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.     

Social Gerontology and Social Work

Summary This paper reviews developments in the study of ageing as anindividual and social experience and it considers recent studiesof practical services for the elderly. In so doing it aims tohighlight the ways in which social work skills and helping techniquescan be developed. It also relates the findings of studies ofservice delivery to the elderly to the development of futurepolicy.     

社会焦虑--一个微观层面的社会问题

社会焦虑(social suspense),指由于社会中的不确定因素而在民众中产生的压抑、烦躁、不满、非理性冲动等紧张心理,这一紧 张心理集聚到一定程度就会形成社会张力,最终以社会 冲突或其他方式释放出来。在国内,由吴忠民教授较早使 用这一概念(1999),也有学者提出应称为社会紧张(陆     

制度与社会发展

任何社会的存在和发展,都离不开制度。马克思恩格斯十分重视制度在社会发展中的重要作用。在现代社会,社会秩序成了“瓶颈需求”,因此,制度作为社会秩序的生产方式之一,对现代社会的发展来说尤其重要。制度对社会发展的重要作用,主要表现在:制度是社会结构存在和变迁的重要条件,技术和文化在社会结构存在和变迁中的作用,最终要借助于制度以及制度的变迁;制度是社会发展目标的实现机制,在社会发展中,任何重要的社会发展理想(目标)或理念,只有得到制度上的体现,才能转化为现实的发展路径;制度又是社会发展的整合机制,制度可以保障社会合力的形成以及社会合作的实现。     

社会分层与社会和谐

一、社会分层与社会和谐:社会学永恒的话题在所有的社会中,人们一生下来就面对着不平等,即缺少平等的途径以得到社会所提供的满足欲望的物品(戴维·波普诺,1999:239)。因此,在所有的社会中,都如同地质结构一样,存在着高低有序的等级层次,即社会分层。社会分层是社会学永恒的话题。自社会学的经典时代起,就形成了马克思和韦伯两种传统,此后,关于社会分层的研究就从未脱离西方主流社会学的视线。1在国内学界,社会分层研究也是方兴未艾,其态势正如边燕杰(1999)所言,“制度转型时期的社会分层研究成为近年来社会学研究的一个热点,也是社会科学、…     

Social Structure and Social Relations

This paper replies to Porpora, King, and Varela's responses to my earlier paper “For Emergence”, focussing on the relationship between the concepts of social structure and social relations. It recognises the importance of identifying the mechanisms responsible whenever we make claims for the emergence of causal powers, and discusses the mechanism underlying one case of social structure: normative institutions. It also shows how critical realism reconciles the claims that both social structures and human individuals have emergent causal powers that combine to produce actual social events.     

Social Work for Social Fitness

Summary Social work has lost the perspective of social relationshipsas ends in themselves, and has become predominantly an impersonal,individualistic technology. Several interpersonal dimensionsare outlined to help fill this social value vacuum, and it issuggested that these can be held together by the concept ofsocial fitness. This is defined as the mutual development ofthe individual and his total network to a fullness of identitywhich is an end in itself and does not depend on the achievementof any other objectives. The kind of power produced by thisfitness is distinguished from power of the impersonal kind,and its meaning for social workers is discussed in relationto material need. Finally, the future development of socialwork is considered briefly in terms of promoting social fitnessthrough work with various kinds of social networks.     

From Social Insurance to Social Assistance

In attempting to establish a social security system that would function to smooth the transition from a planned to market economy, the government of China has, for most of the time in the past decades, focused its efforts on setting up social insurance programs in the urban areas. Along with the emergence of urban poverty since the mid 1990s, the emphasis of the government has shifted to means-tested social assistance programs as the major means to combat poverty and maintain social stability. However, with the absence of more equitable social and economic policies that can protect people against the many risks associated with a market economy, the role of social assistance is very limited.     

What's Social About Social Emotions?

This paper presents a new approach to the demarcation of social emotions, based on their dependence on social appraisals that are designed to assess events bearing on social concerns. Previous theoretical attempts to characterize social emotions are compared, and their inconsistencies highlighted. Evidence for the present formulation is derived from theory and research into links between appraisals and emotions. Emotions identified as social using our criteria are also shown to bring more consistent consequences for social behavior than nonsocial emotions. We conclude by considering ways of validating and refining our classification.     

Social Networks and Social Service Workers

Correspondence to Peter Sharkey, School of Law, Social Work and Social Policy, Liverpool Polytechnic, 98 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, L3 5UZ. Summary ‘Networks’ is a word often used in the discussionof social work practice and within social services departments.It was a word which was central to the Barclay Report (1982)and important within the more recently published Griffiths Report(1988) on community care. It is a word also known to sociologistsand anthropologists through the development of ‘networkanalysis’. There is, however, a fairly wide gap betweenits use within social work and its use within social science.This article tries to explore this gap and the ways in whichsocial science ideas might have some use and relevance to socialservice workers. It does this by using some illustrative datafrom a study done of the personal networks of thirty elderlypeople who were all clients of a social service district office.     

Social Work as a Social Institution

This paper discusses trends in social work in the last twenty-fiveyears. Within the broad theme of social work as a social institution,more detailed attention is focused on: services for childrenand elderly people; manageralism; and social work research andevaluation. Processes of secularization, professionalism andmanageralism have weakened the impetus for social reform. Thishas sharpened dilemmas for social work in balancing benefitsfor service users and public involvement with tight state controland regulation.     

Social Work Teachers and Social Work Practice

Summary A survey was undertaken to discover the extent to which thosesocial work teachers who teach social work methods, continueto practise after they become educators. The results suggestthat not more than 25% do so, and many of these on only a tokenbasis. Most respondents however regarded such practice as animportant aide to the teaching of social work methods, althoughsome consider consultancy roles to be equally relevant. In nocases was such practice linked with research, and only exceptionallydid employers allow time explicitly for it. We outline fourdifferent bases on which teachers might practise, all of whichwere suggested by respondents, many of whom added personal notesto the questionnaire, indicating the extent to which this subjectis a matter of wide interest and concern     

Poverty, Social Work and Social Justice

Correspondence to: Gary Craig, Professor of Social Justice, University of Hull, Hull, HU6 7RX, UK. E-mail: G.Craig{at}hull.ac.uk Summary The concept of social justice has become a common part of thepolitical lexicon in recent years, with New Labour identifyingit as a key goal of its social strategy. In this article, Iset out my understanding of what the elements of a social justiceprogramme should look like and apply it to the performance ofthe New Labour government in the policy area which has traditionallypresented a major challenge to social workers, the issue ofpoverty. Finally, I raise some questions about what this analysismeans for the future role of social work shaped by values ofsocial justice.     

社会政策与社会工作的议题

社会政策与社会工作的研究共同点在于其目的是解决社会问题,从而改善和提高社会福利,一般的研究基于中国背景,更注重实务性;而本文则基于国外发展状况,旨在从理论层面探析影响二者发展的因素。     

Social Exclusion, Inequality and Social Work

This paper sets out the environment of inequality in which social work and the poor have recently operated. It explores pragmatic and idealist arguments concerning whether or not the poor need social work. Finally, policy solutions developed in consultation with social service users and carers are suggested in relation to poverty and social exclusion. Social exclusion can be linked to relative poverty as exclusion from economic and social norms. However, there is a wider brief in our own government’s publications and those of Europe, of examining how people are excluded from actions and policies of agencies who are there to support them. This paper will retain the concepts of poverty as lack of material income, and inequality as the gap between the rich and the poor, while being aware of the policy implications for social service users and carers of the more comprehensive process of being shut out partially or fully from social, economic, political and cultural systems. The debates around social work, social exclusion and inequality that follow establish: that some of the poor do need social work; that the poverty of social service users is related to policies that have restructured welfare in Britain; that the reason for individuals approaching or being referred to social services are complex but are likely to include financial deprivation as a key contributory factor; that if the poor do need social work, advocacy is essential rather than social work being seen as concerned only with social control—taking children into care, mentally ill people into hospitals, and advising the DSS on the suitability of claimants for benefits. Finally, the discussion turns to new policy agendas on social exclusion instigated by the Labour government. What positive difference can such policies make for social service users, their carers and social workers?.     

社会工作职业化与社会政策

社会工作职业化目前在中国存在社会认同度不高、专业服务组织机构欠缺、社会工作职业制度不健全、高校人才培养与实际部门不衔接以及本土化的社会工作理论亟待建立等问题。社会政策作为支持弱势群体、解决社会问题、促进社会公正的制度化模式,从政府的政策性角色和社会立法这两个维度出发来解决社会工作职业化过程中面临的问题,在推进社会工作职业化进程中起着举足轻重的作用。