Welfare rankings of income distributions: A rôle for the variance and some insights for tax reform

When generalized Lorenz curves cross, it is not possible to rank the underlying income distributions by the unanimous preference of all additively separable symmetric inequality-averse social welfare functions. But in many cases, unanimous preference results in terms of inequality-aversion are nevertheless available. When generalized Lorenz curves cross once, variance is decisive in determining a robust welfare ranking, and can provide a rationale for choosing equity over efficiency where these two desiderata conflict. Welfare recommendations for certain types of income tax reform are implied, including cases of yield-increasing redistribution.This paper has benefitted considerably from the perceptive comments of an anonymous referee. Valentino Dardanoni gratefully acknowledges financial assistance from the Banco di Sicilia and the Ente Luigi Einaudi of Rome.     

Circuits of schooling: A sociological exploration of parental choice of school in social class contexts

Parental choice of school is one of the main platforms of government education policy and is the centre piece of the Parents Charter. But sociological understanding of choice and choice-making is woefully underdeveloped. This paper draws on an ESRC study of market forces in education to explore social class variations in choice of school in one specific locality. The complexity of choice-making is portrayed using data from interviews with parents and it is argued that middle-class parents are taking full advantage of ‘the market’ to sustain or re-assert their class advantages.     

Minority ethnic groups and higher education in Britain: Questions of access and equity

The role of higher education in Britain is in transition as the system expands to educate an ever‐growing proportion of the nation's eighteen‐year‐olds. In the past it could have been argued that one of its main functions was to reproduce the class which would direct the country in the political, judicial, industrial, commercial and educational spheres. Now, succesful completion of a first degree will be unlikely in itself to guarantee access to the ruling élites. This paper considers questions of access and equity within British higher education, and focuses, in particular, on how young people from the minority groups constituted by recent immigration to Britain fare within the system.     

The response by Australian Universities to case management

Abstract

This paper considers university level formal educational offerings in case management in Australia in the context of restructuring in both the human service workforce and in the higher education sector. It outlines a picture of current university offerings in case management in social work, welfare, nursing, psychology, disability studies and rehabilitation. Through an examination of this picture it canvasses preparation for case management practice, location of case management education in universities, case management knowledge development, professional responsibilities, and choice of educational pathways. From the educational scene outlined, a number of implications and challenges for case management practice and professional education are extracted. Among other things it is argued that human service educators, particularly those in social work, have a responsibility to lead and foster intellectual scrutiny of the phenomenon called case management.     

Reassessing strategies for financing education in South Africa

The paper outlines some alternative education financing strategies for South Africa that need considering given the growth in enrolments at all educational levels, particularly in the face of the continued recession. It is argued that in the long term, while the eradication of apartheid and the creation of a single education ministry undoubtedly will generate resources that currently are being wasted on a multiplicity of education systems and a bloated bureaucracy, the magnitude of the task facing educationists in terms of student numbers suggests that initiatives other than public sector financing may well be required, A review of policy options being formulated for developing countries is provided. However, the development of such strategies for South Africa must involve a careful consideration of equity implications. One way of addressing the issue of educational inequality is to introduce a redistributive strategy, in which the costs of education are redirected toward the wealthier segments of society. In addition, policy options need to be explored concerning cost recovery, grants and loans and the establishment of an education bank for overall policy coordination.     

Reason and reparation

Conclusion Critical theory is critical because it reflects on the circumstances of its own existence. It is critical too because it takes utopia seriously, which means, in part, never short-circuiting the distance between reality and Utopia. Reparative reason, it has been argued, is no substitute for this philosophical project, but a source of support for it, one better suited to the concerns of the Frankfurt School than eros. What both reparative reason and the reparative impulse require is guidance as to the most deserving objects of our care and concern. Critical theory can provide this guidance.At least two objections to this reformulation of critical theory in light of Klein's insights into love, hate, and reparation are possible. The first would argue that reparation remains insufficiently relational, still selfish, more concerned with the satisfaction of the one who makes reparation than its object. The second objection is almost the opposite of the first, that reparation lacks what makes eros such a powerful oppositional force: not merely its selfish, demanding character, but its teleological orientation. Freed of the distorting effects of social domination, eros requires no guidance. By its very nature it seeks out the truly beautiful and good, much as Plato argued in the Symposium and Phaedrus. Such objections are, I believe, quite mistaken. They do not, however, lack insight into the issues involved.Regarding the first objection, Klein argues that we seek to make reparation out of genuine concern for the object. Reparation is truly an object-related passion, motivated by our relationship to the object, our love for it. Reparation may reduce guilt and anxiety, but this is an effect, not a cause. But, if reparation puts the object first, there is nonetheless an individualistic cast to the Kleinian account missing in Benjamin and Chodorow. For Klein, we care for others not because they are part of us, but because they are different, and we are concerned about them. In a certain limited sense the other remains an object, not in Freud's sense of an object of our drives, whose humanity is unimportant, but as a person who is distinct and separate from ourselves. This does not make reparation selfish. It does make it an expression of individuality, not its denial or transcendence.Regarding the second objection, it is true that reparation is not as autonomous as eros, and perhaps not as inherently oppositional either. But, neither is it as subject to corruption as eros (repressive desublimation), for reparation harnesses not the desire for pleasure, but guilt over the harm we have done to others. But, perhaps it was a mistake all along to try to found critical theory in eros, as though biology (Marcuse calls eros a biological basis for socialism) could take the place of critical consciousness, social opposition, or a revolutionary class. Insofar as it finds a material basis for hope for a better world in apparently transhistorical human attributes (albeit attributes that exist only within particular histories), reparation supports the Utopian project of the Frankfurt School. Reparation is, however, no deus ex machina. Historically situated human beings will have to confront the tragedy of human history on their own, a tragedy that stems, ultimately, from the way in which our fear and aggression constitute a world that requires so much reparation. It is, of course, this insight that keeps reparation from short-circuiting the path to utopia. For not only does reparation not exist apart from particular histories, but it does not exist independently of the hatred and aggression that bring it into being.     

Review articles

This article is a critical review of two books (O'Hagan, 1996; Vass, 1996) which set out to assist practitioners and educators working with the competence framework in social work. O'Hagan offers a defence of the competence model and a series of case studies showing how competences can be evidenced. It is argued that this defence is inadequate and that the case studies unwittingly reveal a tendency for those using the model to ignore some vital dimensions of practice. Vass offers a comprehensive model of competence in social work. It is argued that this contains much of value to social work educators, but that their alternative structure is likely to confuse readers who are expected to work within national requirements. It is suggested that competence-based education has encouraged an unfortunate parochialism in social work education in the UK.     

Probation training,cognition and crime: Uses and abuses of theory

In this article it is argued that a fundamental revolution in the theory base of the Probation Service is currently underway. This is exemplified in the proposed changes to Probation qualifying training according to which the Home Office intends to remove this from both higher education and social work. The author argues that this represents an abandonment of a holistic approach to the rehabilitation of offenders in favour of a model of reformatory intervention plundered wholly inappropriately from a complex body of cognitive theory. The article reviews the recent history in relation to the application of psychological theories to probation and social work practice and education, and warns of the dangers of misusing theory to satisfy a perceived demand for a simplistic, reductionist view of offending behaviour.     

Legal Adaptation Among Vietanmese Refugees in the United States: How International Migrants Litigate Civil Grievances During the Resettlement Process1

This article examines an overlooked dimension of adaptation among international migrants: how they use the host society's legal system to seek redress for grievances that arise during the resettlement process. The article terms this process legal adaptation and focuses on foreign‐born plaintiffs in civil litigation. A sample (N=137) of state and federal civil cases with at least one Vietnamese litigant is used to analyze the temporal patterns in legal adaptation among Vietnamese refugees from 1975 to 1994. Several aspects of Vietnamese litigation match their macro‐level resettlement process, such as civil rights and intraethnic litigation occurring later than other types of cases. But civil suits with a Vietnamese plaintiff and a native defendant tended to occur earlier than civil suits with a native plaintiff and a Vietnamese defendant. The article identifies the role of legal organizations and international grievances as the sources of Vietnamese refugees' rapid legal adaptation.

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School attendance and truancy: a socio-historical account

This paper considers ways in which truancy, as a form of social exclusion, has its origins in the history and politics of compulsory education. Despite widespread concern expressed about declining standards, rising indiscipline, incompetent teachers, outmoded curriculum and mounting truancy in the U.K., it is argued here that such issues are not new. Thus, for the purposes of the paper contemporary research, policy and media hype, premised on ‘discovery’ of declining standards of behaviour and school attendance, is questioned precisely because the level of analysis from which they begin is inadequate. Hence, two interrelated aspects of this phenomenon are considered. The first concerns a socio-historical account of compulsory education as it is mediated by the relations between family, law and economy. Here, questions regarding whose interests state education serves, and the juxtaposing of education vs schooling are considered. The second concerns the relatively recent status of mass schooling and shifting definitions as changing policy, historical, political, economic and legal conditions alter its relationship with parents, pupils and the world of work. In this respect the paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach to an inter-agency phenomenon. What the paper seeks to demonstrate is the way truancy touches on a sensitive and deeply embedded social nerve, which has its root in the very history and ethos of compulsory state education and its worth.     

Toward a ‘paideia of the soul’: education to enrich America’s multicultural democracy

What role might education play in the reinvigoration of a robust American democracy? We argue that common understandings of democracy, citizenship, and democratic education are too anemic to right the political inequalities and stagnancies that have deadened American democracy. Instead, we look to notions of paideia and an educated, enlightened citizenry to shape a multicultural democratic education. Multicultural democratic education cultivates the full and flourishing lives and minds of all citizens in American democracy rather than focusing on narrow preparation for voting. It does this through the practice of critical and authentic caring, the cultivation of community across difference, the connection to a global context, and the opportunity for social action. Most importantly, multicultural democratic education takes as its starting point equity and justice in a pluralistic society by committing to the cultivation of the minds and intellects of all students – in stark contrast to the unequal and mind-numbing education that most marginalized and minority students receive.     

From colonization to Zaitokukai: the legacy of racial oppression in the lives of Koreans in Japan

ABSTRACT

Some scholars have argued that anti-Korean oppression is disappearing from Japanese society, and that race is irrelevant to the current condition of Zainichi Koreans, Japan’s disenfranchised postcolonial minority. In contrast to these views, this article builds on racial formation theory to retrace the historical development of racism in Japan, and to reveal its continuing impact on the lives of Zainichi Koreans. It remarks that Zainichi Koreans have reacted to oppression in various ways, forging new identities and resisting using the means available to them. But it also contends that the persistence of discriminations and inequalities, as well as the recent rise of ultranationalist groups like Zaitokukai, are proofs of the ongoing marginalization and persecution of Koreans in Japan.     

A refundable tax credit for children: Self-interest-based and morally based arguments

This paper argues that children are a special subgroup of society in that they represent an opportunity gain for the whole society. Self-interested individuals acting atomistically are not motivated to contribute optimally, if they contribute at all, to the realization of this social opportunity. Neo-classical economic theory handles societal opportunities as public goods, giving the government a positive role. But, it can be argued that financing of a public good by means of general taxation, violates the public good argument. Such a financing method requires, in addition to the public goods argument, a moral or merit good argument. This paper attempts to provide such an argument. It will also be argued that the current method of providing child support in the U.S. is defective.     

Dramas,Metaphors, and Structures*

It is argued that dramaturgical sociology/social psychology must be examined as a continuation of the methods and practices of dramatism. Such an examination will reveal answers to the persistent questions regarding the work of Erving Goffman: Is he using a metaphor, simile, analogy, etc.! Is he a symbolic interactionist! Is his work a form of structuralism! What is the relationship between the sociologist and the drama of human relations! What is the relationship between interactionism and structuralism! The answers to these questions, it appears, are that drama is not used as a simple analogy in the study of human relations and that the separation of structuralism and interactionism is yet another essay in the confrontation between Heraclitus' flux and Zeno's paradox. You cannot step twice into the same river; for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you. Heraclitus In which case, you cannot step even once into the river: there will in fact be no river. after Parmenides, Zeno etc.     

Values and theoretical perspective in social work

In this paper two kinds of theoretical positions and their underlying philosophies are analysed. Their implications for social work practice and the influence of contemporary practice on theoretical and philosophical perspectives are examined. It is argued that in the present state of social work practice and education an eclectic rather than a unitary approach is more adaptable and useful to students and practitioners.     

From the Editor—Social Work Education for New Times

Abstract

A content analysis of 266 recommendation letters showed that males are more often associated with so-called male stereotype traits, while females are more often associated with so-called female stereotype traits. This outcome follows Gilligan's (1982) different voice theory: There are gender-based differences in values. It is argued that male and female voices should be merged to strengthen social work education and the profession and that an artificial male-female dichotomy should not set up.     

Social support networks,instant messaging,and gender equity in refugee education

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the role of instant messaging chat groups to support teacher training and gender equity initiatives in Kenyan refugee camps. Our findings are based on survey data with refugee teachers in Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps (n?=?203), group interviews with refugee teachers in Kakuma (n?=?21), and interviews with international instructors of teacher training programs in Nairobi, Toronto, and Vancouver (n?=?14). In our analysis, we apply amplification theory, feminist science and technology studies paradigms, and considerations of transnational approaches to understand the use of instant messaging among refugee teacher communities. Our framework explores how social and cultural norms are amplified through transnational text and instant messaging related to teacher training and in support of gender equity. Peer-to-peer group chats draw on transnational learning opportunities and expand these engagements through group chats between men and women refugee teachers across camps as well as through community engagement about gender equity initiatives in education. International instructors identify both value and hesitation in navigating the quantity and content of these communications, such as learning more about refugee teachers’ daily lives in the camps and concern about following and managing the amount of communication that can ensue over chat groups. Our work has practical implications for transnational teacher training programs in refugee camps, illuminates how mobile technology and chat groups allow women and men in the community to engage and support girls’ education, and questions how text messaging affects the lived and day-to-day experiences of women refugee teachers.     

Conservative thought and the English bourgeoisie

It is argued by Mannheim that conservative thought, of which he takes Romanticism as an example, is anti-bourgeois thought. However English Romantic Conservatism does not appear to fit this model. English conservative thought (for example, Burke and Disraeli) is not anti-bourgeois. Furthermore English Romantic conservatism exhibits certain parallels with Wesleyan Methodism (hereafter referred to as Methodism) which acts, via its work ethic, as an ideological support for the bourgeoisie. The article explores the relationship of English Romantic conservatism to the bourgeosie, its similarities and differences regarding the thought of the latter, and the cultural functions it performs. This throws light on the sociological determinants of Romanticism. These are complex, it is argued, but basically there is an interplay of traditional pre-capitalist and more modem influences, reflecting the interpenetration of different stages of social development. Romantic conservatism, it is claimed, provides a rich source of symbolism for the modem bourgeoisie and traditional (mercantile and agricultural) capital, demonstrating its ambivalence regarding modern and traditional milieux. At the same time, it remains a non-bourgeois, pre-capitalist type of thought. Its major significance lies in its contribution to the elaboration of more hegemonic forms of dominant culture than would otherwise have been possible, it is concluded.     

Amidst the Reign of Behaviour and Disorder: Recalling Schools as Problems

In May 2013 one of the most profoundly influential books of the late twentieth and early twenty‐first century was released in its fifth edition. Yet, it is not unreasonable to speculate that this newest edition will pass largely unnoticed, even as new diagnoses (and the loss of current ones) seep into the everyday. The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM‐5) will undoubtedly be influential in education – defining and re‐defining student maladies. Its list of extensive categories provides, so it is argued, a means to uniformly identify mental disorders. Applied in educational contexts, children and young people can thus be categorized by clinical experts and teachers able to identify an individual's problems, and in theory, respond appropriately. Criticism of the DSM includes debate over its application in cross‐cultural contexts as well as the ways that socio‐economic differences are, to put it bluntly, diagnosed differently. Although these issues of diagnosis do get attention, historical contexts can remain bereft in commentary. In this paper we consider the value that historical perspectives can bring to an analysis of the contemporary effects of DSM‐inspired readings of education and disadvantage. The paper also draws on two projects, one with young people, the other with parents of young children, both of whom experienced disadvantage and precarious relationships with education. In these excluded contexts, people are more likely to come into contact with diagnostic repertoires that originate from the DSM. Drawing on Georges Canguilhem's analysis the ‘concept' as well as Michel Foucault's discussion of Canguilhem's work, this paper considers how attention to school problems is important for disengaging with education's appetite for psychiatric disorders.     

Social work training in Central and Eastern Europe: Experiences in Bulgaria and Slovakia

The authors draw on their experiences as members of EU-funded projects for training social workers in post-communist countries to reflect on developments in social work education there and in the United Kingdom. They argued that the emergence of social work in Central and Eastern Europe has a double agenda—to improve professional skills and values in the public services, and to contribute to the strengthening of a democratic and participatory civil society. Hence it is concerned both with changing the organizational culture and practices of the official social services, and with promoting voluntary organizations, community associations and service-user groups. Training in partnership, negotiation, networking and empowerment is as relevant as the teaching and learning of professional competences. This double agenda leads to tensions, both within universities and in various parts of the organizational systems in which social workers are employed. But these issues are not fundamentally different from the ones still being struggled over in the UK context. Similar issues over the respective roles of official social control and the authoritative enforcement of responsibilities, and empowerment and participation among excluded and deprived communities, are central to British social work education also.