Agency Function and Social Work Principles

Summary The concept of agency function is examined in relation to thenature of the social work task. It is often the case that agencyfunction is seen more as a problem for social work and not asone of its characteristics. It is argued in this paper thatthe agency itself is not responsible for the apparently delicatestate of present day social work, but that on the contrary,the failure to appreciate social work's relationship to societyand social processes in part accounts for its uncertain condition.     

Questioning Contingency in Social Life: Roles,Agreement and Agency

Structure/agency theories presuppose that there is a unity to structure that distinguishes it from the (potential) diversity of agents' responses. In doing so they formally divide the robust social processes shaping the social world (structure) from contingent agential variation (agency). In this article we question this division by critically evaluating its application to the concept of role in critical realism and structural functionalism. We argue that Archer, Elder‐Vass and Parsons all mistakenly understand a role to have a singular structural definition which agents may then diverge from. Drawing on the work of Gross, Mason and McEachern we argue instead that if agents diverge in their conceptions of what role incumbents should do, there is no single role definition, but rather a range of diverse role‐expectations. Acknowledging this can help us to understand variation in role behaviour, with different incumbents potentially being more exposed to some expectations than others. We argue that considering roles in this way can extend the ability of social scientists to identify robust social processes shaping role behaviour and decrease the extent to which they need to call on contingent factors in such explanations.     

Worker Participation and the Social Service Agency

Summary Is there real sharing of decision-making responsibility withinsocial service agencies? What hope is there for participationby the consumer of services if the agency worker nearest andmost relevant to him has little voice or leverage within theorganization? This paper examines the notion of worker participationwithin the context of the social services department and theprobation service, noting the imperfections of the ‘publicmandate’ behind the authority structure of these organizations.Above all it looks for continuity between the values socialservice agencies publicly represent and the values in theirday-to-day dealings with their own staff and clients. Currenttrade union proposals for worker representation at committeelevel are considered, and Dutch experience in extending theworkers' council from the industrial to the social welfare sphereis presented as one alternative model.     

Social Structure and Social Relations

This paper replies to Porpora, King, and Varela's responses to my earlier paper “For Emergence”, focussing on the relationship between the concepts of social structure and social relations. It recognises the importance of identifying the mechanisms responsible whenever we make claims for the emergence of causal powers, and discusses the mechanism underlying one case of social structure: normative institutions. It also shows how critical realism reconciles the claims that both social structures and human individuals have emergent causal powers that combine to produce actual social events.     

俄罗斯的社会转型与社会阶层分化

20世纪80年代,俄罗斯社会开始转型,90年代以后,俄罗斯的社会阶层发生了明显的分化。本文主要从以下几个方面描述和分析俄罗斯的社会阶层分化：1、社会收入的差距（包括个人的收入差距,政府各部门之间、社会各行业之间的收入差距,俄罗斯区域间的收入差距）。2、“社会边缘群体”和“新贫困者”。“社会边缘群体”是一些不能确定自己的社会地位和群体归属的“被社会边缘化”的人群。“新贫困者”是指前苏联时期,以教授、工程师和医生等知识分子为主体的社会阶层,俄罗斯社会改革前,他们生活安逸,有很高的社会地位,而现在却生活艰难,变成了俄罗斯的穷人。3、新中产阶级。 俄罗斯在社会政治、经济转型过程中,旧的以知识分子为核心的社会中间阶层消失了,出现了新的以企业主为中心的中产阶级,俄罗斯新中产阶级的出现使俄罗斯的社会阶级结构发生了巨大的变化。     

社会转型与教育变迁

社会转型是一种必然现象。社会转型要引发其他组织机构的变迁。作为社会重要组成部分的教育,在重大的社会转型过程中受到政治、经济、文化等诸多方面的影响,尤以经济的影响为甚。从经济的视野分析教育的变迁,教育从第一部门中分离出来是社会转型的必然结果,而从第一部门中分离出来转为第二部门,然后再转为第三部门是其发展的主流,并且第三部门是教育发展的最终归宿。     

Social Structure,Economic Performance and Pareto Optimality

This paper shows that, if the performance of the economy is independent of the identities of individuals, then many welfare criteria yield sets of optimal social states that are equal to the Pareto optimal set. This result is proved for income distributions and extended to more general social choice problems. If the independence condition holds, then the set of optimal states is invariant to the adoption of an anonymity axiom, and to the utility information available.     

Fully Unconscious and Prone to Habit: The Characteristics of Agency in the Structure and Agency Dialectic

While the human agent must have the capacity for reflexivity, intentionality and consciousness, the same agent must also be affected by the social world in which she lives: herein lies the essence of the structure and agency dialectic. This paper argues that while some realists are in principle committed to a dialectical relationship between structure and agency, there is some dissonance between this commitment and the concepts of agency that they develop. I highlight the exclusion of the unconscious and habit from realist notions of agency and argue that this oversight serves to unbalance the dialectic between structure and agency thereby leading to the over‐empowerment of agency. The concepts of agency developed by Margaret Archer, Anthony Giddens and Pierre Bourdieu are discussed in this paper. Archer's concept of agency is argued to focus exclusively on reflexivity whilst neglecting to include the unconscious and habit. Giddens is shown to develop a much improved concept of agency, which includes the unconscious, however, his rejection of the independent causal powers of structure and agency problematises his commitment to the dialectic. A much improved approach to theorising agency, developed within a critical realist framework, is offered drawing on Bourdieu's concept of habitus. The paper concludes with a discussion of gender, and considers how the unconscious and habit can help to better understand the myriad ways in which gender functions in society.     

Retrenchment, Expansion and the Transformation of Mexican Social Protection Policies

Social protection policies in Mexico have been transformed since 1988 through partial retrenchment of social insurance and significant expansion of targeted or means-tested social assistance. These changes reflect a substantial redefinition of social protection through incremental changes in policy. The changes reflect the abandonment of the goal of developing an employment-based, universal welfare regime, which had been pursued by Mexican governments as late as the 1970s. Instead, recent administrations have moved towards the redefinition of Mexico's welfare regime into a residual, means-tested model with significant private provision of benefits and services. This shift in social protection is consistent with the change in Mexico's overall economic development strategy and increasing political competition in the process of democratization.     

区域社会转型与城市居民的社会资本研究

本文使用CGSS2006调查数据,分析了城市社会转型对居民社会资本获取和动员过程的具体影响。研究发现,在社会资本获得过程中,城市社会转型不会影响居民社会资本的地位效应却影响了居民社会资本网络位置效应,“超大城市”居民在社会网络资本的“网络位置效应”因子均值上显著地低于“小城市”居民;随着城市规模的增大,市场化程度对教育的社会资本地位效应获取率的负向影响有越来越小。在社会资本动员过程中,市场化程度与社会资本地位效应因子的经济回报率正相关,而与社会资本网络位置效应的经济回报率不相关。     

Animals,Agency and Resistance

In this paper we develop a relational approach to the question of animal agency. We distinguish between agency and action and, using three examples of non‐human animal behaviour, explore how human‐other animal interactions might be understood in terms of action, agency and resistance. In order to do this we draw on the distinction between primary and corporate agency found in the work of Margaret Archer, arguing that, while non‐human animals are able to act and to exercise primary agency, they are unable to exercise corporate agency. Animals are therefore agents; they act and their actions have consequences, they also resist conditions which they do not like and, in some circumstances, are able to change the conditions of their agency. We discuss the place of animals in the social world and the political implications of this way of viewing animal agency.     

The Role of Structure in Effective Agency Advocacy

Structured accountability at every agency level is essential for effective advocacy. The Lancaster model illustrates this. The structure requires commitment to the advocacy issue, clear role definition for staff, board and community members, mandated involvement of staff, board and community members (clients, professionals and people who have experienced the problem), and documentation and evaluation throughout the process.     

市场转型理论与社会整合

市场转型理论并没有直接言说社会整合议题,它的主题是社会与 分层。其主要的观点是,从计划再分配体制向市场体制的转型,将同时 出现产权私有化、精英权力转移和利益群体重组。因而环绕它的争论 集中在三个问题上:谁占有产权?谁控制管理?谁获得较多报酬?对 这些问题的回答直接涉及整合机制的变动问题,可以概括地说是产权 关系的整合、权力支配关系的整合和利益群体的整合(以下简称产权整 合、权力整合和利益整合)。我将着重评述关于产权整合和权力整合的     

社会工作机构与政府组织的相互嵌入及其影响

由于政府的主导推动和社工机构对政府资源的强依赖,社工机构在创建及运作过程中与政府之间呈现出相互嵌入的倾向和特点,其中政府对社工机构的嵌入突出表现为一种结构性的强嵌入,而社工机构对政府的嵌入则是一种制度性和职能性的弱嵌入。本文以上海市自强社会服务总社等三家社工机构为例,来具体分析社工机构与政府之间如何相互的嵌入,以及这种相互嵌入对社工机构的实际运作及长远发展又产生怎样的冲击与影响。     

Client Careers and the Structure of a Probation and After-care Agency

Summary This paper describes the results of a research project in whichthe first year's work of a newly-established Probation CourtIntake and Assessment Team was monitored. The subsequent changesin the practices of the probation officers are analyzed in relationto client careers and organizational boundaries; some implicationsfor social work practice are discussed.