Is Social Work a 'Non-Traditional' Occupation for Men?

Correspondence to Alastair Christie, Department of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork, Cork. Email: A.Christie{at}ucc.ie Summary The European Commission and the Equal Opportunities Commissionhave called for the increased employment of men in occupations,such as social work, where men are numerically under-represented.In Britain, men's employment in social work is contentious but,as yet, little discussed. This article draws on Williams' (1993,1995) concept of ‘non-traditional occupations for men’to explore the positions of men in social work. It focuses inparticular on continuities and dissonances between dominantconstructions of men's gender and professional social work identities.These are discussed in relation to particular areas of practiceand an agenda for further investigation is considered.     

Considering the Countryside: Is There a Case for Rural Social Work?

Correspondence to Dr Richard Pugh, School of Social Relations, University of Keele, Keele, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK. Email: spa08{at}keele.ac.uk Summary Most British social work literature is written with the implicitassumption of an urban context, but large numbers of peoplestill live in comparatively rural settings. Rural social workremains a largely unrecognized dimension of practice, receivinglittle attention beyond the reportage of individual projectsor initiatives. This paper considers whether it is a sufficientlydistinctive area of practice to warrant specific consideration.It concludes that it is an under-researched aspect of practicewithin the UK which merits particular attention and identifiessome areas for future development.     

Non-Statutory Mental Health Social Work in Primary Care: A Chance for Renewal?

Correspondence to Malcolm T. Firth, Honorary Research Fellow & Senior Psychiatric Social Worker, 'DEAL', Department of Psychiatric Social Work, 12th Floor, Mathematics Building, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. E-mail: malcolm.firth{at}mhsc.manchester.nhs.uk Summary The current status of evidence-based practice in the field ofmental health has led some to question the potential for innovationif social work practice is organizationally proscribed or reducedto a dogged adherence to methodological orthodoxy. Conversely,social work's value base is esteemed disproportionately to itsevidence base. Changing service contexts in the UK, particularlythe emergence of Primary Care Trusts as gatekeepers and commissionersof health and social care services, are providing opportunitiesfor social work to develop a new presence and purpose. The authorsdescribe their work in a small-scale service based in primarycare that anticipated these opportunities, by a retrospectivestudy of 120 cases. A new evidence base that derives directlyfrom practice is suggested as a way forward for social workeducation and training, as well as for service and professionaldevelopment.     

Regulation or fragmentation? Directions for Social Work under New Labour

Summary This article reviews the modernizing agenda of New Labour forsocial work which has been articulated in the various changesfor social work and social care announced in the ‘QualityStrategy’. Focusing predominantly on arrangements foreducation and training, the article argues that, rather thanpresenting a coherent strategy, the structures and proceduresare fragmented and unco-ordinated at many levels. A major weaknessis that New Labour has failed to clarify where it places socialwork in the structures of a ‘modernized’ welfarestate.     

Sing … Then Think: Musical Interventions and Nondeliberative Forms of Practice in Social Work Groups

ABSTRACT

The positive effects of music have been demonstrated worldwide in many fields including social work, psychology, medicine, and education. Musical interventions including music listening, lyric analysis, and singing have also been found effective in group work. This article, guided by Norma Lang’s nondeliberative theory, aims to provide the “why,” “when,” and “how” of incorporating music into social work groups. It also provides the reader with a toolbox of musical interventions and the encouragement to utilize these “artful, actional, and analogic” activities in group work.     

Emancipatory Social Work? Opportunity or Oxymoron

Correspondence to Department of Social Work, Exeter University, St Luke’s Campus, Heavitee Rd., Exeter EX1 2LU. E-mail: w.j.o.jordan{at}exeter.ac.uk Summary This paper explores the extent to which social work can be saidto have espoused a consistent and distinctive set of principlesand values, particularly against the background of adaptationto the changing ideological agendas of government over the past25 years. Against the context of globalization, it traces aquickening pace of individual rather than collective progressas the touchstone of public policy, with an increasing relianceon coercive measures to discipline those who fail to make thenecessary or successful efforts on their own behalf. Socialwork's roots in nineteenthcentury individualism leaves it particularlyvulnerable to co-option into this agenda but, the paper argues,approaches which pay lip-service to autonomy, choice and empowerment,which actually deal in rationing, risk assessment and enforcement,will end in frustration and failure. A way forward exists ina renewed emphasis upon the social dimension of problems andtheir resolution, together with a re-investment by social workersin the notions of membership, mutuality and democratic solidaritythrough which individual well-being can be negotiated.     

Professional Values and Ethics in Social Work: Reconsidering Postmodernism?

Correspondence to Professor Richard Hugman, School of Social Work, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. E-mail: r.hugman{at}unsw.edu.au Summary The ‘postmodern turn’ in social theory has raisedquestions for understanding the social world. The implicationsof these debates for social work values and ethics are the centralfocus of this article. The implications of a postmodern viewof social work are examined and compared with criticisms ofpostmodern theory. It is argued that a critical considerationof postmodern insights may assist social work to examine thediverse, provisional and uncertain nature of all aspects ofour world, including knowledge and skills, values and ethics.Such an approach strengthens the case for a discursive modelof ethics.     

A New Social Service Professionalism? The Development of Social Work Theory in Germany

This paper examines the developments in German social work theory from the 1970s to the 1990s. It starts with an analysis of socio-economic relations which have given rise to a division of society as well as a consumerist approach of service orientation for the social services which presents a challenge both for social work theory and professional practice.
Against this background, major themes in the development of social work theory are identified. The authors observe a trend towards a greater recognition of the individual and her or his life-world. Although presented in the ideological context of neoliberalism, they argue that the core of the consumerist approach of service orientation– the privileging of the consumer – provides a basis for a paradigm shift in social work theory which will be an adequate response to reflexive modernization of society if taken out of the consumerist context and reformulated for the public services.
In the final section of the paper the authors present an outline of a theory of ldquo;social work as service as a professional mode of action in the public sector of social service provision. It starts from a conceptual analysis of the service relation, examines the structural elements of the service context and discusses the necessary societal conditions. It is the thesis of the paper that the dialectical relationship of professional and service user represented in the conceptualization of social work as service will be the foundation for a new professionalism.     

Down Syndrome and Alzheimer’s Disease: Issues and Implications for Social Work Practice

Owing to recent medical advancements, people with Down Syndrome (DS) are now able to live considerably longer lives and thus experience a variety of complex issues as they age. Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) frequently occurs in older adults who have DS, but few practice guidelines exist to inform social work practice with older adults who have this dual diagnosis. This commentary will highlight the connection between these two conditions within a neurobiological framework and discuss implications for practice based on the available literature on this intersection of ability status, cognitive status, and age.     

Today's Studies,Tomorrow's Meta-Analyses: Implications for Evidence Informed Decision–Making in Social Work

ABSTRACT

Meta-analyses play an important role in understanding aspects of human functioning and program effectiveness. Meta-analyses also inform practice and policy decision making in areas of interest to social work. This study examined the degree to which recent quantitative reports in top social work journals are eligible for inclusion in future meta-analytic studies based on method rigor. The results suggest a mixed picture. Articles in top social work journals typically present sufficient information on participant characteristics, p values, and Mean values, yet they often fail to present sufficient information on variance indicators or the precise numbers of participants, which limits the ability to calculate effect sizes. Furthermore, less than 10% of the reports utilized randomized experimental designs or tested for group equivalence. To enhance social work's ability to make evidence-based decisions by producing more meta-analyses, researchers should provide more detail in study reports and use stronger research designs.     

Is Research Utilization for Social Workers?

Analysis of articles in Social Work and four journals of other fields suggests that social work lacks a strong research tradition. Most authors cited in Social Work articles are not social workers. Social Work ranks last among the journals in the proportion of articles that report research. Possible causes of the profession's weak research orientation include frequent shifts of intellectual emphasis, stronger orientations to people than to ideas, careers not requiring attention to research, and restrictive agency policies. Research utilization might increase if the profession concentrated on developing an indigenous research tradition and relied less on outsiders for its knowledge.     

Innovation Awareness and Social Responsibility in Social Science Studies: A Survey of the Symposium on Social Sciences and Social Problems in Contemporary China

Since adopting a policy of reform and opening, Chinese society has seen tremendous changes. What opportunities does this social reality bring to social science? How may to social science serve it? Studying these     

Smith College School for Social Work and Combat‐Related Trauma: Allegiance,Scholarship, and Commitment

The Smith College School for Social Work (SCSSW) was founded for the purpose of treating soldiers returning from World War I who suffered from shell shock, conditions that are now described as combat‐related trauma. As history evolved, America found itself embroiled in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and contemporary conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. With each conflict clinical social workers have played a pivotal role in the care of active‐duty soldiers and returning veterans. This article explores the School's historical contribution to the treatment of combat‐related trauma through its curriculum, theoretical perspectives, and endorsement of different treatment paradigms over the last century. The earlier decades and Vietnam–era time involvement of the SCSSW in clinical social work practice with service members and their families is of particular interest. Specific recommendations are offered to the School that may benefit those practitioners entering the field of combat‐related trauma.     

Changes in the Form of Knowledge in Social Work: From the 'Social' to the 'Informational'?

This paper examines the changing form of knowledge in socialwork over the past thirty years and its implications for theoryand practice. In particular, it considers the impact of newsystems related to a range of new information and communicationtechnologies (ICTs) and the shift from a narrative to a databaseway of thinking and operating. In doing so, it attempts to identifya series of key challenges and questions which need to be consideredin order to engage with the changes. In particular, it addresseshow far social work is still primarily concerned with subjectsand their social relationships and argues that social work nowoperates less on the terrain of the ‘social’ andmore on the terrain of the ‘informational’. Suchchanges have implications for the relationship between theoryand practice in social work and the nature of ‘social’work itself.     

Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE VI): Who gets back in?

Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere, or commonly known as HOPE VI, under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), has a mission to rebuild severely distressed public housing. In general the goals of HOPE VI projects are to improve severely distressed public housing and to improve the lives of its residents. While evidences around the country either lend support to these goals, or find anomalies, we find severe contradictions in a specific mid-south HOPE VI project. The question investigated is whether one particular HOPE VI project was efficacious in accomplishing these goals or was it deleterious to the residents and to what extent. The study began with straightforward comparisons of the original residents and the residents selected for resettlement in a HOPE VI reconstruction project. The investigation continued with a regression analysis of the factors that were significant in determining if a head of household was accepted for resettlement. The results of this analysis clearly demonstrate that there is a bias in the selection of those individuals accepted for resettlement.     

Social cohesion in rural Australia: Framework for conformity or social justice?

While social cohesion has become a commonly accepted policy goal and framework in many ethnically diverse societies, there is a general concern in some academic literature that it can be a form of governmentality that constructs manageable subjects and communities, represses diversity and distracts attention from the social, political and economic production of inequalities. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in two rural Australian towns with ethnically diverse populations, this article engages with these criticisms of social cohesion while simultaneously asserting that social cohesion is viewed by local practitioners as a desirable objective for both strengthening intercultural community and addressing issues of social justice and inequality. We also aim to bring some needed clarity to relevant debates in the literature in distinguishing between social cohesion discourses used for normative and/or homogenising purposes versus frameworks developed in the academic literature with a concern for social justice and equality among diverse populations.