The place of informality and illegality in planning education in Nigeria

This paper discusses the extent to which topical planning issues of informality and illegality are incorporated into the educational curricula in Nigerian planning schools. Given the scale and enormity of informal and illegal settlements in Nigeria and other African cities, these issues should be emphasized in the education and training of planning professionals. Yet, few curricula in Nigerian planning schools, including the Nigerian Town Planners Registration Council’s professional curriculum, incorporate informal urban issues. The paper recommends an educational interventionist approach based on recognition of the potential of indigenous knowledge as a means of producing critical and reflective planning graduates who possess the competencies to deal with contemporary settlement challenges. It presents the institutional landscape for planning education and the processes of planning curricular reform and accreditation with a view to revitalizing planning education in Nigeria.     

Implementation of Child Rights in the Children's Homes in Malaysia

The objective of this study was to examine the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in the Children Homes under the Social Welfare Department (SWD) in Malaysia. Data was collected from 402 registered children who were staying in six Children Homes across the country. This study employed self‐report surveys where multiple data collection methods, such as face‐to‐face structured interviews, key informant interviews (KIIs), and documentation survey, were used. The study found that the SWD failed to comply with most of the commitments of CRC in Children Homes at its implementation level, and it is still needs based. The findings of this study present important guidelines for government and policy makers in improving child welfare services in the Children Homes in Malaysia.     

Applying anticipatory and relational perspectives to the Nigerian delta region oil crisis

This paper addresses crisis communication shortcomings of oil companies working in the Nigerian delta region. The anticipatory model of crisis communication is blended with the public relations relational perspective to demonstrate how oil companies have responded to crises in the delta region in a manner contrary to what would be consistent with these perspectives. The result has been persistent turmoil in the region and significant distrust of the organizations.     

If One Goes Up the Other Must Come Down: Examining Gender Differences and Understanding of Models of Learning Style: A Non-Western Perspective

Models of learning style or approaches to learning have been operationalized in the Learning Process Questionnaire (LPQ). Guided by an assumed framework, the authors examine the construct validity of the LPQ in Botswana and investigate the similarities and differences in the process of learning in a non-Western context. Six structural equation modeling are used to test the association between cross-cultural variability and learning. Responses to this instrument are shown to have good internal consistency reliability, and support is provided for its construct validity in terms of its factorial structure. Results further reveal support for dimensions of deep and surface strategies, despite the differences in learning conceptualizations. The strategies utilized by students in the Western educational context are similar to those used by their African counterparts. Taken together, the interaction of gender and culture, makes us propose a relationship between culture, learning and life adaptations, thus extending the concept of learning style to account for the influence of culture. Tentatively, conceptual issues in learning process and suggestions for further research are presented.     

Johnson and Johnson phantom recall: A fall from grace or a re-visit of the ghost of the past

This paper addresses and evaluates the case of Johnson and Johnson's crisis management. In an attempt to analyze the case, the paper overviews Johnson and Johnson's Tylenol product tampering in the 1980s and its recent phantom recall of Children's Motrin. The assessment of the company's crisis management was done using the anticipatory model of crisis management (AMCM). Conclusions drawn from this assessment put Johnson and Johnson in a different spotlight than it had enjoyed during its earlier crisis management efforts. Implications for organizational crisis management efforts are also presented.     

“Build a friendship with them”: The discourse of “at‐risk” as a barrier to relationship building between young people who trade sex and social workers

Young people in statutory care and protection interact with social workers, who hold potential to provide a supportive adult role in their lives. Many however, run away at an early age and end up on the street trading sex for money or other favours. There is potential to improve outcomes for young people in care if the relationship between young people and their social workers is better addressed. This paper uses data from a qualitative study of 14 young people who traded sex and who had experienced interactions with social workers. A thematic analysis identified three themes: the rigidity of social work practice; contesting the family situation; and resisting the at‐risk label. We argue that to have any impact on outcomes for young people in care, social workers need to prioritise relationship‐building above the need to conform to organizational protocols and guidelines. Such guidelines assist the social worker in assessing whether family situations pose high risk for a young person, but the “at‐risk” label is contested by young people, which results in a lack of trust and a barrier to relationship building.     

Nurturing “Critical Hope” in Teaching Feminist Social Work Research

Despite the congruence between critical feminist values and the cardinal values of the social work profession, feminist research in social work has lagged behind its feminist cousins in the social sciences, particularly in terms of critical uses of theory, reflexivity, and the troubling of binaries. This article presents as praxis our reflections as researchers, teachers, and feminists inside social work. We draw from a review of feminist social work research and offer suggestions for teaching critical feminist approaches in social work research. Incorporating critical feminist values and research practices into social work research courses creates the potential for greater integration of research, practice, and the principal values of our profession.     

(Re)tracing queerness: archiving indentureship’s ‘coolie homo/erotic’

The erotic lifeworld of Indian indentureship remains buried. This visual essay probes the ‘coolie homoerotic’ as a creative reflection on the place of the homoerotic and queerness within the trans-oceanic lifeworld of coolie indentureship. It uses the methodology of visual assemblage to creatively and critically engage with a rare archival record of alleged sodomy on a coolie ship, the Mersey, bound for British Guiana from Calcutta in 1898. The author uses the archival document, as a residue of homoerotic possibility, to re-trace and deliberately reconfigure the historically present narrative of indentureship through a seven-image collection entitled Postcards from the Perineum. In critically responding to Victorian imagery of moral-labour discipline, the postcards were produced using techniques such as photography, sketching, painting, crafting and body printing. The aim is to visually and imaginatively open up a space for contemplating an aesthetic-eroto-political field of knowledge production in relation to the violence and indignities of indentureship. In doing so, the essay also suggests that indentureship is a site of contrapuntal queerness, through which we might critically provoke normative understandings of this term.     

Undoing Islamophobia: Awareness of Orientalism in Social Work

Islamophobia describes the racism, exploitation, and violence experienced by Arabs, individuals of Arab descent, and Muslims. Although social workers are meant to challenge social injustice, social work codes of ethics and the literature are without guidance for unlearning Islamophobia. Arguing that one’s ability to interrupt Islamophobia is strengthened by an understanding of the historical record and theoretical tenets of Orientalism, we offer social workers explicit linkages between Orientalism and Islamophobia and engage with the idea of Islamo-racism. In this article, we attend to the ways in which Orientalism is used to “other” individuals while strengthening white hegemony, and we link those processes with Islamophobia and Islamo-racism. We conclude with some strategies derived from postcolonial theory to disrupt Islamophobia.