A (not so) simple dialogue activity

ABSTRACT

This article explores the research on peer-to-peer dialogue in higher education, including the innovative practice of intergroup dialogue and other practices such as nonviolent communication and contemplative listening. I then describe an activity I do with my community college students, in a context where lack of time and other resources do not allow a more resource-intensive dialogue practice. I ask them to experience dialogue with several free, easily available resources, including nonviolent communication, contemplative practice, and public radio podcasts from On Being, then have a conversation outside of class in which they mostly practice deeply listening to someone with different political beliefs than they have. They may make a brief attempt at dialogue or nonviolent communication. I discuss how my activity may accomplish some of the goals of intergroup dialogue and be useful where students are learning about diversity and inequality across social divides, including in social work education and sustainability education. I nest this activity in a course that involves some contemplative practice, to explore how both sustainability education and the social justice component of social work may benefit from contemplative practice. Finally, I detail some other resources about hope and despair that support this activity.     

Kitwood's thought and relational social work

Tom Kitwood is a key figure in the development of thought about dementia, but generally no references are made to his work outside of elderly care. This article argues that Kitwood's thought has much to offer to all the professional caregivers, regardless of the users’ category they are caring for, and to the broader field of professional social work. Some key themes from the writings of Kitwood are examined, namely the critique of the ‘standard paradigm’; the conception of malignant social psychology; the respect for otherness in the positive person work; the person with dementia as a resource for reciprocity processes; the new culture of dementia. For each of these issues similarities between Kitwood's approach and relational social work are identified. Relational social work considers the helping process and the well-being development as co-constructions, in which the contributions not only by the helper (or the caregiver, or the social worker), but also by the helpee (or by the care recipient, or by the user) are essential: both at the same time are helped and helpers, and both are empowered by this. This idea—of great value to all social work fields—is remarkably close to the Kitwood's thought about the dementia care.     

A Little Encouragement Goes a (not so) Long Way: An Experiment to Increase Political Ambition

ABSTRACT

Although there is a significant gender gap in political ambition, the literature has shown that women are responsive to encouragement to run for office. As a result, both political parties and other organizations have adopted online campaigns to encourage women to seek political candidacy. The purpose of this study is to explore whether forms of online and impersonal encouragement can result in higher levels of political ambition among recipients. To test this possibility, we randomly assigned 341 participants into two conditions: control and encouragement. Despite receiving positive encouragement about their own political abilities, there were no significant differences between the two conditions.     

Building relational capital: The contribution of episodic and relational community engagement

In this study, we provide evidence of the theorized connection between community engagement and the development of social capital, and the perceived value or worth of relationships among organizations and stakeholders. Using thematic analysis to understand the policy and practice frameworks of community engagement in Australian local government organizations, our analyses reveal two different types of community engagement—relational and episodic—each of which has the potential to contribute to relational dimension of social capital. The study introduces and develops new thinking around the ideas of episodic and relational engagement within the context of community engagement, and their respective contributions to the development of relational capital. Recognizing and identifying episodic and relational community engagement as separate phenomena allows researchers and practitioners to understand the theoretical dimensions of community engagement as a framework for practice.     

Children in poverty in germany: reflections on recent social work research

This project focuses on children growing up in impoverished life circumstances, originating from an increasing level of poverty in Germany. There are two perspectives in social work research on children living in poverty: first, current research on childhood recognises that children are social agents in their own practices of life; second, research on poverty draws attention to the issue of social inequality, and broaches the question of the structural constraints and limitations of daily life. We report on current German research on children living in poverty, and focus on the role of peer relationships in coping with discrimination. This research is substantiated with the results of our own research project. We find that children develop strategies to mitigate the effects of poverty. The family can also help by providing the child with an interpretation of their poverty, and through daily coping mechanisms. Additionally, children can gain support from their peers. However, bridging social capital and gaining access to other social milieus is seldom successful. We conclude with a discussion of strategies that point the way out of child poverty. Such an optimistic goal, however, would require an alliance of practice, research and policy in the field of social work.     

Expanding community: The internet and relational theory

Internet communities have received mostly negative appraisals among psychologists. Being on line is viewed as damaging to one's social relationships. In 1996, a group of therapists studying relational theory formed an online community. Our group has been a positive influence, expanding the idea that it is possible to have a vibrant and socially enhancing community online. Entre psicologos, han sido principalmente negativas las evaluaciones de las comunidades internet. Estar 'online' se considera perjudicial para las relaciones sociales. En el ano 1996, un grupo de terapeutas que estudiaban teoria relacional formaron una comunidad online. Nuestro grupo ha sido una influencia positiva, extendiendo asi la idea que puede existir una comunidad online efervescente y de realce social.     

Developing people in a network of relational practices: reflections on the role of social work education

The mission of social work education in Flanders is threefold: to deliver education, to conduct research and to provide services to society. In our opinion social work education has a critical and liberating function towards society and it must stimulate and develop a critical attitude amongst students. In this article we first focus on the educational dimension of social work education as we practise this in one institute. Next we describe how we realise our objectives as a social work education institute in relation to the professional field. The central concept of our vision is social work as a relational practice.     

Cities, states, trust, and rule: new departures from the work of Charles Tilly

In the light of his essay “Cities, States and Trust Networks,” contributors to this collection were asked to consider ways of building on or departing from the late Charles Tilly’s work. The authors in this collection addressed four major themes: (1) historicism and historical legacies, (2) trust networks and commitment, (3) city–state relations, and (4) democracy and inequality. Authors concentrating on historicism examined how, despite unanticipated consequences, social action nonetheless produced systematic, durable, social structures; they particularly focused on processes of identity formation and cultural reproduction. In regard to trust networks, contributors discovered a striking variety of forms and relationships and they investigated their origins and their relationship to institutions and culture. Looking at city–state relations, authors uncovered the richness and intricacy of the ties linking cities and states and showed that city–state relations were important not simply in terms of the autonomy or dependence of mutual ties, but also in the quality of these relationships. Besides the ties between cities and states other authors sought to focus on empires and wondered about the degree to which empire formation involved similar processes as state formation. Several authors developed this theme. Authors pursuing themes of democracy and inequality stressed how changes in citizenship and the expansion of parliamentary democratic forms might have complicated effects. The relationship between democracy and inequality was mediated by elites and institutions. Democracy constrained inequality but inequality also constrained democracy. Increased state capacity might enable states to remedy old inequities but it might also allow them to perpetrate new ones. The authors’ varied responses suggest promising directions for research on cities, states, and trust networks.     

Privileging work not sex: flexibility and employment in the sexual services industry

We present findings from a study of sex workers recruited in indoor licensed premises in Victoria. While the study addressed regulation, enforcement and working conditions, we focus on the value of flexible well‐paid work for two particular groups of female workers (parents and students). We link this issue of flexibility to broader gendered employment conditions in Australia, arguing the lack of comparable employment is crucial to understanding worker decisions about sex work. Debates and regulation focus on gendered inequalities related to heterosexuality much more than they recognize gendered inequalities related to labour market conditions. The focus on criminalization, harm, exploitation and stigma obscures the centrality of work flexibility and conditions to women's decision‐making. A more direct focus on the broader employment context may produce better recognition of why women do sex work.     

Reflections on the road not (yet) taken: how a centralized public strategy can help youth work focus on youth

Karen Pittman calls for innovation and systemic change in the U.S. youth work by examining the key values of the United Kingdom's national youth work system.     

Sensory language (SDM) to foster empathy in social work students

Assessment and management of emotional situations are generally discussed in academic studies in the field of social work through verbal interventions, while the art of developing awareness to nonverbal feelings has yet to see widespread use. Sensory experience based on nonverbal communication and body language can highlight complex feelings and problems that the social worker confronts. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of an intervention of sensory body language using a modified Sherborne Developmental Movement (SDM) model, in a course for social work students. The course’s multidimensional process involved cognitive and affective components of understanding and identifying thoughts, feelings, and emotional states of others. The intervention combined art activity and focusing to foster empathy among social work students in the group setting. Twenty social work students attending college in the north of Israel participated in the course, writing reflective diaries throughout the course, which were collected and analyzed. The findings suggest that sensory language and movement through the group experience enhanced social work students’ empathy and their awareness of its importance for practice. Learning to be empathic through nonverbal communication also challenged perceived barriers to empathy such as cultural and language differences.     

Identity and solidarity in the complex of citizenship: The relational approach

Within modernity, social identity and solidarity are deemed to be conflicting terms on principle. What has been called the culture of difference triggers a weak solidarity anywhere. But, if it is really so, how can we explain the rise of new social solidarities, a phenomenon which is nevertheless occurring throughout Europe along with concomitant processes of fragementation and differentiation? The author's general argument is that conflicts between social identities and solidarities cannot be understood in terms of a clash between individual and holistic perspectives. We need a relational perspective. From this angle, the author tries to explain why and how a post‐modern societal balance between social solidarity and social identities (i.e. a new citizenship) is emerging today, from the society rather than from the state, in such a way as to build up new forms of interdependencies and links between identities and solidarities. Sociologically speaking, it may be that a new societal semantic is emerging, according to which citizenship is a complex of rights and duties not only of individuals but also of social groups, arranging civic life into a number of ‘universalistic autonomies’ capable of reconciling collective goals and self‐management practices, solidarity and identity issues. This is the new challenge for post‐modern societies. The name of this new game is ‘societal citizenship’ or citizenship of social autonomies, including regional ones.     

Labour is not a commodity: The content and meaning of work in the twenty‐first century

In his valedictory lecture before the Collège de France, Alain Supiot reviews his work on the transformation of labour in the twenty‐first century, highlighting the role of law and institutions in addressing the consequences of the digital revolution and environmental crisis. In his view, the moral, social and environmental bankruptcy of neoliberalism calls for us to reconsider the legal fiction of labour as a commodity and to re‐establish the truly “humane labour regime” envisaged by the preamble to the ILO Constitution, recognizing both the meaning and content of work. He uses the case of scientific research to illustrate his argument.     

Like mother, (not) like daughter: The social construction of menopause and aging

In recent American history, the definition of menopause has shifted from a natural, developmental transition to an increasingly more medicalized perspective that emphasizes biological deficits of the aging female body. Using qualitative data from two generations of women, this essay explores how and why this redefinition has occurred and what effect it has had on women's attitudes toward health and aging. The physical experiences of menopause were remarkably similar across mother-daughter pairs; however, daughters (who represented a slice of the baby boom cohort) differed from their mothers in how they talked about menopause, how they defined and treated menopause, and how willingly they accepted or fought the changes associated with menopause. Major social institutions, including the media and pharmaceutical industry, have played a significant role in reshaping the cultural lens through which women experience issues of health, body, and aging. This essay emphasizes the baby boomers' desire to maintain control over their bodies and considers how this cohort of women, as a result, may experience late-life issues of body and health.