Reading sites as sights for reading. The sale of newspapers in Germany before 1933 : Bookshops in railway stations,kiosks and street vendors

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, with the founding of the German nation-state, the removal of various restrictions on the distribution of newspapers, a decrease in the price of paper and an improvement in printing techniques, lighting and means of communication opened the way in Germany for the mass distribution of reading material, in general, and newspapers in particular. In those years a closely-knit network of distribution of newspapers and journals developed which had a decisive role in popularising a reading culture in the period of transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries. Various aspects of this system of distribution are considered through examination of three points of distribution of newspapers and journals; bookshops in railway stations, kiosks and the sale of newspapers on the streets. Methods of distributing newspapers and the position of these points of distribution in the social space are considered to decipher the social and cultural significance of these points of distribution as 'reading sites': that is, as places where readers and newspapers came together, representing a variety of social, economic and cultural interests. Thus the aim of this paper is not only to examine the points of distribution as 'reading sites' but to reveal these places as 'sights of reading'; that is, as places that helped people orient themselves in the modern space. Orientation in the modern urban space depended more and more on the eyes and this rapid development of the 'viewing' culture led to an increase in semiotic sensibility and to a need for means of learning and sources of information to cultivate this sensibility.     

Approach/avoidance: Communists and women in East Germany, 1945-9

This article explores the shifting strategies of the German Communist party (KPD, later SED) towards the woman question in the Soviet zone of occupation. In the fluid post-war situation, the KPD/SED had to resort to heterodox experiments as it attempted, initially, to mobilize electoral support among women and, later, to organize women on the shopfloor. Women Communists played a prominent role in these efforts which included the creation of a women's league. In consequence, they enjoyed more influence in the young SED than ever before (or after) in the German Communist movement. As they proceeded, activists stumbled, however, not only against the hostility of women towards the Communist message but also against the resistance of male comrades and trade union leaders to apolitical, proto-feminist appeals. To break internal impasses, women relied on the support of the top leadership and, especially, Soviet command. If the centralization of power initially helped their cause, the tightening of the Stalinist vice in 1948-9 knocked out its foundations. Electoral politics counted for little, while women's integration in the workforce slid down the ladder of priorities. Its separatist tendencies quashed, the women's league continued only as a transmission belt of the party line to housewives.     

社会和谐是中国特色社会主义的本质属性

社会和谐发挥了中国特色社会主义推动社会发展的优势。它有可能做到完全按照社会发展的需要和最广大人民的利益去调节生产关系和上层建筑,使其不断适应生产力发展的要求,从而达到整个社会协调持续地向前发展,政治经济文化社会保持和谐稳定的状态。社会和谐反映了中国特色社会主义在社会关系方面的特征,它符合于中国特色社会主义发展的历史趋势,体现了中国特色社会主义的基本价值取向。实现人的全面自由发展,是科学社会主义的最高价值取向,也是共产主义社会最本质的特征。而人的自由全面发展的标志,是每个人的自由发展是一切人的自由发展的条件。这恰恰就是人与人和谐相处的最高境界,是社会关系和谐的最高境界。今天我们建设社会主义和谐社会就是在为实现这个目标而奋斗。     

Human rights,cultural practices,and state policies: Implications for global social work practice and policy

Effective practice in a global world requires knowledge and understanding of diverse cultures. Most social workers around the world are committed to values and policies that enhance the well‐being of especially vulnerable populations and that protect their human rights. However, not all cultural practices or policies place the same value on human rights and the protection of vulnerable populations, a situation that may result in conflicts for social workers, who have an ethical obligation to advocate for human rights as well as to be sensitive to their clients' cultural contexts. Based on multidisciplinary research and contemporary examples of gender discrimination, forced marriages, child labor, and female genital mutilation, this article proposes resolutions to this conflict. It concludes by suggesting practices and policies that might help social workers to strike an effective balance between cultural diversity and the promotion of human rights. Key Practitioner Message: ● Social workers are best placed to understand individuals and communities within their various cultural contexts; ● Social work practice and policy should be sensitive to cultural practices that may undermine human rights and the well‐being of vulnerable populations; ● Guided by professional values and ethics, social workers can assume the roles of educator and advocate in enhancing the rights of individuals.     

宁波市社工阅读调查研究

社区是文化的土壤,文化的孕育和传承存在于社区的社会活动和生活之中。社工是一个社区的组织者和维护者,承担着整个社区的科教文卫工作。阅读作为一种常见的知识接受形式,对社工技能的培养有着不可估量的作用,提高社工的阅读率对保证社区各项工作的正常运行有着非同一般的意义。     

Developing Practice Tools for Social Workers in End-of-Life Care

Abstract

This article describes the National Association of Social Workers' (NASW) strategies for providing social workers with important practice and policy information about palliative and end-of-life care. With funding from a Soros Foundation's Project on Death in America grant, NASW developed practice standards, a Web-based continuing education course, and drafted a new policy statement to guide social workers in end-of-life care practice. The article provides an in-depth view of the development and scope of these resources for professional social workers.     

Retrospective Book Review: Teaching a Methods Course in Social Work with Groups

SUMMARY

Eight years after its publication, Teaching a Methods Course in Social Work with Groups serves as a reminder to social workers of group work's historic roots and its value as a method of practice with diverse populations. The author shares her experiences in utilizing the teaching text in her work with MSW students and students of the arts who facilitate activity-based groups in community settings. Citing examples of students' experiences in group work facilitation, the author touches on the constraints emerging group workers face in translating social work skills and values to practice. The author's retrospective review of the teaching text underscores its continued importance in the field of social group work instruction.     

Modernity as history: Post-revolutionary China,globalization and the question of modernity

Processes associated with globalization have provoked important changes in our conceptions of modernity, as well as the discourse of modernization. While the end of socialism has encouraged a 'renaissance' of modernization discourse, this discourse is significantly different than in the past in its willingness to make room in modernity for civilizations other than the EuroAmerican. At the same time, post-colonial criticism has played a significant part in the downgrading of EuroAmerican modernity by pointing to its origins in colonialism, which encourages calls for recognition of alternative modernities, or alternative claims to modernity. Intentionally or not, the combination has resulted in a renewed reification of cultural and civilizational traditions. This article juxtaposes two sets of literature to examine these developments critically. The two sets are a general, mostly sociological, literature on modernity and modernization, and literature on Chinese modernity which has proliferated in recent years. Juxtaposition of these two sets of literature provides a space that enables a critical perspective on culturalist tendencies in studies of modernity that persist despite strong evidence of problems that cut across cultural or civilizational boundaries.     

RAP Therapy: A Group Work Intervention Method for Urban Adolescents

ABSTRACT

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) places a premium on the development of cultural competence among practitioners. To this end, the present study highlights how social work practitioners, specifically group work leaders, can utilize elements of the culture of urban adolescents to develop effective group work intervention strategies. The article compares adolescent participants' perceptions of usefulness of traditional group therapy and similar group work sessions using RAP music as a conduit to support prosocial skills development. A nomenclature of three adolescent groups was tested: violent offenders, status offenders, and a control condition of high school students with no criminal history. Findings were unequivocally in favor of the RAP therapy as a tool for advancing prosocial behavior.     

All Aboard

Abstract

Social workers in all practice areas have the potential to contribute to the National Agenda for Social Work Research in Palliative and End-of-Life Care. The purpose of this article is to invite social work practitioners and researchers to identify research needs and work with others to address them. We offer a conceptualization of the broad scope of social work's involvement in end-of-life issues, and articulate the difference between end-of-life care and end-of-life issues in social work. Suggestions are offered to advance the national research agenda.     

Ageing and the politics of pension reforms in Central Europe,South‐Eastern Europe and the Baltic States

Cerami A. Ageing and the politics of pension reforms in Central Europe, South‐Eastern Europe and the Baltic States Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 331–343 © 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. This article investigates ageing and the politics of pension reforms in Central Europe, South‐Eastern Europe and the Baltic States. It emphasises the importance of historical legacies, presence of veto points, trade unions' power, electoral rules and country‐specific patterns of political competition, but it also highlights the central role in institutional change played by other concomitant factors, such as those associated with the communicative actions of national and international actors. The role played by power politics, class conflicts and strategic use of social policies is also emphasised. The main argument put forward in this article is that pressures for reforms in the pension systems have not only been the response of demographic, economic and financial pressures but have also been the result of a new consensus found on new economic ideas and discourses that saw in the privatisation of the economy a new modernisation paradigm.     

End-of-Life Care and Social Work Education

Summary

Social workers are major service providers to people who are facing end-of-life issues including the terminally ill and their families. Yet, exemplary models for social work education and intervention methods are limited in rural states. A statewide survey conducted in Kentucky found only two social work courses dedicated to end-of-life care currently being offered by accredited undergraduate and graduate institutions. Another statewide survey found that many hospice social workers are relatively inexperienced and have a need and desire for more education on death, dying and loss. Also, unique cultural, economic and geographic areas, such as Appalachia are enigmas when it comes to the provision of end-of-life care. This partnership provides a varied perspective on delivery of end-of-life care services with an emphasis on social work interventions and education.     

The Role of Family in Career Choices among Social Workers in China

Abstract

High turnover rate affects social work workforce development in China. Few empirical studies have been conducted to explore the factors that have influences on turnover intention among Chinese social workers. This study used data from China General Survey on Professional Social Workers to examine the influence of job satisfaction and family attitude on social workers’ career choices. The findings reveal that both job satisfaction and family’ attitude toward the profession have significant effects on social workers’ turnover intention. Family’s support or disapproval of the social work profession has moderate effect on the negative correlation between job satisfaction and turnover intention. The findings could be explained by the familyism culture of Chinese society and unique challenges of professional development experienced by social workers in China. Future studies should consider the influence of family to develop a more comprehensive research framework. Management in social service agencies should help family of social workers to learn and embrace the profession to gain their support of choosing social work as career.     

马克思哲学革命的文化逻辑及其现代启示

“傲慢的”民族主义、极端的国家主义和纯思辨的表达形式是近代德意志民族主流文化的三个主要构成要素。只有在对近代德意志民族主流文化的三个主要构成要素进行科学批判的过程中才有新哲学的构建，这就是马克思哲学革命的文化逻辑。这一文化逻辑不是在独立的传统哲学框架内形成和发展的，而是在历史学批判、社会主义批判和政治经济学批判进程中形成和发展的。马克思哲学革命的文化逻辑对我们在中国发展马克思哲学有两点重要启示：其一，撇开对马克思主义的整体把握和研究的关注，缺乏马克思主义各个研究领域的对话和交流，就会违背马克思哲学革命的文化逻辑和马克思哲学的发展规律；其二，马克思主义哲学研究最核心的任务就是马克思主义哲学的中国化，马克思主义哲学中国化的主体是通过对当代具体科学成果方法论上的概括以及对中国特色社会主义重大问题的反思，从世界历史的角度对当代中国社会整体发展的进程、机制、特点、规律及其趋势做出哲学层面上的科学解释并为实践提供科学方法论的指导。     

Separated by Their Sex: Women in Public and Private in the Colonial Atlantic World

I. M. W. Harvey, Jack Cade's Rebellion of 1450 (1991), xiv + 220 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, £30.00).

Philippa C. Maddern, Violence and Social Order in East Anglia 1422–1442 (1992), 270 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, £35.00).

David Harris Sacks, The Widening Gate: Bristol and the Atlantic Economy, 1450–1700 (1991), xxvii + 464 (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, $45.00).

Carla Hesse, Publishing and Cultural Politics in Revolutionary Paris, 1789–1810 (1991), xvi + 540 (University of California Press, Berkeley, $29.95).

Marc Baer, Theatre and Disorder in Late Georgian London (1992), xv + 291 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, £37.50).

John Russell Stephens, The Profession of the Playwright: British Theatre 1800–1990 (1992), xix + 254 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, £32.50).

Jonathan Sperber, Rhineland Radicals: The Democratic Movement and the Revolution of 1848–1849 (1991), xvi + 528 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, £27.50).

Donald Reid, Paris Sewers and Sewermen: Realities and Representations (1991), 235 (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, £31.95).

Lenard Berlanstein, Big Business and Industrial Conflict in Nineteenth‐Century France: A Social History of the Parisian Gas Company (1991), xiv + 348 (University of California Press, Berkeley, $42.50).

Angela V. John, Our Mother's Land: Chapters in Welsh Women's History, 1830–1939 (1991), xiv + 216 (University of Wales Press, Cardiff £25.00, paperback £10.95).

Philip Jenkins, A History of Modern Wales, 1536–1990 (1992), x + 451 (Longman, £28.00, paperback £13.99).

David Ward, Poverty, Ethnicity, and the American City, 1840–1925. Changing Conceptions of the Slum and the Ghetto (1989), xiv + 263 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, paperback £9.95).

Temma Kaplan, Red City, Blue Period: Social Movements in Picasso's Barcelona (1992), xiv + 266 (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, $30.00).

Elizabeth Faue, Community of Suffering and Struggle: Women, Men, and the Labor Movement in Minneapolis, 1915–1945 (1991), xviii + 295 (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, $42.95, paperback $16.45).

Kathryn Bernhardt, Rents, Taxes, and Peasant Resistance: The Lower Yangzi Region, 1840–1950 (1992), 326 (Stanford University Press, Stanford, $37.50).

Susan Archer Mann, Agrarian Capitalism in Theory and Practice (1990), xiv + 211 (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, $32.95).     

Disaster Research in Social Work

SUMMARY

Disaster research in social work has deep roots in the profession'S history of disaster relief, social work'S mission to create resources and make them accessible to people, and the profession'S service to vulnerable populations. Social workers have important and unique contributions to make to disaster research through their expertise in ecological approaches, prevention, stress and coping, and promoting change in micro and macro systems. Disaster research in social work borrows primarily from psychology and sociology, and is conducted in clinical, organizational, and community contexts. Further social work research on disaster promises improved theory, measurement, and practice in situations of collective Stress.     

Raising a true socialist individual: Yugoslav psychoanalysis and the creation of democratic Marxist citizens

This article explores the surprisingly successful development of psychoanalysis in socialist Yugoslavia, and the discipline’s relationship with both Western paradigms and Yugoslavia’s own theory of workers’ self-management. It focuses primarily on child psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, and their attempts at reforming traditional Balkan ‘authoritarian’ families and helping raise democratic Marxist citizens. It argues that Yugoslav psychiatrists and psychoanalysts developed their own version of revolutionary and activist psychoanalysis, which was meant to contribute to a broad political and cultural discussion in Yugoslavia about constructing a society based on genuine Marxist collective and individual emancipation, an alternative to both Stalinist state socialism and Western capitalism/liberal democracy. Many ‘psy’ professionals used overtly political language to frame their aims and experiences, and turned their consulting rooms into revolutionary sites. West European practices and theories of child psychoanalysis figured prominently in Yugoslav clinical discussions and practice, but they were regularly linked to the broader goals of Marxist revolutionary politics, workers’ self-management or socialist struggle against patriarchy or ‘bureaucratized’ political relations. Therefore, the Yugoslav experiment, in which a new activist psychoanalysis became mainstream and state-funded psychotherapy, remains central to understanding psychoanalysis as a tool for socio-political critique and activism in the second half of the twentieth century.     

The Perception of Organizational Issues of Social Work Practitioners in Saudi Hospitals

ABSTRACT

Health care has evolved rapidly in Saudi Arabia, based upon a Western model of service that incorporates multidisciplinary professional teams. Social work practice forms part of patient care. This study explores how Saudi social workers perceive their role and how they describe their practice within the hospital context. A quantitative methodology was employed using a self-administered questionnaire. Analysis revealed that 219 social workers perceived formidable limitations to their daily work practice. The study identified factors relating to the hospital's organizational circumstances where a) organizational structural aspects, b) organizational resources, and c) hospital management and interprofessional teamwork impacted best practice. Future research and recommendations for further study are outlined.     

The heirs of the American revolution

Sean Wilentz, Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788–1850 (1984), xiv+496 (Oxford University Press, New York, £31.50).

Jan Lewis, The Pursuit of Happiness : Family and Values in Jefferson's Virginia (1983), xix+290 (Cambridge University Press, £20.00).

Jay Fliegelman, Prodigals and Pilgrims: The American Revolution against Patriarchal Authority, 1750–1800 (1982), viii+328 (Cambridge University Press, £20.00).     

Self-determination: Lessons to be Learned from Social Work Practice in India

Correspondence to Dr F. K. Ejaz Research Associate Applied Research Institute Menorah Park Center for the Aging 27100 Cedar Road, Beachwood, OH 44122 USA. Summary Self-determination is a controversial principle in social workpractice. On the one hand it is accepted as being central tosocial work and stems from the broader philosophical issuesof autonomy and respect for the individual. On the other hand,there are many doubts about its implications for practice. Thisarticle examines how the Western social work principle of self-determinationis influenced by cultural beliefs and expectations in India. Twenty-six social workers participated in a qualitative studyon the influence of culture on casework practice in Bombay,India. Open-ended questions and case studies were used to examinehow culture specific problems were handled and how workers interpretedand used some of the principles of social work practice. Social workers believed that Indian clients expected to be guidedin a therapeutic relationship. Further, clients were generallyapathetic and fatalistic about circumstances in their lives.Indian social workers came across as being maestros at bridgingeast-west differences. They subtly fulfilled social and culturalexpectations and at the same time enabled clients to assumeenough autonomy to handle their own problems.