Dialogue Across the Pacific

WERE the blondes dancing the Macarena in U.S. discos? No, they were in Beijing to mark the end of the Second China-U.S. Conference on Women's Issues. Even Gu Xiulian, First Vice President of the All-China Women's Federation, joined her American sisters to celebrate its happy ending. As the American convener Jerrie Ueberle, President of Global Interactions Inc, said, the four-day conference, "not only feasts our ears but also our eyes." At the opening ceremony in the Great     

Meaning of Political Controversy in the Classroom: A Dialogue Across The Podium

The abstract value of academic freedom is enjoyed (or not) in concrete settings, as interactional and emergent experiences. We examine classroom political controversy in our experiences, understandings, and values, using grounded theory methods and collective autoethnography by a team of five teachers and students. Our data were generated through electronic and face‐to‐face dialogues. Our analysis, guided by a symbolic interactionist and constructionist framework, yields a picture of Controversy in Action, whereby we navigate Barriers to Open Discussion and Costs of Controversy. Results highlight insights into taken‐for‐granted meanings unexamined in day‐to‐day classroom interaction. We attend to the relevance of the local context in which our classrooms are embedded and the interactional, meaning creating work that goes on in those classrooms, as we negotiate controversy.     

Baccalaureate Social Work Education Consortia: Problems and Possibilities

Abstract

In just one decade, the number of consortia and schools in collaborative programs has declined. Moreover, several consortia, including those with as many as five schools 10 years ago, no longer exist, and some of these schools have ceased offering accredited social work programs. However, some new consortia are emerging. To determine the significance of these trends, the investigator interviewed by telephone social work administrators and faculty of the 21 colleges and universities currently involved in the nine undergraduate consortia. In addition, the investigator reviewed institutional catalogs and compiled information about the origin and development of the collaborative programs, their structure and nature, and their advantages and disadvantages as perceived by the respondents. Benefits of collaborative programs are that they enrich programs and provide density. Although cooperative arrangements present problems, the problems can be overcome if the institutions involved communicate successfully and cooperate. Study findings revealed that consortia that use, rather than rival, the experiences of other schools will tend to be more successful.     

Career Development and Guidance Programs Across Cultures: The Gap Between Policies and Practices

The authors summarize the presentations and discussions contributed to the symposium International Perspectives on Career Development by members of Group 5, who considered the topic of the structure and organization of career development programs in different nations. A capsule picture of the national setting, primary goals, components, objectives, and implementation strategies is presented. Papers fell largely into 4 categories: national programs with several components; large, but more specific programs, serving a national population; smaller programs serving diverse populations; and focused programs. One theme emerged strongly from virtually every presentation: There is a gap, often profound, between policy or vision and reality. Although every nation about which participants heard had laudable policies and had made genuine attempts to assist its people with life career development, many individuals do not have access to quality, or even any, services.     

Mentoring Youth Across Cultures Incorporating Different Worldviews: A Zones of Proximal Exploration Model

Mentoring is an ongoing, regular, reciprocal process of advice-sharing, involving a mentor and a protégé in an agreed pattern over an extended period. In this article the need for cross-cultural, immigrant youth mentoring is demonstrated and acculturation issues in educational, employment, and social and family environments are highlighted. A grounded approach is described using a new conceptual model of zones of proximal exploration drawing on the work of sociocultural, educational, and developmental theorists to incorporate the social context of both parties involved in conjunction with a person-focused approach based on a new behavior motivation matrix and the work of Gardner, Kohlberg, and Maslow.     

Building a Bridge Across the Ocean: Commentary on a Dialogue Between Adrienne Harris and David Lichtenstein

This essay is a commentary on the dialogue between Adrienne Harris and David Lichtenstein and aims to address the points of contact and divergence between relational and Lacanian perspectives. As a starting point, I focus on issues that are central to both schools of thought, including (but not limited to) the self as subject, transference and countertransference, the analytic relationship, interpretation, transformation and the goals of treatment, and the question of analytic authority. These areas are discussed with an eye toward understanding the way that theory informs technique and comes alive in the clinical situation ultimately effecting change.     

Inspiration Across Cultures: Reflecting Teams among the Métis in Canada

Métis Community Services on Vancouver Island exists to serve the Métis, one of Canada's three aboriginal peoples. I went there, hoping for an exchange of thoughts and ideas that I could apply to my work back home in Sweden. I was welcome to observe and participate in the work. I was asked to talk about something that I wanted to share with them. The result was a workshop about how to apply the reflecting team mode of working when counselling aboriginal families. The outcome of our exchange was a blend of the ethics and rules of behaviour among aboriginal people and the Scandinavian reflecting team mode of working.     

Parental Depression and Anxiety and Early Childhood Behavior Problems Across Family Types

Using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we examine the association between parental major depressive and generalized anxiety disorders and child behavior problems across family types: married, cohabiting, involved nonresident father, and noninvolved nonresident father. Among 3‐year‐olds in all families, maternal anxiety/depression is associated with increased odds of anxious/depressed, attention deficit, and oppositional defiant disorders (N = 2,120). Paternal anxiety/depression has no significant association with these problem behaviors; father’s illness, however, exacerbates anxious/depressed behaviors in young children if both parents are ill and he is coresident. The findings underscore the importance of maternal mental health for child well‐being and suggest that a negative interaction between parent illnesses is most likely when parents and children share the same disorder.     

Computer-based Information Systems and Human Service Organisations: Emerging Problems and Future Possibilities

Abstract

Standardised case management systems were designed to address poor outcomes for abused or neglected children. Their introduction has been controversial, with some social workers identifying them as undermining the social worker–service user relationship, and professionalism. This paper reports on a qualitative study of service users of two widely used systems in Australia: “Looking After Children” (LAC) and “Supporting Children and Responding to Families” (SCARF) (both based on adaptations of United Kingdom systems). There has been relatively little evaluation of the long-term use of these systems relevant to Australian social work. The experiences of service users can contribute to debate because they provided lived experiences of these systems and family members' inclusion is a central goal. Children, young people, and parents reported positive experiences of case-managed interventions: the goals of the intervention were usually clear, processes productive, and relationships with social workers possible. However, service users did identify barriers to participation, limitations in assessment, and described diverse experiences of interventions. While these findings challenge critics, they also suggest that LAC and SCARF could be further developed to better meet expectations of families.     

Gender Differences in the Developmental Links Between Conduct Problems and Depression Across Early Adolescence

Various developmental models have attempted to explain the relationship between antisocial behavior and depressive symptoms in youth, often proposing intermediary processes such as social and academic functioning. However, few studies have tested these developmental models fully, particularly in mixed‐gender samples. The current study strives to fill this gap in the literature, examining these processes in an early adolescent sample. Results indicated both direct and indirect paths between antisocial behavior and depression. In addition, potentially important gender differences were found. These results underscore the importance of examining direct and indirect links between symptoms of depression and antisocial behavior and suggest that there may be important developmental differences between girls and boys in the relationship between these symptoms.     

文明对话视角下的回儒对话

文明对话是当今世界全球化时代人文社会科学领域中一个崭新的学术论域,也是不同族群、不同信仰群体之间进行平等交流、相互学习、和睦相处的一种人文精神和学术实践;文明对话的提出,是全球化时代社会经济、科技和文化多样性发展的必然需求,同时也是对"文明冲突论"的拨正与回应。近10年来,回儒对话作为文明对话论域中的重要学术论题,已在中国学术语境中产生了积极而深远的影响;对回儒群体及其思想贡献的总结与回顾,是为了更好地阐发其宝贵的历史学价值及其时代意义,为建设和谐美好的世界提供一种具有中国本土经验的精神资源和人文参照。因此,回儒对话的时代价值和意义将是持久而深远的。     

文明对话视角下的回儒对话

文明对话是当今世界全球化时代人文社会科学领域中一个崭新的学术论域,也是不同族群、不同信仰群体之间进行平等交流、相互学习、和睦相处的一种人文精神和学术实践;文明对话的提出,是全球化时代社会经济、科技和文化多样性发展的必然需求,同时也是对“文明冲突论”的拨正与回应。近10年来,回儒对话作为文明对话论域中的重要学术论题,已在中国学术语境中产生了积极而深远的影响;对回儒群体及其思想贡献的总结与回顾,是为了更好地阐发其宝贵的历史学价值及其时代意义,为建设和谐美好的世界提供一种具有中国本土经验的精神资源和人文参照。因此,回儒对话的时代价值和意义将是持久而深远的。     

Representation and Democracy: Revisions and Possibilities

In recent years, political theorists and others have questioned a series of longstanding assumptions about 'representative democracy'. There are renewed doubts as to whether our existing systems of political representation serve democracy, as well as new ideas and empirical work about what representation in politics involves. This article explores some recent innovations in thinking about representation, and in particular the idea of representation as a process of claim-making. It discusses a number of ways in which the representative claim perspective helps us to challenge several well-established ideas and practices of representative democracy, including the distinction between 'direct' and 'representative' democracy and the potential for non-elective representation in democracies.