Professionals in the Firing Line

Summary The article describes the impact of the 1972 miners strike uponthe local social and youth workers in the Ayrshire mining villageof Auchinleck and examines how some of the experiences of thestrike may have implications for community development programmeswhich are currently being promoted in this and other areas. While a number of factors disposed the social and youth workersin the village to identify positively with the miners strugglethey encountered, particularly during the early weeks of thestrike, considerable suspicion and hostility from the minerson the local strike committee. The front line workers foundthemselves being labelled as part of the 'system' with whichthe miners were in conflict It is suggested that the sharplypolarized nature of the confrontation between the miners andthe central government, coupled with the remedial image of thesocial and youth services were the central forces in creatingthis situation. The problem the social and youth workers experiencedin establishng a positive and promotional identity, in the eyesof the miners, is discussed in relation to community developmentprogrammes. It is argued that the status of social and youthworkers as government employees may, especially in conflictsituations which involve the central government, place limitationsupon their ability to negotiate collaborative relationshipswith local community groups     

论社区工作三大模式在我国的适应性

社区工作模式是社区工作实务的提炼和总结。目前社区发展、社会策划、社会行动三大社区工作模式广受关注的同时也被不断延用。但由于这三大模式来自于美国学者罗斯曼1979年对美国的社区工作实践经验的总结,并不是一套可以应用于不同场合及环境的固定模式,而是一套供工作者灵活运用的工作技巧。社区工作者如何针对我国的实际状况运用不同模式,有必要对社区三大工作模式进行比较和分析。     

进城农民工子女污名化问题的社工介入

进城农民工子女陷入“被污名化”的困境,是当前这一特殊群体面临的一个突出问题。将社会工作以人为本、全面发展的理念及其个案工作方法、小组工作方法、社区工作方法引入进城农民工子女的污名化研究,有助于激发他们内在的潜能,促使其自觉地接受和适应这个社会并最终被这个社会接纳的理念,有助于进城农民工子女形成健康良好的心理和人格修养,更好地融入社会。     

Promoting leadership skills in field education:a university-community partnership to bring macro and micro together in gerontological field placements

Social workers are being called upon to utilize a wide range of skills in practice including not only skills of working directly with clients, but also skills related to practice in organizations such as program management, inter-organizational cooperation, research and evaluation. This article describes an innovative geriatric field education program that prepares social workers with leadership skills in both direct service and management, and engages community agencies as both sites for student learning and as beneficiaries of their professional development projects. Case examples are provided and benefits and challenges to the model are discussed.     

地方审美文化研究：一个亟待重视的美学领域

在文化全球化背景下,地方文化作为文化多样性形成的基础愈来愈受到学界的重视,当代审美文化应当重视并拓展对地方审美文化的研究。作为对特定地方文化的审美观照和审美判断的地方审美文化研究,符合当下文化发展和文化研究的现实语境。地方审美文化在存在形态上有物质存在形态、实践行为状态和精神形态。地方审美文化具有鲜明的创造个性,分别表现为在价值批判中体现审美追求、与地方文化生态相生共存、在场情景的审美创造、审美创造体现地方文化精神四个特点。     

农民工：日常生活中的身份建构与空间型构

近年来，中国的“农民工问题”倍受国内外关注。本研究从“社会建构”概念入手，以上海某棚户区中的外来民工为对象，探讨他们进入城市后的身份建构机制。笔者认为，户籍制度的存在是农民工身份被建构和维持的宏观背景；同时，在与本地居民混居的社区中，这种集体身份也通过日常交往和城市居民的话语被建构和符号化，并获得了广泛的认同。笔者在文中提出“移民空间”的概念，即随着乡城迁移人员在城市的集聚，“农民工”聚居区这一独特的城市空间正在慢慢形成，并成为身份认同的一个空间符号。     

Defining quality care for looked after children: frontline workers’ perspectives on standards and all that?

This paper examines residential childcare workers’ perceptions of quality and how they relate to the growing performance measurement culture within social work over the last 10 years. In particular, it is concerned with examining how workers define quality services and what this means for the government's standards approach with its emphasis on tangible activities around process rather than outcomes. In addition this paper considers the prospects for developing quality in residential care and what frontline workers assess as adding to and/or subtracting from that activity. The growing performance measurement and standards culture being propagated by central government is considered in the context of workers’ perceptions and influence, particularly as it relates to the potential to maximize the quality of the service provided. In this context staff perceptions are obtained from nine children's units in two local authorities with the intention of providing research evidence to a debate very often centred on belief rather than fact.     

社区残疾人服务现状调查——以武汉市为例

残疾人社区服务是残疾人服务体系的重要组成部分。掌握当前社区残疾人服务的状况是完善社区残疾人服务的重要环节。本文以武汉市36个社区为样本,从社区工作人员的专业认知情况、社区工作人员参与社区残疾人服务情况、社区实际提供的残疾人服务内容、残疾人对服务内容的反馈等方面进行了抽样调查,以期为政策的制定提供参考。     

社区学院应致力于提高农民工的素质

农民工是城镇化、城市现代化进程中一支重要的建设力量,是全面实现小康社会须依赖的主力军,他们是促进我国永续发展的强大力量,但他们又是一弱势族群。在城市化、工业化中农民工已发挥、还将发挥重要作用,我国的发展与未来与多达2亿的农民工群体及素质的提高息息相关。基于劳动者发展和社会进步的诉求,重视、致力于提高农民工素质是社区教育重点和社区学院的重要工作。     

Bonding and Bridging Social Capital Development by Social Workers

ABSTRACT

Developing service users’ bonding and bridging social capital is an increasingly recognized role of social workers. A survey of 570 Chinese service users, sampled from 41 social service units in Hong Kong, provided data for the study. Results demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity in a confirmatory factor model about the measurement of bonding and bridging social capital development, mutuality, and assistance to the community. This evidence for the validity and usefulness of social capital development endorses social workers’ role in developing service users’ social capital. Further research needs to assess the generalizability of the present findings in other sociocultural settings.     

Climate change in Alaska: Social workers’ attitudes,beliefs, and experiences

The average temperature in Alaska and the North American Arctic has risen at twice the rate of the global average due to climate change, causing changes to the natural environment that affect the physical, social, and emotional well‐being of people and communities. Social workers must be prepared to respond. Using a non‐probability, convenience sample, this study surveyed 159 social workers in Alaska to assess their attitudes and their perceptions of the effects of climate change on their clients and constituents. Results indicate that social workers in Alaska believe that climate change is happening, that human activities are responsible, and that it is a large threat to people in Alaska. Over 75% believe that climate change is dangerous for their clients now or will be dangerous in 10 years. Social workers report that in the past year their clients or constituents have experienced multiple climate change‐related problems with community infrastructure, health, and mental health.     

Social Workers in Turkey: Identifying and Addressing Professional Problems and Concerns

The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of social workers in terms of the occupational problems they experience in the country of Turkey. Using a mixed-methods approach, a survey of 98 social workers was followed by individual interviews with 10 social workers. Utilizing this combined approach, social workers reported several problem areas with the most common concerns being: work execution and working conditions that can impair the delivery of efficient and effective service delivery; limited community awareness of the profession leading to occupational identity concerns; employment setting and expectations that limit the capability of what can be done to assist those in need; and, employment setting difficulties such as long hours, limited wages, and strict requirements that limit creative problem-solving. Suggestions and future practice improvement suggestions are provided.     

Behind the Rhetoric of Community Development: How is it perceived and practiced?

State and local governments in Western Australia increasingly identify ‘community development’ as a key approach for the delivery of community services. In this paper I explore how the concept of community development is understood and practiced by workers in the context of government community services. While definitions are most often presented as a universally understood approach, my key argument is, that there are instead, community development ‘discourses’ that are variously applied to diverse situations. Foucauldian notions of discourse and power are used to propose that, while there may be core and recognisable traits found within the language of community development, in any given situation these combine with a number of variables (most notably stemming from the organization responsible for community services) to form a ‘situated’ community development ‘discourse’.     

An Aboriginal community's perceptions and experiences of child neglect in a rural town

Very little is known about how Aboriginal parents experiencing vulnerabilities and communities perceive child neglect, despite Aboriginal families being highly overrepresented in the child protection system. This research investigates the perceptions and experiences of child neglect from Aboriginal parents and human services workers in a rural community. Research methods consisted of community forums and interviews with parents and workers. One community forum developed interview guides and vignettes, and the second discussed and interpreted findings. Between the two forums, in‐depth interviews were conducted with 18 Aboriginal parents and nine Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal workers. Overall Aboriginal parents perceived child neglect in a similar way to Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal workers. Violence and substance abuse were main risk factors for child neglect, and intergenerational trauma, racism and discrimination, and feeling powerless were prevalent in the community. The paper concludes that there are little differences in the way Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal people understand child neglect. Instead it is the difficult circumstances experienced by Aboriginal families that keep parents from actualising their parenting expectations. The implications of these findings when working with Aboriginal families and communities are also discussed.     

教育公平视野下的农民工子女教育

农民工是我国改革开放和工业化、城镇化进程中涌现的一支新型劳动大军。农民工子女与城里的同龄儿童相比面临着教育不公平的巨大难题。农民工子女教育问题,不是孤立的教育问题,是社会发展中、我国经济体制转型过程中出现的问题,在今后相当长的阶段中将普遍存在,这一问题的解决必须依靠整个社会的共同努力。     

Community worker perceptions of the Income Management regime in Shepparton

This paper focuses on how community workers in Shepparton viewed the impact of the Place Based Income Management (PBIM) trial on the lives of their clients, their clients' families, and the broader community. The paper responds to criticism that there has been a lack of community voices in the development of PBIM or of their inclusion in the formal evaluation framework, raised in Philip Mendes's 2013 study of this trial site. A key policy goal underlying Income Management is that the tool assists low income people to become better money managers. Our study found that Shepparton community workers also used the parlance of ‘tool’ to describe the programmatic value of the BasicsCard in their interactions with clients. However, the BasicsCard appeared marginal to their discussions. Three clear themes emerged from the interviews: Shepparton's focus on voluntary clients, and ascertaining why participation in the local trial had dropped; that support for IM centred on the voluntary measure and the extra resources available to assist clients; and pragmatically locating the program in the middle of a welfare continuum that stretched from the voluntary Centrepay at one end to the highly coercive and restrictive paternalism of State Trustees at the other.     

Community Development, Partnership Governance and Dilemmas of Professionalization: Profiling and Assessing the Case of Ireland

Over the last two decades, Ireland has emerged as a paradigmaticcase of partnership governance. Underpinned by state-facilitatednational agreements that sought to maximize economic and socialdevelopment, ‘partnership’ was also held to includethe development of progressive social policies. The ‘communityand voluntary sector’ has been both the site and purportedvehicle for these progressive policies. In this context, communitydevelopment emerged as a discourse of social action that wasboth popular with what Donnelly-Cox and Jaffro (1999) have inthe Irish context called ‘second generation communitydevelopment’, i.e. the emergence of self-activated localcommunity groups informed by a social justice ethos, and tothe Irish state as a route to social inclusion for an arrayof marginalized social groups. Since the early 1990s, thesegroups have been the recipients of significantly increased statefunding. This resource has had a dramatic effect on the structureand nature of community development. In this paper, we outlineand assess the model of community development that has emergedin Ireland during this period. Based on empirical data arisingfrom a nationwide survey of community workers, we profile theextent of state funding; the consequent employment profile ofcommunity development workers and the impact on volunteerism;and the nature and consequence of community development’semerging relationship with the Irish state.     

Patronage and Participation, Problem and Paradox: a Case Study in Community Work

Summary This paper describes the emergence and development of a neighbourhood-basedself-help organization. For over three years it has been staffedby self-styled community workers. For the first two years theworkers were mostly ex-students who hoped that this organizationcould be a means of effecting radical forms of social change.They have been succeeded by local people whose main purposeis to provide a social service. This transition produced disagreementbetween the different community workers. But it is a trend whichshould confound any stereotype ideas about community workersas always out of sympathy with all aspects of the establishment. The organization has moved from concern with one issue to providingvarious community services. It has passed through stages ofdevelopment characterized by the liabilities of newness, byattempts to' plan and consolidate and by efforts to resist becomingan established organization. The latter stages also became liabilitiesof 'success'. A central problem in this community work enterprise is the relationshipbetween participation and patronage. This refers to the problemof how to elicit and maintain local interest and support andthe paradox, that although outside help may be one way of ensuringthat local groups survive, it may also limit local people'sinvolvement and influence their goals. Dependence on patronsand a reluctance to organize local participation affected theorganization's development: patrons provided various resourcesbut were possibly a disincentive to the development of localinitiatives. The nature of free participation resulted in anunintended drift towards more conventional forms of social service,albeit in an unconventional setting     

Life Satisfaction of Rural Migrant Workers in Urban China: The Roles of Community Service Participation and Identity Integration

Abstract

China is home to approximately 245 million rural-to-urban migrant workers. The influx of migrants into urban areas has posed various challenges for local social service systems. Recently, increasing number of community services have been developed to meet the growing service demands from the migrant population. However, whether increase in community service use results in improved wellbeing among migrant workers remains critically unexplored. As such, this study examines the role of community service use in migrant workers’ life satisfaction and the potential mediating effect of identity integration in Shenzhen, China. Bootstrapped models were adopted to examine relationship among variables. Drawing from a sample of 1,087 rural-to-urban migrant workers, we found that community service use is positively correlated with both identity integration and migrant workers’ life satisfaction. Moreover, identity integration served as a partial mediator between community service use and life satisfaction. The mediating effect of identity integration was found to increase with age. This study highlights that diverse services should be implemented to address divergent needs of migrants in different age groups. Community service can also serve as a vehicle to foster integration among migrant workers in host communities, especially for older age groups. Future studies may further investigate the relationships between community social capital, community social support, quality of community-based organization and frequency of service use so as to optimize the life satisfaction of migrant workers.