Social Movements, Social Justice and Social Work

Correspondence to: Neil Thompson, Avenue Consulting Ltd, PO Box 2060, Wrexham LL13 OZG, Wales, UK. Summary This paper explores the relationship between social movements,social justice and social work. It examines the role of socialmovements in promoting social justice and considers the influencesof such movements in the development of emancipatory forms ofsocial work practice. It also considers the question of whethersocial work can be viewed as a form of social movement in itsown right. A central theme of the paper is the fundamental tensionbetween social work as a force for social regulation and asa force for social development and emancipation.     

Social Gerontology and Social Work

Summary This paper reviews developments in the study of ageing as anindividual and social experience and it considers recent studiesof practical services for the elderly. In so doing it aims tohighlight the ways in which social work skills and helping techniquescan be developed. It also relates the findings of studies ofservice delivery to the elderly to the development of futurepolicy.     

Contracts in Social Work Practice

Summary This article explores the paradigm of Contract Law to identifyproblems and advantages of introducing a contractual model intosocial work practice. Recent social work literature on the useof contracts is reviewed and a social worker's record of howa contract was negotiated is analysed. The author argues thatthe value-base of a contract model must be founded on reciprocity.     

Social Work for Social Fitness

Summary Social work has lost the perspective of social relationshipsas ends in themselves, and has become predominantly an impersonal,individualistic technology. Several interpersonal dimensionsare outlined to help fill this social value vacuum, and it issuggested that these can be held together by the concept ofsocial fitness. This is defined as the mutual development ofthe individual and his total network to a fullness of identitywhich is an end in itself and does not depend on the achievementof any other objectives. The kind of power produced by thisfitness is distinguished from power of the impersonal kind,and its meaning for social workers is discussed in relationto material need. Finally, the future development of socialwork is considered briefly in terms of promoting social fitnessthrough work with various kinds of social networks.     

The Other Italian Experiment: Neighbourhood Social Work in the Health and Social Services

Summary Following recent legislation, most social workers in Italy arenow responsible for giving a service to the population of agiven geographical area rather than to any particular categoryof client. The findings suggest that there is some experimentationwith regard to the organisation and composition of neighbourhoodteams and that the trend, not without problems, is towards socialworkers becoming the ‘gatekeepers’ to financialand other resources in the Social Service Sector for the localpopulation.     

Beyond Social Constructionism: Critical Realism and Social Work

Summary Theories within the social and psychological sciences continueto shape social work practice. However, recent debates withinthese sciences on the shortcomings of ‘social constructionism’,and the attempt to overcome them through a critical realistposition, have so far failed to capture social work's attention.This paper provides a critical overview of these theoreticaldebates, highlighting the shortcomings of social constructionismfor social work. The critical realist challenge to social constructionism,as articulated by the British philosopher Roy Bhaskar, is consideredand its relevance to social work formulated in terms of a returnto ‘depth’ in practice.     

Tough Love: Social Work, Social Exclusion and the Third Way

Summary This article argues that New Labour's priorities for socialinclusion through employment, and for strenthening civil society,have relegated public-sector social work to a limited role inassessing and managing risks. However, as failures in the government'stop-down, regulatory approach emerge, there will be new opportunitiesfor a broader-based version of the profession to contributeto a more progressive programme.     

On the Relevance of Informal Social Networks to Social Work Intervention

Summary Taking as its starting point the Barclay Committee's definitionof community in terms of local informal networks, this papersets out to cull some relevant material from the literatureof social networks and to use it to demonstrate the appropriatenessof orienting social work practice to the community. In suggestingan emphasis on supporting rather than supplanting existing informalcaring systems, it is made dear that, if motivated by parsimonysuch an approach risks irresponsibly increasing distress andsocial costs.     

Social Networks and Social Service Workers

Correspondence to Peter Sharkey, School of Law, Social Work and Social Policy, Liverpool Polytechnic, 98 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, L3 5UZ. Summary ‘Networks’ is a word often used in the discussionof social work practice and within social services departments.It was a word which was central to the Barclay Report (1982)and important within the more recently published Griffiths Report(1988) on community care. It is a word also known to sociologistsand anthropologists through the development of ‘networkanalysis’. There is, however, a fairly wide gap betweenits use within social work and its use within social science.This article tries to explore this gap and the ways in whichsocial science ideas might have some use and relevance to socialservice workers. It does this by using some illustrative datafrom a study done of the personal networks of thirty elderlypeople who were all clients of a social service district office.     

Agency Function and Social Work Principles

Summary The concept of agency function is examined in relation to thenature of the social work task. It is often the case that agencyfunction is seen more as a problem for social work and not asone of its characteristics. It is argued in this paper thatthe agency itself is not responsible for the apparently delicatestate of present day social work, but that on the contrary,the failure to appreciate social work's relationship to societyand social processes in part accounts for its uncertain condition.     

Social Policy and the Prevention of Suicidal Behaviour

Summary This paper is an attempt to answer the following questions.Can we, and should we, try to prevent suicidal behaviour; howsuccessful are the efforts at suicide prevention of lay andmedical agencies; and what social policies could be employedto prevent suicidal behaviour?     

Selecting for Social Work

Summary Social work courses need to spell out the characteristics andconsequences of particular selection procedures, as a prerequisiteof improvement. This article reports a survey of applicantsfor a postgraduate social work course, where entry is determinedby two independent, individual interviews. Previous social workexperience and the candidate's degree subject emerged as importantcorreiates of selection. Paired interviewing appeared to operatein an impartial fashion, with a high degree of consistency betweeninterviewers of different kinds, and an absence of hierarchyin resolving conflicts. However, the outcome of interviewingwas partially contingent upon the degree of agreement betweeninterviewers on their initial, individual assessment of thecandidates' suitability.     

Primary and Secondary Social Services

Summary Against a background of discontent with some aspects of currentorganization of SSDs, a number of criteria for good organizationdesign are offered. Central to these is a questioning of currentassumptions that social workers should normally provide theirservices from generic area offices. In its place a notion ofPrimary (as being those which do demand local neighbourhooddelivery) and Secondary services (as being those which requirea specialized, more concentrated delivery, often in collaborationwith other disciplines) is offered. Detailed suggestions abouthow such a model would look in relation to different clientconditions are made.     

Social Workers' Orientations: an Action Perspective

Summary The established sociological approach to social workers' orientationshas led to a restricted picture of the day-to-day conduct ofsocial workers. Adopting a different perspective, the work discussedhere resulted in an ideal typology of eight orientations. Thearticle describes these types and refers briefly to some propositionsand conclusions that arise.     

Social Work Intervention with a Multiple Sclerosis Population

Correspondence to Dr. G. J. Welch, Department of Social Work, University of Natal, Durban 4001, South Africa. Summary The paper describes a successful social work intervention programmeaimed at stress reduction and increased self-acceptance formembers of a multiple sclerosis self-help group. The clinicalprogramme is described in detail and both statistical and graphedoutcome results are reported.     

Social Workers' Attitudes to Lesbian Clients

Correspondence to Karen Hardman, Department of Applied Social Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX Summary Within British social work there is no model of good practicefor working with lesbian clients. As a prelude to the establishmentof such a model, this paper attempts to ascertain social workers'attitudes to lesbians using a thirty-item attitude (Likert)scale. The implications of social workers' attitudes for practicewith lesbian clients are considered from responses to case vignettes.     

Selecting Students for Social Work Training

Summary Research into the interview as an instrument of selection isconsidered and its use in relation to selection for social worktraining examined. An account is given of a research projectundertaken to compare selection decisions made on the basisof written applications with those reached after additionalinterviews. It was found that in the majority of cases the additionalinformation from interviews did not materially affect the decisionsmade. The implications of these findings are discussed     

Social Work Effectiveness Experiments: Review and Implications

Summary This paper takes the view that the findings and methodologiesof experiments seeking to test the effectiveness of social workare too little known and understood. Now is a particularly goodtime to attempt to remedy this since a new generation of studiesis available showing results which, in contrast to those earliertimes, are largely positive. A comparison between these firstand second wave studies is revealing and raises many implicationsfor future research and practice.     

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     

Defensive Social Work

Correspondence to Nigel Harris, Department of Philosophy, The University, Dundee DD1 4HN. Summary Social workers with child clients face the possibility thatsome mistake or oversight of theirs could lead to a child abusetragedy, for which they may suffer opprobrium and blighted careers.How can they guard against such risks? This paper shows howsocial workers might use different types of ‘defensive’measure to protect themselves. These parallel the types of measureused by some doctors, particularly in the United States, facedwith risks of litigation on grounds of malpractice. Becausedefensive practices have undesirable consequences, it is importantto find ways to eliminate their use by protecting social workersby other means.