‘Globalisation’, Governance and social work: Some implications for theory and practice

Abstract

This article focuses cautiously on the implications of ‘globalisation’ for social work theory and practice. In drawing on recent debates it is argued that, despite its contested meaning, ‘globalisation’ points to a range of rapid and fundamental socioeconomic and political transformations that have impacted upon entire regions of the work. Some of these transformations are identified and analysed in terms of their consequences for transnational, national and local populations. It is proposed that the prevailing consequences of globalisation in terms of social inequality and allied modalities of governance are negative, and that this has important implications for the profession of social work. Effective strategies for confronting the challenges posed by ‘turbo capitalism’ may be found in alliances across global social movements and professional groups, including social workers. The challenges are profound.     

Imaginaries of postponed arrival: on seeing ‘society’ and its ‘immigrants’

This paper discusses a logic of seeing in official assessments of the ‘integration of immigrants’ in West European societies and interprets these as arrival narratives. In postcolonial and diasporic literature, the arrival narrative is not concerned with the actual date of arrival but with the question ‘how much has someone really arrived?’ (Quayson, A. 2013. Postcolonialism and the diasporic imaginary. Lecture series: New directions in literary postcolonial studies. Utrecht University, 7 Oct.). The official, state-initiated monitoring of immigrant integration is based upon measurements of the degree to which the population classified as ‘immigrant’ is ‘integrated’ in a ‘host society’. In literary terms, this can be interpreted as a narrative in which a personage – classified in highly specific, contingent ways, as ‘immigrant’ – is portrayed as being in a mode of arriving but without having arrived and without ever really arriving. The way in which this narrative of postponed arrival is shaped involves a specific way of seeing in the routinized work of quantitatively assessing immigrant integration. With the narratological concept of focalization we analyse a logic of seeing present in the reports and images of immigrant integration monitoring practices in the Netherlands. Moreover, we discuss the workings of a societal gaze, instituted on the basis of particular societal norms reproduced at the ‘place of arrival’, that is, the place imagined as ‘society’. This societal gaze operates as a performative practice distributing a way of seeing, thereby enacting the reproduction of existing power asymmetries between ‘members of society’ and ‘immigrants’. As such, we conclude, the hope for ‘arrival’ constitutes a form of ‘cruel optimism’ (Berlant, L., 2011. Cruel optimism. Durham: Duke University Press).     

Pyramid schemes and programmatic management: Critical reflections on the ‘guru industry’

This paper offers a critical review of the ‘guru industry’. Analysing its orientations and its related attempts to engage practitioners in a programme of re‐education designed to off‐set the excesses of guru theorising, this papers argues that the educational agenda so produced is simultaneously elitist, depoliticised and out of step with recent analytical developments. Reviewing accounts of consulting which highlight the interpretative flexibility of guru theorising, we will suggest that calls for practitioner re‐education remain deadlocked in a paradigm, which fails to acknowledge the local editing and translation of consulting products. In an attempt to break out of this limiting framework the paper suggests the need for an account of consultancy at work designed to acknowledge: a) workplace politics, b) the complexities of consumption, and c) the externalities associated with the production of a management education designed to reflect the orientations of an élite organizational cadre.     

Arts policy and practice for disabled children and young people: towards a ‘practice spectrum’ approach

This article argues for an approach to the evaluation of arts policy and practice for disabled children and young people that goes beyond the dialogic antagonism between Disability Arts and community arts, and towards a ‘practice spectrum’. Little is known about the extent to which a Disability Arts perspective has extended into arts policy and practice for disabled children and young people. The article aims to redress this knowledge gap. It is based upon two sets of data collected in relation to the East Midlands region of England during 2014. First, a critical evaluation was conducted of official and institutional attitudes to arts practice with disabled children and young people. Second, interviews exploring contemporary practice were conducted with 24 arts organisations. Their practice represents a diverse range of art forms and programmes undertaken in the region, and a range of attitudes and positions taken towards disabled children and young people. We argue that the best way to conceive of current practice is as a spectrum, as opposed to an antagonism between community arts and Disability Arts perspectives. There is, however, little evidence of the penetration of a Disability Arts perspective into policy and practice for children and young people.     

‘How can a chord be weird if it expresses your soul?’ Some critical reflections on the diagnosis of Aspergers syndrome

This paper questions the way in which the diagnosis of Aspergers syndrome has come to be widely accepted and used as an essentially medical category. It does so by drawing upon sociological and historical analyses of society, psychiatry and psychology, as well as the writings of service users, other practitioners in the autistic spectrum disorder field and the author's own clinical experience. It is argued that the seeming popularity of this label within Western society may have as much to do with widespread social and cultural change during recent decades as with the supposed deficits of those who attract the diagnosis. The aims are to ask what this might mean for health and social care practice in this field and to encourage the growth of theories and approaches that are grounded more firmly in an awareness of the social environment, while also reflecting the varied experiences and standpoints of people who carry this label.     

On confident men and rational women: It’s all on your mind(set)

We tested the hypothesis that inducing the deliberative and the implemental mindset differently affects judgment and decision making. More specifically, we explored mindset effects on decision makers’ confidence ratings, risk preferences, and susceptibility to anchoring effects. As earlier research on mindsets showed that individual differences sometimes moderate mindset effects, we also tested for interaction effects of mindset and gender. For confidence ratings, we found a main effect of mindset and a main effect of gender. For risk preferences and anchoring effects, mindset interacted with gender. When being in an implemental mindset, the judgments of female decision makers came closer to their actual performance compared to being in a deliberative mindset where they were observed as underconfident. Male decision makers were already overconfident in the deliberative mindset and showed even more overconfidence when being in an implemental mindset. Concerning risk attitudes it was found that female decision makers were more prone to choose the less risky, but also less profitable option (in terms of expected payoffs) when they were in the deliberative compared to the implemental mindset. For men the opposite effects were observed. When investigating anchoring effects, male but not female participants’ judgments were influenced by mindset: In an implemental mindset, male participants followed an irrelevant anchor more strongly (i.e., made more anchor-consistent judgments) compared to being in a deliberative mindset.     

The coping model: what is it and what might be its implications for social work practice?

This article examines whether a coping model developed as a framework for analysis of research interviews is useful in social work practice. The coping model emerged from a study involving qualitative interviews with social service clients in Norway, designed to explore how they coped with challenges in everyday lives, both on an individual level and in interacting with their environment. The model emerged from preliminary analysis and was then used in further analysis of the interview data. The study showed that the informants experienced two major challenges: (1) Unemployment and (2) living with a shortage of money over time, even though their life situations were heterogeneous. Some informants experienced potent coping strategies in finding employment and became independent of social services. Other informants experienced shortages in their capacities for work and continued to be dependent on allowances. They used their coping resources to achieve more meaningful life situations without employment. The coping model represents how coping is understood theoretically in the study and the present paper considers the model's relevance and implications for social work practice itself.     

‘Lost in transition?’ – Newly educated social workers’ reflections on their first months in practice

Entering the work of world can involve significant challenges for the beginning practitioner. The transition process from university to work can play an important role in the emerging practitioner’s development as a social worker. The present longitudinal study follows 12 Swedish social work graduates from university and over their first four years in practice. The study provides an insight into how newly educated practitioners may experience the transition from university to the world of work and considers how they can be prepared and supported to meet the challenges of practice within contemporary work contexts. The students were first interviewed just prior to leaving university [see Tham &; Lynch (2014). Prepared for practice? Graduating social work students’ reflections on their education, competence and skills. Social Work Education, 33(6), 704–717]. This paper captures the reflections of these students after four months in practice. Feelings of unpreparedness, unorganised, or even ‘chaotic’ perceptions of the workplace and uncertainty about the future were emergent themes, particularly among new practitioners employed in social services. The findings illustrate the vulnerability of these new practitioners and the importance of workplace induction and the provision of adequate support in their new professional roles.     

Neither an offender nor a ‘free’ person: Drug supervision and desistance in Singapore

In 2019, the Misuse of Dugs Act, the main legislative instrument in combatting drug offences in Singapore, underwent a landmark amendment where it strove to strike a balance between subjecting persistent drug offenders to long-term imprisonment and enhancing the reintegration potential of those offenders whom the state considered as ‘pure abusers’ without a penal charge. While this risk-differentiated approach could be seen as progressive and moving away from the harsh response that has had traditionally characterised the Singapore state's treatment of persistent drug abusers, this article contends that extending the maximum period of drug supervision from two to 5 years, which the amendments called for, of even pure abusers upon their completion of the detention order, hinder efforts at desistance. This article focuses specifically on the contradictions of the urine testing regime post-release and seeks to contextualise its counter effects on the various dimensions of desistance among recovering drug abusers.     

‘Trial by fire’: forms of impairment disclosure and implications for disability identity

This article examines the ways in which people living with non-apparent impairments, sometimes called ‘invisible disabilities,’ choose to disclose their impairments to friends, colleagues, and supervisors. Drawing on life-history narratives conducted with 12 men and women who acquired non-apparent impairment through accident, injury, or illness, this analysis demonstrates that people who have acquired non-apparent impairment use three primary forms of disclosure – confessional, pragmatic, and validating – serving as mechanisms by which individuals internalize the stigma associated with disability, pragmatically acquire accommodations, or resist and challenge ableist views. This analysis shows the ways that disclosure more broadly, and these forms specifically, play important roles in developing and negotiating disability identity.     

‘What you need to do is …’: social work students’ reflections on an advice giving audit exercise

This paper reports on qualitative research investigating the advice giving behaviours of social work students. Second-year students, who were enrolled in an interpersonal communication skills course, were required to undertake an ‘advice-giving audit’ exercise across 6 days, with the aim of strengthening their awareness of the interactive nature of advice giving. Students then wrote a diary entry about the frequency of their everyday advice giving behaviour, its intent and reception. Nineteen students provided these reflections for analysis. Findings included three themes pertaining to advice-giving: (i) Giving advice as a natural, comfortable and unconscious way of communicating; (ii) Power and position influences advice dissemination, and (iii) Withholding advice opens, deepens and confuses norms of communication. A fourth theme pertained to the insights that students reported from engaging with the exercise. These findings illustrate the complex interactional process associated with professional advice giving. The research also suggests that experiential activities, which are conducted outside of the classroom, have significant potential to promote the critical examination of embedded communicative practices.     

The particularity of the universal: critical reflections on Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power and the state

A critical review of Bourdieu’s theory of the state is developed here against the backdrop of both his wider theoretical project and empirical studies. Elaborating the concepts of symbolic capital, symbolic violence, and symbolic domination, the centrality that Bourdieu accords to symbolic forms is compared to benchmark Weberian accounts that start with the state monopoly of violence. Reviewing also some of the burgeoning secondary literature discussing his theory of the state, Bourdieu’s writings, which encompass various antinomies, are shown to vacillate between two distinct perspectives—a strong and a weak theory of the state. His rejection of the “physicalist” approaches of Marx, Elias, and Tilly is elaborated and subject to a counter-critique, particularly in relation to the notion of symbolic “violence.” Bourdieu’s account of the state is shown to be as much a political as theoretical intervention. His antagonism towards Marxist accounts in particular is shown to be rooted in a pragmatic interest in the role of the “left hand of the state” in progressive reform; and this perspective is traced back to the twin influences of Durkheim and Hegel, French republicanism, and in particular the potential of the state to express a universal interest. At the same time, compared with sophisticated Marxist and Weberian accounts and the work of Norbert Elias and Gramsci, Bourdieu’s theory is shown to be severely lacking in the way that he deals with violence and coercion. His “expanded materialism,” particularly with the “strong theory,” bends the stick too far and overplays the symbolic basis of consent. Nevertheless, Bourdieu’s insights with regard to the pervasive influences of state practices of classification, taxonomy, delegation, and naming are shown to have real utility with regard to focused empirical investigations of the state in modern societies.     

Social work ‘logged on’: contemporary dilemmas in an evolving ‘techno-habitat’

Information and communication technologies have become an integral part of daily life. This article explores the impact of the social networking site, Facebook, e-mail and text messaging for social workers in the Republic of Ireland. The study is small-scale and the findings, derived from a number of research interviews with practitioners and a survey of social work students, cannot be regarded as representative. However, the findings illuminate key dilemmas which are becoming apparent in social work’s evolving ‘techno-habitat’ and these are likely to be replicated, to different degrees, elsewhere in Europe.     

‘Racism’, intersectionality and migration studies: framing some theoretical reflections

The concept of ‘racism’ has faced many difficulties in migration studies. Depending on definitions, islamophobia is a form either of religious discrimination or of racism. The same is true in contemporary debates in Europe about xenophobia against immigrants from the Global South. This article provides an alternative way of thinking about racism and its relationship with questions of intersectionality and discusses the relationship of these issues to migration theory. In the first part, we discuss intersectionality in relation to Fanon’s definition of racism. Then, we establish a dialogue between the work of de Sousa Santos and Fanon that could enrich our understanding of intersectionality in the framework of modernity and the capitalist/imperial/patriarchal/racial colonial world-system. Finally, we analyse this discussion’s implications for migration theory, highlighting how migration studies tend to reproduce a northern-centric social science view of the world that comes from the experience of others in the zone of being.     

Putting ‘glamour’ back into practice thinking: Implications for social and community development work

Abstract

There have been many calls for social work to renew its commitment to practice. This article argues for an old-fashioned, yet curiously postmodern social work practice, based on integrative thinking. Integrative thinking and inquiry are defined and grounded on the premises of reflexive thinking, practice wisdom and humanistic thinking. Characteristics of integrative thinking are discussed. Principles for its application to rural practice and community development work are offered.     

‘You care for your work; I'll care for your family’: perceptions of paternalistic managerial actions and employee commitment in Mexico

This study focuses on paternalism as a managerial strategy to foster employee commitment. Using in-depth, qualitative interviews during extended fieldwork at a Mexican multinational company, I examine employee perceptions of managerial actions within the context of workplace transformation. Employees perceived management as caring toward them and their families and characterized the workplace as a considerate and respectful environment. Employees interpreted managerial actions positively because a company cooperative provided family-supportive policies and cultivated a family-supportive culture, even after workplace transformation. Rather than disrupt the paternalistic practices, management combined them with the new strategic management practices. In exchange, employees were committed to the organization as evidenced by expressions of loyalty, pride, and appreciation. With its focus on how a specific family-supportive setting matters in the global south, this study extends the research on managerial strategies to promote employee commitment.     

‘Sitting on the Mourning Bench’: Mental Health Workers and an Elderly Client

Abstract

The present article documents the experience of a first year social work student on fieldwork placement in an Aged Persons Mental Health Service. The student was part of a team providing service to a long-term client of the service when he was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. The student's compassionate response to the client raises questions about grief and professionalism, which she explored through a journal and in discussion with her supervisor and other team members working with the client. As part of their reflective practice, the student, her supervisor and the client's mental health workers formed a collective to document their experience and present a staff education session. This article is the outcome of these processes and explores important grief issues in Aged Psychiatry and demonstrates the valuable contribution made by a student to the work of the team in the rich learning environment of a fieldwork placement in aged psychiatry. It is published with the kind permission of the client's next of kin.     

Constructing the ‘ideal’ family for family‐centred practice: challenges for delivery

Family‐centred practice positions families as the key decision‐makers, central to and experts in the wants and needs of their child. This paper discusses how families interviewed for a Western Australian study describe their relationships with a range of allied health professionals in the paediatric disability sector. The allied health professionals, in turn, describe how they characterize the role of families caring for children with disabilities. We argue that the successful implementation of family‐ centred principles in service delivery need to move beyond the individualizing of responsibility and acknowledge the structural and systemic limits to family‐centred practice, as well as the social complexity within which diverse families live.     

Intercultural education through a bilingual children’s rights project: reflections on its possibilities and challenges with young learners

Despite the growing importance of intercultural education, literature is still lacking in related research with young learners. This study reports on a yearlong university–school collaborative research project that aimed to promote students’ intercultural competence and critical bi-literacy skills through their exploration of the issue of children’s rights. Grounded in the critical perspectives of intercultural pedagogy and dynamic bi-/multilingualism, the two collaborating Grade 3 teachers engaged their students in critical inquiry of children’s rights in both English and French. Through a range of hybrid translanguage literacy practices and experiential learning activities, students came to understand what children’s rights are and appreciate the importance of solidarity, equity, and compassion. Apart from highlighting some activities developed during this project and the impact of the activities on student participants, the study also attempts to critically reflect on some of the challenges in conducting intercultural education with young learners, in particular their emergent but conflicted understanding of other cultures. Further, the study speaks to the issue of how such an important education can be practiced in a non-reductionist and non-simplistic manner yet still be accessible to young learners.