Social work in FSU countries: mapping the progress of ‘the professional project’

This article presents material from literature and responses from national experts about social work developments in the 15 Former Soviet Union (FSU) states, since independence in 1991. Taking professionalization as a theoretical framework and considering the role of the state and other actors, the authors use a thematic approach to analyse the factors relevant to the professional project. Throughout the region, the state is identified as still the major actor in driving welfare changes and creating the organizational and legislative bases for the development of social work. A chronology of legislation relevant to the establishment of social work is included which highlights the variations in the pace of developments, as do the establishment of professional education (throughout the region) and professional associations (in most countries). The authors conclude that the professional project faces many challenges across the FSU region and the progress made – or lack of it in some countries – can be related to the politics and economics of particular states. However, the evidence suggests that, less than a quarter of a century after the demise of communism, this project has been initiated in all but one FSU countries and there are indications of positive developments.     

The ‘Old New Russian Town’: Modernization and Architectural Preservation in Russia’s Historic North West, 1961–1982

Abstract

The emergence of a Soviet preservationist movement, which gained institutional coherence in the mid-1960s, appears to stand at odds with the ideas of rationalization and standardization that informed the Khrushchev-era urban development programme. Yet, as I argue in this article, these two strands of post-Stalin era Soviet culture were not as antagonistic as they may first appear. In Khrushchev’s Russia, the preservation of architectural heritage was rationalized as a means of strengthening the foundations of Soviet society by rooting it in the national past. Rather than detracting from the goal of building communism, cultural heritage was made an integral part of that process, a focus of national pride and source of social solidarity.     

Professionalization and Cost Efficiency of Fundraising in Charitable Organizations: The Case of Charitable Foundations in China

This study examines the effects of professionalization on the cost efficiency of fundraising organizations in a unique research context, Chinese charitable foundations. Two important professionalization measures, professionalized human resource management and accounting practices, are adopted. Using data from audited annual reports from 2005 to 2009, we find that professionalization in general enables foundations to increase their fundraising cost efficiencies. However, further analysis indicates that this positive effect only occurs in private but not in public foundations. Furthermore, the positive effect of professionalization is more significant when raising unrestricted funds than when raising restricted funds from donors.

     

Does Fundraising Professionalization Pay?

Although fundraising organizations in the third sector have gone through a progressive professionalization process, it remains unclear whether this development has led to any financial benefits. This article focuses on the question of whether or not it pays off for fundraising organizations to invest in professionalization. The data for this study come from 165 organizations representing 45 percent of the Swiss fundraising market. We first propose the term “organizational fundraising capability” as a new construct for measuring the degree of professionalization and rationalization in fundraising management. We then analyze its relationship to overall net revenue from donations as well as the growth of net revenue from donations. Our analysis indicates that, in addition to organizational size measured by total revenue, revenue share from donations, and expansion strategy, fundraising capability makes an important contribution to explaining both an institution's net revenue from fundraising and the level of increase in net donations. The consequences for the development of professionalization and rationalization in fundraising are discussed.     

Discourses on rurality in post-socialist news media: The case of Lithuania's leading daily “Lietuvos Rytas” (1991–2004)

The Soviet regime defined rurality as a collective-farm or kolkhoz-based society. Since the late 1980s such a state-imposed definition of rurality was rapidly unraveling under the tensions and conflicts produced by perestroika and post-socialist reforms. In the new politics of the rural, the role that the news media was playing in shaping public opinion on rural matters was of growing importance. The paper analyzes 3827 articles on rural issues published during the post-independence period (1991–2004) in the leading Lithuanian daily “Lietuvos Rytas” (LR). Two types of discourses in rural coverage are discerned. During the 1990s rural coverage in LR was reflective of conflicts and tensions between relatively prosperous urban classes which benefited from post-socialist reforms and pauperized rural population. Rurality was increasingly associated with the failure of “the moral modernization” of the rural population. Rural population was stigmatized as deficient in values and character, remaining in the grips of the Soviet mentality and state dependency and, therefore, unable to take advantage of opportunities created by the reforms. Since the early 2000s when economic situation in the country improved significantly and Lithuania started negotiations on European Union membership, rurality in LR coverage was gradually re-defined in EU terms as a socio-spacial entity shaped by regional, national, and local policies promoting multifunctionality of rural areas, well-being of rural communities, and active citizenship. Factors that influenced changes in rural discourses are analyzed. Impacts of changing discourses on rural identities, rural politics and policies are discussed.     

Female Asylum-Seekers in the Netherlands: An Empirical Study

This article presents the findings from a study into the chances for refugee status, or a temporary residence permit, for three cohorts of male and female asylum-seekers to the Netherlands. The study investigated whether men and women with similar backgrounds in terms of country of origin, social and demographic characteristics have a similar likelihood of obtaining permission to stay in the Netherlands.
The quantitative findings are corroborated with an in-depth qualitative study of refugees' files from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND), as well as with an experiment in which decision-making personnel were asked to judge hypothetical case studies of refugees in which gender as well as other gender-specific properties were systematically varied.
We recommend that further in-depth studies be conducted to capture elements in the decision-making process that could not be investigated in our kind of large-scale study.     

Family structures and the moral politics of caring

The paper seeks to develop the discussion of informal care in the community stimulated by feminist analyses in social policy of what has been called ‘the moral politics of caring’. In particular the paper enquires into the relationship between family structures and the ‘political styles’ through which families bargain about caring issues. A selection of studies dealing with family structure and decision-making are discussed. The paper closes by making some observations about the potential development of family therapy strategies, particularly by social workers trying to ensure the co-operation and involvement of family members, friends and neighbors in caring responsibilities within the new community care framework.     

A paradox of social change: how the quest for liberation reproduces dominance in higher education and the field of social work

Transformative societal change rests upon challenging the status quo with the constant work of self-implication. Self-implication in the neo-colonial processes at work within state structures is not easily noticed, nor easily discussed, regardless of one’s social location among various dimensions of privilege and oppression. In both higher education and the profession of social work, one of the major barriers to advancing the social change needs of groups who come from a multiplicity of differences is the still prevalent overemphasis on essentialism and identity-based politics, which was originally inspired and promoted by the anti-racism social movement. The anti-racism movement needs to take into consideration the overarching power of neo-colonialism and hegemonic masculinity that influences and affects the overall discourse, structures and social processes in human relations. Differences across the spectrum of one’s identity carry inherent contradictions, tensions and paradoxes, such that no one can claim innocence regarding whose voice should be heard at a particular moment or within a particular spatial or institutional context.     

The Increasing Political Power of Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel: From Passive Citizenship to Active Citizenship

The immigrants in Israel from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) followed a different pattern of political growth than other immigrant groups. Their increased power began on the national level and moved down to the local level, rather than from the periphery toward the centre – the pattern followed by the Oriental Jewish immigrants. We can trace three stages in the development of their political power.
The first stage was during the 1992 elections when the immigrants attempted to organize their own list. Though they failed, the results of the election strengthened them because they were given credit for the left's victory, giving them a sense of political effectiveness.
The second stage came during the 1996 elections. It was a defining moment for the former Soviet immigrants' political power. In this stage external factors and internal factors reinforced each other. The change in the electoral system made it possible for the immigrants to vote for their community on the one hand and for a national figure on the other, thus resolving their identity dilemma.
The local elections in 1998 marked the third stage in their political strength. They found the immigrant community better organized, with an improved understanding of its local interests, the capacity to put forward a strong local leadership, and a stronger link between the immigrant political centre and the local level.     

Where do we stand? Recent AEA member views on professionalization

The professionalization of evaluation continues to be debated at numerous conferences in the U.S. and abroad. At this time, AEA member views on the potential benefits and negative side effects of professionalization are essential as the discussion evolves. This study provides recent views on major topics in professionalization, including potential benefits, negative side effects, processes, competencies, and procedures. Results from in-depth interviews and an online survey demonstrate that AEA members view potential benefits of professionalization to be stakeholder trust, evaluator reputation and identity, while concerns about a potential negative side effect known as the “narrowing effect” (i.e., some evaluators will be alienated based on their background, competencies, etc.) were expressed by participants. These recent findings can inform the ongoing discussion of professionalization, and suggest new directions for future research on evaluation.     

Forget “militarization”: race,disability and the “martial politics” of the police and of the university

This article investigates the limits of the concept of militarization and proposes an alternative concept: martial politics. It argues that the concept of militarization falsely presumes a peaceful liberal order that is encroached on by military values or institutions. Arguing instead that we must grapple with the ways in which war and politics are mutually shaped, the article proposes the concept of martial politics as a means for examining how politics is shot-through with war-like relations. It argues that stark distinctions cannot be made between war and peace, military and civilian or national and social security. This argument is made in relation to two empirical sites: the police and the university. Arguing against the notion that either the police or the university have been “militarized,” the article provides a historical analysis of the ways in which these institutions have always already been implicated in martial politics – that is, of producing White social and economic order through war-like relations with Indigenous, racialized, disabled, poor and other communities. It concludes by assessing the political and scholarly opportunities that are opened up for feminists through the rejection of the concept of militarization in favor of the concept of martial politics.     

The Relationship Between Schools of Social Work,Social Research,and Social Policy

This paper outlines a curriculum model for the continuing education of graduate social workers. The curriculum plan is based on the assumption that western industrial man has entered a new era—the cybercultural era. The paper argues that the graduate practitioner must be retooled to fit the conditions and circumstances of the new era. Eight knowledge areas are explored as priorities in this continuing education plan: the nature of global ecology, the nature of mass organization, the nature of youth, the nature of the new economy, the nature of contemporary politics, the nature of inter group communications, the nature of professionalization, and the condition of social work theory. Through the exploration of these knowledge areas, it is felt that a new updated social work practice theory will be developed.     

Estonian social policy: from Soviet heritage to understanding the principles of deinstitutionalization

Deinstitutionalization is a key issue in the field of social policy. The community-based services movement has challenged the role of institutions as far back as the 1950s, but it is a relatively new development in Central and Eastern Europe. EU membership and the use of structural funds have been key elements of change in many countries; however, the Soviet heritage still overshadows progress and decision-making in social policy. Though deinstitutionalization’s overall meaning and aims are generally well known, less information is available about the processes and policies underlying deinstitutionalization. In post-communist countries, deinstitutionalization is often narrowly associated with large institutions, but its embedment in the social welfare policy framework is less discussed. Nevertheless, first attempts to change the design of social services to more participatory and integrated solutions are evident. For more than 20 years, developments in the field of social-welfare policy have aimed to reduce the gap between Estonia and other developed countries. This article reviews relevant documents in Estonia’s social welfare policy reforms from re-independence to the present. The article discusses the prospects and challenges for achieving deinstitutionalization’s intended goals in Estonia.     

论青年政治的三种模式及其发展走向

作为群体政治的一个视角，青年政治是群体政治中一种典型的表现形式，它蕴含着极大的政治势能和政治意蕴。青年与政治的关系，在不同的时代和不同的政治环境下具有不同的表现，主要有接班人政治、代际政治和反叛政治等基本模式。然而，从现代政治发展的方向来说，青年与政治发展之间的关系应该是一种以接班人政治为基础，以公民政治为发展方向，充分考虑代际政治的发展规律、最大限度地避免反叛政治出现的一种模式。     

Identity Patterns among Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel: Assimilation vs. Ethnic Formation

This paper deals with identity patterns among the 1990s immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) in Israel. It presents the complex set of identity types among immigrants in the context of their cultural and socio-demographic characteristics and their dynamic relationships with the Israeli host society.
The findings show that immigrants from the FSU in Israel form a distinct ethnic group within the Israeli social and cultural fabric. This is reflected in their closed social networks, ethnic information sources, strong desire to maintain ethnic-cultural continuity, and the fact that the ethnic component (Jew from the FSU or immigrant from the FSU) is central for self-identification. However, ethnic formation among these immigrants is not a reactive-oriented identity, which is mainly generated by alienation from the host society, it is rather an instrumentalized ethnicity, which is the outcome of ethnic-cultural pride and pragmatic considerations.     

Neighbourhood-Reminiscence

Abstract

Social cohesion is one of the key concepts of local social policy in the Netherlands, the basic assumption being that every neighbourhood needs a certain level of social cohesion in order to offer the residents a liveable community in which they feel comfortable and included. When working on social cohesion, special attention is paid to those groups who maintain little to no social contact or amongst whom tensions arise: different age groups and communities with different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

The Netherlands Institute of Care and Welfare (NIZW) has developed a new method for promoting the integration of generations and cultures: neighbourhood-reminiscence. This method uses memories and stories of neighbourhood residents in order to promote exchanges, mutual understanding and respect between different age- and cultural-groups. Neighbourhood-reminiscence is community development, based on the local neighbourhood level, because the neighbourhood is where people live, where they meet each other and where tensions between citizens with different lifestyles and interests may erupt.     

Negotiating Conflict through Music: The Case of the Tsonga Tingoma Ritual

Abstract

Tingoma is a three-day ritual conducted by Tsonga people to facilitate communication between the living and their Ancestor spirits, and to ensure that there is no disharmony between the beings in these two realms. Using a tingoma conducted for Eunice Maluleke as a case study, we argue that this ritual not only negotiates tension within an individual (body and spirit), and between an individual and his or her Ancestor spirits, but also functions as a site through which larger social and political tensions are addressed. Further, we propose that the structure of tingoma as it is practiced today inscribes and negotiates inter-ethnic tensions of the past. In the second part of this article we examine the ways in which tingoma has been affected by, and engages with, more recent power struggles and related identity politics, specifically those relating to the religious and political affiliations of people residing in South Africa's Limpopo province since the early 1980s.     

SIN,SAINTS, AND SHEEP IN SARDINIA 1

Narratives of Catholicism, gender, and criminality are entangled with social constructions of ‘resistance’ to a new Gennargentu National Park on areas of traditional common lands in central Sardinia, Italy. Embodied identities are strategically implicated in moral discourses of grassroots opposition to a park. The notion of Sardinian resistance as a form of cultural authenticity is rooted in a local sphere of social practices and expectations that are not shared by the wider Italian or European public. Ethnography in the town of Orgosolo demonstrates that a ‘politics of the weak’ can reframe relations of authority in local spheres and work to empower cultural recognition and control over common lands. Transgressive acts of violence, however, highlight embedded tensions, ambiguities, and disruptions in local identity practices. The gendered construction of cultural discourses in Orgosolo points to the paradox of a politics that seeks to affirm the authority of embodied traditions yet actually perpetuates ambivalent stereotypes based on cultural essentialism.     

Ambivalence of official statistics: some theoretical-methodological notes

The purpose of this paper is to advance some theoretical-methodological propositions about analyzing official statistics in the contemporary world: it is going to underline how the category of ambivalence is important in order to improve our comprehension of official statistics. In the second section, we will give a brief overview on contemporary sociology of official statistics. In the third and fourth sections, the focus will be on the ‘French theory’ – probably, the hegemonic current now – starting from Pierre Bourdieu’s analysis of the State, one of the most important issues in order to better understand this perspective. This analysis points out as French theory considers just rationalization processes. Control, dominion as well as alienation are the main subjects, a set of ideas based on a structuralist point of view which does not actually consider the possibility of social change. The ambivalence (or social contradiction in Marxism terms) of every sociopolitical process – including the making and using of official statistics – is systematically underestimated. Beyond the dominion there is the subject and the conflict in a shared field of historicity: ethic and social claims need official statistics too. Eventually, the fifth section will focus on our theoretical-methodological proposal based on re-embedding the category of the statistical system in a more complex vision where ambivalence is essential.