Social Change and Social Policy in China: National Adaptation to Global Challenge

As a part of designed human intervention against social problems, social policy has to respond and adapt to social changes. In this article, the author aims to discuss social changes that occurred in the past decade in China (including economic, demographic, and cultural changes) and relate them to relevant social policies formulated by the Chinese government to address the concerned social issues. To interpret the roles of the state, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the community in tackling social problems in the changing context of the market economy and globalization, the author attempts to provide a theoretical explanation on the emergence of social policy in China in a new era and to further re-assess the concept of the welfare regime in East Asian countries.     

Social Work Education and the Neo-Liberal Challenge: The US Response to Increasing Global Inequality

During the past several decades, a ‘perfect storm’, resulting from the political–economic changes accompanying globalization, dramatic demographic and cultural transformations in US society and rapid technological advances, has created unprecedented challenges for the social work profession and social work education. These challenges include the widening gap in income and wealth both within the US and between the Global North and South; growing racial and class disparities in health and mental health care, education, employment and housing; a shift within policymaking circles towards fiscal austerity and policies that emphasize market-oriented and individually-focused solutions; and the changing nature of universities, student populations and the educational process itself. Although the formal documents of major social work organizations continue to emphasize social justice themes, the actual practice of social work and the preparation of students for practice, teaching and research have diverged considerably from this rhetorical mission. This is reflected in a variety of ways including, but not limited to, the uncritical adoption of ‘evidence-based practice’ as a cornerstone of social work education and research; the growing stratification of social work faculty; the increased reliance on untested online methods of education; and the emphasis on quantitative ‘outcomes’ as indicators of educational success. At the same time, social work education in the US has been unable to respond effectively to the implications of demographic and cultural diversity, despite the demands of its accrediting body, the Council on Social Work Education. This article will provide an overview of the changing environment of social work and social work education during the past several decades. This will be followed by a discussion of the impact of these changes on social work education and a critique of the response—to date—of social work educators. Finally, it will suggest some potential educational responses to these challenges.     

Happiness Research: A Review of Critiques

In the short decades since the introduction of positive psychology instigated broader interdisciplinary research, interest in happiness has been growing in academia, the media and public policy. Numerous critiques of these developments have been forwarded from a variety of theoretical and disciplinary traditions. This article discusses three such criticisms: the culture‐bound and normative character of happiness, ‘bad science’ and scientism, and diminished subjectivity and individualisation. It is argued that criticism, particularly internal criticism, evidences the maturity of the field. However, the depth of some critiques may also indicate that interest in happiness is bound with broader cultural preoccupations and is likely to be superseded.     

Meeting the Needs of the Growing Very Old Population: Policy Implications for a Global Challenge

ABSTRACT

Very old adults are one of the fastest-growing age groups worldwide. Yet they rarely constitute a targeted group for public policies. Drawing on the results of the centenarian studies presented in this special issue, we highlight major challenges that arise from the increase of this population. We outline several promising approaches for policy makers and professionals to develop evidence-based policies and programs that are tailored to the needs of very old adults and their families. We focus our discussion on three key topics essential to life care: the importance of integrated care to meet the complex care needs of the very old; the balance between formal and informal care; and the development of suitable places for living. Besides more specific measures, we propose that policies promoting the social integration of very old adults in their communities would be particularly helpful, as these may benefit not only the very old and their families but also individuals of all ages. We conclude that the development of suitable policies addressing the needs of the very old will benefit from future investigation of cross-cultural similarities and differences in centenarians’ characteristics, available services, as well as life conditions they encounter in communities and institutional contexts.     

Disciplines of Organizational Learning: Contributions and Critiques

The paper argues against attempts to create asingle framework for understanding organizationallearning. Relevant literature is reviewed from sixdisciplinary perspectives: psychology and OD; management science; sociology and organizational theory;strategy; production management; and culturalanthropology. It is argued that each discipline providesdistinct contributions and conceptions of problems.Furthermore, a basic distinction between organizationallearning and the new idea of the learning organizationis noted. Whereas the former is discipline based andanalytic,the latter is multidisciplinary and emphasizes action and the creation of anideal-type of organization. Due to thediversity of purpose and perspective, it is suggestedthat it is better to consider organizational learning asa multidisciplinary field containing complementary contributions andresearch agendas.     

Critiques of Narrative Therapy: A Personal Response

This paper responds to some of the specific and the generalised challenges to narrative therapy from therapists of other persuasions. It discusses the long history of model rivalry and locates this debate in that process. It also takes up specific concerns of isolationism, desertion, language, sectarianism, colonialism and ethical superiority. Throughout, I attempt to identify my thinking in relation to the criticisms, and to write transparently about why I understand things in the way I do. This is not a neutral paper — I see myself as a narrative therapist.     

Understanding Rural Social Class in an Era of Global Challenge

Social class is a foundational sociological concept that cuts across all domains of interest within rural sociology. Structured inequity rooted in social class and its intersectionalities also was the spark that drew many rural sociologists into the discipline. This article first considers definitions of social class and provides a rationale for its being the theme for the 2016 meetings of the Rural Sociological Society in Toronto, ON. It provides a brief sketch of social class in the rural and urban United States through an analysis of data from the General Social Survey. This leads into a discussion of four dimensions of social class that rural sociologists have helped to inform and on which more research is needed. These include class as a relational concept, class and economic livelihoods, expressions of class as signifiers of success, and the consequences of class stratification. Along the way, a sampling of RSS members are given voice as they describe in their own words the spark that ignited their pursuit of our discipline.     

Sustainable Conservation of Cultural Heritage: A Global Responsibility. Sichuan Towers Case Study

This paper has been developed in the framework of a larger research program, in which the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Tsinghua University and Yangzhou University are jointly involved to study and preserve historic towers. Cultural heritage is the intangible and tangible attributes of a society, including the natural heritage, that are inherited from past generations, preserved in the present and granted for the next generations. Nowadays we consider the cultural heritage as a world heritage belonging to all the people of the world, irrespective on which territory they are located. This paper presents a model and a methodological hypothesis to conserve cultural heritage in a sustainable way throughout the case study of Sichuan Towers (China) that could become an example for other cultural sites around the world, connecting the environmental and socio-economical aspect to the tourism development.      

From Methodological Stumbles to Substantive Insights: Gaining Ethnographic Access in Queer Communities

This article demonstrates precisely how issues of access—in this case differential access to informants and the scenes that they populate in three sites—can reveal substantive findings. In the case it features, a comparative study of small cities with growing populations of lesbian couples, actors’ disparate and place-specific sexual identities produced disparate and place-specific responses to research. Integrationist sexual identities impeded access, whereas identity-politics orientations facilitated it. The paper identifies three mechanisms via which sexual identities influenced access: directly, by shaping informants’ orientations to the research topic, and, indirectly, by influencing local networks and institutions that emerge from and reinforce local identities. By explicating one ethnographer’s path from methodological trouble to substantive insight, the article traces the utility of an expansive and flexible reflexivity that begins with but extends beyond the researcher’s identity and role. This reflexivity, the article proposes, encourages identification of substantive findings and the development of social theory, and can advance a comparative sociology of ethnographic access.     

Couch the Bricoleur: Using Ethnographic and Laboratory Traditions to Establish Data Careers

Carl Couch reinvigorated the Iowa School of Symbolic Interaction by combining the theoretical and methodological tenets of ethnography and laboratory science. He thus resembled a bricoleur, or researcher who masters several seemingly diverse practices in order to create a seamless whole. Couch's new Iowa School also produced a bricolage, or a sum total of research findings, that I call a data career. This article pays tribute to Couch the bricoleur and his bricolage by elaborating on his data career and discussing how he created ethnographies in the laboratory. I further link the notions of bricoleur, data careers, and ethnographies in the laboratory with Couch's democratic vision. I contextualize this vision in light of a particular representative-constituent study (RCS) which served as a metaphor for Couch's pragmatic outlook.     

The Maintenance of Untenable Values: an Ethnographic Study of Group-Level Strategies to Manage Conflict

This study examines how members of a group rife with contradiction manage the friction or tension that results from persistent violations of expectations for values and behaviors. Through ethnographic observation, I find that local practices impact processes of tension creation and reduction. Local cultural practices – including the use of both material and nonmaterial cultural elements – of managing friction within groups have been so thoroughly woven into the routine behaviors of the group that these practices enable members to continue membership and participation in the group despite frequent dissonant or conflictual experiences. I propose the concept of routinized management to describe this phenomenon. By elaborating Fine’s Sociology of the Local, I offer a theoretical account of both the micro- and mesolevel processes that facilitate the maintenance of untenable values in the field.     

Chaos: A Challenge to Refine Systems Theory

Chaos theory may have relevance to marital and family therapy. Some connections are tentatively explored.     

Creating Cohesion from Diversity: The Challenge of Collective Identity Formation in the Global Justice Movement*

Collective identity formation is important because it plays a crucial role in sustaining movements over time. Studying collective identity formation in autonomous groups in the Global Justice Movement poses a challenge because they encompass a multiplicity of identities, ideologies, issues, frames, collective action repertoires, and organizational forms. This article analyzes the process of collective identity formation in three anti‐capitalist globalization groups in Madrid, Spain, based on 3 years of ethnographic fieldwork. The author argues that for new groups practicing participatory democracy the regular face‐to‐face assemblies are the crucial arena in which collective identity can form and must be both effective and participatory in order to foster a sense of commitment and belonging. The article raises the possibility that scholars should consider what seems to be an oxymoron: the possible benefits of “failure” for social movements.