What is social about criminal justice social work in Belgium?

This paper is concerned with how ‘social work’ is constructed in policy documents of Belgian criminal justice social work, applied to the Houses of Justice, Department of Offender Guidance (previously called the probation service). We argue that Belgian probation has been indeed under influence of controlling tendencies, however, these are masked in a managerial cloth rather than an open punitive stance. Second, we notice that social work values are interpreted in a very limited and methodical manner, namely with reference to the systems perspective of the Palo Alto school of Gregory Bateson and Paul Watzlawick as the work method for all Belgian probation tasks. Hence, from this analysis, we argue for a more radical debate on the relation between probation and social work.     

What is learned during the first moments of work?

The supervision of internships is often based on common sense. However, learning processes at workplace and their conditions remain partly unknown: what is really learned and under what conditions? Two studies on the learning of social working have been conducted, based on work analysis theories and methods. 6 experienced social workers and 4 interns in their first year of training have been interviewed according to the method of "explicitation" interview. The results show that professional learning can occur anyplace, anytime, under certain conditions and under certain forms that have been analyzed. These studies try to analyze the first internship as an entrance into a culture, through a psychological perspective.     

W(h)ither the academy? An exploration of the role of university social work in shaping the future of social work in Europe

A controversial proposal to pilot the training of child protection social workers through an intensive work-based route in England is being supported and funded by the UK Government. Frontline, the brainchild of a former teacher, locates social work training within local authorities (‘the agency’) rather than university social work departments (‘the academy’) and has stimulated debate amongst social work academics about their role in shaping the direction of the profession. As a contribution to this debate, this paper explores the duality of social work education, which derives its knowledge from both the academic social sciences and the experience of practice within social work agencies. While social work education has traditionally been delivered by the academy, this paper also explores whether the delivery of training in the allied professions of probation and nursing by ‘the agency’ is equally effective. Finally, this paper explores the Helsinki model which achieves a synergy of ‘academy’ and ‘agency’. It suggests that there are alternative models of social work education, practice and research which avoid dichotomies between the ‘academy’ and the ‘agency’ and enable the profession to be shaped by both social work academics and practitioners.     

To die destitute today: What are the implications for social work?

The link between the public hospital and the destitute funeral has a long historical background with hospitals today continuing to retain their delegation over the fates of those who die destitute within them. This qualitative study evaluates the roles and skills of social workers when assessing the need for a destitute funeral in the public hospital system. Social workers located in two public hospitals within the same Area Health Service participated in interviews to evaluate the roles and responsibilities of social workers when working with destitute funeral recipients and their significant others. Emergent from these interviews are the social workers' candid perception of the importance of the destitute death. The analysis is structured according to the priority that the social workers themselves accorded: the importance of the destitute death to the organisation, the family and friends of the destitute person, the social workers themselves and to society as a whole. The implication for social work practice is that this study informs policy locally within the hospital social work department, and public health policy within the hospital system. In addition, it is a springboard for practice reflection and advanced clinical practice by social workers in the field of destitute funerals.     

Reclaiming civil society: the future of global social work?

The topic of global social work has become a controversial one in the European Journal of Social Work, as the March 2004 edition acknowledges in an editorial statement. This statement was prompted by a pungent critique from Stephen Webb, in an earlier edition of the journal. Webb (2003), p. 191) dismissed the topic as being of marginal interest: ‘?… social work has at best a minimal role to play with any global social order, should such an order exist’, adding that ‘a global or transnational social work is little more than a vanity’. Lest the reader should still harbour doubts, Webb (2003), p. 196) added with powerful political import: ‘these writers on globalisation and social work posit what is tantamount to ethical welfare imperialism’. Strong words! We beg to differ and offer an alternative vision of the relationship between globalisation and social work that connects it to the vital democratic force of civil society.     

The circle of social reform: the relationship social work—social policy in Addams and Richmond

This article presents some results of a broader purpose of research on the thought and work of Addams and Richmond, particularly about the relationship between social work and social policy. First, we aim to contribute to deeper knowledge on the thought of these two pioneers on this relevant subject for social work nowadays and, particularly, to remove a relative veil of ignorance Richmond's involvement in social reform activities and elaboration on social reform in the context of the public and social policies process. Second, our proposal is to support a revision of the orthodox account on the antagonistic or irreconcilable nature of the two major traditions—social casework (or psychosocial approach) and social reform (or socio-political approach)—founded by two of the most influential figures of social work. Based on secondary and primary sources, the article focuses on the inseparable relationship between social policy and social work, clearly present in the thought and intervention of these seminal authors, and sheds new light on on-going debates and the disputed role of social policy perspectives within professionalised social work and the articulation between direct intervention with individuals, groups and communities and policy practice.     

Are curriculum decisions based on the evidence? How social work faculty members make choices in curriculum decisions

An important step in translating evidence-based practice and empirically supported interventions into large-scale service improvements is to develop an understanding of practitioners' education and training in these practices. This understanding begins with discovering the factors that influence the decision-making process by social work faculty regarding curriculum content for master's level social work programs. This exploratory study uses quantitative and qualitative survey data to examine the decision-making process used by 42 master's level social work programs to select the models of direct practice taught in their master's level social work programs, and whether evidence-based practice and research evidence influences those decisions. We investigate faculty perceptions of curriculum effectiveness and discuss implications of our findings for social work educators making content and organization decisions regarding master's level social work curriculum.     

Fathers in child welfare: What do social work textbooks teach our students?

Research indicates that fathers in the child welfare system provide benefits to children's well-being and positive development, yet child welfare workers often do not engage fathers in services. Previous studies in Canada and the United Kingdom have found that child welfare training perpetuates negative perceptions of fathers. The current study conducted a content analysis of 217 vignettes in the texts used in required classes for students completing a concentration in child welfare classes in nine schools of social work at the public universities in a Southern U.S. state. Coding was completed independently by three researchers with an inter-rater reliability of 79%. Findings indicated that despite men being the perpetrator in 51% of vignettes, women were portrayed in just over half of vignettes (51%) as the sole caregiver responsible for ensuring the child's safety when the abuse occurred. The data were organized into five themes of how men and women were portrayed in the vignettes: Men as Threat, Men as No Different than Women, Men as Irrelevant, Men as Absent, and Women as Default Clients (the first four suggested by Scourfield (2001), and the last by the researchers). Results indicate that the bias against including fathers in child welfare services reported in other studies seems to start at the beginning of students' learning about child welfare work, in their required textbooks. Recommendations include updating child welfare textbooks to better address the role of men and fathers in children's lives, and increasing professors' and field instructors' awareness of the bias against men and fathers in child welfare.     

Disrupting the ‘life-cycle’ of violence in social relations: recommendations for anti-trafficking interventions from an analysis of pathways out of sex work for women in Eastern India

This article argues for the need to change the ways in which anti-human trafficking (AT) non-government organisations (NGOs) and their interventions in India frame and address violence in sex work. The article asserts that AT NGOs need to move beyond their ideological allegiances and infuse their interventions with a better understanding of the lived realities of women who are coerced into sex work. This argument is based on an analysis of women's pathways out of sex work in Eastern India, which include both finding independent routes, and also reliance on AT interventions. The research suggests that AT interventions need to acknowledge the centrality of social relationships in women's lives and experiences of violence. Social relations influence women's entry into sex work, affect their experiences within it, and shape their pathways out of sex work.     

‘Only Connect’: Unifying the social in social work and social media

‘Only Connect…live in fragments no longer’

(E.M. Forster, Howards End).

This paper utilises ‘Only Connect’, the epigraph from Forster’s novel ‘Howards End’ as the starting point for exploring the challenges and opportunities of integrating social networking with relationship based social work practice. The paper discusses the more deleterious implications of social networking, whilst assuming a deliberately optimistic stance to uncover ways in which the opportunities afforded by online space can be utilised effectively within social work education and practice. Whilst recognising that social networking platforms are transforming constantly, the paper adopts Kaplan’s definition of social media as a ‘group of internet based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0’. Whilst much of the discussion within the paper relates to Twitter and Facebook, two of the most endemic international social networking platforms, it is also applicable to myriad forms of social networking. The paper begins with a discussion of UK professional conduct cases and explores these both within Klein’s concept of splitting and historical attitudes to new technologies. Drawing from emerging research data and other examples, the positive relational practices educed by social media within social work education and practice are emphasised and discussed. The paper concludes by highlighting Forster’s plea for connection and recommending that social work embraces the renewed opportunities provided by online networking.     

Freedom as self-transgression: transformations in the ‘governmentality’ of social work

This article takes as its starting point the growing prominence of what might be called ‘neo-philanthropic’ forms of knowledge in social work during recent years. Inspired by Foucault's concepts of genealogy and governmentality, the article presents an historical analysis including eighteenth century poor policies, philanthropy in the late nineteenth century, welfare planning in the 1960s and the emergence of neo-philanthropic social work from the 1980s onwards. The article argues that the recent rediscovery of concepts and techniques invented by late nineteenth-century philanthropy breaks with traditional welfarist forms of knowledge and practices of social work. As a result, it seems that social work is now to foster new kinds of subjects and create new types of communities. This development indicates that a more profound transformation of the welfare state and its conception of citizenship might be taking place.

The article draws upon the PhD thesis entitled The Genealogy of Social Work: The Struggle to Turn the Poor and Marginalized into Free Persons by the author.     

“What Would a Loving Mom Do Today?”: Exploring the Meaning of Motherhood in Stories of Prenatal and Postpartum Depression

Prenatal depression (PD) and postpartum depression (PPD), experienced by up to one-quarter of pregnant women and new mothers, are associated with maternal impairment and disruptions to children’s behavior, development, and health. Women experiencing PD/PPD must cope with negative feelings and detrimental outcomes that stand in contrast with cultural conceptions of how (ideal) mothers feel and act (i.e., the discourse of intensive mothering), thus furthering stigma and negativity surrounding the PD/PPD experience. The present study, couched in relational dialectics theory, aims to explore how women, through naturally occurring online narratives, make sense of motherhood in light of both PD/PPD experiences and cultural expectations/understandings of mothers. Throughout the narrative corpus, the culturally dominant Discourse of (Self-)Sacrificing Blissful Moms (DSBM)—which expands on the discourse of intensive mothering—is de-centered, albeit never fully delegitimated, by the Discourse of Mothers as Whole People (DMWP). Rather than closing down the DSBM, the DMWP works to expand meanings of what “good” mothers can feel and do. This finding holds both cultural/theoretical and practical implications, as discussed by the authors.     

What is mixed in welfare mix? Welfare ideologies at stake in the Lithuanian case of social service delivery

The article deals with the development of social welfare and social services in Lithuania by describing cultural contexts and disclosing evaluations of social service providers and recipients and needs of social service delivery. The authors of the article discuss the changing role of the state, pose a question as to what the institutions and the actors are and to what extent should they participate in the creation of social welfare. One of the aims of this paper is to describe the development of the welfare mix in Lithuania, by showing that welfare is inevitably woven into the historical, economic, political and social context; the distinctive cultural configuration of the welfare mix in social services delivery in Lithuania is revealed. Empirical research (survey of social services recipients and providers) presented in the article discloses that actors of social services delivery experience tension and ambiguity between the demand of neoliberal policy to choose and be responsible and the expectation that the state will participate in the social service market. At the same time social services recipients and providers express a need for different actors to take an active part in the welfare system.     

What is so bad about being rich? The representation of wealth in American culture

Abstract

Today, the USA is the Western nation with the greatest percentage of the world's rich and with the greatest gap between rich and poor. However, there is hardly any national debate or outcry about this growth of wealth polarization. From a Cultural Studies perspective, this puzzling absence of protest raises the question whether and in what way culture plays a role in shaping US attitudes toward economic and social inequality. This article traces these changing attitudes by focusing on cultural representations of wealth in four different stages of US cultural history: the 'Protestant ethic', 'robber barons', 'conspicuous consumption' and the recent 'greed' periods. The article concludes by discussing the conflicting attitudes currently at work in the perception and representation of wealth in US culture.     

The social dynamics of the “Nigerian Taliban”: fresh insights from the social identity theory

Although the ongoing terrorism of the “Nigerian Taliban”, widely known as “Boko Haram”, in northeastern Nigeria has elicited numerous works, there is yet to be an analysis that adequately accounts for the social dynamics of the group’s identity and belonging in the Nigerian polity. This paper is the first systematic attempt to draw on the social identity theory to develop a conceptual discourse that explains the relationship between religion in Nigeria as a force of mobilisation as well as an identity marker, and to show how its politics, practice and perception are implicated in the resilient insurgency of Boko Haram. Along the way, the paper considers the social dynamics of poverty and relative deprivation in northern, especially northeastern, Nigeria, and their contributions to the escalating terrorism of Boko Haram.     

‘What shall I pack in my suitcase?’: the role of work-integrated learning in sustaining social work students’ professional identity

Interest in the reflective practitioner as a model of a ‘good professional’ has increased in several professional fields and is also valued within social work education as a key aspiration to address the uncertainties and challenges encountered in contemporary working environments. Reflecting on their own professional identity, as well as theories, values, and devices used in professional practice, can help practitioners deal with complex work demands and help students be better equipped to transition from university to work. Work-integrated learning (WIL) provides students with an opportunity to integrate academic learning with ‘real-world’ experiences to develop both valuable self-monitoring and professional self-constructive ability. This paper presents a case study in social work higher education in which WIL class-based teaching was combined with the use of reflective journals to explore the role of WIL in developing reflective practices for professional identity formation. 21 reflective journals by social work students are analysed. The findings suggest that teaching practices based on WIL enable professional identity formation by developing reflective practices, and that different learning conditions sustain specific dimensions of professional identity, i.e. professional expertise, membership to a professional community and sense of professional self.     

Living on the edge? Professional anxieties at work in academia and veterinary practice

ABSTRACT

Through empirical research on academics and veterinary surgeons, this article focuses on identity and how it is reflected in, and reproduced by, anxiety and insecurity at work. Three analytical themes – perfection, performativity and commodified service – each of which generates anxiety indicates a loss of autonomy as academics and vets are subjected to competitive market forces as well as an intensification of masculine managerial controls of assessment, audit and accountability. We see these pressures and their effects as reflecting a commodification of service provision where the consumer (student or client) begins to redefine the relationship between those offering some expertise and those who are its recipients, partly achieved through the performative gaze of constant and visible rating mechanisms. Our empirical research also identifies sources of anxiety concerns in their attempts to achieve perfection against this background of uncertain knowledge and precarious contexts of the performative nature of professional expertise.