Professions and the Social Order: Some Lessons from Burkina Faso?

The study of professions has been dominated by Anglo‐American models, with their focus on a small group of legally licensed occupations. The field has recently shifted, mainly through studies of European experience, to a wider examination of the social management of expert workers. Very little has been written about developments in Africa and their implications for the way in which we might think about professions. This paper presents a case study of the role and practices of the medical profession in Burkina Faso, which has a relatively open market for the supply of healing services and limited regulation of the suppliers, whether physicians or traditional practitioners. The study returns to classic questions about the extent to which practice is shaped by the nature of occupational niches within the division of labor or to the development of a distinctive moral character among the workers within that niche.     

The Needle and the Damage Done: Research, Action Research, and the Organizational and Social Construction of Health in the “Information Society”

This paper critically reviews the actionresearch paradigm that has evolved over the last 50years within and outside The Tavistock Insitute, withreference to radical shifts in the social construction of medicine and health that are occurring as aresult of the transition toward the informationsociety. The medical domain has been chosen as anappropriate space within which to review the actionresearch paradigm because it bridges both the past andfuture of the Institute. The paper firstly considers theoriginal conception of action research andsociotechnical systems, and the role of consultants, in relation to Foucualt's analysis of powerrelations, social control, and dividingpractices. It then describes and analyzes recentdevelopments in the field of medicine and healthcareservice provision that, on the one hand, offer opportunities forincreased self-management and control by consumers overphysical, social, and emotional self-hoodand on the other could lead to further socialsurveillance and the domination and subjectification of theindividual. Drawing on recent work using innovativemodels of action research in the field of HIV/AIDS, thepaper concludes by discussing ways in which action research could harness developments ininformation and communication technologies to maximizeindividual and collective engagement in new forms oforganizational and social relations.     

Beyond the “Toolkit Approach”: Arts Impact Evaluation Research and the Realities of Cultural Policy‐Making

This article presents a reflection on the possibility and potential advantages of the development of a humanities‐based approach to assessing the impact of the arts, which attempts to move away from a paradigm of evaluation based on a one‐size‐fits‐all model usually reliant on empirical methodologies borrowed from the social sciences. A “toolkit approach” to arts impact assessment, as the article argues, demands excessive simplifications, and its popularity is linked to its perceived advocacy potential rather than to any demonstrable contribution it may make to a genuine understanding of the nature and potential effects of artistic engagement. The article also explores the relationship between research, advocacy and the actual realities of policy‐making with a view to proposing a critical research agenda for impact evaluation based on Carol Weiss’s notion of the “enlightenment” function of policy‐oriented research. In particular, the article attempts to highlight the contribution that cultural policy scholars working within the humanities could make to this area of policy research.     

Changing Social Work Students’ Perceptions of the Role of Government in a Policy Class

Understanding student political attitudes—feelings about government and perceptions of its role—has long been of interest to social scientists. One factor that may influence political attitudes is belief in a just world, a complex psychological construct well established in the literature. Our study explores changes in social work students’ perception of a supportive role of government and their beliefs in a just world after one policy course using a pretest and posttest design. Student perceptions changed toward a more supportive government role, but there was no significant change for belief in a just world. The study contributes to empirical evaluation of the social work education policy class in terms of the Council on Social Work Education competencies.     

Practice Learning and the Development of Students as Critical Practitioners—Some Findings from Research

This article reports some findings from an ESRC‐funded research project which has been examining the development of criticality in undergraduate students, taking social work and modern languages as contrasting disciplines. This twin‐track study aims to develop the conceptualisation of ‘criticality’ in the context of empirical research. This article examines the development of criticality in final year social work students, where the practice learning experience is predominant. The analysis is framed by the project's developing theoretical conceptualisation of criticality.     

“Mapping Social Justice”: Integrating Policy Practice Across the Curriculum

ABSTRACT

The National Association of Social Workers and the Council on Social Work Education identify social justice as a guiding principle of the social work profession, yet there is little consensus in the field of what the term actually means and how it can be achieved. Master of Social Work programs are likewise struggling with how to educate students on social justice and prepare them to engage in macro-level advocacy after graduating. This article examines how one student-led social justice initiative at a school of social work is seeking to increase student engagement in macro-level social justice work through the use of targeted advocacy alerts. This article explores the project’s development, implementation, first-year feedback, and modifications made to provide other MSW programs a blueprint to adopt their own version of the project. Findings suggest that the targeted alert model may be successful in engaging clinical MSW students in social justice advocacy.     

Social Work Research and Writing—the Tactics of Getting Published

Abstract

Social work academics face increasing institutional pressure to raise their publication output. International patterns suggest that good publication rates are the prerogative of only a few highly achieving authors. The reasons for this are complex and contradictory. This article considers the implications of changes in the publishing industry and in academic writing through conversations with highly published academics. Deliberate publication strategies, writing groups, and other collaborative practices are described as ways academics have come together to both survive this current regime and contribute meaningfully to social policy and professional practice.     

‘Messages from the Research’: Social Services Departments and Irish Children and Families in England and Wales

Social work education and social work theory and practice have tended to pay insufficient attention to the specificity of Irish people in Britain. The chief focus of this article is on the responses of Directors of Social Services Departments, in England and Wales, to a questionnaire that tried to ascertain their operational responses to Irish children and families. It is maintained that some authorities are working hard to ensure that there is an Irish dimension to their work. However, more still needs to be done to ensure that these departments are meeting the requirements of the Children Act 1989.     

Exploring the Relations between “Soul” and “Role”: Learning from the Courage to Lead

In this article, the authors consider how participants in a year-long, transformative professional development program for public school leaders took up and/or ignored insights when they left the sanctity of the retreats and returned to work. The program, called the Courage to Lead, aims to help school leaders to reconnect their “soul” (an essential, inner self) with their “role” so that they can live and work with integrity. Drawing on insights from social practice theory and critical psychology, the authors present two case studies that show why ideas from the retreats were held tentatively in one case and embraced more fully in another. Based on the analysis of interviews with focal participants and participant observation during the professional development program, the authors found that to transfer core principles from the retreat to work, the participants needed their own personal motivations to do so as well as institutional roles that lent themselves to acting on their insights. This research contributes to our growing appreciation for the complex relations between the self and learning in social and cultural contexts.     

Loneliness and Belongingness in Older Lesbians: The Role of Social Groups as “Community”

This article explores loneliness and isolation in older lesbians, looking at the benefits offered by an over-55 fortnightly social group in Yorkshire. I argue that the women interviewed were more vulnerable to loneliness than their heterosexual counterparts as a direct consequence of many years of privacy and self-concealment and because they were more likely to be single, childless, and have fractured relationships with birth families; all significant losses viewed by the women as the “price you paid” for being a lesbian. Although the group did not completely alleviate loneliness, it provided a place of safety and offered a sanctuary where participants could be themselves and where friendships and other groups were formed. For many women, the group's exclusivity to older lesbians and bisexual women was deeply significant and influenced their decision to attend. I suggest that such groups have a vital role to play in promoting older lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender well-being and offering protection against loneliness and isolation in older age.     

Moving away from globalization and the “flattening” of Social Work: Preserving Context in International Efforts

Contextual awareness has been a professional trademark and has differentiated social work intervention from other professions. Context in social work has traditionally included tangible and intangible factors such as an intimate understanding of the cultural milieu, familiarity with local history, languages, traditions, and sensibilities. The current concern is that given the forces of globalization and managerialism, social work practice and education in many countries have distanced themselves from addressing context in curriculum building and have become mechanistic in program design and delivery. This paper contrasts the concepts of internationalization and globalization. The authors concur with the perspective that the movement to globalize society was the result of economic forces and unfortunately spread into culturally embedded fields such as social work. They propose that globalization in social work has changed the direction of former efforts at internationalization, which were designed primarily to develop cross-national perspectives on human experiences. After a review of current trends in globalization, the authors offer cautionary words about well-intended efforts that can easily become educational frameworks imposed from the outside, with the power of disrupting cultures.     

Nourishing the Social Innovation Debate with the “Social Technology” South American Research Tradition

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Inspired by the South American research tradition known as “social technology,” this article proposes an...     

Social and solidarity economy for sustainable development: its premises – and the Social Economy Basel example of practice

The social and solidarity economy (SSE) is a viable strategy in dealing with some contemporary problems known both in industrial and developing countries. SSE is contextualized against the background of recent developments: the liberalization of goods and capital flows worldwide, continued industrialization, and the increased global division of labour. Addressed is how local populations could reach certain objectives and satisfy certain needs using techniques characteristic of SSE and, thus, carve out a social and economic space of their own vis-à-vis anonymous markets, global actors, and local and national elites. Within this self-governed space, it is suggested, a path can be laid for the necessary transition towards local, social, and ecological sustainability. The Social Economy Basel (SEB, founded 1996) will serve as an example to suggest how SSE principles could be operationalized into organizational practice.     

Is the Problem of European Citizenship a Problem of Social Citizenship? Social Policy,Federalism, and Democracy in the EU and United States*

The development of supranational (European) social rights, and therefore social citizenship, is undermined by strong, direct relationships between citizens and national welfare states. Social policies contribute to national identities because they entail direct relationships between states and citizens. In well‐developed European welfare states strong relationships between citizens and their member‐states are expected. This may prevent the development of a similar relationship at the European level. The U.S. provides a comparison case, wherein a successful transference of citizenship identity from a lower to higher level has occurred, partly as a result of the building of national‐level social citizenship, at least for certain classes of people. Revolutionary War Pensions provide an example of how social policy influences national identity. The lack of EU‐level social policy precludes the possibility of this type of identity formation. Finally, the interplay of social citizenship and democracy in both cases is explored. T.H. Marshall’s work regarding citizenship as the basis for democracy is used to understand how the inability to create a common social policy in the EU is harmful to democracy.     

Not Just Play: an outline of the “Art for Social Change” programme

Not Just Play will introduce the reader to the European Cultural Foundation programme “Art for Social Change”. This programme is being carried out in partnership with the network of Soros Foundations, mainly in Central and Eastern Europe. The article offers some insights into the rationale behind the programme, its framework and the activities carried out within “Art for Social Change”. It will close with some information regarding the evaluation of the programme.     

Making Social Policy “Sexy”: Evaluating a Teaching Innovation

Abstract

How to stimulate student interest in social policy, while reinforcing its professional significance for social work, remains an understudied topic. This paper reports an evaluation of a teaching intervention that sought to enhance student interest in social policy by: more explicitly connecting social policy with professional social work practice; introducing an assessment exercise that involved visiting Parliament House; and undertaking weekly “hot policy topic” small group discussions. Social work students were found to be quite aware of the importance of social policy to professional practice. The intervention did not measurably increase interest in social policy, but heightened student awareness of their capacity to contribute to policy processes.     

What Can Climate‐Adaptation Policy in Sub‐Saharan Africa Learn from Research on Governance and Politics?

There has been relatively little thinking about the political context of climate‐adaptation policy in sub‐Saharan Africa, what this means for the quality of governance, and the capacity to plan and deliver what are often quite complex policies and programmes. This is all the more surprising given the quantity and depth of what is already known about politics and governance in Africa. This article asks what can be learned from this body of knowledge and experience that is relevant for climate‐adaptation policy.