Action!: Student-Generated Videos in Social Work Education

Experiential learning is a vital aspect of social work education, particularly for teaching community practice. The literature, however, provides few examples of technology-based experiential assignments that educators can implement in their classrooms. This exploratory study examined an innovative student-generated video assignment developed for a social work community practice course. Thirty-seven former students spanning three distinct semesters completed an online survey of closed- and open-ended questions. Findings indicate the video assignment enhanced understanding of community practice and provided a unique diffusion factor. Participants appreciated how the video assignment differed from traditional assignments by offering opportunity for praxis, creativity, and acquisition of technological skills. Educators should note the challenges of student-generated videos to maximize their educational benefit and sustain student receptivity to such assignments. Teaching video-making skills has implications for post-graduation employment in the human service sector.     

未成年人犯罪案件社会调查制度冷思考

藉由基层司法机关之推动,大量运行于我国司法实践的未成年人犯罪案件社会调查制度面临诸多问题:合法性不足及其衍生的制度异化;调查过程走过场与调查结论不可靠;调查报告的肤浅粗放与调查结论的格式化;调查报告影响下的过分量刑迁就和盲目轻刑化.只有科学的制度设计才能彻底解决这些问题,社会调查制度才能回归其本义,也才可能在少年司法中发挥其应有的积极效用.     

A Postmodern Critique of Societal Discourses of Male Violence in Interpersonal Family Relationships: A Balancing Act for Social Work

In recent years, treatments of family violence have tended to be built around conventional discourses suggesting that men are major initiators in instances of interpersonal violence. Utilizing a postmodernist analysis, we assess societal discourses that continue to give life to this narrow conceptualization of interpersonal violence. We also examine literature suggesting that both men and women resort to violence to resolve relationship difficulties and suggest that a more holistic and inclusive approach to understanding interpersonal violence is critical for social workers committed to social justice and a balanced understanding of the contextual nature of human problems.     

Social expenditures and public administration: are local social assistance costs in Sweden a matter of organisation?

Minas R. Social expenditures and public administration: are local social assistance costs in Sweden a matter of organisation?
Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 215–224 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. This study examines the connection between organisational factors and local social assistance expenditures in Swedish municipalities. The organisation of social assistance units, particularly those for the intake of social assistance inquirers, and the possible implications for local social assistance costs are highlighted. The study is based on interview data from medium‐sized Swedish municipalities combined with register data covering the years from 1997 to 2001. The results show that socioeconomic factors have an overall dominant effect, but also that organisational factors co‐vary with local social assistance expenditures. The results show a cost‐reducing effect for special intake units: firstly, when these units are analysed together with other forms of specialisation and secondly, when staff resources are taken into account. Thus, specialised intake organisation by itself does not play a cost‐reducing role, but does so in combination with certain other factors that characterise the internal organisation of the social welfare office.     

No place called home: the causes and social consequences of the UK housing ‘bubble’

This paper examines the key causes and social consequences of the much debated UK ‘housing bubble’ and its aftermath from a multidimensional sociological approach, as opposed to the economic perspective of many popular discussions. This is a phenomenon that has affected numerous economies in the first decade of the new millennium. The discussion is based on a comprehensive study that includes exhaustive analysis of secondary data, content and debate in the mass media and academia, primary data gathered from the monitoring of weblogs and forums debating housing issues, and case histories of individuals experiencing housing difficulties during this period. This paper is intended to provide a broad overview of the key findings and preliminary analysis of this ongoing study, and is informed by a perspective which considers secure and affordable housing to be an essential foundation of stable and cohesive societies, with its absence contributing to a range of social ills that negatively impact on both individual and collective well being. Overall, it is argued that we must return to viewing decent, affordable housing as an essential social resource, that provides the bedrock of stable individual, family and community life, while recognizing that its increasing treatment as a purely economic asset is a key contributor to our so‐called ‘broken society’.     

Learning to negotiate network relations: social support among working mothers living in poverty

This study promotes our understanding of the complex and dynamic role that social support networks play in the everyday life of working mothers living in poverty, by focusing on the processes of negotiation involved in the creation, maintenance and mobilization of social ties. It is based on semi-structured interviews with 12 Israeli-Jewish working mothers who participated in an economic empowerment workshop. Findings indicate that the participants received much social support from relatives, friends and community activists. However, they further reveal the hard hidden work of negotiation and the process of learning involved in obtaining support. Particularly important in this context of poverty was the need to learn how to ask for support by overcoming feelings of shame and concerns about respectability, and to reduce social burdens by, among other things, refusing to participate in the ‘gift economy’ and limiting constraining social relationships. Finally, this study shows how the seemingly divergent interpretations of negotiation in social-exchange theory and symbolic interactionism (reaching an agreement that maximizes benefits versus preserving the relationship) often converge in everyday life situations.     

The Guidance Function of Cases of Misappropriation of Public Funds in Transitional China—With the Reference to Criminal Trial of the Supreme People’s Court of China as a Sample of Analysis

相对于贪污、受贿等传统型腐败犯罪, 挪用公款罪不是常态性罪名, 而是针对社 会转型刑法应对的成果。该罪的立法、司法过程中存在着诸多纠结, 这使得判例参考 的价值凸显。最高人民法院十分重视对该罪判例的公布, 这为现实裁决提供了指导和 参考作用。最近10年所公布挪用公款罪判例折射出司法的重心是: 注重主体身份的实 质公务性、从形式合理性理解“归个人使用”、慎重解释“公款”的内涵。判例公布 在有利于同案同判的同时, 也成为促进理论与实践的助推器。

关键词: 腐败犯罪 挪用公款 社会转型 判例 ?刑事审判参考?

Compared with the traditional offenses of embezzlement, bribe-taking and so on, the misappropriation of public funds is not a routine charge but a result of the response of criminal law to social transition. The fact that a number of difficulties have arisen in legislative and judicial procedures relating to this offense makes the value of case reference material significant. The Supreme People’s Court of China attaches great importance to the publication of cases of misappropriation of public funds, which offer guidance and reference for real-life adjudication. Cases publicized in the last decade reflect a judicial emphasis—they focus on the official nature of the duties performed by the subject, on understanding “for individual use” from the viewpoint of formal rationality and on a cautious interpretation of the connotations of “public funds.” Publicizing such cases facilitates reaching the same verdict in similar cases and at the same time acts as a catalyst for the advancement of theory and practice.     

论现代企业的社会责任

企业在对股东负责的同时,还要承担对利益相关者、社会、国家等的社会责任。中国企业社会责任问题比较严重的主要表现在劳工权益、消费者权益、环境保护、慈善公益事业、企业创新力不足等方面。中国企业社会责任建设首先应从观念上明确企业承担社会责任是大势所趋,树立正确的社会责任意识,同时要完善企业承担社会责任的内外部环境,构建和谐的劳动关系,走环境保护和节能减排的可持续发展之路,提高企业自主创新能力,吸纳安置就业,促进社会和谐稳定。