The Changing Conditions of Social Work Research

Summary This paper seeks to make a contribution to the current debateabout the changing nature and purpose of social work research.It identifies several approaches to social work research evidentin the UK and further afield and, in particular, examines differentways of engaging with research participants in the researchprocess. The changing role and relations of research arisingfrom the use of more inclusive practices are then considered;first in terms of the relevance of research for practice, andsecondly, in relation to knowledge claims in the developmentof social work theory and practice. With the ever-growing developmentsin information and communication technologies, where Westernideas and initiatives continue to dominate in relation to bothmodels of social work and research approaches, an argument ismade for dialogue throughout the research process, the centralityof negotiating skills and reflexivity, and a more creative useof conventional research skills. Dialogue, in the form outlinedhere, provides a means of encouraging a ‘connectedness’between research, practice and theory, at all levels—theparticular location where the research takes place, the widernational context and the international or global stage.     

高校社会工作专业学生选择机制的演变

以韦伯的理想类型方法,可将高校社工学生的选择机制概括为精英型、大众型、个人魅力型三种模式。在传统精英型选择模式到大众型选择模式进程中,自愿型选择模式因更具有人文关怀、更具人性化而成为新的发展趋势。     

香港社会工作管窥之三:评估与问责

在香港,无论是接受政府资助的社会服务机构,还是自筹经费的社会服务机构,都必须面对评估和问责的要求.不同的是,前者主要接受资助方-政府的评估与问责,而后者更多是向社会公众交代.说到对受资助机构的评估,就必须要提到《服务表现监察制度》.它是对受资助机构进行规管、厘定及评估服务表现的重要文件,包括社会福利署与受资助机构签订的...     

中国本土社会工作专业实践的基本处境及其督导者的基本角色

虽然社会工作在中国的发展已经有十多年的历史,但其专业实践的基本处境与西方明显不同,即专业化的社会工作服务机构缺乏、服务对象的专业服务要求不明确、社会工作者的专业身份欠缺以及专业社会工作服务的稳定性不足,这些因素影响了在目前中国本土处境下社会工作者与服务对象建立一种专业服务关系,由此也导致了中国本土社会工作专业实践的督导者需要承担与西方督导者不同的基本角色：专业社会工作服务的设计者、专业服务需要的转化者、日常专业服务的指导者和专业服务的培训者。     

社会工作研究中的价值介入与社会研究伦理考量

社会工作研究在研究方法、研究手段等方面都受到社会研究多种方法论范式的影响,社会工作研究者无论选择何种社会研究范式进行研究,都会在选题、分析、总结等过程中有不同程度的价值介入,而源于价值观的社会研究伦理又将直接影响研究者的研究选题、方法和结论。本文从社会研究中的价值介入问题入手,探讨社会工作研究中的价值与伦理问题带来的思考。     

社会工作的科学性与价值因素

一价值因素引入社会工作后,社会工作理论和实践之间的冲突变得非常明显,建立于实证主义逻辑基础之上的社会工作理论和实践面临不可回避的困境。就理论来说,由于引入价值因素,就需要社会工作者重新审视实现社会工作科学性的问题。因为加入价值因素以后,社会工作者就无法再像实证主义者宣     

Social Adjustment: The Design and Use of an Instrument for Social Work and Social Work Research

Please address correspondence and reprint requests to: Dr. R. Corney, General Practice Research Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5. Summary This article discusses some of the problems encountered whentrying to assess social adjustment and describes a standardizedsemi-structured interview designed to measure social adjustmentand dysfunction. The interview can be used by social workersas a research tool, a screening device or in making an assessmentThe interview is composed of items grouped under the three headingsof ‘Material conditions’, ‘Social management’and ‘Satisfaction’. Ratings are made on a four-pointscale by interviewers standardized in its use. The interviewwhich takes 40 minutes to one hour to administer, covers housing,finance, occupation, social and leisure activities, and relationshipswith significant individuals in the subject's life.     

The Changing Nature of Socialism

The wave of modernization is on the rise in the socialist part of the world and even though it has still not engulfed a number of countries, the sense of irreversibility of profound revolutionary changes is rising. It is based on the crisis in the Stalinist and Neo-Stalinist models of social order that has intensified over decades before their total hopelessness became obvious. The mounting lag behind the West in the area of technological progress, labor productivity, the standard of living, ecological disasters, inflation, the chronic shortage of many necessary goods, the uncompetitiveness of the majority of finished goods, declining economic growth rates, the increased sluggishness and bureaucratism of the state apparatus, the humble, dependent position of man in society—such are the most characteristic manifestations of the crisis that has arisen.     

Regulation and Risk in Social Work: The General Social Care Council and the Social Care Register in Context

The 2000 Care Standards Act led to the setting up the GeneralSocial Care Council (GSCC) as the new governing professionalbody for social workers and other social care employees in England.¹The GSCC published national Codes of Practice for social carestaff and their employers in 2002, whilst 1 April 2003 saw theintroduction of the Social Care Register. The stated aim ofthese developments is to protect the public, improve the qualityof care offered by social workers and increase public confidencein the profession. However, such intentions disguise the increasein regulatory control that the GSCC and social care employershave gained over the workforce—intrusions that have metrelatively little criticism. By locating these developmentswithin a broader social context, one in which risk and its managementare at the forefront of contemporary social policy and practice,this paper argues that underlying the debate is a climate offear and distrust in which there is a tendency to view peopleas either vulnerable, dangerous or both. Such a degraded viewof the subjects of social work also pertains to social workersthemselves, who are simultaneously seen as assessors of risk,at risk and as a risk.     

The Current Status of Social Work Research

Summary This article reviews the range of research relevant to socialwork. It suggests a tentative framework within which differentstudies can be viewed, and particular emphasis is placed onthe importance of exploratory research. There is an evaluationof the contribution of research findings to current thinkingin casework, and it is argued that the researcher's task isto compel the practitioner, the teacher, the student, the administrator,always to re-define aims and activities in the light of accumulatingknowledge     

社会工作与农村社会工作的使命

从社会工作与农村社会工作发展的现状入手,论述了社会工作尤其是农村社会工作的基础、特征、使命,强调农村社会工作的实践性与反思性,在此基础上提出丰富本土社会工作知识,加强与国际社会工作的对话能力。     

The Post- and the Anti-: Analysing Change and Changing Analyses in Social Work

Correspondence to Dr Liz Lloyd, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, 7 Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1UA Summary This article considers some of the issues raised by criticsof postmodern analyses of social work. It analyses the waysin which social services departments have changed to a ‘post-fordist’organizational form and considers the implications for equalitypolicies and anti-oppressive practice. It challenges the viewthat preserving a more professional approach to social workoffers greater opportunities for anti-oppressive practice thanthe more deprofessionalized approach currently being developedand argues that social workers committed to the principles ofanti-oppressive practice can develop new tactics appropriateto the changing organizational context It also argues that postmodernistanalyses offer new insights into experiences of power, oppressionand inequality. In particular, it stresses the importance ofunderstanding the linkages between broader, political and economictrends and the experiences of individual social workers andservice users. Drawing on research in Avon Social Services, it considers theways in which race equality strategies in community care continueto reduce issues of race and racism to culture and identity.Reflecting critically on anti-oppressive and anti-racist actionit argues that the limitations placed on anti-oppressive practiceunder the postfordist context of community care are unlikelyto differ greatly from those felt under previous organizationalregimes.     

Changing Social Work Roles in Family Centres: A Social Psychological Analysis

Correspondence to Dr R.J. Brown, Institute of Social and Applied Psychology, The University, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7LZ. Summary This article reports a longitudinal study of field and residentialsocial workers' perceptions of each other in the first ten monthsafter the introduction of a new children and families policyby a large social services department. 1 A central element ofthis policy was the setting up of Family Centres designed tofacilitate closer co-operation between field and residentialstaff. Data was collected from two interviews ten months apartwith 52 field and residential social workers based in two divisionsin the county. Mutual role perceptions indicated a consensusover the traditional division of labour between field and residentialworkers with field workers being seen as having superior skillsin counselling, crisis intervention and case responsibility,whilst residential workers were regarded as better at providingbasic care for and developing close relationships with childrenin care. On only three role dimensions (engendering trust withclients, accuracy in assessments, and preparation work) wasthere any disagreement between the two groups. None of theserole perceptions changed perceptibly over the course of thestudy. However, the social workers' perceived outcomes fromtheir work (for example, pay, training opportunities, promotionprospects, etc.) changed markedly over the ten month period,and varied between the two divisions. In one division evidenceof a changed and more egalitarian relationship between the fieldand residential staff was visible; in the other, both groupsseemed to show a decline in morale and no real change in thetraditional status difference between the groups was apparent.These findings are interpreted in the light of social psychologicaltheories of intergroup relations, and some policy implicationsare discussed.     

Social Work Practice with Groups in the Church Context

No abstract available for this article.     

社区社会工作本土化的实践——以佛山市罗村街道为例

在中国社会工作蓬勃发展的过程中,如何扎根国情,实现从西方专业社会工作到本土化社会工作模式的转型已经成为各界关注和探讨的焦点。广东省佛山市南海区罗村街道自2007年实行社区体制改革以来,积极探索出一条社会工作本土化发展的道路和模式,成效显著,反响巨大。本文尝试总结了罗村街道在实现社会工作本土化方面的探索和创新。     

社区社会工作本土化的实践——以佛山市罗村街道为例

在中国社会工作蓬勃发展的过程中,如何扎根国情,实现从西方专业社会工作到本土化社会工作模式的转型已经成为各界关注和探讨的焦点。广东省佛山市南海区罗村街道自2007年实行社区体制改革以来,积极探索出一条社会工作本土化发展的道路和模式,成效显著,反响巨大。本文尝试总结了罗村街道在实现社会工作本土化方面的探索和创新。     

社会工作介入刑满释放人员社会融入问题研究

如何发挥社会工作在促进刑满释放人员社会融入中的作用,是加强和创新社会管理的重要内容。本研究以长沙市8名刑满释放人员为研究个案,运用定性研究方法,以社会工作系统理论为研究视角,探讨社会工作介入刑满释放人员的身份融入、职业融入、家庭融入、社会交往融入的服务模式。在此基础上,建议建立社会工作介入刑满释放人员社会融入的服务模式,以便有效地促进刑满释放人员的社会融入,为维护社会稳定和构建社会主义和谐社会添砖加瓦。     

The Limits of Positivism in Social Work Research

Correspondence to David Smith, Leaturer in Social Work, Department of Social Administration, Fylde College University of Lancaster, Bailrigg, Lancaster LA1 4LX. Summary This paper considers the argument that research on social workshould be more rigorously scientific in its methods, using thework of Brian Sheldon as representative of this position. Itis argued that a wholly positivist approach is inadequate onepistemological grounds, and that the procedures characteristicof this approach, particularly the experimental method, areunlikely to prove generally feasible or useful. Evaluation researchin other fields is used to illustrate this argument, and itis suggested that social work is far from unique in its under-useof research findings. A possible alternative, that social workshould be evaluated by artistic criteria, is briefly examinedand found to be problematic. The paper concludes with an argumentthat research in future should be more concerned with process,and more open, participative and pragmatic in style.     

职业化背景下社会工作人才培养向度

明确培养目标与定位是搞好社会工作专业教育的关键所在,价值伦理性、技能性、多元性是社会工作人才培养过程中应始终坚持的三个主要发展向度。其中价值伦理性向度打造社会工作专业之灵魂,技能性向度彰显高职社会工作教育之特色,而多元性向度则是保证社会工作专业教育可持续发展的重要因素,是社会工作人才获得超越性发展之重要伏笔。