Unlocking Doors: Providing MSW Programs and Students with Educational “Keys” to Social Justice

ABSTRACT

How can social work educators identify what constitutes social justice as a practice, as a social work stance? How can we teach our students to recognize this stance, to work toward it, to practice it, and to live it? Symbolic interactionist Erving Goffman's concepts of keys and keying, as underscored in his work Frame Analysis, provide useful tools for helping students to recognize the value of social justice within social work educational encounters and to apply this value when they enter the field. The concepts of keys and keying can also help programs to assess and amplify their commitments to social justice.     

Distributive Justice in the Household

Abstract

We analyze the theoretical basis on which wives and husbands evaluate the fairness of the division of household labor. Using distributive justice theory, we argue that evaluations are based on beliefs about equality and equity rules and social comparisons. We developed a number of formal models to account for evaluations of housework fairness and compare these with data from the 1987 National Survey of Families and Households. We find that husbands' evaluations of fairness of the division of household labor are based on more traditional gender-based division of labor as their comparisons tend to be based on comparisons to other men's participation in housework. In contrast, wives' evaluations are based on both gender role norms and the justice principle of marital equality, as they tend to be based on comparisons between their spouse and themselves.     

Nurturing the Seeds of Restorative Justice

Abstract

Communities are looking for community-building responses to the issue of crime. Traditional social and political discourses have presented only two responses to crime, “get tough” or rehabilitate offenders. An alternative view has begun to emerge in community criminal justice discourse and practice. Restorative justice emphasizes the restoration of relationships and community peace that are damaged by the harm of crime, and the repair of these social injuries. This article presents the findings of a pilot study that was conducted to assess a community's openness to restorative justice principles.     

The Two Bridging Functions of Sociology in the House of Intellect

Abstract

The Kantian origins of Rawls' A Theory of Justice and Parsons' systematic sociology are examined. It is suggested that while both Rawls and Parsons were heavily influenced by Kant, their convergent contract doctrines of modern social orders can best be understood as a result of an inherited or a self imposed legalization of Kantian moral philosophy. This inheritance is traced through Maine, Jhering and Weber in the case of Parsons. It is argued that Rawls uses a legalization of Kantian philosophy in order to facilitate his quest for a theory of justice within the confines of liberal democratic theory. Finally it is argued that the legalism in Rawls' and Parsons' work represents a conservative bias with respect to the full potential inherent in Kant and that a revision of the concept of natural law may remedy the bias of legalism.     

Opportunities for Community Organizing in the Realm of Economic Justice and Low Wage Worker Struggles

ABSTRACT

The new upsurge in labor organizing among low-wage workers provides community organizing with opportunities to engage in economic justice struggles. Low-wage workers are organizing in many sectors of the workforce that are difficult to organize. Their issues are part of the larger discourse concerning inequality in the United States. New forms of community organizing are developing in some areas that embrace economic justice issues. However, many of the national networks have yet to become involved in issues of community members in the capacities as workers. Macro social work needs to revisit its origins and forge a new tradition that incorporates the problems that inspired Jane Addams and her contemporaries, the issues of workers and immigrants.     

The Judgments of David Bergelson

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I read the Yiddish author David Bergelson’s statements at his secret trial through the lens of his own earlier fiction about Soviet justice, especially his novel Judgment. I examine Bergelson’s self-fashioning as a Jewish writer and how he uses his own Jewish background as a justification for his failures as a Soviet person. I offer some contextualization of Bergelson’s statements in light of other trials of other writers both before and after 1952, and compare his declaration of love for Yiddish with other, similar expressions. Bergelson does not merely defend himself, he creates a memory about his legacy for the future.     

An analysis of major social obstacles affecting human resource development in Iran

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to analyze the major social obstacles affecting the human resource development (HRD) in Iran. The study population included faculty members in Yazd province, Iran (N = 280, n = 162). A survey and a researcher-made questionnaire were used to collect data. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by using Cronbach’s alpha (0.88) and its validity was approved by a panel of experts. The results indicated that the major social obstacles affecting HRD are ‘an increase in the share of foreigners in the labor market’, ‘frustration of native graduates’ and ‘local brain drain’, respectively. Furthermore, the results of exploratory factor analysis indicated that the most important social obstacles affecting HRD can be summarized into six factors including migration, lack of nativism, inclination towards foreigners, gender imbalance, lack of justice in distribution of resources, and lack of meritocracy. These factors altogether could explain 65.45% of the total variance. In the end, some applied recommendations (such as paying more attention to rural youth, fair distribution of facilities towards urban and rural balance, supporting native elites, preference for employment, and applying indigenous peoples based on meritocracy, creating favorable balance at different levels of academic education, avoiding gender inequality) have been presented.     

What's Fair Is Fair? Role of Justice in Family Labor Allocation Decisions

ABSTRACT

The theoretical basis on which wives and husbands in the United States evaluate the fairness of the division of household labor is explored. Based on distributive justice theory, separate interviews with wives and husbands are conducted to identify and define the household inputs or contributions that are valued as well as the underlying justice principles that guide household labor allocations. The findings suggest considerable variation in the value placed on household chores and the underlying justice principles used when allocating housework. Gendered expectations also play an important role in these allocations.     

From Destruction to Reconciliation

SUMMARY

Daniel Johnson discusses how the application of “restorative justice” in his own life and in the life of the victim of his criminal offense contributed to his personal regeneration and healing for his victim. Mr. Johnson challenges criminal justice policy-makers to create conditions where “restorative justice” can be employed in the broadest sense in order to do what contemporary, punitive, retributive criminal justice systems are largely incapable of doing, that is, facilitate lasting offender rehabilitation and healing for crime victims and communities, and to offer opportunities for victim-offender reconciliations.     

A Strengths Perspective on Caregiving at the End-of-life

Abstract

The most recent version of the Australian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics includes substantial reference to social workers’ professional responsibilities for environmental awareness and advocacy. This article reports on a qualitative study of 20 Australian environmentally-conscious social workers from a variety of fields of practice. The study found that while there was a high level of awareness of the relevance of environmental issues for social work practice, participants reported professional and organisational constraints, which prevented them from aligning their environmental concerns with their professional practice. The findings from this study suggest that proenvironmental views and actions may not yet be accepted as a legitimate aspect of social work practice, despite strong recognition of the links between social justice, human rights, social work, and the environment in the Australian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics.     

Working-class ecology and union politics: a conceptual topology

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that Environmental Labour Studies may benefit from incorporating the perspective of environmental justice. We offer a theorization of working-class ecology as the place where working-class communities live and work, being typically affected by environmental injustice, and of working-class environmentalism as those forms of activism that link labour and environmental struggles around the primacy of reproduction. The paper’s theoretical section draws on a social ethnography of working-class ecology in the case of Taranto, a mono-industrial town in southern Italy, which is experiencing a severe environmental and public-health crisis. We show how environmental justice activism since the early 2000s has allowed the re-framing of union politics along new ways of politicizing the local economy. We conclude by offering a conceptual topology of working-class ecology, which situates different labour organizations (confederal, social/community, and rank-and-file unions) according to their positioning in respect to environmental justice.     

Social Justice and Social Work,A Fierce Urgency: Recommendations for Social Work Social Justice Pedagogy

ABSTRACT

This article addresses the challenge of understanding the meaning and pedagogical application of social justice in social work by presenting and applying the circle of insight framework I created and proposing a social work definition of social justice. In particular, the circle of insight is presented as a tool and a process for critically examining learnings from social justice courses, transforming social justice social work pedagogy, and defining social justice in social work. In the fierce urgency of now, consistent with research findings and the social work profession’s ethical codes and statements, social workers are invited to use the circle of insight process and proposed definition of social justice to engage in social justice–infused social work curricular transformation.     

Social Justice Advocacy Readiness Questionnaire

Summary

Social service providers of consultation, counseling, and education can benefit from determining their social justice awareness, knowledge, and skills to ensure culturally competent practice and to challenge the multiple oppressions facing clients and staff on individual, cultural, and institutional/systemic levels. The Social Justice Advocacy Readiness Questionnaire (SJARQ) provides a means to advocate for social justice with persons of multiple cultural identities, including all sexual orientations and gender identities. The SJARQ instrument contains three areas of self-assessment for social services staff: individual social justice advocacy awareness, comfort, and values; cultural social justice advocacy knowledge; and institutional/systemic social justice advocacy skills.     

A National Survey of Graduate Education in Psychopharmacology: Advancing the Social Work Perspective on Psychiatric Medication

ABSTRACT

Social workers’ unique skills and professional perspective can contribute to improved practices in psychopharmacology, yet it is unclear how social work programs prepare students for this area of practice. This study examined instruction of psychopharmacology through a national Web-based survey of MSW program directors and instructors of psychopharmacology content (n = 171). Nearly two-thirds (63.7%) reported their program integrates psychopharmacology usually into one or two existing courses, whereas 20.5% indicated their program offers a stand-alone course. Lack of faculty expertise and having no room in the current curriculum structure were identified as the top barriers for programs not offering any psychopharmacology content. The profession’s critical, social justice, empowerment, client-centered, and systems perspective appears to ground the teaching of psychopharmacology in social work programs.     

New Technology and the Human Services

Summary

Much has been written about the effects of new technology on the human services and about its possible implications for agencies, practitioners and service users. There is also an important and expanding literature on the implications of new technology for society as a whole, including much which addresses issues of social justice. Until recently, however, there have been only a few attempts to explore the range of issues specifically concerning the relationship between social justice and the human services. My main purpose here is to start to sketch out the parameters of the field of study relating new technology to social justice in the human services and to explore some of them in depth.

Three examples of different definitions of social justice are introduced, viz.; justice as equity; flexible individualised justice; and empowerment. Then normative and ethical considerations in relation to new technology in the human services are briefly reviewed. In the main body of this paper these issues are brought together in relation to three key areas (i) the manager/professional interface (ii) strategies for new technology implementation-top down or bottom up and (iii) the relationship between social worker and service user. Finally some conclusions are drawn about the possibilities for a synthesis between competing visions of social justice.     

Social Work and Social Justice: What Are We Fighting For?

Abstract

A cardinal value of social work practice is social justice. Social justice ranks as the second of five values that underpin the Code of Ethics of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW. However, although social work's commitment to promoting social justice is laudable and, indeed, may even be a distinguishing feature of the profession, precisely what kind of social justice does social work espouse? The answer to this question remains unclear. Views about the nature and scope of social justice stem from broader conceptions of justice that not only differ from, but may also conflict with, each other. Therefore, it is important not only for social work to be clear about the type of social justice that it currently advocates, but also to ensure that it is one that the profession seeks to defend and maximise. It is argued that the choice must be as egalitarian as possible. Indeed, it must be radically so. Otherwise, what is social work fighting for?     

Social Justice as Concept and Practice in Australian Social Work: An Analysis of Norma Parker Addresses, 1969–2008

Abstract

Social justice is central to Australian social work. Principles of social justice underpin the definition of social work as a profession, its code of ethics, and its standards of practice and education. However, there is a dearth of empirical research regarding what social justice has meant to social work over time and how it has been enacted in practice, topical as social inequalities continue to escalate. As a first-stage study, this paper examines how social justice was represented within 19 Norma Parker Addresses delivered by Presidents of the Australian Association of Social Workers at national conferences between 1969 and 2008. Two key themes were evident: social justice as a concept and social justice as social work practice. Social justice was represented conceptually throughout the Addresses as an enduring guiding principle and moral responsibility for social work. How social justice was enacted in practice included themes of: standpoint; practices and strategies; educating social workers; and contested and constrained practice. The meanings and practices of social justice were embedded within the changing contexts within which the Addresses were delivered. Further historical studies can inform social work knowledge, practice, and critical reflection as the profession continues to evolve and confront persistent social justice challenges.     

‘It didn’t come up on my radar’: an examination of students’ orientation toward disability justice in the US

Abstract

While social justice is a well-recognized concept, it is less frequently examined through the lens of disability. In order to address existing gaps within social justice education, this qualitative case study investigates how participation in a semester-long Introduction to Disability Studies (IDS) course affected students’ orientation toward disability justice, or the conception of disability as an issue of social justice. The framework underpinning this research merges Cipolle’s theory of critical consciousness development with disability-based constructs. Findings reveal that participation in IDS allowed participants to develop an awareness of their ability privilege, understand the experiences of peers with disabilities, increase their social awareness of disability, and consider their work as disability allies. This article concludes with recommendations for social justice educators who are interested in applying disability justice practices.