Decentralization: The American Experience and its Relevance for Australia

An explanation is sought for the general lack of any significant amount of decentralization in Australia. Major, ongoing trends in the decentralizing of manufacturing industries in the United States are examined, and an attempt is made to identify specific forces attracting industry to country locations and those deterring it. Detailed comparison of the American and Australian situations reveals marked differences in the presence of conditions that either promote or discourage decentralization. It is concluded that, on present indications, the outlook for decentralization in Australia remains unfavourable.     

The Relevance of the Structural Approach to Group Work with Immigrant and Refugee Women

ABSTRACT

This article applies a structural approach to social work with immigrants and refugees. Specifically, the use of structural principles and procedures is illustrated in work with an Hispanic Women's Support Group.     

吉登斯第三条道路福利思想与第三条道路下的社会工作

从20世纪社会工作发展轨迹来看，专业社会工作的发展曾先后受到社会民主主义和新自由主义两种价值体系的影响。随着第三条道路福利思想的提出及其在西方国家的政策实践，专业社会工作开始受到了第三条道路福利思想的启发，在社会工作价值基础、受助者与工作者关系、社会工作功能和过程模式上都出现了新的反思和发展。     

Mutual Aid Group Work: Social Work Leading the Way to Recovery-Focused Mental Health Practice

The emphasis on recovery principles in mental health practice in Australia challenges the predominant medical model in mental health service delivery. This article describes a mental health-based, telephone-mediated, mutual aid support group for carers of people with severe mental illnesses. Data was collated from evaluations of these groups over a period of 7 years. Outcomes of the evaluation indicated that participants of these groups highly valued the supportive and collaborative nature of the mutual aid groups. The author emphasizes the potential of this approach and the promise of social group workers leading the way to recovery-focused mental health practice.     

“心理场”的关联性及立体效果——从《火烧赤壁》看评话小说的心理描写

扬州评话等说书艺术在心理描写方面形成鲜明民族特色,心理活动互相关联交错形成"心理场",这种心理现象特别富于动态和关联性,并与语言动作紧密配合,避免孤立和静止,擅长即时性立体性刻画人物.这使我们洞悉同时出现的人物心理活动和人物语言动作,体会"不动之动"、"无声之声"的生活况味和艺术韵味."心理场"的艺术魅力使人们熟悉已久的陈旧故事焕发崭新艺术吸引力.     

城市化的历史必然性与我国城市化道路的选择

作为现代化的重要指标,城市化是社会文明进步的重要标志,但城市化在取得重大历史进步并给人类社会发展带来前所未有的变革的同时,也带来了极大的发展代价。在中国,城市化建设已经成为是各级政府极力推行的重要发展战略,但也在特殊的国情下衍生出诸如劳动力的过剩与流动、“城中村”病灶、能源危机、环境污染和生态破坏等问题。落实科学发展观,促进经济与社会的全面、协调、可持续发展以及人与自然、社会等之间的和谐发展,是城市化和城市发展道路的正确选择。     

理性时代的信仰危机及出路--克尔凯郭尔假名写作时期的宗教哲学思想研究

克尔凯郭尔借助假名作者克利马克斯对19世纪上半叶西方社会呈现出的世俗化倾向以及它在宗教信仰领域中所带来的后果进行了分析和批判,他把造成信仰危机的根源归结为哲学理性在信仰领域中的泛滥。为了纠正这种精神领域中的“贫血症”,他首先展开了对自然神学思路的批判,其中重新提及并讨论了贯穿在整个基督教哲学史中的一些重大问题,并在很大程度上表现出了与奥古斯丁主义的一致性。但是在他从宗教虔敬主义立场出发提出人当以“单一者”的形象、以内在的激情去追求“上帝”的时候,他把信仰变成一个永无终结的纯粹的个体性行为,这里他的思想表现出了相当的现代性,而且在其内里即有解构神学意义上的信仰的可能性。     

The Use of a Workshop on Group Work for Field Instructors to Enhance Students' Experience with Group Work in the Field Practicum

To enhance student's learning about group work in the field practicum, one undergraduate program provided a continuing education workshop to field instructors in which core group work content was identified as were suggestions for how they could provide appropriate learning opportunities for their students. Results suggest that such training may positively affect students' opportunities to practice group work. The findings also are consistent with previous research that has demonstrated that social work students often have only limited opportunities to practice group work in the field.     

Tough Love: Social Work, Social Exclusion and the Third Way

Summary This article argues that New Labour's priorities for socialinclusion through employment, and for strenthening civil society,have relegated public-sector social work to a limited role inassessing and managing risks. However, as failures in the government'stop-down, regulatory approach emerge, there will be new opportunitiesfor a broader-based version of the profession to contributeto a more progressive programme.     

中国本土社会工作专业实践的基本处境及其督导者的基本角色

虽然社会工作在中国的发展已经有十多年的历史,但其专业实践的基本处境与西方明显不同,即专业化的社会工作服务机构缺乏、服务对象的专业服务要求不明确、社会工作者的专业身份欠缺以及专业社会工作服务的稳定性不足,这些因素影响了在目前中国本土处境下社会工作者与服务对象建立一种专业服务关系,由此也导致了中国本土社会工作专业实践的督导者需要承担与西方督导者不同的基本角色：专业社会工作服务的设计者、专业服务需要的转化者、日常专业服务的指导者和专业服务的培训者。     

The Effect of Work Experience on the Self-Concept and Anxiety Level of the Social Work Graduate Student

Summary It has been assumed by some leading social work educators thatstudents in professional training display unproductive or evencounter-productive anxiety in field-learning situations. Ithas been further suggested that this excess anxiety has ledto a certain amount of threat to the ego which could resultin problems in work performance. This paper tells of an investigationinto the impact of previous work experience on the manifestanxiety level and self-concept of a set of graduate social workstudents in a mid-western university in the United States. Datawere gathered using widely used tests, the Taylor Manifest AnxietyScale and the Tennessee Self Concept Scale. Contrary to thehypothesis, prior work experience did not act as an inhibitorof anxiety nor as a support to self-concept. No significantdifference on test scores was found between those students withwork experience and those with no work experience. The writeris unable to satisfyingly account for the lack of significancein these findings. An unexpected by-product of this researchwas the finding that manifest anxiety levels and self-conceptscores of social work graduate students in either category werenot different from those found in other occupational populations.This suggests, tentatively of course, that social work studentsmay not have higher anxiety levels as some of the literaturehas led us to expect. It may be the anxiety that social workeducators see in students in the field is quite within normallimits, that it does not threaten students' self-concepts, andthat it does not inhibit learning     

公共权力制约的路径选择及其价值预设

公共领域的制度安排及其演变,不仅与社会现实的政治、经济条件相关,而且与政治共同体的文化价值传统相关.民族传统的价值信仰体系,在很大程度上决定着公共制度设计的价值取向和制度选择的思维空间.中西方在公共权力制约上不同的路径选择,隐含着对人性以及人类社会生活秩序不同的价值预设.这种观念预设同制度演进形成了一种既相互支撑又相互限制的内在循环,并使观念演进和制度变迁一并呈现出了自我强化的路径依赖现象.     

中国传统文化的向度及其运作方式

中国传统文化是一个三维空间。它的三个维度分别是政治整合、家庭本位与内在超越。三个坐标构成三个平面 :即政治整合与家庭本位的组合构成社会的自然化 ,家庭本位与内在超越的组合形成伦理本体化 ,政治整合与内在超越的组合形成精英集团“内圣外王”的人生目标。这蕴含着中国传统文化是一种没有时间性的文化 ,它物化为精神父亲型的专制统治和封闭性的人格结构     

Regulation and Risk in Social Work: The General Social Care Council and the Social Care Register in Context

The 2000 Care Standards Act led to the setting up the GeneralSocial Care Council (GSCC) as the new governing professionalbody for social workers and other social care employees in England.¹The GSCC published national Codes of Practice for social carestaff and their employers in 2002, whilst 1 April 2003 saw theintroduction of the Social Care Register. The stated aim ofthese developments is to protect the public, improve the qualityof care offered by social workers and increase public confidencein the profession. However, such intentions disguise the increasein regulatory control that the GSCC and social care employershave gained over the workforce—intrusions that have metrelatively little criticism. By locating these developmentswithin a broader social context, one in which risk and its managementare at the forefront of contemporary social policy and practice,this paper argues that underlying the debate is a climate offear and distrust in which there is a tendency to view peopleas either vulnerable, dangerous or both. Such a degraded viewof the subjects of social work also pertains to social workersthemselves, who are simultaneously seen as assessors of risk,at risk and as a risk.     

Combining Work and Care: Carers' Decision-making in the Context of Competing Policy Pressures

Issues related to paid work and care are of global importance, reflecting the twin pressures of population ageing and efforts to increase labour market participation. Informal carers of sick, disabled or older people can experience tensions between policies aimed at support for care and support for employment. This article discusses a study of carers’ decision‐making around work and care, drawing on evidence from interviews with 80 working‐age carers in England. Carers are not homogeneous; their circumstances and needs differ reflecting age, gender, ethnicity, labour market participation, and the condition and/or needs of the person they support. This diversity is illustrated by contrasting rural and urban carers’ decisions and experiences about work and care. Key factors that impact on carers’ decisions are: current and anticipated financial need; the constraints arising from receipt of carers’ and other means‐tested income maintenance benefits; personal identity; job opportunities and scope for flexibility; social services provision; carers’ own health. Distance, travel times and transport are unique additional challenges for rural carers who (wish to) work. These difficulties are further intensified when they intersect with other factors such as the Carer's Allowance, the local labour market and social services provision. The findings are evaluated in terms of the adequacy of current government policy measures.     

作为掌握和改造现实之方法的道德和法律

法律和道德规范是对现实的反映并同时作用于现实。以精神实践方式反映现实的规范可以用来解释人如何适应他根本无法理解的现实。道德规范和法律规范的确立需要经过实践确证。法律实证主义并非完全可靠,价值体系虽并非能被社会指标体系证明,但它是有效的。在社会治理过程中,应该考虑到道德规范产生的特点及其对个体的作用。     

Reflexivity, its Meanings and Relevance for Social Work: A Critical Review of the Literature

The concept of ‘reflexivity’ has become increasinglysignificant in social work literature in relation to socialwork education, theory and practice. However, our reading ofthe literature indicates that there is a lack of clarity aboutthe concept in terms of who is being exhorted to be ‘reflexive’,when and how. This article addresses these questions througha critical review of social work literature since the 1990sthat discusses the concept of ‘reflexivity’. Giventhat many authors seem to use the concepts of ‘reflexivity’and ‘(critical) reflection’ interchangeably, wealso apply this analysis to ‘reflection’ and ‘criticalreflection’. This article raises important questions abouthow the concepts of ‘reflexivity’, ‘criticalreflection’ and ‘reflectivity’ are definedand the different consequences such definitions might have forsocial work education, theory and practice.     

The Political Role of Social Work: Grasping the Momentum of Working Through Interorganizational Networks in Belgium

ABSTRACT

This article explores how social workers deal with the ambiguity that arises from their ability to transform the private needs of individuals into issues of public concern. It is argued that the current shift towards joined-up working, which is epitomized by the creation of interorganizational networks, could encourage new opportunities for social work. These horizontal and nonhierarchical forms of cooperation serve as platforms for debate to ensure regular discussions about the causes of and potential solutions to complex societal problems. This article relies on a case-study of bottom-up networks in two Belgian cities where social workers from various policy fields voluntarily joined forces to look after hard-to-reach groups of homeless people. The primary data were obtained from document analysis, semi-structured interviews with network participants, and direct observations of network meetings. These data were analyzed by conducting a directed content analysis. The examination shows that the joint creation of welfare services leads to substantial debates among social workers about the criteria which homeless people must meet in order to be provided with welfare services and primary care. The paper shows that despite being aware of differing viewpoints by their engagement in such debates, social workers are reluctant to challenge the dominant conceptualizations underlying their own day-to-day practices, and that this impacts on the potential to induce local policymakers to take further action with regard to reducing homelessness.     

创新和持续发展之路——评《学习型税务组织创建模式研究》

自党的十六大提出“形成全民学习、终身学习的学习型社会,促进人的全面发展”以来,全国各地兴起了一股创建学习型社会、学习型组织的热潮,广州市地方税务局正是这股潮浪中一颗耀眼的浪花。该局自1999年2月独立运作始,已萌生了创建学习型组织的意识,之后,通过几年的努力,把创建学习型组织的活动推向了理性自觉的阶段,成为全国各地创建学习型组织活动的先行者。《学习型税务组织创建模式研究》一书(广东经济出版社2004年2月出版)通过对广州地税局创建学习型组织的过程、经验以及模式进行总结和研究,向广大读者,特别是政府部门提供了创建学习型…