Private and Confidential? Handling Personal Information in the Social and Health Services

Abstract

The present article examines the strengths of small group teaching within the context of the professional and ethical requirements of social work education. It outlines some of the strategies adopted to ensure that reliance on this mode of educational delivery contributes to the excellence of practice knowledge and teaching standards to which universities commit and which professional associations and clients expect. Small group teaching continues to be perceived as an integral component in the preparation for professional social work practice and has important functions in the mentoring and socialisation of beginning practitioners. It would be valuable, in the light of developments in technology-assisted educational modes of delivery, to further research the relative impact of face-to-face teaching and its alternatives, given contemporary pressures upon both tertiary institutions and social work students.     

“Smuggled Refugees”: The Social Construction of North Korean Migration

In this paper, I demonstrate the identity transformation of North Korean women in interaction with state and non-state actors and domestic and regional structures, which I formulate for the purposes of this paper. From a state-centric social constructivist perspective in politics and international relations, I examine how the identities and interests of North Korean women are constituted and reconstituted in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the People's Republic of China and five South-East Asian countries along their migration routes before they reach the Republic of Korea – the so-called “Seoul Train in the Underground Railway”. Back in their country of origin, North Korean women are socially constructed as Confucian communist mothers. In China, the most frequently depicted images of North Korean women are trafficked wives. By paying for smugglers to cross borders to neighbouring South-East Asian countries, North Korean women finally become the agents of their own destiny, refugees in waiting to be transferred to South Korea.     

The Third Sector and Civil Society: The Case of the “YES” Campaign in Northern Ireland

The recent attention on civil society has brought new focus to the third sector. This welcomed attention accentuates the need to specify the role of the third sector in promoting civil society, generally, and in promoting democratic civil society, specifically. This paper describes and examines the YES Campaign that had roots in the third sector of Northern Ireland and which conducted a nonpartisan campaign to win approval for the Belfast Agreement of April 1998. The case of the YES Campaign illustrates some direct and intentional roles of third sector organizations in promoting a more democratic civil society, and offers a basis for further study of these roles.     

On the Use of “Intent to...” Variables in Organizational Research: An Empirical and Cautionary Assessment

Organizational research often relies onsurrogate variables. By surrogate we donot refer to family of construct, factor, or latentvariables. Rather, we address the situation where onevariable is literally the substitute for another variablethat is generally unavailable. Consider, for example,the use of intent to turnover orintent to transfer variables commonly usedwhen actual turnover or transfer data are unavailable. Wedemonstrate that reliance on such surrogate variablesmay lead to some misinterpretation. This tendency may beparticularly apparent when the relationship between the surrogate and the actual variable is low. Thismay be further exacerbated when the relationship betweenthe surrogate variable and a third variable is modest aswell.     

Deserving Victims?: Sexual Status and the Social Construction of Violence

Theoretical understanding of the meaning of the term violence is underdeveloped. This paper examines the question of how violence to the person is socially defined, and in particular how understandings of violence are both gendered and sexualised. It highlights how victim characteristics, as well as the social and interactional contexts in which violence occurs, influence interpretative frameworks, with specific reference to the binary distinction between the public and private and to notions of culpability and victimisation. This entails a consideration of the social meanings which constitute notions of a 'person' with a 'right to life' and occupation of 'public space'. The importance of the victim/perpetrator dichotomy in theorising violence is also considered. These themes and issues are examined in relation to a relatively new area of study; the case example of public violence towards lesbians and gay men.     

“The Sociologist as Voyeur”: Social Theory and Sexuality Research, 1910–1978

Sociology has a long history of social theory and ethnographic research in the area of sexuality. Although it has been largely overlooked, this body of work prefigures later advances by social constructionists and queer theorists. This article reviews some of the early theoretical and empirical contributions to the sociology of sexuality, organized into five broad themes: the denaturalization of sexuality and its origins; the historicization of sexuality; the analytic shift from deviants to deviance/margins to center; the destabilization of sexual categories and identities and emphasis on the fluid and diverse meanings of sexual acts; and the theorization of sexuality and gender as performance. This article suggests that sexual stigma may contribute to the marginalization of sexuality studies in sociology.     

New Grandparents’ Mental Health: The Protective Role of Optimism,Self-Mastery,and Social Support

The current study examines the contribution of optimism, self-mastery, perceived social support, and background variables (age, physical health, economic status) to mental health following the transition to grandparenthood. The sample consisted of 257 first-time Israeli grandparents (grandmothers and grandfathers, maternal and paternal) who were asked to complete a series of self-report questionnaires. The results indicate the importance of internal and external resources, as well as of health and economic status, for mental health of new grandparents. The value of designing relevant preventive interventions by family social workers to assist grandparents in coping with their new role is discussed.     

Social Workers’ Conflict of Loyalty in the Context of Social Activism: The Case of the 2011 Social Protests in Israel

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study examined the experiences of social workers who participated in the 2011 Israeli social protests. Data were collected through 1 focus group interview. The sample included 11 social workers employed in 11 social welfare departments throughout the country. Findings highlight the complexities and dilemmas experienced by social workers who protested against the system that employs them. Research findings contribute to the discourse regarding the conflict of loyalty experienced by public social workers engaged in social activism that targets the system that employs them.     

The Connections of Mental Health Problems,Violent Life Experiences,and the Social Milieu of the “Stroll” with the HIV Risk Behaviors of Female Street Sex Workers

Abstract

This paper examines the connections of mental health, victimization, and sexual risk behaviors among a sample of 278 street-based female sex workers in Miami. Using targeted sampling strategies, drug-using sex workers were recruited into an HIV prevention research program. Data were collected by trained interviewers, and focused on drug use and sexual risk for HIV, childhood abuse, recent victimization, and mental health. More than half of the participants reported histories of physical (51.1%) or sexual (53.1%) abuse as children, 37.4% were classified with moderate or severe anxiety symptoms, and 52.9% had symptoms of moderate or severe depression. Logistic regression analyses demonstrated significant associations between mental health issues and engagement in recent unprotected vaginal and oral sex. The program development and policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

Bridging the Theory–Practice Gap in Social Work Education: A Reflection on an Action Research in China

This article explores the background to, and issues associated with, the implementation of Personal Development Planning (PDP) within Higher Education (HE). Consideration of issues for social work educators follows as the authors seek to ground policy change in practice and debate issues so that reflection is not ‘little more than a mantra’ but rather a ‘model for practice’ (Kuit et al., 2001, Active Learning in Higher Education, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 128–142, at p. 129). Although educators have arguably always used a variety of strategies to encourage student reflection and evaluation of their learning experiences, implementation of PDPs codifies and institutionalises individual student reflection and the production of associated outputs. This is evidenced by the production of guidelines to promote what is billed as a core educational process by Universities UK, the Standing Conference on Principals, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and the Learning and Teaching Subject Network (LTSN) Generic Centre. As social work academics consider and respond to the challenges associated with the re‐specification of programmes to meet new award requirements they might usefully reflect on the challenges PDP brings, and integrate responses into programme specifications. Avoiding fragmentation and duplication, for example around the personal tutor system and role of staff in PDP, is important for both social work students and staff within complex and, at times, contradictory organisational contexts such as Institutes of Higher Education (IHE).     

The Legacy of ‘Solidarity’: Class,Democracy, Culture and Subjectivity in the Polish Social Movement

The sociological debate on the nature of Solidarity, and its legacy for social mobilization in today's Poland, are assessed through secondary research as well as primary research on Polish social movements in 1995–2001. The three classic interpretations of Solidarity (class, democracy and nation) are discussed, and two conclusions are reached to overcome the ‘class versus intellectuals’ dispute. First, against cultural and political interpretations, a class interpretation is appropriate although not exclusive and not in a classic Marxist sense. Second, a fourth element, subjectivity, needs to be added to understand the rare combination of egalitarianism and individualism in Solidarity. The class and the subjective elements derive from the double nature of Polish society: industrial and ‘vocationally’ (not factually) totalitarian. The implication is that social mobilization in Poland can be expected primarily in labour activism and marginal cultural movements.     

Adolescent Residents Negotiate the Construction of Social Problems in a Low-Income Community: Making Claims on the “City of Sadness”

The social constructionist approach to research on social issues provides a conceptual means in understanding how specific problems are generated and handled by institutional claims-makers, including the state and mass media. In neighborhood research, the voice of adolescent residents is seldom heard, let alone the value of their claims in relation to the state's construction. This article endeavors to address this in several steps: by outlining the specific developmental trajectory of low-income community in Hong Kong; by examining the dominant state discourse on the nature and “solution” of community problems; and by analyzing the voice of adolescent residents. Empirically, 54 Chinese adolescents (aged 12 to 17 years) were recruited to participate in eight focus groups to express how they saw community conditions. Furthermore, a random sample of 22 parents of the participants was surveyed as comparison. Finally, the article suggests that adolescents' constructions provide significant opportunities developing more critically informed, “bottom-up” agendas for community revitalization.     

School Discipline,Race, and the Discursive Construction of the “Deficient” Student

Abstract

Research has demonstrated how, in the current era of mass incarceration, the punitive arm of the state now extends beyond traditional criminal justice structures into institutions typically associated with providing care or a social good. The negative effects of this shift have disproportionately impacted marginalized populations, particularly low-income black and Latino communities. This article examines one way that this extension has manifested in the realm of public education. Based on ethnographic data from a public Grade 6–12 Disciplinary Alternative Education Program (DAEP) in Texas, this article scrutinizes the program’s behavioral rules and disciplinary procedures. The analysis focuses on students’ introductory experience to the DAEP as a “strategic research site” to illuminate the program’s formal objectives, methods to achieve their institutional goals, and their intended effects on students. I find that the practices and procedures in place at the DAEP operate through racializing surveillance to constitute “disciplinary technologies” devoted to the transformation of “culturally deficient” students—a racialized and gendered classification—into docile bodies. Students are disciplined through punitive and rehabilitative methods premised on the discursive construction of “deficient” students and families.     

Policy Research and Politics: Some Inferences from the “Coleman Report” for the Policy Role of the Social Scientist

Abstract

The major objectives in this paper are to examine (1) the distribution of socioeconomic characteristics for Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, and (2) the processes of educational, occupational, and income attainment for each religious group. The analysis shows that Catholic and Protestant employed males are not appreciably different in their educational characteristics; however, occupational and income differences are more substantial. The Protestant-Catholic income differences, for example, represent about one-fifth of the mean Catholic income. The analysis also shows that the process of status attainment differs for Protestants and Catholics. The income returns to each additional year of schooling, for example, are higher for Protestants than for Catholics.     

Sexuality in the Global South: 50 Years of Published Research in the Journal of Sex Research—Inclusions,Omissions, and Future Possibilities

Sexuality researchers from a range of disciplines have called for more global inclusiveness in sexualities research, particularly in the Global South (GS). We investigated the degree to which sexuality researchers have published work focused on the GS by conducting a content analysis of 50 years of research published in the Journal of Sex Research (JSR). We examined all research articles, brief research reports, and clinical notes published in JSR from 1965 to 2014 (N = 1,626). Overall, a small percentage of articles focused on the GS with no increase over time (4.8%; N = 78). Articles in the GS focused on Asia (37.2%), Latin America (28.2%), Sub-Saharan Africa (23.1%), the Middle East (6.4%), and a mix of GS regions (5.1%). Topics related to sexual and reproductive health were most prevalent (19.2%), followed by articles on sexual risk, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (17.9%), sexual norms, attitudes, and beliefs (16.7%), sex work (11.5%), cultural practices (10.3%), gay, lesbian, and bisexual issues (9.0%), intimate partner relationships (3.8%), and sexual violence (3.8%); the remaining categories (transgender and transsexual populations, sex research methods, sex testing, and women’s sexuality) were negligible. We conclude with recommendations for improving the quantity, quality, and scope of global sexuality research in JSR.