Food Security: An Ecological–Social Analysis to Promote Social Development

Coupled with the obesity epidemic, food insecurity presents a public health and social crisis. The United States' industrialized food system embodies an unsustainable network of production and unequal distribution of food creating threats to both the natural environment and human development. Ecological, economic, and social systems are interdependent and their relationships to food security are complex and dynamic. Social workers have a unique set of community practice knowledge and skills that can help communities achieve greater access to affordable, healthy food. Building interdisciplinary networks to change food policies and develop sustainable and equitable food systems can address food insecurity.     

Communities of practice: Legitimacy not choice

Communities of practice has emerged as an alternative to other current sociolinguistic models such as speech communities and social networks, particularly in the area of language and gender. The valorization of non‐linguistic behaviours as adding further explanatory power to sociolinguistic models is timely: it has often been implicit in linguistic study (through ethnography) but rarely been given recognition. However, the types of self‐constituting communities of interest to sociolinguists are not the same as the communities of learning studied by Lave and Wenger (1991) and Wenger (1998) . If this construct is to be useful to sociolinguists, then the mechanisms by which it models access, gate‐keeping and its internal hierarchy need development. Using Eckert's (2000) Belten High data, and other work on adolescent talk, it is argued that gaining legitimate peripheral participation is a matter of sanction from within the hierarchy. Individuals do not have open access to communities based solely on their desire to be part of that community and to take part in its practices. While practices may define the community, the community determines who has access to that practice.     

Preventing violence in disadvantaged communities: Strategies for building collective efficacy and improving community health

ABSTRACT

Violence is a critical health issue that compromises the strength of communities and permanently damages the lives of individuals and families. The impact of violence on health and well-being is particularly devastating in disadvantaged and minority communities, leading to negative health outcomes, including premature death. However, research suggests that communities can prevent violence and negative health outcomes by developing collective efficacy, which happens when neighbors share norms and values, trust one another, and are willing to intervene to address problems. Despite the importance of collective efficacy in preventing violence and improving health, almost no research has investigated actionable strategies to build collective efficacy in disadvantaged neighborhoods. This article describes a theoretical and conceptual model that illustrates how collective efficacy impacts community violence and related health outcomes. We begin by reviewing other approaches to community violence prevention, including criminal justice and developmental approaches. We then discuss how collective efficacy works and why it matters, including theoretical and empirical research explaining collective efficacy and its impact on community violence and health. We then discuss a research-based intervention that social workers can use to facilitate collective efficacy, including our conceptual model and the key components of the intervention. Finally, we discuss implications for social workers who are working with communities to address violence and related health issues.     

Executive Leadership and Social Innovation in Direct-Service Nonprofits: Shaping the Organizational Culture to Create Social Change

Direct-service nonprofits have taken on increasing responsibility in creating social change (operationalized through the concept of social innovation) within local communities. Qualitative interviews were conducted with executive directors to determine the factors within the intra-organizational environment that support an orientation toward social innovation. Findings show that aspects related to staff engagement and development and direction by the executive leadership team are particularly important. The findings provide a conceptual model of the varying intra-organizational dynamics that support the development of a social innovation-oriented organizational culture. This research offers a focus for social work education programs to equip practitioners with the skills needed in contemporary practice.     

“It’s a generosity loop”: Religious and spiritual motivations of volunteers who glean produce to reduce food insecurity

Food insecurity is a common social issue and households look to assistance from food pantries, which often have difficulty supplying fresh or nutritious food. A substantial amount of produce is left in the fields, which can be collected through gleaning. In a focus group with volunteer gleaners at a faith-based nonprofit organization that attempts to fill the gaps of food insecurity, the motivations, challenges, and benefits of volunteering were examined. Volunteering in gleaning generated a sense of collective purpose and community; it addressed deeply held religious and spiritual impulses; and it puts volunteers directly in contact with nature.     

Community participation and inclusion: people with disabilities defining their place

Disability‐related public policy currently emphasises reducing the number of people experiencing exclusion from the spaces of the social and economic majority as being the pre‐eminent indicator of inclusion. Twenty‐eight adult, New Zealand vocational service users collaborated in a participatory action research project to develop shared understandings of community participation. Analysis of their narratives suggests that spatial indices of inclusion are quiet in potentially oppressive ways about the ways mainstream settings can be experienced by people with disabilities and quiet too about the alternative, less well sanctioned communities to which people with disabilities have always belonged. Participants identified five key attributes of place as important qualitative antecedents to a sense of community belonging. The potential of these attributes and other self‐authored approaches to inclusion are explored as ways that people with disabilities can support the policy objective of effecting a transformation from disabling to inclusive communities.     

Implications of urbanism for the use of local news media: effects of population concentration on types of news acquisition in Japan

The Internet, a global computer network enabling people to send and receive information anywhere in the world, also functions as a local medium of communication. This study focuses on the role of the Internet in transmitting local news and examines the effects of community population concentrations as socio-ecological environments on the use of local news media consumed online and offline. Data from 1367 respondents across 156 Japanese communities were used to analyze the relationships between type of community and type of news source. The findings suggest that people who live in highly populated communities tend more often to use the Internet to access local news, whereas those in less populated communities tend to use more traditional mass media. However, the results of this study did not show a relationship between population concentrations within communities and the acquisition of international news, nor did the social features of residents adequately explain the effects of population concentration on the acquisition of local news. These results are consistent with theoretical predictions based on network externalities, urbanism, and collective action. The findings indicate that local news consumption is embedded in local social contexts in a way that international news is not, reinforcing the importance of urbanism in the information age.     

What I do I understand: Teaching community work in the Australian Capital Territory

Abstract

Social work students need to develop both theoretical and practical foundations of knowledge. In a period where community practice is becoming more marginalised the Australian Catholic University subject Social Work Practice with Communities is a core component in the two year professional degree program. It combines an experience based learning approach with traditional teaching methods. Through community projects students learn real-life problem solving and gain confidence in their abilities as community workers. The paper focuses on the relationship between gaining knowledge of conceptual frameworks for community work practice and learning skills. It reviews educational considerations in teaching a subject where conceptual, practical and theoretical components are equally important for competent practice. It demonstrates how the School promotes community work.     

The disinformation landscape and the lockdown of social platforms

ABSTRACT

This introduction to the special issue considers how independent research on mis/disinformation campaigns can be conducted in a corporate environment hostile to academic research. We provide an overview of the disinformation landscape in the wake of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal and social platforms’ decision to enforce access lockdowns and the throttling of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for data collection. We argue that the governance shift from user communities to social media algorithms, along with social platforms’ intensive emphasis on generating revenue from user data, has eroded the mutual trust of networked publics and opened the way for dis/misinformation campaigns. We discuss the importance of open, public APIs for academic research as well as the unique challenges of collecting social media data to study highly ephemeral mis/disinformation campaigns. The introduction concludes with an assessment of the growing data access gap that not only hinders research of public interest, but that may also preclude researchers from identifying meaningful research questions as activity on social platforms becomes increasingly more inscrutable and unobservable.     

Horizontal Participatory Planning in Prostate Cancer Prevention: An Analysis of the Mississippi Prostate Cancer Project

We examined the Mississippi Prostrate Cancer Project (MPCP) using a 12-point assessment tool organized within three conceptual elements: stakeholder participation, cultural and structural relationships, and partnership synergy. A case study design involving participant observation and content analysis is adopted, and interpretive methods including frame and categorical analysis are used in data analysis. Though MPCP did not meet all the criteria specified in our conceptual framework, beneficiary participation and empowerment was intense. The MCPCP a unique case of community participation where lack of beneficiary project initiation does not diminish quality of participation or empowerment. Horizontal participatory approaches demonstrated in this project, created space for the growth of community social capital necessary for sustainable community development in disadvantaged communities, by cultivating beneficiary project leadership in the planning hierarchy.     

Social work students field training as an opportunity to develop best practice in disabilities: the case of Jordan

This article outlines an innovative field for training efforts that foster the abilities of undergraduate social work students so that they are able to empower local communities in disability issues. It discusses the contribution of social work education in improving livelihoods of families with disabled members, challenging families as well as attitudes of local communities towards the disabled. Social work students were placed in a centre for children with developmental disabilities for a period of eight months. At this stage of their training, students were required to demonstrate their skills in working with individuals, families and communities. They were also required to identify opportunities for interventions that addressed stigma and social inclusion. Key outcomes from students’ voices were captured through their field notes, some limited observations and focus group discussions. The field training demonstrated that students managed to establish a support group for mothers with disabled children to provide a safe place to share their experiences. Student outcomes highlighted that the field experience was effective and feedback from families indicated that training raises disability awareness and facilitates women’s access to existing support systems. In addition, it engages professionals and families to work together in developing a long-term strategy to reduce isolation and exclusion, as well as to tackle health and social inequalities in Jordan.     

Registration,Residency Restrictions,and Community Notification: A Social Capital Perspective on the Isolation of Registered Sex Offenders in Our Communities

This article highlights the importance of social capital for registered sex offenders who are reintegrating back into their communities. Although not always identified among community corrections, the sex offender registry creates a punitive atmosphere that diminishes the amount of available social capital for all involved—community members, sex offenders, and the government. Lost social capital contributes to recidivism, reentry problems, and mental health issues among registered sex offenders. We argue that deterrent and protective features of the sex offender registry are overemphasized and the goal of reintegration has been undermined. The loss of social capital exacerbates (1) the minimization of trust, (2) low expectations of rehabilitation and reentry, (3) limited contact and information from role models, (4) increased access to criminal capital, (5) formal sanctioning power of the registry, and (6) loss of sanctioning power from family and communities. Through this in-depth analysis, we argue that the current state of the registry system harms the social capital of all involved when a sex offense occurs—not just the offender—and we assess directions for future practices, as well as policy implications.     

Cooperatives and Community Development: A Perspective on the Use of Cooperatives in Development

Community developers have long understood the importance of local participation in the events and processes that shape communities. Effective, democratic, and people-and-place-centered development strategies have the potential to achieve such participation. This article suggests that cooperatives can be an effective participatory strategy to bootstrap low-income people into the socio-economic mainstream. Woolcock and Narayan's (2000) social capital and poverty transition model is adapted to demonstrate the development potential of cooperative businesses. We hope to stimulate discussion among community development scholars and practitioners, policymakers, and the public on the potential of cooperative business as a community development strategy, particularly in resource limited communities.     

Food assistance and family routines in three American Cities

The major food assistance programs in the United States—the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children—all share the fundamental goal of helping needy and vulnerable people obtain access to nutritious foods that they might not otherwise be able to afford, but the programs may also affect households’ well-being in other ways. In this study, we examine how the receipt of public and private food assistance is associated with regular family routines, using longitudinal data on low-income families with children from the Three City Study. Estimates from fixed-effects regression models indicate that WIC participation is positively associated with homework routines and consistent bed times. However, receipt of other assistance is not strongly associated with family routines.     

Redefining Food Security in a Community Context: An Exploration of Community Food Security Indicators and Social Worker Roles in Community Food Strategies

Large numbers of households experiencing the effects of food insecurity threaten a community’s viability. Although hunger has been viewed as a social problem, research focused on household-level food security tends to primarily focus on the household economics. This thematic overview of academic and grey literature (a) describes community food security (CFS) research and indicators related to accessibility, affordability, community self-reliance, social justice, and sustainability; (b) provides examples of how community social workers can participate, lead or evaluate CFS strategies that can create sustainable food secure communities; and (c) invites social work researchers to develop holistic measures of CFS.     

Innovative models of aging in place: Transforming our communities for an aging population

As the proportion of the global population over 60 continues to grow, the issue of where and how elders are going to live becomes increasingly pressing. The idea or “aging in place” – in which elders remain in their own homes and communities – is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to age-segregated retirement communities. This article documents three new models of aging in place – naturally occurring retirement communities (NORC-SSPs), villages and campus-affiliated communities – and explores how they seek to provide both services and meaningful connections among members. Data from interviews and site visits reveal both promising practices as well as challenges such as how to ensure access for low and moderate-income elders, integrating elders from diverse cultural and linguistic back grounds, and building the leadership and participation of elders. By looking critically at these models, the author argues that many previously held theories and assumptions about the aging process and social capital formation must be reexamined in light of the agency of elders and the new organizational models. Ultimately the design of our communities – both physically and socially – and our approach to retirement must be restructured to support the needs of an aging population.     

Community Context of Social Resources and Adolescent Mental Health

This study investigated cross‐level mediational and moderational community and family influences on adolescent depressive symptoms. Using multilevel data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we predicted that structural community characteristics such as community poverty and ethnic heterogeneity would influence community social resources, which in turn would influence adolescent depressive symptoms. We further predicted that community social resources would influence adolescent depressive symptoms through family social resources. Findings also suggested that the influence of the parent‐child relationship on adolescent depressive symptoms is weaker in more adverse communities than in less adverse communities. The findings underscore the importance of placing family process models within the community context when adolescent outcomes are investigated.     

A Wholistic Ethno-Cultural Paradigm: A New Model for Community Organization Teaching and Practice

To prepare workers for effective practice in community organizing and development in emerging communities, schools os social work need to give careful attention to desiging relevant practice teaching and field practicum experiences. This article proposes a new model for community organization teaching and practicing, aimed at increasing the effectiveness of social work interventions in neo-gemienschaft ethnic-minority communities.     

Urban and Indigenous: The Challenges of being a Native American in the City

The United States is home to more than 4 million Native Americans, the majority of whom live in urban areas. Urban Native Americans often experience significant social, health, and economic problems while having access to substantially fewer Native-specific resources than their reservation-based counterparts. They also face challenges with access to tribal services and political processes, as well as identity-sustaining cultural resources. This article describes the urban nature of many contemporary Native American communities. Examples from various urban Native American communities highlight the challenges faced by urban Native people, as well as creative initiatives developed to serve this population. This paper draws on and synthesizes the literature on contemporary urban Native communities, thus providing needed information for service providers and researchers working in these communities.     

Breaking the Food Chains: An Investigation of Food Justice Activism*

This article develops the concept of food justice, which places access to healthy, affordable, culturally appropriate food in the contexts of institutional racism, racial formation, and racialized geographies. Through comparative ethnographic case studies, we analyze the demands for food justice articulated by the Karuk Tribe of California and the West Oakland Food Collaborative. Activists in these communities use an environmental justice frame to address access to healthy food, advocating for a local food system in West Oakland, and for the demolition of Klamath River dams that prevent subsistence fishing. Food justice serves as a theoretical and political bridge between scholarship and activism on sustainable agriculture, food insecurity, and environmental justice. This concept brings the environmental justice emphasis on racially stratified access to environmental benefits to bear on the sustainable agriculture movement's attention to the processes of food production and consumption. Furthermore, we argue that the concept of food justice can help the environmental justice movement move beyond several limitations of their frequent place‐based approach and the sustainable agriculture movement to more meaningfully incorporate issues of equity and social justice. Additionally, food justice may help activists and policymakers working on food security to understand the institutionalized nature of denied access to healthy food.