Community Intervention with Jewish Israeli Mothers in Times of Terror

The article examines the effectiveness of a community programmedesigned for Jewish Israeli mothers who have been exposed toterrorism. The aim of the intervention was to empower the womenand increase their sense of belonging to the community, andto reduce stress symptoms, mainly by encouraging and facilitatingtheir participation in community activities. Thirty-eight women,all residents of the same terror-ridden community, participatedin intensive workshops over a six month period designed to helpthem to become active in the community. The workshops providedthe women with the information and skills required for activityin the community projects in which they were interested. A qualitativeevaluation reveals that, at the end of the programme, most ofthe women reported that they felt better and more secure, andall of the women were participating in at least one activityin the community. The quantitative evaluation revealed lowerlevels of distress, higher levels of empowerment and no changein the feelings of belonging to the community. The implicationsof these findings are discussed in light of the persistenceof terror and theories of community intervention.     

Debating New Zealand’s foreign relations: the role and impact of the University of Otago Foreign Policy School 1966–1976

For over half a century, the internationally recognised University of Otago Foreign Policy School has annually drawn together a mix of government officials, diplomats, academics, students and members of the general public to discuss issues of international significance. This article considers the establishment of the Foreign Policy School, and analyses its impact on the formulation and implementation of foreign policy between 1966 and 1976. Michelle Hale Williams’ conceptual model is employed to assess the School’s influence on public and political debate. It is argued the School’s influence was directly and most clearly evident at what Williams defines as the agendas and institutional levels. There was a gradual but definite shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy outlook between the mid-1960s and mid-1970s, which is reflected in questions raised and discussed by the School. Public engagement with foreign policy questions, in which the School played an enabling role, was also transformed in the course of this period. The School rapidly became an important forum for foreign policy discussions between groups that had previously had little interaction. This article shows that, while it generated few concrete results at the level of policy, the School certainly played a part in helping to foster a national world-view that was increasingly based on New Zealand values and interests, paving the way for the emergence of a more independent foreign policy.     

Parents who wait: Acknowledging the support needs and vulnerabilities of approved adopters during their wait to become adoptive parents

There is a significant amount of existing research exploring adoption policies, processes, and the experiences and safeguarding of children. However, although much research has children at the focus, little research has been conducted into the experiences of approved and waiting adopters. Where research has included adopters, focus tends to be on how adopters can aid an adoptive placement and what support they can provide to an adoptive child. In this article, the experiences of approved and waiting adopters are at the centre. This article reports on a digital ethnographic research project, which used unobtrusive methods to conduct a thematic analysis of over 600 posts made by waiting adopters on publically available UK online adoption forums in 2015. Online posts discussed the perceived over‐recruitment of adopters; the decision‐making behind adopters' initial preferences; and the negative emotional effects of the waiting period following approval. This article argues that more consideration needs to be given to the needs of and support for approved adopters whilst they wait for an adoptive child.     

‘The Bang’ and SNAP: Controversial Issues in Schools

Over the last few years there has been a series of ‘moral panics’ over the introduction of Peace Studies into educational institutions. This case study examines the recent public controversy over an educational play call The Bang presented in secondary schools in New South Wales, and the associated attacks on student interest groups called Students for Nuclear Awareness and Peace (SNAP). The case study raises questions about power relations in the social construction of ‘controversy’ and ‘objectivity’ and the strategic dilemmas these imply for progressive teaching about social issues in schools.     

Science and Technology

In this review of the genetics controversy the author restates the basic criticisms levelled at the so-called "classical" school of genetics by leading Soviet scientists in this field. He maintains that the theory advanced by Lysenko and his followers has proven itself correct over the past years and that it emerges as the only scientific theory of heredity. The journal from which this article is translated states that it is an expanded and edited stenographic report read at the All-Russian Conference of Chairmen of Departments of Social Science, November 1960, and is published for purposes of discussion. Nauchnye Doklady Vysshei Shkoly, Filosofskie Nauki (Scientific Reports of the Higher School, Philosophical Sciences), 1961, No. 2.     

Psychosocial Capacity Building in New York: Building Resiliency with Construction Workers Assigned to Ground Zero after 9/11

Construction workers who worked on “Ground Zero” after 9/11 in New York City were exposed to stressful and traumatic conditions. Clinicians, trade union leaders and the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations designed a psychosocial capacity-building project which helped workers to recognize, understand and respond to their reactions through a series of interventions that included peer training, psychosocial workshops, brochures, and outreach and referral services. The project emphasized the use of mutual aid and social support through group interventions facilitated by clinicians and offered by trade unions. The article describes the planning and implementation of the project as well as the results of qualitative evaluations of the effectiveness of the project.     

Digital by default? A qualitative study of exclusion in digitalised welfare

Digitalisation reforms have become increasingly pervasive across European welfare agencies and public sector institutions. As welfare provision becomes premised on the use of digital technologies, often in the form of “self‐service” solutions, new demands are imposed on citizens, including already disadvantaged groups. Although existing research has showcased how digitalisation often reproduces existing lines of stratification, little to no work has been conducted on such processes in the context of welfare provision and public administration. Through a study of citizen service centres in Denmark, based on ethnographic observations and qualitative interviews, this article analyses the new exclusionary mechanisms that emerge at the frontline of the digital agenda. The article argues that digitalised welfare agencies simultaneously sustain existing lines of social stratification and enhance these by producing new forms of digital exclusion. Taken together, the article contributes with new knowledge on the impact of digitalisation policies and their exclusionary consequences for disadvantaged citizens.     

User Involvement in Services--Incorporation or Challenge?

Correspondence to Joan Forbes at The School of Social Work, The University of Leicester, 107 Princess Road East, Leicester, LE1 7LA Summary In recent years, users of social work, like those of psychiatry,have been increasingly drawn into the organization and deliveryof social work and mental health services. This has been largelywelcomed as a desirable development by planners, academics andpractitioners in the field. In this article, we reappraise thebroad issues raised by user involvement and consider the implicationsof this trend. Despite the attractiveness of the user perspectivein the policy and delivery of social work and psychiatric services,we point to the dangers of incorporation and moderation of anoppositional position, from which, we argue, users can bestchallenge existing practices and connect with wider politicalstruggles.     

Sheltered Workshops,Economic Policies and the Employment of the Handicapped

Economic aspects of schemes for employing the handicapped such as employment subsidies, quotas and designated employment are discussed in the first section. Given the existence of minimum wages and fixed conditions of employment, sheltered workshops and designated employment are seen as feasible and relatively efficient means for employing the handicapped. But, as illustrated from a survey of sheltered workshops in Newcastle, the costs of sheltered workshops could be lowered by increasing the number of handicapped persons working in existing workshops, by more cooperation and planning between workshops and by the sharing of some projects and the joint use of administrative personnel. Other economic problems of sheltered workshops and their implications for public policy are also considered.     

The Response of Schools of Social Work to the Return of Uniformed Service Members and Their Families

The following article is designed to provide an historical overview of the role that the Smith College School for Social Work has played in serving U.S. service members and their families throughout the past 91 years. Particular attention is paid to the building momentum of interest and activity at the School since 2005.     

中国和合思想与21世纪的人类和平

世界和平问题是为全球化过程所引发的问题。二战后的新质全球化过程并没有从根本上改变威胁世界和平的基本因素,尤其是没有改变近代全球化以来的哲学上的笛卡儿的主体中心主义以及反映在政治舞台上的欧洲中心主义。笛卡儿的二分性主体中心主义是世界冲突的最深刻根源,要实现21世纪的世界和平,就要将二分性的哲学理念转变为中国传统的和合理念。换言之,中国的和合思想可以为21世纪的人类和平提供宝贵的思想资源。     

Smith College School for Social Work and Combat‐Related Trauma: Allegiance,Scholarship, and Commitment

The Smith College School for Social Work (SCSSW) was founded for the purpose of treating soldiers returning from World War I who suffered from shell shock, conditions that are now described as combat‐related trauma. As history evolved, America found itself embroiled in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and contemporary conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. With each conflict clinical social workers have played a pivotal role in the care of active‐duty soldiers and returning veterans. This article explores the School's historical contribution to the treatment of combat‐related trauma through its curriculum, theoretical perspectives, and endorsement of different treatment paradigms over the last century. The earlier decades and Vietnam–era time involvement of the SCSSW in clinical social work practice with service members and their families is of particular interest. Specific recommendations are offered to the School that may benefit those practitioners entering the field of combat‐related trauma.     

Getting back in the DeLorean: modernization vs. anti-modernization in contemporary British politics

ABSTRACT

This article highlights a growing clash between mainstream modernizing and populist anti-modernizing forces in the UK. Whilst scholarship on UK party politics has, for the past three decades, focussed on processes of party modernization, little attention has been paid to the countervailing processes of resistance towards modernization. This contrasts with comparative studies, which show that throughout much of Europe modernization processes have worked to produce populist backlashes from anti-modernizing forces seeking to reassert various types of traditional values and practices. Drawing on the comparative literature on modernization, our argument here is that a similar populist backlash against modernization is occurring across the political spectrum in the UK and has been a factor in: the rise of nationalism associated with UKIP and the SNP; the 2016 BREXIT vote and the efforts of both Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Conservative PM Theresa May to distance their parties from the legacies of their modernizing predecessors. Empirically, we show how this increasingly prevalent line of conflict is playing out in the UK, whilst theoretically we argue that a discourse theoretical approach can provide significant advantages over existing approaches for understanding the dynamic interplay between modernizing and anti-modernizing discourses.     

Deprivation and Poverty in Hong Kong

Despite high and rising real incomes, the poverty rate in Hong Kong remains a cause of community concern. The government has been reluctant to set a poverty line, although the recently (re‐)established Commission on Poverty has recommended that a poverty line for Hong Kong is developed. Against this background, this article reports results derived from a new deprivation study designed to shed new light on the living standards of the poorest in the community. Reflecting international studies, deprivation is identified as existing when people do not have and cannot afford items regarded by a majority in the community as being essential for all. A list of 35 basic needs items is identified as meeting this definition, the results indicating that around 30 per cent are deprived of at least two items, over 18 per cent are deprived of at least four items and 10 per cent are deprived of at least eight items. Deprivation rates are particularly high among items that meet basic health needs. A mean deprivation score index (MDIS) is then used to compare the degree of deprivation experienced by different groups, and indicates that deprivation is most pronounced amongst those receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA), people affected by a disability and recent migrants. The overlap between deprivation and income poverty is also relatively low, which suggests both measures have a role to play in identifying who is most vulnerable and guiding where policy change is most urgently needed.     

Safe Harbors or Free Frontiers? Privacy and Transborder Data Flows

This article explores the issues surrounding the harmonization of privacy or data protection during the last 30 years. It begins with a history of the conflict over transborder data flows and then proceeds to analyze current national and regional policy debates about the feasibility of policy solutions to address problems that are integral to global communications and economic networks. Ongoing discussions between the European Union and the United States over Safe Harbor Principles provide data for exploring these issues. The article concludes with an analysis of whether harmonization of privacy and data protection policies is likely to evolve through existing processes and institutions .     

Is There an Indian Policy Process? An Investigation into Two Social Policy Processes

India is a huge, poor, fast developing, centralized and increasingly unequal, democratic country. The core argument of this article is that these and other contextual factors have an impact on the way in which social policies are formulated and implemented. The focus of the article is on two such policies on food and primary education. Based on secondary material and own fieldwork, the shaping of these two policies is discussed and some major characteristics of the two social policy processes are highlighted. This analysis brings to light the existence of two paradoxes present in social policy processes in India: one related to the fact that social policies are important for regime legitimacy but nevertheless suffer from a lack of political commitment; the other related to the fact that centralized decision‐making goes together with the widespread involvement of local politicians in policy implementation. These two paradoxes, the article concludes, are the result of the wider context in which social policies are shaped and are hence not easily resolved.     

The Cycle of Bias in Health Research: A Framework and Toolbox for Critical Appraisal Training

Recognizing bias in health research is crucial for evidence-based decision making. We worked with eight community groups to develop materials for nine modular, individualized critical appraisal workshops we conducted with 102 consumers (four workshops), 43 healthcare providers (three workshops), and 33 journalists (two workshops) in California. We presented workshops using a “cycle of bias” framework, and developed a toolbox of presentations, problem-based small group sessions, and skill-building materials to improve participants' ability to evaluate research for financial and other conflicts of interest, bias, validity, and applicability. Participant feedback indicated that the adaptability of the toolbox and our focus on bias were critical elements in the success of our workshops.     

Towards a theorization of the relationship between poverty and family

This article aims to contribute to theorizing and research about the processes and relationships connecting families and poverty. The aim is to undertake a thought exercise to identify possible relationships and interactions between family and poverty. In existing poverty research practice, a simplified view of both individuals and families is presupposed by, first, the reduction of family to household; and, second, treating the household as nothing more than a unit size and composition. Drawing from existing research on both poverty and families in everyday life, the article offers two core insights. First, it suggests that poverty scholarship needs to take specific account of the processes of resource and income transformation that are associated with family living. Second, these processes are not necessarily functional or confined to the material, but encompass normative and moral agency associated with family membership. Both act to mediate poverty‐related and other outcomes. The article also suggests some conceptual and methodological refinements to take these issues forward in future research.     

Changing Social Work Roles in Family Centres: A Social Psychological Analysis

Correspondence to Dr R.J. Brown, Institute of Social and Applied Psychology, The University, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7LZ. Summary This article reports a longitudinal study of field and residentialsocial workers' perceptions of each other in the first ten monthsafter the introduction of a new children and families policyby a large social services department. 1 A central element ofthis policy was the setting up of Family Centres designed tofacilitate closer co-operation between field and residentialstaff. Data was collected from two interviews ten months apartwith 52 field and residential social workers based in two divisionsin the county. Mutual role perceptions indicated a consensusover the traditional division of labour between field and residentialworkers with field workers being seen as having superior skillsin counselling, crisis intervention and case responsibility,whilst residential workers were regarded as better at providingbasic care for and developing close relationships with childrenin care. On only three role dimensions (engendering trust withclients, accuracy in assessments, and preparation work) wasthere any disagreement between the two groups. None of theserole perceptions changed perceptibly over the course of thestudy. However, the social workers' perceived outcomes fromtheir work (for example, pay, training opportunities, promotionprospects, etc.) changed markedly over the ten month period,and varied between the two divisions. In one division evidenceof a changed and more egalitarian relationship between the fieldand residential staff was visible; in the other, both groupsseemed to show a decline in morale and no real change in thetraditional status difference between the groups was apparent.These findings are interpreted in the light of social psychologicaltheories of intergroup relations, and some policy implicationsare discussed.     

Expressionism in Music—Real and Imagined

At the Congress of Soviet Musicians in April, 1960, there was considerable heated debate on modernist—and more specifically expressionist—tendencies in Soviet music. The debate was sparked by critical discussion of the recently published Volumes II and III of A History of Russian Soviet Music. During the debate Iosif Ryzhkin, musician, critic and musicologist, took sharp issue with the author of this article over the latter's defense of Prokofiev, whose work at one time was under indictment as "Western-influenced" and "decadent." Specifically the clash centered around the last opera written by the dean of Soviet composers, the monumental War and Peace. Ryzhkin and Danilevich disagreed sharply on the way this work was evaluated in Volume III of the History.