Nature and social work pedagogy: How U.S. social work educators are integrating issues of the natural environment into their teaching

ABSTRACT

The article presents a study of how U.S. social work educators are including discussion, exercises, readings, and other pedagogical approaches to the natural environment into their classrooms. The findings are part of a larger, naturalistic study that gathered data using a semi-structured interview format. The three major themes that emerged were human behavior theory, ecological and environmental justice, and environmental sustainability. The participants are introducing issues of the natural environment using varied pedagogical techniques including readings, in-class discussions and exercises, service learning, assignments, including written and practical work, research, self-awareness exercises, and class facilitation. Questions for further investigation of social work and the natural environment are included.     

数字媒介视域下的文化记忆研究

文化记忆媒介经历多次嬗变,从口述媒介、书写媒介、印刷媒介到当下的数字媒介。媒介嬗变为文化记忆当下化提供了基本的结构框架,尤其是数字媒介,对文化记忆的储存、传播和表现产生了诸多新影响。首先,它极大地提升了文化记忆的储存能力,也产生了“数字黑暗时代”问题;其次,它有利于传播个体关于文化记忆的观点和评价,放大了各群体间关于文化记忆的认知差异,改变了文化记忆的水平传播和垂直传播;最后,它为文化记忆的表现带来了非线性叙事,产生了超文本和超作者,并为文化记忆文本提供了互文性链接,提高了多叙事主体间互动频率。不仅如此,数字媒介的影响还延展至文化记忆的代际延续和集体认同领域。     

法之来源探究：以霍布斯对柯克的批判为视角

在霍布斯死后发表的著作《一位哲学家与英格兰普通法学者的对话》中，霍布斯站在哲学家的立场与以柯克爵士为代表的普通法学家展开了激烈的交锋，在他们的交锋中有关法律来源的问题无疑是全书的重心。法律来源于对正义的追求和捍卫，这是两者共同认可并遵循的，但是柯克认为，正义应该服从亚里士多德的定义，即正义就是“给每个人属于他自己的一份”，而霍布斯则批判柯克的正义观趋于抽象，容易导致实际上的不正义；针对法律最高权威来源问题，柯克认为法律最高权威来源于法学者，而霍布斯则认为国王才是最高法律权威；关于习俗是否具有等同于法律的效力，柯克本人持肯定态度，霍布斯则持否定意见。     

A Grounded Theory of Sexual Minority Women and Transgender Individuals’ Social Justice Activism

Psychosocial benefits of activism include increased empowerment, social connectedness, and resilience. Yet sexual minority women (SMW) and transgender individuals with multiple oppressed statuses and identities are especially prone to oppression-based experiences, even within minority activist communities. This study sought to develop an empirical model to explain the diverse meanings of social justice activism situated in SMW and transgender individuals’ social identities, values, and experiences of oppression and privilege. Using a grounded theory design, 20 SMW and transgender individuals participated in initial, follow-up, and feedback interviews. The most frequent demographic identities were queer or bisexual, White, middle-class women with advanced degrees. The results indicated that social justice activism was intensely relational, replete with multiple benefits, yet rife with experiences of oppression from within and outside of activist communities. The empirically derived model shows the complexity of SMW and transgender individuals’ experiences, meanings, and benefits of social justice activism.     

Reconciling care and justice in contesting social harm through performance and arts practice with looked after children and care leavers

The proportion of young people taken into the care of the state has increased recently and there is evidence that this social group suffer negative long‐term outcomes that might be conceptualised by the emergent criminological category of ‘social harm’. Debates in social work around an ethics of care and justice offer different ways of thinking about responding to social harm. This paper reports findings from an innovative arts‐based intervention with Looked After Children and young people and concludes that holding these competing value sets in creative tension is central to the success of the programme in helping young people to cope with and contest social harm.     

Fiddling while the planet burns? COP25 in perspective

ABSTRACT

With fires, storms, social protests, and climate strikes sweeping the world, 2019 should have been a tipping point in how the world responds to global heating. This was the backdrop to the COP25 climate change summit which took place in Madrid in December 2019. This paper assesses the outcomes of the meeting and the path towards the critically important meeting in Glasgow at the end of 2020. It analyses and explains the key points of contention over levels of ambition, the rules which should govern global carbon markets and sensitive issues such as loss and damage associated with the impacts of climate change. The analysis is situated within a broader geopolitical and economic context of right-wing populism, deepening forms of marketization and financialization of responses to climate change and against a background of a world increasingly feeling the effects of the climate crisis.     

Intergenerational Activities that Promote Engaging Conversations are Preferred among Young and Older Adults

ABSTRACT

Loneliness negatively affects young and older adults. Intergenerational activities foster social connectedness. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, this study explored which intergenerational activities are most enjoyable for college students and retirement community residents. Demographics, loneliness, enjoyment, conversation level, and type of activity were analyzed. The enjoyment and conversation variables were positively correlated (r = .59, p < .001) which was supported by participants’ narratives. Both populations most enjoyed the activities with higher conversation levels, with the first being committees, followed by meals, one on one activities, and transportation. Retirement communities and universities should promote intergenerational activities, which include meaningful conversations.     

Side-by-Side on Stage - Music and Drama Form a Bridge between Acting Students and People with Dementia in an Intergenerational Group Work

ABSTRACT

This article presents an intergenerational music and drama therapy groups comprised of twelve people with dementia residing in a nursing home and twelve acting students from the community.

The qualitative research aimed to explore the students’ attitudes towards elderly people, and to understand the role of creative arts therapies in facilitating intergenerational relationships. Qualitative content analysis of students’ weekly reports and questionnaires revealed the gradual process of connection between the students and people with dementia. Engaging in a creative act helped the students to discover the strengths and abilities of people with dementia and to see beyond the disease.     

Caring by Silence: How (Un)documented Brazilian Migrants Enact Silence as a Care Practice for Aging Parents

ABSTRACT

While existing work on transnational aging and care has largely focused on the substance of transnational communication and what is being said, this article examines what is being ‘silenced’ during transnational exchange. I argue that to better understand aging and intergenerational caregiving we need to pay careful attention to what is not being said during transnational contacts, suggesting that silence and ‘communication voids’ are often formulated and enacted as a care practice. Drawing on ethnographic research with Brazilian migrants in the United States whose aging parents live in Brazil, I illustrate how migrants curate their lives abroad and sieve their lived experiences as an act of care for their aging parents back home. In so doing, I reveal the significance of faith as a coping strategy in the process of silencing and concealing emotions and as a means to fight loneliness, cope with adversity, and protect family exchanges.     

Coping with Vulnerabilities in Old Age and Retirement: Cross-border Mobility,Family Relations and Social Networks of German Retirees in Alanya

ABSTRACT

Reduced income upon retirement is a vulnerability threat, which increases dependency on public provisions, familial, and/or social (community) support. Many German retirees, in addition to lifestyle motivations, move to low-cost destinations in order to maintain an autonomous and independent life while minimizing the risks of financial worsening. In this article, I discuss the vulnerability patterns of German retirees in the Mediterranean coastal town of Alanya, Turkey, and the role of social networks, with a particular focus on intergenerational family relations. I argue that, despite increased life satisfaction, relocation to a new destination abroad results in new emerging threats. German retirees in Alanya experience difficulties in terms of a lack of intergenerational family support and the double jeopardy of being framed by the legal regulations of two nation states. Based on the findings of the empirical research conducted in Alanya in 2017, I will demonstrate new threats emerged after relocation and how retirees respond to those with new coping strategies.