Who owns the trauma? A Kleinian perspective on the dialogue between child protection social workers and the media

The present paper makes use of the developmental model of movement between mental positions that was formulated by psychoanalyst Melanie Klein, aimed at understanding the dialogue that takes place between the media and social workers in the field of child welfare, centring around incidents of murder within the family. The basic concept in the paper is that when working with children who are victims of abuse and with their parents, and when reporting on them as well, the feeling of personal control is severely undermined, being associated with the loss of the hallowed social value known as ‘unconditional love of a parent for his child’. The paper illustrates these theoretical ideas by describing two cases that took place in Israel and recommendations are made regarding ways of promoting the dialogue between the professions.     

A Thesis on the “National Security Dilemma” and Its Transcendence

To a great degree, the development ofthe current international system has provedthat provided an anarchic state exists, the“national security dilemma” is an unavoid-able reality. In the context of this dilemma,the rise of a big power in the internationalarena always leads to fierce competition fornational security, even culminating in theoutbreak of war. Hence it is natural for real-ist Western scholars of international relationsto speculate that the dramatic growth ofChina’s comprehensive …     

“Sleep is on the back burner”: Working students and sleep

The current study examines on a potential high-risk sleep loss population: working students at a metropolitan university in a mid-sized Midwestern city in the United States. Open-ended interviews with nineteen working university students provide insight into their beliefs and behaviors regarding how they think about and “do” work, attend university and sleep. Sleep diaries provide information on perceived sleep duration, latency and quality. While students value sleep and recognize the connection between sleep loss and ill health, they accept tiredness as “normal” for their situation. For many students sleep is the one demand that can be “put off”, in the struggle to balance work, school and family demands, “until the bill comes due” when they fall ill. Exchanging sleep loss for educational progress is explored through “health capital” as part of a human capital conceptual framework.     

Reflections on the Proposition That “Literary Consciousness Arose in the Wei and Jin Dy-nasties”

日本学者铃木虎雄首倡的“魏晋文学自觉说”并不是一个科学的论断,而鲁迅先生接受这一说法本是一种有感而发,虽然具有一定的学术启发性,但是不能把它上升为一种文学史规律性的理论判断。“汉代文学自觉说”是对“魏晋文学自觉说”的一个有力挑战,从汉魏以来“功利主义”与“文学自觉”、汉人的“个体意识”与抒情文学的关系来看,促进汉魏以来中国中古文学发展变化的根本原因是秦汉社会制度的变革、文人阶层的出现及其特殊的文化心态,以及他们对于文学的基本态度。以此为基础,可以清晰地看到从汉到唐的中国文学的演变轨迹。“魏晋文学自觉说”不能全面地描述中国中古文学的发展过程,它影响了我们对于中国文学发展规律和本质特征的认识,因而在中国中古文学研究中不适宜使用“文学自觉”这一概念。     

Revisiting the ‘feminisation of poverty’ in Korea: focused on time use and time poverty

This study aims to analyse the feminisation of poverty in Korea focusing on time use and time poverty. Time conditions are compared for the categories of poor and non-poor men, and poor and non-poor women. Inequality in between-group and within-group working time is analysed through the Theil Index Decomposition. The analysis results reveal that women experience multiple poverties in the process of working long hours to ensure household survival. This phenomenon is more serious in the case of poor female household members. There are also high levels of inequality in unpaid work, which is mostly carried out by women.     

Some considerations on the debate on social work in China: who speaks for whom?

In this article I persist with my argument that indigenous, local, culturally relevant practice ought to trump the external imposition of social work definitions, standards and professional models. The challenge, however, is not to fall prey to false dichotomies. Importantly, social work in China is not static but emergent, and no‐one is sure of the exact shape it will take. And the essential question is to what extent will Western knowledge and standards be uncritically appropriated into China? Most contributors to the debate thus far have taken the international definition of social work as their starting point, but far more significant are the political dimensions involved in this process of indigenisation. This article proposes that empirical evidence from within China regarding culturally appropriate, effective local responses – and some clear benchmarks for international engagement – should form the basis for dialogue between China and the broader social work community.     

Reflections on 9/11: Vulnerability and strength in the “new world order”

One year after the tragedy and horror of the events of September 11, 2001, many still struggle to understand their meaning and long‐term impact. This article provides a brief overview of critical stress debriefings and describes the author's work offering disaster mental health services to survivors of the World Trade Center attacks in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 disaster. The essay considers gaps in mental health services and the toll that such relief work can take on mental health responders. Implications for healing are considered in the context of the government's crackdown on civil liberties and its plans for war with Iraq.     

“Moved on”? An exploratory study of the Cashless Debit Card and Indigenous mobility

What is the relationship between the first two trials of the Cashless Debit Card (CDC) and Indigenous mobility? In Ceduna, Vincent conducted ethnographic research into lived experiences of the first CDC trial. In the East Kimberley, Klein conducted 51 structured interviews with people on the card and 37 semi-structured interviews with key informants. Markham used regression analysis of net migration rates at the Statistical Area 2 level to determine whether the CDC trial sites were associated with greater net population loss in 2016 census data than comparable locations. Our exploratory study finds significant local talk of displacement arising from the introduction of the CDC, as well as discussion of short-term trips away from the trial sites being made more difficult. The regression analysis found that the net migration rate was 9.3 per cent points (95% CI: 2.0, 16.5) lower in Ceduna, Wyndham and Kununurra when compared with a group of comparable towns, and 5.2 per cent points (95% CI: 0.9, 9.5) lower when compared with Australia as a whole, meaning that the populations of these towns declined faster than those of comparable towns. Policy effects on mobility should be taken seriously by researchers and policymakers when considering place-based welfare policy.     

What changes during specialized foster care? A study on adaptive functioning and emotional and social problems

Various models of specialized foster care have been developed, but research on them is limited. This longitudinal, exploratory study analysed data on adaptive functioning, emotional and social problems and self-concept in a specialized foster care service in Sweden. The focus of the study was on the development of the children and young people in placement. The Adaptive Behaviour Assessment System (ABAS-II) was used to measure adaptive functioning, and the Beck Youth Inventories of Emotional and Social Impairment (BYI) was used to measure self-rated emotional and social problems and self-concept. Self-ratings showed significant improvements in disruptive behaviour, anger, anxiety and depression. Adaptive functioning as rated by foster parents improved but not enough to catch up with the non-clinical norm group. The average adaptive functioning among the participants at baseline was considerably below the Swedish norm group. Similar to the results of a previous study of the same treatment model, children and young people rated improvement while their foster parents did not do so to the same extent. Possible explanations for this are discussed in the paper. The study is limited by the lack of a control group and by data attrition.     

What do we know about the social networks of single parents who do not use supportive services?

The role that social support and social networks play in mediating isolation and stress experienced by vulnerable families is well established. However, a major issue facing supportive human services is to find and engage families with limited social networks and link them to supports that could improve outcomes for their families. This paper reports on the results of in‐depth interviews with 20 sole parents with children aged under 5 who were not well connected to services. It documents their social networks with the use of a social network map. Using a social capital lens, the analysis attempts to differentiate the different relationships in the participants' lives. Most participants were not satisfied with their informal networks, with conflicted or ambivalent reliance on family, absence of support and community engagement and fragility of informal networks. Although this group of isolated mothers does encounter the formal service system, the opportunities to increase and strengthen their networks do not eventuate. Better understanding of the nature and extent of social networks can inform practitioners and policy‐makers of the critical factors needed to increase service use for parents with limited resources.     

The Forerunner of the Yellow Turban Uprising and Its Relationship with Shamanism and Primitive Daoism─Also on “Yellow Turban”and “Yellow God Yuezhang”

TheoriginofDaoismisacomplicatedproblem.Muchhasbeenwrittenonit.Withthehelpofunearthedancientrelics,thisarticleexaminestheproblemfromaparticularperspective,namelytherelationshipofprimitiveDaoismduringtheEasternHandynastytotheshamans(wu)andshamanism(wushu)popularatthetime.OnecannotdenytheinfluenceofbookssuchasTaipingqinglingshu,Taipingjing,andothersupontheformationofprimitiveDaoism.Butthesebooksonlyreflectthethoughtoftherulers,fundamentallydifferentfromtheprimitiveDaoismthatstenunedfromthepeo…     

The Bruce Report and social welfare leadership in the politics of Toronto’s “Slums”, 1934–1939

Slum clearance and rebuilding first became a serious political project in Toronto during the 1930s. Following the release of a systematic housing survey known as the Bruce Report (1934), a set of actors distinguished by their planning authority with respect to social agencies, influence over social work education, coordination of social research, and role as spokespersons of religious bodies inaugurated a political struggle over state power. While the campaign failed, it called forth a reaction from established authorities and reconfigured the local political field as it related to low-income housing. This article gives an account of these processes by drawing upon correspondence and minutes of meetings of city officials and the campaign’s organizers, newspaper clippings, and published materials.     

Why do tenants leave social housing? Exploring residential and social mobility at the lowest rungs of Australia's socioeconomic ladder

Historically, social housing in Australia operated as a springboard for social mobility. For many working families, public housing tenancy was an opportunity to save for a house purchase deposit. Latterly, tenant exits from public to private housing have declined to very low levels. This has raised concerns about systemic barriers to residential and social mobility for social renters, and about the consequent longer waiting times for applicants in need of social housing. Drawing on administrative data collected by social housing providers in NSW and Victoria, and in‐depth interviews with 95 former and current social housing tenants in both states, this paper examines tenant attitudes, intentions and motivations as regards future house‐moves. We argue that the primary disincentives to exit relate to affordability and security of tenure in private rental, rather than factors related to the social housing system itself.     

“Work Units” and the Commodification of Housing: Observations on the Transition to a Market Economy with Chinese Characteristics

Housin9Reforms:AWindowontheTransitiontoaMarketEconomvThe"workunits"phenomenonherereferstoworkers'dependenceontheirworkplaceorganizationstlnderaplannedeconomy(Walder,l986,l992;Bian,l994).Beforethereforms,urbanhousinginChina,whichwasbuiltbythestateandalloca…     

“Species Philosophy”and the Modernization of Man

Ａｒｅ ｅｘａｍｉｎａｔｉｏｎｏｆｔｈｅｍｏｄｅｒｎｉｚａｔｉｏｎｐｒｏｃｅｓｓｏｆｍａｎｆｒｏｍｔｈｅｐｅｒｓｐｅｃ ｔｉｖｅｏｆ“ｓｐｅｃｉｅｓｐｈｉｌｏｓｏｐｈｙ”ｌｅａｄｓｕｓｔｏｔｈｅｃｏｎｃｌｕｓｉｏｎｔｈａｔｓｐｅｃｉｅｓｐｈｉｌｏｓｏｐｈｙｃａｎｐｒｏｖｉｄｅｕｓｗｉｔｈｐａｒｔｉｃｕｌａｒｓｔａｎｄａｒｄｓａｎｄａｓｙｓｔｅｍｏｆｖａｌｕｅｃｏｏｒｄｉｎａｔｅｓｔｈａｔｗｉｌｌｈｅｌｐｕｓｒｅｄｅｆｉｎｅｔｈｅｓｉｇｎｉｆｉｃａｎｃｅｏｆｔｈｅｃｏｎｄｉｔｉｏｎｓｆｏｒｍａｎ ｓ…     

A Sociological Report on the Present Conditions of the “New Group of the Unemployed”

The fixed pattern of thought in stud- ies on laid-off workers and unemployment over recent years is that in talking about this problem people tend to refer only to laid-off workers from state-owned enterprises, or at most include those from enterprises that were originally collectively owned. However, there exists in our society another huge group of the unemployed, known as the “new group of the unemployed,” which has received little attention. For the members of this group we lack not only…