Challenges to Employment in Newly Emerging African Communities in Australia: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

Newly emerging African communities (NEAC) in Australia face challenges in accessing employment, with consequences for both the immigrant and Australian host communities. This article presents a review of the literature on challenges to employment for NEAC in Australia. It gathers together, synthesises, and analyses previously fragmented evidence that should be used to inform social policy change and social program improvement. It focuses on African refugees and immigrants from the Horn of Africa region (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan) who have settled in Australia in the past 10 years. The review documents the challenges to employment for this group and highlights policy and practice implications including: streamlining the qualification recognition process; introducing culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) specialised job networks; resisting anti-NEAC sentiments, challenging stereotypes, and promoting diversity; introducing incentives to undertake volunteer work; revitalising existing English as a second language pedagogy; empowering CALD-specialised counselling services; and establishing CALD-specialised research and advocacy entities.     

How Parents and Teachers View Their School Communities

ABSTRACT

This study examines the perceptions of more than 11,000 parents and 1,500 teachers about their schools, themselves, and their relationships with each other within their school communities. It provides insights into the health of our public schools, their reservoirs of social capital, and the context they provide for student learning. The nature and strength of relationships within school communities is assayed through examination of parents' and teachers' perceptions about their roles, the roles of students, school–home communication, the common experience and climate of the school, and their face-to-face association with one another. Teachers' perceptions are compared with those of parents, and the perceptions of White, non-Hispanic, Black, non-Hispanic, and Hispanic parents are compared with each other.     

Reshaping to serve evolving communities: Addressing immigrant needs in the library

Abstract

Libraries face evolving communities and must constantly reorient themselves to serve new needs. This article examines the impact of emerging immigrant communities on library services. It discusses the emergence of library services to immigrants and the diverse faces of these services, which may include foreign language collections, access to technology and connections with local services, as appropriately determined through community analysis. The Atwater Library and Computer Centre in Montréal, Québec is examined as a case study of community analysis informing service reorientation. This article will be useful for organizations working with immigrants or community service providers confronted with changing demographics.     

Twice Silenced: The Underreporting of Child Sexual Abuse in Orthodox Jewish Communities

ABSTRACT

Child sexual abuse remains an underreported crime throughout the world, despite extensive research and resources dedicated both to improving investigative techniques and helping children disclose their experiences. The discovery of rampant cover-ups within the Catholic Church has exposed some of the ways religious and cultural issues can impede reporting to authorities. This article examines specific factors that contribute to the underreporting of child sexual abuse within Orthodox Jewish communities. It also explores ways in which these communities have handled child sexual abuse reporting in the past and describes recent progress. Implications are offered for CSA prevention, detection, and recovery in Orthodox Jewish communities as well as other minority religious groups.     

International Review Of Psychoanalysis,Vol. 13, 1986, Part 3

Abstract

The traumatic effect of mass communication in the Mexico City earthquake: crisis intervention and preventive measures. (Abstracted by Monica Lanman)

Adoption and Fostering 1985 Vol. 9, No. 4

Planning into Practice (Abstracted by Veronica Piercy)

British Journal Of Psychotherapy 1986 Vol. 2, No. 4

Shame and Envy (Abstracted by Veronica Piercy)

International Journal Of Therapeutic Communities, Vol. 6, No. 3

Anti-Therapeutic Forms of Cohesiveness in Groups. (Abstracted by Leonard Davis)

The British Journal Of Social Work,1986, Vol. 16, No.l

Bridging the Gap: a Model for Integrating Theory and Practice. (Abstracted by Leonard Davis)

DC Howson F. Devitt & Sons Ltd.     

Supervising Social Workers in Involuntary Contexts: Some Considerations

ABSTRACT

This article outlines areas for reflection for those providing supervision to social workers working in involuntary and semivoluntary contexts. This includes clinical implications, impacts on social work identity, and potential impacts on the supervisory relationship itself. It suggests that there are some areas that could be considered for discussion and exploration that may be different in focus to other types of supervisory practice, encouraging supervisors to consider their own approach in response to the issues raised.

IMPLICATIONS

• Working in involuntary contexts raises specific challenges in relation to power and authority in practice, as well as a range of ethical dilemmas.

• Supervisors might wish to consider the issues raised with a view to exploring with their supervisees how working with involuntary clients changes their framework or approach.

     

Measuring Success in Intentional Communities: A Critical Evaluation of Commitment and Longevity Theories

Abstract

Intentional Communities (ICs) are groups of people that form for a specific agreed-upon purpose and live in close proximity to achieve their desired end. The prevailing scholarship in the study of these communities is that communal processes of commitment, as well as ethnic and linguistic homogeneity, play a strong role in determining a community's success when defined as how long-lived a community was. However, most of these conclusions are based in historical research on communities that no longer exist. In this article, we use survey data collected from present-day ICs to find that those assumptions do not necessarily hold true, and we propose a definition of success that incorporates how well communities report satisfaction fulfilling their intentions. By testing a sample of living ICs, we find that the community decision-making structure is more important than any other factor in determining whether communities reports progress toward this metric of success.     

Leaving Alinsu: Towards a Transformative Community of Practice

Wenger's portrait of Alinsu insurance claims processors as elaborated in Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity remains closely associated with the community of practice model. The enduring metaphor of Alinsu has limited the scope of Wenger's theory to relatively simplistic, closed, and reproductive systems. The model has both reproductive and transformative potential, and it is the latter that has been less widely taken up and developed. In this article I consider ways in which analyzing a different instantiation, the No Outsiders participatory action research project, can reinvigorate and broaden our understandings of the community of practice model and point the way toward the possibility of learning and practice communities that are more transformative and less reproductive.     

Fundamentalisms as Global Social Movements

The proliferation of digital technology—both as hardware and software—provides opportunities for activist groups around the world to connect with one another more rapidly and efficiently than ever before. And as mobile Internet technology (including smartphones, personal digital assistants, and laptops) becomes cheaper and more readily available, the number of services offered to individuals has increased dramatically, including voice communication, Internet browsing, and data transfer. At the same time, the rise in transnational advocacy networks means that non-state actors are garnering new voices and challenging both old and new sites of authority, from local governments and state agencies to regional and international organizations. Based on fieldwork and with a focus on the process of interaction within transnational groups in Southeast Asia, this article adopts a communities of practice (COP) approach and applies it to the impact of digital networking in order to test some of the questions posed about the nature of the so-called technological revolution and to assess the ways in which technological advancement has affected these groups. It hypothesizes that even new and potentially levelling forms of communication can only respond to and reshape the pre-existing social conditions and organizational structures within which network participants function.

La proliferación de la tecnología digital—tanto hardware como software—provee oportunidades a los grupos activistas alrededor del mundo, para conectarse entre sí más rápida y eficientemente que nunca antes. Y así como la tecnología de Internet móvil (que incluye teléfonos inteligentes, asistentes digitales personales y portátiles) se vuelve cada vez más barata y disponible, el número de servicios ofrecidos a los individuos se ha incrementado dramáticamente, incluyendo la comunicación de voz, la navegación de Internet, y la transferencia de datos. Al mismo tiempo, el aumento de las redes trasnacionales de apoyo, es una señal que los actores no estatales están recabando nuevas voces y retando tanto a los viejos como a los nuevos sitios de autoridad, desde los gobiernos locales y agencias estatales, a las organizaciones regionales e internacionales. Este artículo, basado en el trabajo de campo y con un enfoque en el proceso de interacción dentro de los grupos trasnacionales en Asia sudoriental, adopta una visión de comunidades de práctica (COP, por sus siglas en inglés) y la aplica al impacto de las redes digitales para probar algunas de las preguntas planteadas sobre la naturaleza de la así llamada revolución tecnológica, y para evaluar las formas en las que el avance tecnológico ha afectado a estos grupos. Hace hipótesis de que incluso las nuevas y potenciales formas de nivelación de la comunicación tan solo pueden responder y reestructurar las condiciones sociales preexistentes y organizacionales dentro de la red en que los participantes funcionan.

作为同是硬件和软件的数字技术的扩散为世界各地的活动家集团相互之间迅捷联系提供了前所未有的机会。由于移动互联网技术（包括智能手机、个人数字助理和笔记本）变得更加廉价和更易获取,个人获得的服务的数量也在急剧增长,包括语音通讯、互联网浏览以及数据传输。同时,跨国游说网络的兴起意味着非国家行为体正在发出新的声音,挑战包括从地方政府、国家机构到区域与国际组织的老的和新的权威。

基于田野研究和聚焦在东南亚的跨国集团的互动过程,本文采取事件社区（COP）的研究方法,研究数字网络的影响,以便检验有关所谓技术革命的特性等引起的问题的一些,并评估技术升级影响这些集团的方式。本文假定,甚至新的和潜在的通讯升级形式就能够回应和重新塑造已经存在的社会条件和网络参加者赖以行动的组织结构。 ????? ???????? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???? ???? ? ??? ? ????? ??? ????? ??? ??? ????. ??? ??? ??? ??(????, ???? ??? ???? ??)? ? ????? ? ?? ???? ?? ???, ?? ??, ??? ????? ??? ??? ??? ????? ???? ??? ??? ???? ???? ??. ???, ??? ?????? ??? ??? ???? ??? ??? ?? ????? ????? ???????? ???? ????? ????? ??? ??? ??? ???? ?? ????. ? ?? ?? ??? ???? ??????? ??? ?? ?? ???? ??? ??? ??? ?? ????(communities of practice, COP) ??? ???? ??? ??? ?? ??? ??? ???? ??? ??? ???? ??? ??? ????? ??? ???? ??? ??? ??? ?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ????. ? ?? ??? ????? ???? ?? ?????? ???? ???? ????? ???? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???? ?????? ??? ????.

Распространение цифровых технологий - аппаратного и программного обеспечения, дает группам активистов по всему миру возможность общаться друг с другом быстрее и эффективнее чем когда-либо прежде. И поскольку мобильные интернет-технологии (смартфоны, КПК, ноутбуки) становятся более дешевыми и доступными, число услуг, предложенных людям, резко увеличилось, включая голосовые сообщения, интернет-просмотр и передачу данных. В то же самое время рост транснациональных пропагандистских сетей означает, что негосударственные субъекты собирают новые голоса и бросают вызов старым и новым участкам власти, местным органам управления и государственным агентствам, региональным и международным организациям. На основании полевых работ и с акцентом на процесс взаимодействия в рамках транснациональных групп в Юго-Восточной Азии, эта статья перенимает опыт практикующих сообществ (CоP) и применяет его к создаваемым цифровым сетям для того, чтобы ответить на некоторые вопросы о природе так называемой технологической революции и оценить каким образом технический прогресс повлиял на эти группы. Строится гипотеза, что даже новые и потенциально выравнивающие формы общения могут реагировать и изменять только уже существующие социальные условия и организационные структуры, в рамках которых функционируют участники сети.     

Creating shared spaces: developing teaching through peer supervision groups

Abstract

This article examines how university teachers from different disciplines and faculties collaborate by giving feedback on each other’s teaching. This collaborative activity, termed Peer Supervision Groups (PSG), is part of a faculty development course at a Norwegian university. Conceptually the study draws on activity theoretical notions of boundary crossing and boundary objects and is empirically based on observations of a PSG over a period of six months. The article examines how collaborative interactions about teaching across communities emerge in the PSG setting and how this arrangement can be improved for the benefit of developing teaching practices in higher education.     

After the Wave—The Centrelink Social Work Response Offshore

Abstract

Communities worldwide were affected by the tsunamis that struck a dozen Indian Ocean nations on 26 December 2004. More than 300,000 people were killed or left missing as a result of the tragedy. The Australian Government played a key role in the disaster response overseas and in Australia. As part of a whole-of-government response to the crisis, eight Centrelink Social Workers were deployed to tsunami-affected areas for two weeks after the initial disaster to provide personal support to Australian victims and their families. This paper presents the service delivery framework adopted offshore and delineates the role undertaken by the social workers. Drawing on their practice experience, the paper examines some of the challenges, dilemmas, learnings and implications for future service delivery.     

Patterns of linguistic variation among Glaswegian adolescent males1

This article presents the results of an ethnographically informed sociolinguistic investigation of Glaswegian Vernacular and examines the intersection between language and identity using data collected from a group of working‐class adolescent males, over the course of three years, from a high school in the south side of Glasgow, Scotland, called Banister Academy. Through the fine‐grained acoustic analysis of the phonetic variable cat (equivalent to the trap/bath/palm set, Johnston 1997 ), coupled with ethnographic observations, this article shows how patterns of variation are related to Community of Practice membership, how the members of the Communities of Practice in Banister Academy use linguistic and social resources to differentiate themselves from one another, and how certain patterns of variation acquire social meaning within the peer‐group. This article contributes to the under‐researched area of adolescent male language use and offers one of the first ethnographically supported accounts of linguistic variation in Glasgow.     

Revisiting IR in a Time of Crisis

Abstract

The sense of crisis, fueled by military conflicts, the failures of neoliberal globalization and ecological degradation, is everywhere. Neoconservative agendas and cuts in educational spending are shrinking space for critical thinking necessary for understanding the impacts of these crises on ordinary people's lives. This article examines some indigenous responses to these various crises. It reexamines IR's Westphalia triumphalist narrative about the origins of the nation-state system from the perspective of those who suffered the consequences of European expansion. Emphasizing the importance of rewriting their histories, indigenous peoples are offering very different models of world order and ways of life that are more sensitive to resource and ecological constraints. Although indigenous women have a complex relationship with feminism, indigenous knowledge is strikingly similar to certain feminist thinking. Indigenous epistemologies are hermeneutic and reflexive, seeking to uncover hidden histories and new knowledge from those whose voices have rarely been heard. The article outlines some visions of world order and national sovereignty offered by indigenous peoples in Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Central and North America, demonstrating parallels with feminist thought. It concludes by reflecting on obstacles, similar to those faced by feminists, standing in the way of alternative forms of knowledge being taken seriously by the discipline of International Relations.     

Confronting Uncertainty: Lessons from Rural Social Work

Abstract

Communities in Australia and internationally are experiencing massive change. Climate variability is an aspect of change that social workers in Australia, particularly in rural areas, are grappling with. Vulnerable populations will be at increased risk as extreme weather events increase in frequency. Communities will be facing social challenges hitherto unknown. The experience of uncertainty and fragmentation as characteristics of postmodernism has exposed the ambiguous and contested nature of much of social work practice and contributed to a crisis of confidence for the social work profession. The move towards rationality and linear approaches in the postwelfare state is often at odds with the complexity and uncertainty of human situations that has always been social work terrain. It can be argued that social work, with its ethical base, person-in-environment approach, expertise in ambiguity and complexity, and recognition of context, is well-placed to manage postmodern uncertainty. Using the 2009 Victorian bushfire example, I argue that an uncertain future is an opportunity for social workers, those working in rural areas in particular, to reassert social work's moral purpose in working with communities facing change. Implications for social work policy, practice, and education are briefly explored.     

“Live Social Work”: How to Bring Life Back into Social Work

Abstract

In this article I discuss how professional social work can entail critical, reflexive work. This is accomplished by adapting the concept of “live sociology”. It is mainly an exploratory article, trying to raise suggestions that can be adopted and be further developed. I argue that people coming into contact with contemporary social work are sometimes reduced to being “dead” objects, as they are pinned down into static categories. The demand for developing evidence-based social work risks substantiating this tendency even further. In contrast, I claim that social work needs to move away from these kinds of explanations and instead turn towards developing “live social work”; that is to say, social work where everyday life, agency, and what people do in what context needs to be the focus, not what people are.     

Building resilient communities: Social work practice and rural Queensland

Abstract

This paper applies the notion of community resiliency to rural and regional Queensland and explores the role of human services and practitioners in developing this resiliency. Communities can be considered as being ‘resilient’ when they respond to crises in ways that strengthen communal bonds, resources and the community's capacity to cope. Increasingly, community resiliency has become the focus of international research (Kulig and Brown 1996; 1997), In our work, we have been exploring alliance-building between practitioners and their communities in several research projects in rural and regional Queensland. We argue that these alliances contribute significantly to the building of resiliency and are a potential site for further work in strengthening and sustaining rural communities. The implications of community resiliency for social work practice are discussed.     

The algorithmic imaginary: exploring the ordinary affects of Facebook algorithms

ABSTRACT

This article reflects the kinds of situations and spaces where people and algorithms meet. In what situations do people become aware of algorithms? How do they experience and make sense of these algorithms, given their often hidden and invisible nature? To what extent does an awareness of algorithms affect people's use of these platforms, if at all? To help answer these questions, this article examines people's personal stories about the Facebook algorithm through tweets and interviews with 25 ordinary users. To understand the spaces where people and algorithms meet, this article develops the notion of the algorithmic imaginary. It is argued that the algorithmic imaginary – ways of thinking about what algorithms are, what they should be and how they function – is not just productive of different moods and sensations but plays a generative role in moulding the Facebook algorithm itself. Examining how algorithms make people feel, then, seems crucial if we want to understand their social power.     

Sociological Theories of Poverty in Urban America

ABSTRACT

Since the 1950s, American sociologists have developed a substantial literature on poverty in urban American communities. This literature review examines some of these sociological theories of poverty and identifies four major explanations of urban poverty: social stratification, (including segregation and racism); lack of access to social capital; cultural and value norms; and social policies. The literature review concludes with a conceptual framework that focuses on multiple relationships that link theory to practice related to the reduction of poverty in inner-city communities.     

Transnational communities and business systems

The paper examines the concept of ‘transnational communities’ as a way of understanding globalization practices in business and management. It argues that ‘transnational communities’ are emergent properties of the internationalizing of economic activity. Three specific aspects of this process are considered in detail: the development of multinational companies; the development of international regulatory bodies; and the development of cognitive and normative frameworks through the practices of business education, management consultancies and other global professional service firms. It is argued that in each case, transnational spaces are emerging; within these spaces, transnational communities are developing. The article calls for more research into the diverse nature of these spaces and communities as a way of avoiding the sterile polarities of what Held et al. (1999) refer to as the ‘hyperglobalists’ and the ‘sceptics’.     

Emerging Issues

SUMMARY

Restorative Justice is coming into focus for many faith communities as an important shift in response to crime. This paper examines the history of our response to crime and describes the response of a number of faith communities. Extended treatment is given to the November 2000 statement by the United States Catholic Bishops, Responsibility, Rehabilitation and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice. Their approach to crime and criminal justice is reviewed, including a special emphasis on the Catholic Church's teaching on the option for the poor and includes policy recommendations for church and society. Examples of activity at the local, state and national levels are given. The paper documents some effects of the bishops' statement on community and legislative activity at the local, state and national levels.