Fighting Social Problems with Information

ABSTRACT

Computer technology enables communities to synthesize large, complex, and disparate datasets into a centralized database. Such integration can provide a community with essential information on rates, trends, and risk factors associated with a particular social problem. This article will discuss the development and implementation of the Violence Information Network, a community database devoted to the surveillance of violence and its related factors. The VIN development is presented as a prototype on which communities can design information databases tailored to their specific needs. The challenges encountered during development are discussed. Future directions for the VIN are also highlighted.     

Social Welfare and Urban Problems

Financing Higher Education: Recommendations of the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education. Four volumes (see below). Berkeley, California, Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, 1968.

The Economics of the Major Private Universities, William G. Bowen. 66 pages. $1.25 softbound.

The Finance of Higher Education, Howard R. Bowen. $1.00 softbound.

Alternative Methods of Federal Funding for Higher Education, Ronald A. Wolk. 261 pages. $2.00 softbound.

Quality and Equality: New Levels of Federal Responsibility for Higher Education. A Special Report and Recommendations by the Commission. 54 pages. $1.00 softbound.     

构建和谐社会应关注的青年问题

和谐社会是人们针对社会生活不和谐状态而提出的一种社会理想状态。构建社会主义和谐社会是我们党对中国特色社会主义事业总体布局认识的深化和拓展,是我们党对人类社会发展规律、社会主义建设规律、共产党执政规律的科学把握。目前,我国改革发展正处在一个关键时期,在当前和今后相当长一段时间内,我国经济社会发展面临的矛盾和问题可能更复杂、更突出。社会的发展和进步,使得我们将关注的目光投向决定未来的年轻一代的发展上,对于青年在发展过程中容易出现的社会问题予以高度重视是创建和谐社会的重要一环。     

Community Relationships and the Course in Social Problems

This article describes the Native American History in a Box curriculum which is designed to introduce elementary and middle-level students to Native American cultures. The curriculum consists of a five day unit addressing the following concepts pertaining to Native American Nations: settlements, tools, sustenance, pottery, and contact with Europeans. In addition, the development of the curriculum, the daily lessons, and the activities are discussed. Each daily lesson includes step-by-step instructions and the required materials. Finally, the authors discuss some of the pragmatic issues that influenced the development and implementation of the curriculum.     

Solving the Problems of Computer Use in Social Work

ABSTRACT

The problems encountered when Introducing information technology in social work are commonly considered as caused by compiler fear among social workers. A distinction is introduced between automation and “informatisation.” Introduction of IT applications in social work is an informatisation process most of the time, which means that new information is produced whose role in the organisation is not yet defined nor accepted. Organisational as well as technical suggestions are made to solve this problem.     

Contemporary Social Problems in Japan: A Study of the Suicide and Depopulation Problems

Abstract  Two complementary investigations were undertaken:
1. Research into the relationship between suicide and depopulation in Shimane Prefecture.
2. Research into the relationship between the perception of social problems and unwanted objective conditions, employing suicide as the example of unwanted conditions.
To summarize the most important findings:
1. The suicide rates have been notably higher in depopulated areas.
2. The partial correlation of suicide to depopulation was high, when the effect of aging of population was removed.
3. This partial correlation has increased since 1975. There has been an aggravation of the problem of suicide as a depopulation problem.
4. The correlation of suicide to aging of the population vanished, when the effect of depopulation was removed.
5. At 70 and over, the suicide rates have been notably higher in depopulated areas.
6. The correlation of the age-specific suicide rate with the depopulation rate, increases with age and the correlation of the suicide rate among old people to the depopulation rate, was notably higher.
7. These suicidal tendencies express the mores of society. Morality underlies the perception of social problems, while morality could not exist without generating suicide at a certain point. Both suicide and the perception of suicide as social problems are largely determined by morality. This is our paradoxical hypothesis.
8. Lastly, we emphasize that there are serious depopulation problems in Japan. This is particularly obvious, if suicide is employed as the indicator of depopulation severity.     

A Social Problems Approach to Gerontology in Social Work Education

This paper proposes a social problems emphasis to gerontology in social work education which acknowledges the fact that the elderly are handicapped and discriminated against by social values, attitudes, and practices. The traditional integrative approach has been ineffective in educating and sensitizing students to problems and needs of the aged. The social problems emphasis is discussed as related to future manpower needs, enlightened social workers as citizens, and advocacy for the elderly. A proposal for schools is presented, with implications for practice, fieldwork settings, research, and classroom instruction.     

Joseph Gusfield and Social Problems Theory

Joseph R. Gusfield was a key figure in the emergence of constructionist social problems theory. His approach was characterized by: his determination to identify the cultural, structural, and historical context of claims; attention to the choices among alternatives that shaped how problems were defined; and the rhetoric used by advocates. He highlighted the role of ownership–the ability to define the terms in which social problems are constructed. His work is also notable for its skepticism regarding social scientists’ theorizing.     

Solving Social Problems: Southern Perspectives

Locating an appropriate starting point for this review is nosimple task. Part of the difficulty is that the book breaksimportant new territory for New Zealand and Australian studentsand, possibly, students and practitioners at the internationallevel because of the strong and explicit connection betweensocial problems and the work of community and social workersas social change agents. It also attempts to make direct connectionsbetween theory and practice and the unequivocal preference forcommunity-based responses, arguments and solutions. There isa good body of material that focuses on different dimensionsof social problems and a significant body of material on socialwork intervention and practice. The authors' purpose is clear. As they note on the back cover,the book is intended for students and practitioners ‘whowish to develop their reflexive practice’. The developmentof this practice is, the authors     

Problematic Sociality: Uncertainty and the Study of Social Problems

John Kitsuse and Malcolm Spector’s theoretical framework for the analysis of social problems is revisited and an alternative formulation is sketched out, albeit one that maintains a focus on constructivist processes. Spector and Kitsuse’s model posits actors (claims-makers and counter-claimants) who possess moral certitude regarding what is objectionable and worthy of remedial action; by contrast, the present discussion suggests grounding the study of social problems in experiences characterized by uncertainty. The concept of “problematic sociality” is proposed as a way of identifying such circumstances. Sociality — routine, coordinated and manageable forms of association among individuals and between groups — becomes problematic when interactions are experienced as persistently difficult to navigate, distressing, or otherwise viscerally onerous. Encounters with problematic sociality may be connected to underlying social transformations and disruptions. The concept of problematic sociality therefore suggests there is merit in pairing the study of social problems with the study of social change.     

Caribbean Families: Social and Emotional Problems

Families from the English-speaking Caribbean now comprise 30% of immigrants in New York State. Given the increase of Caribbean referrals to psychiatric hospitals and mental health clinics, it is important to begin examining more seriously the needs of this immigrant group. The concept of mental illness, risk factors that can lead to mental disorders, commonly accepted psychopathological disorders, issues in assessment and treatment as they apply to this cultural group are discussed in this article. A model for treatment—the multiculutral/multimodal/multisystems approach is examined.     

Linking Social Welfare Policy and Global Problems

This article is a case study of an advanced social welfare policy seminar that explored the interconnections between global threats such as violence and warfare, environmental degradation, poverty, and immigration, and the current and future endeavors of the social work profession. The author describes the theoretical underpinnings and format of the seminar, examines four propositions or lessons that emerged from the course, and analyzes the implications of these lessons for social work practice, research, and education.     

Social Work Students' Changing Perceptions of Social Problems After a Year of Community Intervention

This paper aims to throw light on the emotional and cognitive processes of students within social change-oriented field work as they develop over a year, as described through a projective and phenomenological art medium drawn and discussed at the beginning and at the end of the year. The literature on social work points to a discrepancy between the cognitive structural explanations of social problems that are taught to social work students, and their tendency to prefer focusing on individual rather than on societal levels of intervention. The aim of this examination of the students' processes over the year is to increase our understanding of the students' experience and understanding of their social change mission, so as to better prepare them for the challenges it entails, and to see where they get ‘lost’. Findings from this paper point to the gradual internalization of social change as a complex process, combined with the reframing of this complexity into tangible results.