Where do we stand? Recent AEA member views on professionalization

The professionalization of evaluation continues to be debated at numerous conferences in the U.S. and abroad. At this time, AEA member views on the potential benefits and negative side effects of professionalization are essential as the discussion evolves. This study provides recent views on major topics in professionalization, including potential benefits, negative side effects, processes, competencies, and procedures. Results from in-depth interviews and an online survey demonstrate that AEA members view potential benefits of professionalization to be stakeholder trust, evaluator reputation and identity, while concerns about a potential negative side effect known as the “narrowing effect” (i.e., some evaluators will be alienated based on their background, competencies, etc.) were expressed by participants. These recent findings can inform the ongoing discussion of professionalization, and suggest new directions for future research on evaluation.     

State implementation of TANF: where do we stand in 2001?

To provide a context for understanding the evaluations discussed in this volume, this paper gives an overview of the federal TANF legislation and describes features of state TANF programs that are particularly relevant for appreciating the need for evaluation and for interpreting evaluations. These features include the states’ policies regarding work by applicants and recipients, policies to divert applicants from welfare, and rules designed to change individuals’ behavior regarding childbearing, childrearing, and marriage. Because the implementation of state policies depends on practices at the front lines of the welfare system, some features of the ‘culture’ of local welfare offices are also examined.     

The social professions and social policy: Proactive or reactive?

This article considers the role of the social professions in influencing social policy in the new policy contexts at the turn of the century. Members of the social professions are often criticized for simply reacting to policy changes rather than proactively contributing to changing or making policy. This article argues that the simple distinction between reactive and proactive masks the important contribution that can be made by members of the social professions to influencing policy through engaging in and demonstrating new and innovative practice, supporting groups of service users to campaign for change, and undertaking research. The first part of the article considers what is meant by 'reactive' and 'proactive' and then looks at methods and tactics for influencing social policy. The second part includes three case studies from Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands and concludes that the social professions have a lot to offer but need to develop their credibility, networking, and influencing tactics so that their voices are heard.     

The circle of social reform: the relationship social work—social policy in Addams and Richmond

This article presents some results of a broader purpose of research on the thought and work of Addams and Richmond, particularly about the relationship between social work and social policy. First, we aim to contribute to deeper knowledge on the thought of these two pioneers on this relevant subject for social work nowadays and, particularly, to remove a relative veil of ignorance Richmond's involvement in social reform activities and elaboration on social reform in the context of the public and social policies process. Second, our proposal is to support a revision of the orthodox account on the antagonistic or irreconcilable nature of the two major traditions—social casework (or psychosocial approach) and social reform (or socio-political approach)—founded by two of the most influential figures of social work. Based on secondary and primary sources, the article focuses on the inseparable relationship between social policy and social work, clearly present in the thought and intervention of these seminal authors, and sheds new light on on-going debates and the disputed role of social policy perspectives within professionalised social work and the articulation between direct intervention with individuals, groups and communities and policy practice.     

Contemporary British Feminism: A social movement in abeyance?

This paper addresses the issue of social movement abeyance in relation to contemporary British feminism. It argues that currently British feminism is a social movement in abeyance that is not actively confronting the social system, and is largely preoccupied with maintaining itself through service providing voluntary organizations, educational and intellectual activities and incorporation into elite politics. The analysis of abeyance is also developed at the conceptual level by adding further detail to how we might theorize abeyance by contrasting it with the insurgent phase of social movement activity.     

Bystander interventions for sexual assault and dating violence on college campuses: Are we putting bystanders in harm's way?

Objective: The present study investigated the well-being of bystanders who witness and intervene in sexual assault and dating violence situations on campus. Participants: Participants were 321 young men and women from a large university in the southeastern United States. Methods: Participants completed a survey at the end of the Spring semester of 2015 about risky situations they had witnessed, with follow-up questions about their responses to the situations (eg, whether they intervened or not) and feelings about their responses. Participants also completed standardized measures of posttraumatic stress disorder and depression. Results: Over 90% of the participants reported witnessing at least 1 of the risky events presented to them, and approximately 50% reported intervening in events. Intervening was associated with positive feelings, but traumatic stress symptoms were related to witnessing events and intervening. Conclusions: Results have direct implications for developing appropriate training programs for bystander intervention programs on college campuses.     

Where do intra-organizational advice relations come from? The role of informal status and social capital in social exchange

Social status and social capital frameworks are used to derive competing hypotheses about the emergence and structure of advice relations in organizations. Although both approaches build on a social exchange framework, they differ in their behavioral micro-foundations. From a status perspective, advice giving is a means to generate prestige, whereas asking advice decreases one's relative standing. At a structural level these motivations are expected to result in an overrepresentation of non-reciprocal dyads and non-cyclical triadic structures in the advice network, as well as in active advice seekers being unlikely to be approached for advice, especially by active advice givers. From a social capital perspective, advice seeking creates obligations for the advice seeker. At the structural level, this results in an overrepresentation of reciprocal dyads and cyclical triads, and active advice seekers to be unpopular as targets of advice seeking, especially for active advice givers. Analyses of four waves of a longitudinal sociometric study of 57 employees of a Dutch Housing Corporation provide partial support for both approaches. In line with the social capital perspective, we find reciprocal advice relations to be overrepresented at the dyad level. Results at the triad level support the social status arguments, according to which high status individuals will avoid asking advice from low status individuals. The implications for macro-structural properties of intra-organizational advice network are discussed.     

Women, work and childcare: where have we been? Where are we going?

Working mothers who simultaneously manage a job, raise children, and maintain a home may find the endeavor to be physically and emotionally challenging. By means of a case study, this paper explores the impact of work-related injury on one mother's ability to meet the physical demands of childcare and homemaking tasks without jeopardizing her physical recovery or job security. Following a musculoskeletal injury at work, the subject received traditional occupational therapy intervention as well as specific education regarding ergonomic childcare techniques. Her ability to perform routine homemaking and childcare tasks was assessed prior to and following treatment using the ErgoMomics MOMS (Measure of Musculoskeletal Symptoms) survey. The case study suggests that educating mothers in ergonomic techniques related to vocational as well as avocational tasks may be beneficial in helping them manage the dual demands of family life and career. Additional informal interviews were conducted with twelve mothers, ages thirty-five to sixty-eight, in order to frame the case study within a wider historical perspective concerning the role of work in women's lives.     

‘Me too!’: individual empowerment of disabled women in the #MeToo movement in China

This study examines the role of disabled women in the #MeToo movement by analyzing their voices in the movement. Through online participatory observation, we discovered that the movement has individually empowered disabled women on three levels: as women, as disabled people, and as resisters. These disabled women described two ways in which they were empowered at each level, a total of six ways: they realized that they were not guilty, not ashamed, not stereotyped, not going to tolerate abuse, awakened, and united. However, the empowerment of the #MeToo movement only works at an individual level for some disabled women with higher economic and social status through online platforms, with few offline actions being taken and few responses from society to their appeals. There is thus still a long way for disabled women to go in order to be fully included in society.     

Divided we stand: Defying hegemony in global public relations theory and practice?

The last decade has seen the world becoming increasingly complex. One way of dealing with complexity, according to Schwab (2010a), is to look for certainties or solutions that impose order by simplifying. The authors contend that this is a risk in public relations practice and the academy. While recognizing their benefits they warn against attempts to produce global models which also seek to impose hegemony and argue for maintaining a diversity that reflects reality. They take the cases of the UK and Singapore as respective exemplars where hegemony has arguably occurred and where it can still be resisted. They call for a professional and epistemological stand against hegemony.     

‘Another Europe is possible’? Labour and social movements at the European social forum

The first European Social Forum (ESF) held in Florence, Italy from 6 to 10 November 2002 brought together a diverse array of so-called ‘anti-capitalist’ movements including trade unions, new, radical unions and social movements to contest the agenda of neoliberalism as it is presented within and beyond processes of European integration. This article evaluates the ESF and the possibilities for cooperation between labour and social movements in forming joint strategies against neoliberalism. It is often assumed—rather than demonstrated—that established trade unions are an obstacle to more radical contestatory practices of direct-action social movement resistance. With detailed empirical analysis, the article assesses whether there was a continuation of reformist practices within unionist activities at the ESF allied with a focus on the often-contrary sensibilities of social movement opposition. The activities and joint strategies of labour and social movements at the ESF are therefore examined, not least their resistance to both neoliberalism and its ultimate extra-economic enforcement through military power as evidenced by the war on Iraq. Whilst conclusions about the efficacy of future cooperation are cautious it appears that the horizons of resistance are expanding not only within Europe but also at the global level.     

Research on stalking: what do we know and where do we go?

Findings of the article in this two-volume series on stalking are reviewed. Building on the findings of the National Violence Against Women Survey (Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998), this series of studies adds to the literature in defining and measuring stalking behaviors. Repeated stalking victimization is reported by up to 62% of young adults, although frequencies depend on the sample and the precise definition used. Self-definitions of stalking victimization may be quite different from legal definitions. Although the majority of legally defined stalkers (where victim fear is a key component) are men stalking women, studies utilizing other definitions find many more women as stalkers, with no significant gender differences in many studies. In many cases, it does appear that stalking is one part of a larger pattern of relationship physical and psychological abuse. Data on emotional reactions and coping strategies of victims are also reviewed, along with findings on characteristics of stalkers.     

Place and tactical innovation in social movements: the emergence of Egypt’s anti-harassment groups

This study examines the first two years of a tactical innovation that emerged in 2012 in Egypt, which involved activist groups organizing patrol-type "intervention teams" to combat sexual violence against women in public spaces. Findings reveal that the new tactic took different forms in the two places in which it was deployed, even though the same actors employed it. I argue that the place in which a new tactic emerges shapes the form it takes. When coming up with a new collective action tactic, activists elaborate visions about how to carry out their actions based on their collective identities and taste in tactics. But as they start experimenting with the new tactic on the ground, they learn about the places' material affordances, symbolic valence, and power relations, as well as the constraints and opportunities that they represent. The material properties of places shape activists' possibilities of movement, patterns of communication, field of vision, and capacity to escape repression or reach safe spaces. The configuration of actors in a place shapes the nature of their interactions with others on the ground, possible alliances, and sources of conflict. The symbolic meanings of places shape the resonance of a group’s actions and the degree of resistance that actors face. Place in part determines the ability of activists to develop a tactic in the form that best fits their preferences.     

Teaching philosophies and practices in social work education: do the core competencies influence our consciousness?

Assessing the mechanisms by which EPAS core competencies are embodied in classroom teaching is important for comprehensively examining EPAS’ success. This case study of one program presents emergent findings about perceptions of teaching, and the influence of core competencies, derived from interviews conducted with faculty members at a graduate social work program. Participants were asked about their teaching philosophies and practices, and the influence of social work core competencies in framing their philosophies and practices. Four primary themes emerged: (1) engaging students in learning, (2) linking the classroom and field, (3) critical thinking, and (4) core competencies are not evident at a conscious level. Participants described strong ambiguity about how the core competencies consciously influence teaching approaches, while clearly stating goals for interacting with students, integrating field experiences in the classroom, and helping students build critical thinking skills. Implications for social work education are described.     

Governmental response to juvenile fruit machine gambling in the U.K: Where do we go from here?

The U.K. Gaming Act of 1968 prohibits young people under the age of eighteen years from all commercial gambling except on slot machines, commonly known as fruit machines and officially known as amusements with prizes. The U.K. Government responded to growing public concern, that some children are becoming addicted to this form of gambling and committing crime to fund their play, by directing the Home Office to undertake its own investigation. The researchers found no evidence of an association between the playing of amusement machines, dependency and delinquency. The Home Office study is critically assessed both on its own merit and in the light of research undertaken before and since. Suggestions are made for future sociological research initiatives.The author would like to thank the Economic and Social Research Council for funding this work through a Research Studentship Grant. The author would also like to thank David Dunkerley and Mark Griffiths for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

How social movements survive: the Treatment Action Campaign and the South African state, 2009–2016

This paper seeks to explain the survival of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and to identify lessons it may offer on how social movements may resist demobilisation. It considers the role the TAC plays in the creation of social accountability dynamics around primary health care but with broader implications for strengthening rights-based notions of citizenship. The paper examines the TAC’s relative success in democratising public health care provision and explores shifts in the relationship between this social movement organisation and the South African state.     

International comparisons in science studies: what and why do we compare?

This article is based on experiences with EU-funded research projects over the last 10 years. They have posed many methodological difficulties: many classifications do not fit the objects and actual issues are not measured or observed. They question the effectiveness of comparative research in the social sciences as it is being conducted now. We need new methodologies to make comparisons without overlooking specific contexts and effective tools to analyze large amounts of data, taking into account translation problems and mixing various types of data: qualitative, quantitative, more or less certain, first-hand and second-hand, statistical, from case studies. Furthermore, international comparisons assume that we can identify good practice and common indicators. Scientific governance is based on such assumptions, but what happens to that model if the comparative methodology is not so relevant? Rethinking methodology for social sciences and humanities in science studies could lead to rethinking the governance of science itself.