Social Movements, Social Justice and Social Work

Correspondence to: Neil Thompson, Avenue Consulting Ltd, PO Box 2060, Wrexham LL13 OZG, Wales, UK. Summary This paper explores the relationship between social movements,social justice and social work. It examines the role of socialmovements in promoting social justice and considers the influencesof such movements in the development of emancipatory forms ofsocial work practice. It also considers the question of whethersocial work can be viewed as a form of social movement in itsown right. A central theme of the paper is the fundamental tensionbetween social work as a force for social regulation and asa force for social development and emancipation.     

哈贝马斯新社会运动理论述评

哈贝马斯把新社会运动视为人的需要受到忽视的结果,通过参照"系统"与"生活世界"的分裂的观点,从"合法化"的角度来探讨新社会运动的命运。哈贝马斯认为新社会运动具有两大特点:一是这些运动能防止"生活世界殖民化",通过交往理性来维护规范共识;二是这些运动的本质要求是较少关注物质再生产,而更关注文化再生产、社会一体化和社会化。由于这些运动与传统的围绕分配而展开斗争的工人运动不同,哈贝马斯认为它们不可能被政党制度化或通过物质补偿而缓和。哈贝马斯的"新社会运动理论"对当下的和谐社会的构建具有启发意义,但其在有着理论解释力的同时也存有某些理论局限性。     

Understanding public attitudes towards Social Security

There has been very little research on why individuals hold different attitudes toward Social Security. In this article we integrate social location theory and political predisposition theory to provide a framework of explanation and test these theories using a unique sample from the 1998 General Social Survey. Our multivariate results reveal that social structural positions along the lines of race, gender, class and age play a more important role than political predispositions in explain-ing individual differences in support for the current Social Security system against privatisation. Political party affiliation also partly contributes to variation in support for Social Security, but political ideology does not have a significant effect. Our results suggest that with regard to support for Social Security, primary consideration must rest on social structural positions. Racial minorities, women, the poor and the elderly tend to dislike a drastic change in the current Social Security system, and Social Security reform ought to pay attention to their concerns. Our robust finding of a positive relationship between age and support for Social Security also challenges much of the established knowledge, pointing to an intergenerational discord over Social Security. It is also important to differentiate among social welfare programmes in order to uncover the real determinants of public attitudes towards them.     

Community Social Workers and Political Leaders in Municipal Settings in Israel

Community social workers (CSWs) have, in recent years, entered a community arena which was previously seen as the domain of local politicians. This study describes certain aspects of the extent and nature of their contact with political influentials. Findings indicate that Israeli CSWs interact with local politicians frequently. During 1 year of activity in 32 communities, influence attempts or "pressure" were recorded in 75% of the episodes-primarily against City Hall politicians, or by them. Although most politician pressures were to restrain the CSWs, at least one-quarter encouraged and supported them. Politicians presure social workers primarily for personal or party gain, and workers pressure politicians for the community's benefit and their own professional enhancement. In over two-thirds of the pressure episodes, workers opposed the politicians. There appears to be a group of younger, recently graduated, university-educated CSWs who are more actively engaged with local politicians than are other workers.     

西方社会运动研究:现状与范式

本文对西方社会运动研究的现状和基本理论范式作了一个概略的介绍。社会运动研究是 2 0世纪 60年代兴起于西方的一个学术领域 ,现在已经发展成为一门横跨社会学、经济学、政治学、历史学、社会心理学、传播学、人类学等多门学科的综合性研究领域。在历史发展过程中 ,美国和欧洲分别形成了“资源动员”和“新社会运动”两种研究范式。这两种范式在理论兴趣、基本假设以及由此而来的问题设定方面均存在着很大的差异。     

Social Work Tomorrow: Towards a Critical Understanding of Technology in Social Work

Correspondence to Bob Sapey, Department of Social Work, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE Summary This paper makes use of theoretical ideas that have been developedto understand the impact of new technology on organizationsand applies them to its use within social work agencies. Thesedeveloping theories employ ideas that are familiar to socialworkers—organization theory, decision making theory, andcommunication theory. The paper therefore argues that socialworkers are in a good position to understand and influence theuse of computers within welfare agencies and do not need tobe inhibited by a lack of technological knowledge. It is furtherargued that, unless social workers do become involved in theways in which new technologies are used within organizations,they will fail to influence its impact upon their clients andmay further fail to control the way in which computers affectthe nature of social work itself in the future.     

Theory of Mind in Preadolescence: Relations Between Social Understanding and Social Competence

Theory of mind (ToM) underlies the ability to attribute mental states to people as a way of understanding their social behaviour. Although ToM development is an active area of research, most empirical investigations focus on infants and young children. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to assess ToM in preadolescents and to determine whether individual differences in this mentalizing ability relate to social competence and relate differently for girls and for boys. It was hypothesized that preadolescents' ability to understand thoughts and emotions in others would be associated with their social competence. 128 preadolescents (64 girls; 64 boys; mean age 11-9) completed peer social competence ratings, a vocabulary task, and participated in a social understanding (ToM) interview. Teacher ratings of the participants' social competence were also collected. Based on composite ToM scores, results indicated positive associations between ToM and (a) peer ratings of social-interaction skills, (b) general vocabulary ability. Separate gender analyses revealed significant effects. Results are discussed in relation to (1) individual differences in social understanding and social competence and (2) effects of socio-cultural context.     

Understanding Social Inclusion and Its Meaning for Australia

This paper considers the various meanings of ‘social inclusion’ from both sociological and policy viewpoints. It shows how the perspective has been translated into particular policies and approaches to governance. After drawing some lessons from the policy experiences of other countries, it weighs the appropriateness of a ‘social inclusion agenda’ for Australia, a country with a particular history of social exclusion – of prisoners, indigenous people, and immigrants from around the world – and a special emphasis on dignity, respect and equal treatment.     

Understanding Social Work: A Matter of Interpretation?

Correspondence to University of Exeter, Department of Sociology, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4RJ. Summary In undertaking a piece of research, one can expect to encounterintellectual puzzles along the way. Here, the story is recountedof one particular puzzle that arose when examining learningprocesses in social work. An extract from a research interviewis presented and the learning represented by the social worker'sactivity and opinions is interpreted in three distinctive ways,drawing on perspectives in sociology, education and feminism.Consideration turns to the process of interpretation itselfand recent ideas encountered through literary theory are invokedas a means towards appreciating interpretive practice. In sofar as both social workers and researchers consider themselvesengaged with the issues multiple interpretations pose, it issuggested that this brand of literary theory may be of valuethrough its illumination of the construction and deconstructionof understandings.     

从社会分层看住房差异--对湖北省"五普"资料的分析

住房是一种固定资产,它反映着人类的 社会生活水平和住房拥有者的社会地位。本 文通过对湖北省“五普”资料中有关住房状况的数据分析,显示出不同的社会阶层,住房水平存在着明显差异的现状。     

理解社会治理的显现空间

伴随着人类世界后工业化进程的开启,社会治理进入了主体多元化的时代,众多行动者“怎样开展行动、如何进行言说”成为社会治理理论需要探究的核心问题.行动与言说“充分分离”产生的对权力的限制是民主政治的实质,而行动与言说的“有机结合”则能够实现合作的治理.然而,现代民主作为行动—言说所形成的两条隐匿线索的交汇空间,在被代表制嵌入之后表现出了言说对行动的削弱,言说与揭示之间的不洽渐次阻塞了民主的路径并导致了一系列异化问题.信息技术的发展将使互联网成为“虚拟贤者”,它有能力成长为有别于“合作”和“自治”的第三条道路,超越代表制作为现代民主全部实质的狭隘性,帮助社会治理在“行动—言说”框架下通往显现空间.     

The Relationship Between Psychological Understanding and Positive Social Behaviors

This research investigates the relationship between psychological understanding and positive social behavior in preschool children. A sample of 67 children were given measures of mental state understanding and emotion understanding. Positive social behavior was measured by classroom observation, teacher report and peer ratings. Both mental state understanding and emotion understanding were positively related to teacher ratings of social skills, behavioral observers’ global ratings of social skills and peer popularity. When language ability was partialled out of these relationships, many of the significant correlations disappeared; however, for variables related to peers’ perceptions, psychological understanding continued to predict unique variance. The results are discussed in terms of the multiple determinacy of positive social behaviors and the potential role of language in these processes.     

The Roots of Radicalism: Tradition,the Public Sphere,and Early Nineteenth-Century Social Movements

R. E. F. Smith and David Christian, Bread and Salt: A Social and Economic History of Food and Drink in Russia (1984), xvi+391 (Cambridge, £32#lb50).

Doreen M. Rosman, Evangelicals and Culture (1984), 262 (Croom Helm, £14.95).

Roger Morriss, The Royal Dockyards during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1983), ix+262 (Leicester University Press, Leicester, £28#lb50).

Robert Bud and Gerrylynn Roberts, Science versus Practice: Chemistry in Victorian Britain (1984), 236 (Manchester University Press, Manchester, £25#lb00).

Roger Fletcher, Revisionism and Empire: Socialist Imperialism in Germany 1807–1914 (1984), vii‐f 223 (George Allen and Unwin, £18#lb00).

Gigliola Dinucci, Una Federazione tra riformismo e sindicalismo : La Federazione Nazionale Lavoratori del Mare 1901–1908 (1983), 201 with statistical tables (Centro Editoriale Toscano, Florence, Lit. 15,000).

(A Trade Union Federation between Reformism and Syndicalism: The National Federation of the Workers of the Sea 1901–1908)

W. H. Greenleaf, The British Political Tradition, vol. I: The Rise of Collectivism (1983), xiii+336 (Methuen, £22#lb00); vol. II: The Ideological Heritage (1983), xii+579 (Methuen, £26#lb00).

Henry Phelps Brown, The Origins of Trade Union Power (1983), 266 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, £15#lb00).     

Social Empathy: A Model Built on Empathy,Contextual Understanding,and Social Responsibility That Promotes Social Justice

ABSTRACT

A model of social empathy is described where social empathy is defined as the ability to more deeply understand people by perceiving or experiencing their life situations and as a result gain insight into structural inequalities and disparities. The three components of the model—individual empathy, contextual understanding, and social responsibility—are explored and explained. Social empathy provides a framework for more effective social policies that address disparities and support social and economic justice for all people. Social workers are well positioned to enhance social empathy, and application and suggestions for further enhancement and research are provided.     

The Understanding and Use of Reflection in Family Support Social Work

ABSTRACT

Previous research emphasizes the need for reflection in complex, dynamic practices, like social work. However, increased governance of the public sector and welfare state has caused a reform, which in turn has affected the layout and conditions of work. Private sector control ideals and ideas from the auditing system have led to a new focus. It is argued that we should subordinate practice approaches – characterized by reflection, proven experience, and tacit knowledge – to manual-based treatment, evaluations, and assessments. This study aims at understanding the role of reflection in social work by investigating its use and valuation by family support social workers. Opportunities and resources for reflection are another focus. Focus group interviews (n = 40) were used to produce data. The need for reflection to conduct highly qualitative social work became evident. The question is not whether to reflect or not, rather how this best can be done, given current time constraints. Reflection was considered a coping mechanism, offering a sense of professional legitimacy. Organizational changes seem to impact on time for reflection. However, when enabling process, learning, and development, it can be argued that reflection is beneficial for several parties. Therefore, reflection requires continued emphasis, highlighting its potential benefits.     

Social Workers' Understanding of Autistic Spectrum Disorders: An Exploratory Investigation

How social workers perceive autistic spectrum disorders (ASD)will inevitably impact upon how they assess the needs of childrenwith ASD and their families, and upon the types of service orinterventions they seek to provide to meet those needs. However,little is known of social workers’ understanding of thecondition. Using a research instrument devised by Mavropoulou and Padeliadu (2000),a study was carried out of all social workers working with disabledchildren in an English local authority. The results showed thatthough many workers had a good understanding of some aspectsof the condition, there was also confusion about some key factsconcerning ASD, the characteristics of ASD and scientific terminology,an inaccurate understanding of intervention approaches, anda more positive attitude towards the ability of generic servicesto meet need than was supported by the literature. Implicationsare discussed in terms of the provision of services to familiesof children with ASD in the UK, and the limitations of thisstudy are recognized.