affairs is reviewed briefly. Anargument is then developed which maintains that only certaintypes of activity within the considerable range often identifiedas social work, offer a clear suggestion that the job whichis being described is that of social work. These various activitiesand practices appeal to different kinds of theory and knowledge.As the knowledge base and practical possibilities of the jobhave become increasingly elaborate and extensive, an argumentwhich recommends that social workers recover a simplier notionof what they are about also entails the idea that social workis a job which is seen to have necessary and definite limitsto its practice and theory.     

德、位张力与先秦儒家的性命之学——对楚简《唐虞之道》第14至29号简的思想解读

文章系统解读了楚简《唐虞之道》第14至29号简的思想内涵及脉络,认为这部分简文首先通过尧成为天子之原因的追问,突出了德与位的张力问题,即在应然之理上,有位必当有德,但就实然之事看,有德未必有位.简文对这一德位张力有两个层面的解决方案:一方面,要求有德无位者全力修德,谨守性命,安于时命,养成恒常如一的圆满德行,从而能在得位而治时能“利天下而弗利”；另一方面,要求有位者透悟性命之正,从而能主动尚德授贤、退而养生,这既能使贤者居位而利天下,又能退而养生以自利.简文将“七十致政”之礼普遍化,试图断绝天子终身制的构想,也具有深刻的政治哲学意义.     

论防止知识产权滥用的制度理念(英文)

对知识产权滥用的认识,应当构建在清晰梳理知识产权行使行为与知识产权滥用行为之关系的基础上。它们两者之间虽有联系,但决然不能简单等同,因为超越知识产权权利范围行使权利的行为不是滥用行为,知识产权垄断行使行为是否构成滥用需要依其是否具有正当性而做出判断,知识产权不当行使行为与滥用行为有着本质不同。防止知识产权滥用,需要制度理性的思考。防止知识产权滥用的制度理念,一是在法律正义的基础上解决知识产权的利益冲突,对利益冲突与法律正义作出正确的判断,在利益实现与秩序安全之间寻找衡平点;二是在私权基础上关注知识产权的社会功能。现代社会不仅需要高扬私权保护的旗帜,也需要更多地关注权利的社会功能,尤其需要关注社会发展与知识产权社会功能的强化之间的关系。