The Role of Social Workers in Welfare to Work Programs

Summary

Welfare to work is an important arena for understanding the changing nature of social policy and practice in Australia, the UK, Hong Kong, and the United States. This article discusses some key policy and practice issues in respect to social work professional training and practice. Welfare to work programs focus on “active” measures and stress the importance of “responsibilities” for all people of working age to support themselves through employment. The programs are being implemented in different ways across these different countries but in all cases the focus is increasingly on groups of people who may require substantial levels of assistance to meet their needs and to help them find and sustain employment.     

Heterosexism and Social Work

Abstract

This study examined heterosexism among 409 Illinois school social workers. Heterosexism was found to be negatively correlated with “education about” and “positive contacts with” gay and lesbian individuals and positively correlated with “religiosity.” Most respondents showed some level of heterosexism with a few having very high levels. Only 15% were non-heterosexist. Respondents reported receiving little or no education about sexual minorities in their social work training. Most indicated that the training received was not adequate preparation for working with gay and lesbian individuals. Amount of education received increased with each of CSWE's educational mandates about sexual minorities but had no significant effect on heterosexism.     

Reflections of an Emerging Male-to-Female Transgendered Consciousness

Abstract

Professionals involved in social work practice with or designing approaches for working with male-to-female (MTF) transgend-ered youth must listen to the individual voices of these youth for the valuable information they can share with us. This paper provides the reader with the gift of a first-person account of one person's experiences as a “plainclothes transgender” person -a term he has coined to define his experiences. The paper concludes with implications for practice with both “plainclothes” and “fixed/prepared” male-to-female trans-gendered youth.     

Reading social work

Abstract

This paper offers a brief preliminary report on our attempts to apply “close reading” a technique drawn from contemporary literary criticism to social work writing. Reading turns out to be very difficult -something we have had to re-learn but reveals ideological formations deeply embedded in social work texts. Hugh England's “Social Work as Art” is taken as a working example and a case is made saying that it is deeply androcentric. However, it is important to distinguish between text and author and to note that the book shares its androcentricism with many other social work texts and arguably with social work culture in general. (England 1986).     

Responding to People Sleeping Rough: Dilemmas and Opportunities for Social Work

Abstract

Rough sleeping refers to the state of being literally without shelter or residing in shelter not fit for human habitation. People who sleep rough are thought to be a group who experience a range of complex problems in addition to their homelessness. Despite their small numbers relative to the broader homeless population, rough sleepers have been identified as a target group for policy and practice intervention. This article critically examines outreach responses directed toward people sleeping rough. Moving beyond traditional charity approaches or interventions that “move people on”, emerging models of “assertive outreach” have been implemented in Australia as part of broader strategies to reduce homelessness. Challenging the idea that assertive outreach is a shift from a social work approach, it is argued that interventions to actively end rough sleeping are consistent with social work principles. Indeed, this article takes it that social work must advocate for the provision of affordable housing as central to rough sleeping interventions. Housing not only enables people to achieve human dignity and worth, but the linking of housing with outreach responses to rough sleepers will facilitate a trusting and effective working relationship.     

Entering Youth Justice: Comparing the Views of Human Services and Criminology Students

Abstract

The present paper explores how undergraduate students who are relatively new to the field of youth justice conceptualise their possible future work roles. The research compared the views of students who were commencing two undergraduate courses (subjects) concerned with working with young people. One course was taken by human services students and the other was taken by criminology students. Findings indicated that there were significant differences between these two groups in terms of their views about crime causation, as well as how they see the roles of youth justice workers. Students entered their respective programs and youth courses with differing professional orientations. The findings raise some intriguing questions at a time when universities and employers look to the potential benefits of “double degrees” and “joint degrees” that span supposedly complementary professional areas. However, contrasting beliefs about “troubled and troublesome” young people may resist easy accommodation within the same program of professional preparation.     

Complex Worker: Self-Concept and Boundary-Work Among the Solo Self-Employed

Abstract

This article proposes to examine the self-concept of members of an occupational category referred to as the “solo self-employed”—women and men who work alone and do not employ other workers. Our findings reveal that although the solo self-employed themselves do not make clear phenomenological use of the solo-self-employed category, they do speak similarly about their occupational independence, albeit without group awareness. The self-concept of the solo self-employed is mainly based on boundary work in relation to two well-known cultural-occupational categories: “employed workers” and “businesspeople.” Solo-employed workers prefer to distance themselves from these two categories and define themselves through negative comparisons between themselves and the two preceding categories. The Discussion section proposes perceiving solo self-employment as a social category that constructs an alternative self in relation to the selves associated with popular cultural-occupational scenarios.     

The Teaching of Population by Sociologists

Abstract

This paper addresses the impact of forces in the new economy on the earnings of workers. Using data from the Indiana Survey of Workers In a Polarized Economy (ISWIPE), we examine the impact of several variables that have not been systematically examined in previous research. Specifically, we investigate the impact on earnings of the new economy variables of downsizing, contingent work, “job slide,” perceived job security, working with computers, job growth, deindustrialization, and work in the marginal sector. After controlling for a variety of sociodemographic, class, and structural variables, we find that indicators of the new economy contribute importantly to the explanation of earnings. We find that working in the marginal sector is more important than traditional dualistic concepts such as core and periphery sectors and primary and secondary labor markets for explaining earnings. We believe our findings provide evidence for the importance of a “reconstituted core and periphery” in the labor market. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our results.     

Welfare Status and Child Care as Obstacles to Full-Time Work for Low-Income Mothers

SUMMARY

In this study, we use new data from the Philadelphia Survey of Child Care and Work to expand on previous analyses: we include child care problems as a work obstacle, and we analyze both current welfare recipients and non-welfare “working poor” mothers. Results show that two main obstacles have a large impact on full-time work: poor mental health and child care problems. Net of other factors, mothers with severe child care problems are 22 percent less likely to work full time. Dividing the sample by welfare status, we find a child care problems effect for both groups. Among welfare recipients, the gap in full-time work between those with severe child care problems and those without is 30 percent. Among the working poor, child care problems reduce the chance of full-time work by about 18 percent. Our findings show that improving mothers' child care situation can significantly improve their ability to support their families.     

Integrating Human Rights and Trauma Frameworks in Social Work with People from Refugee Backgrounds

Abstract

Social work practice informed by human rights and trauma frameworks can be empowering and enabling. While both frameworks are complex and contested, their implementation “from below” via praxis can maximise benefits for social work with people who have experienced trauma and human rights abuses, such as those from refugee backgrounds. This article presents an exploration of this practice approach through the presentation of the story of Zillah and Amman, a fictionalised composite of many real refugee experiences. Taking as examples the education and child protection systems, the discussion highlights how theory to practice integration requires cross-cultural engagement, critical reflection, dialogue, and an understanding of human rights “from below”.     

People and Contexts: Social Development from Birth to Old Age,by Henry S. Maas. Englewood Cliffs,New Jersey: Prentice-Hall,Inc., 1984

Abstract

Throughout the history of professional social work education, the liberal arts have been regarded as not simply the most suitable basis for professional education but as the essential basis. As undergraduate programs developed more fully, liberal arts content inevitably decreased. Also, because graduate programs rely increasingly on undergraduate programs for students, the need to define clearly the nature and purpose of liberal education for social work students has become even more apparent. This article addresses the purposes of liberal education and the “content” versus “perspective” controversies and their relation to social work preparation. The premise is that social work has a natural alliance with the liberal arts. For one reason, social work is a complex set of “ideals” reflecting many ideas that have had currency over the century in the literature, politics, economics, history, philosophy, and the human and natural sciences that compose the liberal arts. Social work is not so much “technology of intervention” or science, as it is applied humanistic value. As such, the relationship of social work to the liberal arts is one of intertwined strands. This article proposes that social work education emphasize the ideas, assumptions, and events that have shaped, and are shaping, the profession, and in so doing, recast and strengthen its relationship with the liberal arts.     

“This Is Our Gender Person”

Despite the prevalence of gender experts in international development institutions, their impact in terms of transformative feminist politics remains questionable. Gender experts, and their profession more broadly, have been strongly criticized by a range of feminists working in academic contexts. In particular, some have argued that neoliberalism and feminism have converged,  framing the role of gender experts as primarily to legitimate and embed neoliberal models of development. This article engages with these critiques from the perspective of the gender expert her/himself, drawing on first-hand experiences to tease out some of the tensions and complexities of this work. After setting out some general challenges for gender experts, I focus on one particular aspect of the current gender and development paradigm – the “business case” for gender equality – and explore how it feels to work within such a framework. In doing so, I aim to reflect on the possibilities of promoting transformative change whilst at the same time acknowledging and embracing the dilemmas and contradictions involved in the daily politics of working as a gender expert.     

Female Sex Trade Workers,Condoms, and the Public-Private Divide

Abstract

This qualitative study explored the ways in which social relations within the public (work) as opposed to the private (home) contexts shape variable condom use among female sex trade workers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 68 female sex workers working in various settings in an urban center in Eastern Canada. The findings suggest that work-related social relations, and the meanings associated with condoms at work, create a strong confidence in condom use. Within the private setting, such confidence was also evident but most women reported either not using condoms or only using “sometimes.” Nevertheless, many women do engage in risk management within the private setting, and take active steps to decrease their risks of Human Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV)/Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).     

Guardians of the Golden Age: Custodians of American Military Culture and the Fortified “Home” in Time and Space

ABSTRACT

The Heritage is a gated retirement community for military officers and their wives. This “defensive space” is modeled on elite Anglo-American military culture rooted in the American Revolution. The military “family” and “home” are re-envisioned in this liminal space: a military culture into which they were born, into which they chose to marry, and now, the home into which they have chosen to live until they die.     

In Search of Resiliency in Families

Abstract

This study explores the process of relationship development in marriages that foster personal and relationship growth. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve individuals/six couples in marriages that promote individual and relationship growth. Grounded theory methodology was employed and “Empowering Connections” emerged as the core theme. Empowering connections are characterised by a process of growth captured by the following categories: “Connecting Emotionally,” “Loving Respectfully,” “Expanding One's Self,” and “Experiencing Empowering Connections.” The results of the study contribute to the understanding of marriage and provide insight to premarital couples, people who want to improve their marriage, and to therapists working with couples.     

Spirituality,Religion, and Social Work

Abstract

Social work scholars and practitioners have approached the question of how to integrate religion and/or spirituality into their profession in one of four typical ways: (1) resistance or avoidance; (2) an overly-generalized syncretism; (3) radical separation of the terms spirituality and religion; or (4) a genuinely interdisciplinary conversation between the disciplines of social work and religious studies. This latter approach not only identifies social work's conflictual founding legacy, but also recognizes broader contemporary intellectual traditions which do not easily separate “religion” from “spirituality.” Such awareness and common grounding allow social work to more substantively and creatively partake in cross-disciplinary research and discussion.     

Existential social work and the quest for existential meaning and well-being: A conceptual framework

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to conceptualize “existential social work.” A greater understanding of what existential social work means may enable social workers and those studying social work to see how its practice can reveal “the truth” about human existence and how they, as professionals, can enhance existential meaning and existential well-being among their clients. In such work, existential social workers have at their disposal tools such as the Frankl therapeutic approach to existential analysis (i.e., logotherapy) as well as spiritual-sensitive modalities (prayer and mindfulness). To interpret and understand apparent phenomena in the therapy is the ultimate goal with existential social work practices, thus providing clients with the opportunity to discover the meaning that exists in themselves. In addition, these practices pave the way for existential well-being.     

Between Money,Morality and Masculinity

Abstract

This paper focuses on the supply-side of Chiang Mai's gay bars, that is, the male sex workers called dek bar or “bar boys”¹ in Thai. I formulate some explanations why these young men -more than half of whom do not consider themselves to be “homosexual” -take on a job as a male sex worker. In this analysis I focus on certain notions in traditional Thai society, trends in contemporary urban Thai society, the economics of work in a gay bar, as well as the sexual behaviour of male sex workers and the concepts they use to describe their work.     

A best case scenario? Non-manual part-time work and job-sharing in UK local government in the 1990s

Local authorities in the UK have been described as “model employers” of part-time and job-share employees, with the needs of employees themselves, particularly women with family responsibilities, acting as the primary driver for the use of reduced hours working patterns. To investigate how far this “exemplar” label applied in practice, and to what extent this overcame the well-known drawbacks of reduced hours working patterns, the causes and consequences of working reduced hours amongst professional, managerial and administrative staff were investigated in a London borough in the mid-1990s. It was found that the “model employer” label was applicable, but it was under threat from an emerging emphasis on a demand-led, service-driven use of reduced hours work. It is argued that there is a strong business case for making more creative use of reduced hours work synthesising “supply-side” and “demand-side” needs, and that this change in approach will therefore be counterproductive.