Building a people's home* for settled,conscientious Swedes

Social policy in Sweden has evolved along two lines, one marginal and the other institutional. A work ethic that stems from the pre-Christian era is a factor in both these traditions, above all in the marginal model. The marginal line, with social services aimed at the indivual, has traditionally focused on the coercion of deviants, a tendency that was manifest in the statutory provisions up to the reform of the social services in 1982. Rigorous regulations based on domiciliary right meant that poor relief and social assistance were largely reserved for the settled population. A primary aim of the social services reform of 1982 was to replace the existing social relief, with its heavy emphasis on control, by a system of social services that would be voluntary in principle and aimed at catering to the client. Coercive measures became less frequent initially, but the element of repression soon grew again at a time when the economic climate was becoming harsher. Since the beginning of the 1980s there has been a further increase in repression in both social welfare and correctional care. This has been accompanied by significant tendencies to move away from an institutional social policy towards a marginal line. The shifts in values in the 1980s and 1990s do not represent a traditional right-left dichotomy.     

从社会建构主义的视角看我国社会工作与社会政策的相互作用

在我国,社会工作和社会政策进行着有中国特色的社会建构,在此过程中,两者之间存在着相互的作用,本文旨在探索这种相互作用。把握这种相互作用,有助于我们更好地增强它,并利用它为解决社会问题、建设和谐社会服务。     

论社会创新

社会创新是当代以知识为基础的全球社会发展和我国新型社会转型时期社会变迁的主导形式 ,它同技术创新相互结合 ,共同满足着当代社会发展的全面需要和构成社会可持续发展的综合动力基础。社会创新研究是对于中国现代化具有重大理论与现实意义的前沿型课题 ,应纳入多学科的研究视野 ,并在探索中使之学科化和使学科创新化     

Social Work and AJSI

AJSI had its genesis in the Department of Social Work at the University of Sydney in 1961. Since that time both social work and the AJSI have developed and drifted apart. This paper charts this journey and points to a future where social work and AJSI will function as partners in critiquing social policy and social issues.     

Social Work Practice for Social Development in Bangladesh: Issues and Challenges

Social work addresses social issues that constrain the betterment of a community. However, social work practice is struggling to deal effectively with the development challenges of Bangladesh. Based on a literature review and the experiences of the authors, this paper explores the emerging issues where social work practice is anticipated as a promising alternative for bringing sustainable social development in Bangladesh. Simultaneously, the paper discovers the limitation of social work practice in Bangladesh addressing these challenges.     

From Social Insurance to Social Assistance

In attempting to establish a social security system that would function to smooth the transition from a planned to market economy, the government of China has, for most of the time in the past decades, focused its efforts on setting up social insurance programs in the urban areas. Along with the emergence of urban poverty since the mid 1990s, the emphasis of the government has shifted to means-tested social assistance programs as the major means to combat poverty and maintain social stability. However, with the absence of more equitable social and economic policies that can protect people against the many risks associated with a market economy, the role of social assistance is very limited.     

社会保障立法与社会保障制度建设

我国在计划经济体制向社会主义市场经济体制转换过程中建立的社会保障制度,目前尚存在内容不健全、法制化程度低、实施机制脆弱的不足.比较国外较为成熟的传统型、福利型、储蓄型三种社会保障制度模式,我们可以从中吸取经验,受到启发,进而建立具有中国特色的、保障面宽、保障程度适中的社会保障制度.为此目的,我们必须加强社会保障立法,既要健全社会保障法律体系,又要严格社会保障执行的法律监督.     

社会工作督导反思:学习成为有效的社会工作督导老师

有效的社会工作督导老师是社会工作实习教育成败的关键,但也成为内地社会工作实习教育发展的一大瓶颈。本文从这一历史现实问题出发,综合考察了有效的社会工作督导老师的职责、角色、素质要求及其发展基要,从成为有效实习督导的发展阶段的视角,着重从承担督导职责、澄清督导目标、建立督导关系、发展督导模式以及勇于督导反思五个方面探索了如何做一名新的专业实习督导老师及其持续发展。     

Group Work and Social Justice: Designing Pedagogy for Social Change

In this article the authors explore the gap between education and action in putting the social work core value of social justice into practice. Describing how their School of Social Work has taken up this challenge, the authors analyze how a new social action course helps bridge this gap and draw on student reflection on their experiences and assignments in the course to show how students concretize and interiorize the meaning of social action and social justice. Learning by doing social action through a case study, group work becomes the vehicle through which students act on social issues and work for social change.     

Using critical social theory to develop a conceptual framework for comparative social work

This paper sets out a conceptual framework for comparing and contrasting social work within nation-states and across international boundaries. The framework is "situated" theoretically within a (late)modernist understanding of events within advanced capitalism and draws primarily on Habermas' critical social theory. The authors apply this framework to explicate the development of social work in Northern Ireland, a region in which high levels of political conflict mark it out as a site of local, national and international interest. It is suggested that the ideas developed from the case study have relevance for the social professions in other countries, particularly where social conflict is in evidence.     

农村进城务工女性的社会支持研究——以北京地区家政服务员社会网络构建为例

在改革开放的大潮中,农村进城务工的女性越来越多,但城乡"二元结构"带给她们的种种现实问题仍然难以解决。因此,她们需要依靠自身力量和乡土关系重新构建城市社会网络,以获得必要的社会支持。本文在关注家政服务员乡土社会网络与城市社会网络的同时,着重对其社会网络特征进行解析。     

The post-1994 transformation of social work in South Africa

This article examines the transformation of social work in South Africa in response to the transition to a developmental welfare approach. Always moulding and shaping itself in response to its social context, social work in South Africa, as elsewhere, is a reflection of the broader political landscape. In South Africa the social work profession has struggled to assert its independence and become self-regulating. It is unique in the Western world in that since 1978 it has been regulated by a legislatively constituted statutory council. While the profession has tried to transform itself in the new democracy, outside pressures have found it wanting and deeply divided. Thus, despite progress in other areas social workers have not yet been successful in forming a strong, united professional association and this severely limits its ability to lobby politicians and advocate on behalf of clients. It seems, however, that the tide is turning and social workers are gaining recognition but, once again, the challenge remains deciding on the extent to which the profession cooperates with the government's agenda for change. Social work educators took the lead in setting education standards in response to higher education policy and are also playing a part in devising practice standards through their involvement in the social work board which falls under the umbrella of the Council for Social Service Professions. However, education and practice are somewhat out of step and professional unity remains a pressing issue on social work's transformation agenda.     

What do we know about the social networks of single parents who do not use supportive services?

The role that social support and social networks play in mediating isolation and stress experienced by vulnerable families is well established. However, a major issue facing supportive human services is to find and engage families with limited social networks and link them to supports that could improve outcomes for their families. This paper reports on the results of in‐depth interviews with 20 sole parents with children aged under 5 who were not well connected to services. It documents their social networks with the use of a social network map. Using a social capital lens, the analysis attempts to differentiate the different relationships in the participants' lives. Most participants were not satisfied with their informal networks, with conflicted or ambivalent reliance on family, absence of support and community engagement and fragility of informal networks. Although this group of isolated mothers does encounter the formal service system, the opportunities to increase and strengthen their networks do not eventuate. Better understanding of the nature and extent of social networks can inform practitioners and policy‐makers of the critical factors needed to increase service use for parents with limited resources.     

社会建构论：社会问题理论研究的一种新视角

西方建构主义理论对社会问题的研究，提出了一套全新的概念范畴和分析框架，并产生了许多经验研究成果。这种研究在很大程度上异于对社会问题的常识性理解和传统的研究视角。该理论认为社会问题的社会学研究主题不是“有问题的”客观事实或状态，而是这些事实或状态被宣称成为社会问题的活动和过程。经由这些活动和过程，社会问题建构性地存在着。本文通过与传统社会问题理论的比较，着重探讨建构论所进行的社会问题新的理论研究转向及其启发意义。     

Social work education: state of the art

In assessing the appropriateness of contemporary social work education to its context, the article assumes that social work practice and education must relate to its social reality. The article argues that, since the 1970s, that reality has changed in relation to the role of the welfare state, perceptions of economic growth and the independence of the state. As a result, the roles of civil society, the community and welfare personnel have changed, with implications for social work. At the same time, the earlier tendency of social work to avoid the major social issues of the day is no longer appropriate, and the article outlines five major issues needing to be addressed by social work. In conclusion, the article presents four options that social work education should, as a total profession, address, if the profession is to play the roles demanded of it by its contemporary social reality.     

Survey on Perceptions of Social Fairness and Their Implications for Social Governance Innovation*

At the present stage, social fairness or equity is an important area of governance in China, and increasing the level of fairness is an important theme of work. In 2016, the Chinese government laid down specific arrangements and operations relating to equity in education, social security, market competition, etc. The participatory governance model entails testing policy outcomes in relation to the sense of fairness of the mass of the people. Our survey found that perceptions of fairness are higher among middle- and high-income groups and are lower in the eastern region than in the central and western regions. In social security, however, perceptions of fairness and of improvements in the level of fairness are lower than they are for education and market competition. Overall, specific policies relating to fairness in education have been quite effective in enhancing people's perceptions of fairness. Accordingly, if we are to make effective improvements in the fairness of social governance, we need a more rational distribution system that takes into account public opinion and expands the scope of fairness in social security.     

Do young children preferentially trust gossip or firsthand observation in choosing a collaborative partner?

From early on in ontogeny, young children hear things being said about particular individuals. Here we investigate the ways in which testimony with social content, that is, gossip, influences children's decision‐making. We explored whether five‐year‐old (N = 72) and seven‐year‐old (N = 72) children trust gossip or firsthand observation in a partner choice setting. Seven‐year‐old children preferentially trusted what they had seen firsthand over gossip; five‐year‐old children, in contrast, did not differentiate between these two sources of information. However, five‐year‐old children (but not seven‐year‐olds) generally gave negative information more weight, that is, they showed a “negativity bias.” These results suggest that at around school age, young children become more “epistemically vigilant” about gossip.     

The (ab)sense of a concept of social support in parenting research: a social work perspective

Social support, as a complex, dynamic and multidimensional concept, has been studied extensively. However, a review of research publications on social support and parenting reveals that social work perspectives on social support are underdeveloped in the Social Sciences Citation Index. Social support is predominantly studied in relation to parental health, considering social support as a buffer against potential negative outcomes for children. This, in turn, legitimates extensive research on parents ‘at risk’. Specific target groups have been questioned abundantly using social support measures, mainly consisting of self‐reports. We conclude that social support is studied as a predefined concept, lacking conceptualizations that encompass the actual enacted support in relation to the perspectives of both givers and receivers of support. Moreover, the focus on targeted groups ignores the experience of social support in more diverse populations in general services and in everyday life. Issues of reciprocity, diversity and multivocality are central to our appeal for social work perspectives truly encompassing the relational aspect of social support. The question whether, and to what extent, social workers (including practitioners, policy‐makers and researchers) should give attention to this relational aspect is discussed.