She persisted: the pursuit,persistence, & power of African American women in social work graduate programs at Historically Black Institutions (HBI)

Social work graduate programs have long grappled with ways to attract and retain students at the intersection of race and gender. The central structure of this analysis is a hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative study on the pursuit and persistence of African-American women in graduate Social Work programs at a Historically Black Institution (HBI). The data in this article were derived from the responses of 13 participants written in their own words. The themes that emerged around the pursuit of a social work degree were (a) service to Black communities, (b) resistance to misrecognition, and (c) a seat at the table. After sharing the salient characteristics of the findings, the article opens a discussion around the significance of HBIs in educating social workers to work in urban communities and the implications for policy and practice.     

Identifying as an evidence-based social worker: the influence of attitudes,access, confidence,and education

This study explored United States-based social workers’ (N = 152) attitudes toward, access to, and confidence in engaging in evidence-based practice (EBP), the extent to which social work education prepared them to engage in EBP, and the factors that contributed to their identification as an evidence-based practitioner. Findings indicated that although practitioners had a positive attitude toward engaging in EBP, they were only moderately confident in doing so, rarely accessed evidence, and were only moderately prepared through their education. Believing that EBP should be implemented, more educational preparation, and positive attitudes contributed to greater identification as an evidence-based practitioner, areas that social work and continuing education should further support to enhance social workers’ EBP skills.     

The Peasant World in the Discourse of Generational Sorrow

This article spells out the methodological considerations and various procedural and methodological subtleties developed over the author's quarter century of sociological field studies of Russia's peasant worlds. Particular attention is paid to “voices from below”—peasant discursive formats that capture, in natural and undiluted form, the evolution of peasant practices constituting the core of everyday life. In particular, the phenomenon of generational sorrow and a special chronological nostalgia that functions as a “social gyroscope” is identified and discursively captured. This phenomenon is noteworthy and useful for its ability to retain a record of the productively longed for past in a rural community's collective memory and thereby influence new peasant worlds taking shape today.     

重庆市农民工市民化的教育培训资源统筹对策

城乡统筹的实质是资源的统筹.在重庆市“千万农民变市民”的社会大试验中,教育与培训将发挥重要作用.目前,重庆市农民工的教育与培训存在较多问题,直接影响了农民工市民化的进程,根源在于资源统筹乏力.应当根据科学发展观的要求,加强重庆市农民工的教育培训资源统筹.文章对重庆市实施制度、机构、经费、师资、信息资源这“五大统筹”和统筹模式变革提出了对策建议.     

Making Space for the Maid

Chinese television dramas over the past decades have seen the rise and decline of various narratives, but no other narratives speak to the emerging urban middle class's fear and anxiety more palpably than the stories of the maid. However, despite the growing popularity of the maid stories among urban viewers, most of these stories do not resonate with domestic workers themselves. How do we make sense of the growing popularity of the maid stories among urban viewers? And how do we account for the differentiated capacity to resonate and identify with the characters among viewers? These are important questions to consider if one is to understand the new cultural politics of power and social formations in post-Mao China. In this paper, I explore some of the crucial ways in which a controlling gaze is facilitated and naturalised by the visualisation of place and space in these dramas. Then, through both critical analyses and engaged ethnography, I demonstrate how two sets of controlling gaze—everyday and televisual—reinforce and justify each other. Finally, I advance the concept of “peripheral vision,” which, I show, denies the modernist “master” narrative of the city and, instead, empowers the subaltern figure with an epistemological position of “eye-witness” and anthropologist of the city.     

South African social workers' knowledge of attachment theory and their perceptions of attachment relationships in foster care supervision

Despite the prominence of attachment theory in international foster care literature and the importance of attachment relationships in successful foster care, attachment theory and practices do not feature prominently in South African foster care research. Against this backdrop, we interviewed twenty South African social workers' about their knowledge of attachment theory and their perceptions of attachment relationships in their own foster care work. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the interviews. We found that the social workers had limited knowledge of attachment theory and interventions; experienced most biological parents as unmotivated to improve their circumstances and attachment relationships with children; indicated that family reunifications were rare occurrences; reported foster parents were mostly kin; and experienced constraining contextual factors that hindered optimal consideration of attachment relationships in foster care supervision.     

Three Approaches to Understanding Self-Help Groups

With the increasing importance of self-help groups, professionals need to augment their understanding of how groups work in order to help clients make effective use of them. Three conceptual frameworks-social networks, social learning and cognitive theory-explain the basic psychosocial processes of self-help groups. Practice implications indicate how clients can benefit from self-help groups and suggest how professionals might enable their clients to realize the full benefits of participation in them.     

金融危机背景下大龄返乡农民工养老保障模式与政策支撑

金融危机对我国中小型企业产生了巨大影响，企业的经营困难造成了一大批失业返乡的农民工，而其中的大龄农民工面临着更为严峻的困境。如何解决他们养老保障问题成为当今社会关注的热点。对现实生活中大龄返乡农民工养老面临的四大困境分析表明，从国家养老保障政策的支持、社会养老关系网络的构建、充分发挥受保主体的自保能力三个层面来构建金融危机后大龄返乡农民工养老保障的模式．具有一定的现实意义和价值。     

西北欠发达民族地区农民的政治参与研究——以甘藏沟村为例

政治参与是普通公民通过各种合法方式参加政治生活,并影响政治体系的构成、运行方式、运行规则和政策过程的行为。研究发现,经济发展缓慢,农民文化程度低等因素的影响,西北欠发达民族地区农民的政治参与度较低。应大力发展经济和教育,提高地方政府绩效,使农民的政治参与向着制度化、有序化的方向健康发展。     

漂泊的洞察——我的学术研究之路

本文作者作为中国恢复高考制度后的第一届大学生,以亲身经历讲述了其学术成长之路。其学术研究从五个方面概括:一是都市人类学,包括乡村都市化、城市少数民族以及传统乡村研究主题在城市的延续;二是农民工研究,从发起农民工研究,到散工研究,从"二元社区"研究到"打工经济"研究等;三是乡村研究,以凤凰村为起点,研究了岭南、中部以及西部的乡村社会;四是族群研究,以澳门族群研究为起点,对中国族群认同与关系作研究;五是应用研究。