Rethinking Girls “At-Risk”

Abstract

This conceptual article critically analyzes influential theoretical frameworks concerning adolescent female development, including psychosocial identity stage theory, person-in-environment theory, and feminist psychology. Based on the strengths and limitations of these approaches, the author introduces social workers to an emerging framework that addresses the gender, race, and class intersections that contextualize adolescent girls' developmental experiences. This perspective also discusses young women's capacity to resist norms and stereotypes in their search for an authentic identity. This innovative theory complements a strengths-based approach to social work and can be used to guide research andpractice with this population.     

Teaching Note—Radically Rethinking the Foundation

This teaching note presents an innovative model by which a 1-semester hybrid master of social work foundation can be delivered and delineates the structural, content, and process elements that make it unique. It also discusses the use of collaborative planning and teaching that is necessary to implement this model, as well as the role of continuous assessment in evaluating process and outcomes and improving the educational experience for students.     

Rethinking the ‘neoliberal thought collective’ thesis

ABSTRACT

Numerous scholars have identified the ‘neoliberal thought collective’ as the key driver of the neoliberal transformation. These accounts emphasize the building of neoliberal hegemony through the mobilization of this collective, and the New Right parties who aligned to these ideas. We argue that Australia's corporatist road to neoliberalism pushes against this thesis, as the movement found little sympathy among policy makers. Rather, the thought collective acted more like a ‘ginger group’, attempting to radicalize public debate and create space for new neoliberal arrangements. In Australia, successive centre-left Labor governments rolled out neoliberalism in a series of formal corporatist arrangements with the trade union movement. This paper sets out a reconsideration of the role of the thought collective, on the basis of the Australian experience, and argues this can move us beyond the ideational determinism that has come to characterize key accounts of how neoliberalism developed.     

As good as it gets? Rethinking old age

Although approximately half of aging Americans will probably not be able to live independently after retirement age, there is a greater focus on end-of-life matters, such as living wills, than on exploring creative long-term care models that promote healthy aging. With more Americans aging healthfully, now is the time to look at innovations in long-term care that will not only provide safe housing, but will also focus on the trajectory from healthy aging to end-of-life care, including health promotion and even reversal of disabilities incurred in the aging process. Nurses and other health care professionals need to rethink how those they care for will live out their later years and explore creative approaches for extending living options that foster autonomy.     

What's wrong with rights? Rethinking human rights and responsibilities

This paper examines the relationship between social work and human rights. It argues that the concept of human rights, as it is currently understood, is insufficient as a framework for social work theory and practice. Human rights are inherently individualistic - a problem that a focus on collective rights does little to rectify. What is absent from the human rights discourse, and what is directly relevant to social work, is a corresponding discourse on human responsibilities. This paper addresses the major criticisms of a human rights discourse by proposing a developmental model of human rights and responsibilities. The model establishes its applicability to social work theory and practice by demonstrating the counterbalancing forces of individual rights and collective responsibilities operating on the person in the environment.     

Rethinking and Revising Goode’s Contribution to Global Family Change

Abstract

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of William J. Goode’s contribution to the study of global family and social change. I begin by describing Goode’s theoretical perspectives and outlining his theses dating back to the 1960s. I then provide an assessment of where and why some of his predictions proved wrong and elaborate on what we have learnt on changes in families at the global level over the past half century. Lastly, I speculate on how Goode would rethink his arguments nowadays in light of fifty years of new evidence and scholarly developments – both theoretical and methodological. In so doing, I highlight shortcomings of current approaches and outline directions for future family research and theorizing.     

Rethinking the ‘race‐class debate’ in South African historiography

This article argues that revisionist historiography has constituted a debate with its liberal opponents which has an ‘either‐or’ form: either class or race has analytic primacy, and either segregation/apartheid is functional or dysfunctional to capitalist growth. This has led revisionists into reductionism and factionalism, despite frequent disclaimers to the contrary. Failure to conceptualise and address the relative independence of social factors has, as a corollary, a functionalist rendition of their relationship to capitalist interests and development. By way of illustration an article by Wolpe and a book by Saul and Gelb are criticised for analytical shortcomings. Finally revised conceptualisations of the relationships between race and class and between capitalist development and racial policies are proposed.     

Rethinking Remedial Education and the Academic–Vocational Divide: Complementary Perspectives

This article is concerned with the social organization of mediation in learning environments. It seeks to further articulate the sociocultural notion of mediation in sociointeractional terms, combining insights from the sociocultural approach to cognition and the microinteractionist, especially ethnomethodological approach to social activities. A microanalysis of mediation in communicative 2nd-language classroom activities where the task at hand is the management of interaction itself is presented. The microanalysis stresses the fact that patterns of social interaction, tasks, and social contexts emerge from locally accomplished socioculturally shaped collaborative activities. The analysis serves as a basis for developing a pluridimensional notion of mediation-in-interaction, which accounts for its reciprocity-based, context-sensitive, and culture-related nature.     

What is a social pattern? Rethinking a central social science term

Theory and Society - The main aim of this article is to start a discussion of social pattern, a term that is commonly used in sociology but not specified or defined. The key question can be phrased...     

“Queer Eye” for Social Work: Rethinking Pedagogy and Practice with Same-sex Attracted Young People

Abstract

Dominant discourses on sexualities construct limited representations and understanding of same-sex attracted young people, often resulting in material and detrimental effects for young people who do not fit the heterosexual mould. Traditionally, social work theory and practice with same-sex attracted young people has relied on ethnic and essentialised models for understanding sexual difference. In the present article, the author reviews current literature on same-sex attracted young people and sexualities, arguing that key elements from queer theory invite social workers to rethink pedagogy and practice with sexually diverse groups. With its critical eye for deconstructing dominant models of sexuality, queer theory provides an alternative framework for informing social work practice. Implications for working in narrative ways with same-sex attracted young people through co-authorship are discussed.     

Rethinking the changing structures of rural local government – State power,rural politics and local political strategies?

There is a notable absence in contemporary rural studies – of both a theoretical and empirical nature – concerning the changing nature of rural local government. Despite the scale and significance of successive rounds of local government reorganisation in the UK, very little has been written on this topic from a rural perspective. Instead research on local political change has tended to concentrate on local governance and local partnerships – on the extra-governmental aspects of the governance system – rather than on local government itself. In contrast, this paper draws upon strategic-relational state theory to explore the changing structures and institutions of rural local government, and analyse how these can be related to the changing state strategies of those groups which are politically powerful in rural areas. In this respect, the paper draws on current and previous rounds of local government reorganisation to illustrate how new objects of governance, new state strategies and new hegemonic projects are emerging as a consequence of such restructuring processes.     

What Determines the Embeddedness of Forced‐Return Migrants? Rethinking the Role of Pre‐ and Post‐Return Assistance1

Return migration is not always a process of simply “going home.” Particularly when return is not fully voluntarily, returnees face severe obstacles. This study argues that such return can only become sustainable when returnees are provided with possibilities to become re‐embedded in terms of economic, social network, and psychosocial dimensions. We analyze the return migration experiences of 178 rejected asylum seekers and migrants who did not obtain residence permit to six different countries: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sierra Leone, Togo and Vietnam. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis, we identify several key factors that influence prospects for embeddedness, such as individual and family characteristics, position in the migration cycle, and the role of pre‐ and post‐return assistance. We find that the possibilities for successful return are highly dependent on the living circumstances provided in the host country: returnees who were enabled to engage in work, had access to independent housing and freedom to develop social contacts proved to be better able to exercise agency and maintain self‐esteem. Post‐return assistance by non‐governmental organizations will be particularly helpful when financial support is combined with human guidance and practical information to enhance a more sustainable return process.