Policy Research and the Future: An Exemplar for a Critical Symbolic Interactionism

Abstract

Policy research is inquiry that seeks to inform organizational decisions. As such, it is embroiled in the construction of whatever futures these effectuate. Symbolic Interactionism has untapped resources for the conduct of policy research in its basic assumption that human nature and its situations are human creations. Within that tradition, it is always possible to compare what has been produced with some “future,” and to do so “critically.” The most relevant contemporary exemplar for such a comparison may be found in the work of Hugh Duncan. His analysis of the sociodramas that individuals perform, and his examination of comedy and tragedy as competing forms of social order is discussed. Finally, his attempt to exhibit the comedic as the humane form of social order is presented as a “formal” exemplar for the conduct of policy research which entertains a variety of futures in the investigation of present situations.     

Toward a Radical Model of Social Work in Rural Communities

“Rural” areas as distinct from “urban” continue to be defined by greater personal interactions and less emphasis on formal systems of support. This reality rests in contradiction to the overwhelming majority of social work scholarship and theory development which takes place in an urban context. As such the present-day act of being a “social worker” in a rural community can, in many ways, feel like a bad fit, back-applying the model of an urban generalist into an environment whose organic community ties the social work model itself was originally designed to substitute for. In recognition of this, it is necessary to develop a “combined” model of practice for social work with rural communities and peoples. The fundamental distinction to be made is that rural social work, in its most radical form, is less concerned with adapting persons to the Gesellschaft than it is with strengthening the capacity of the Gemeinschaft to provide the kind of support capacity it historically has, taking into account changes and challenges resulting from factors such as globalization, urban sprawl, and cultural change.     

Identity and the Definition of the Situation in a Mass‐Mediated Context

The importance of identity and the definition of the situation for symbolic interactionist theory and research are discussed. These two concepts have been separated in much research since the 1970s, with identity being used in a variety of ways. This separation is partly attributed to paradigm shifts in social science, as well as to popular culture treatments of identity. Popular culture's emphasis on “collective” and “personal” identities is processed through entertainment formats that emphasize emotional and vicarious involvement, drama and action. Materials illustrate the presence of a mass‐mediated generalized other, media communities, and the significance this has for realist and postrealist ethnography. Suggestions are offered for a reintegration of identity and the definition of the situation in ethnographic work. Sex videos are total fantasy. But people have to realize that even in a fantasy you have to deal with reality. —Pornographic film actress     

Toward a Sociology of Nature

Although we often believe that nature stands apart from social life, our experience of nature is profoundly social. This paper unpacks this paradox in order to (1) explain sociology's neglect of the environment and (2) introduce the articles in this special issue on “the sociology of nature.” I argue that sociology's disinterest in the biophysical world is a legacy of its classical concern with tracing society's “Great Transformation” from gemeinschaft to gesellschaft: while early anthropologists studied “primitive” societies that allegedly had not yet completed “the passage from nature to culture” (Lévi‐Strauss 1963 : 99), pioneering sociologists presumed that industrialization and urbanization liberated “modern” society from nature and therefore focused their attention on “urbanism as a way of life” (Wirth 1938 ). As exemplified by the articles in this symposium, environmental sociology critiques the nature‐culture and town‐country dualisms. One of environmental sociology's core contributions has been demonstrating that nature is just as much a social construction as race or gender; however, its more profound challenge to the discipline lies in its refutation of the sociological axiom that social facts can be explained purely through reference to other social facts. “Environmental facts” are a constitutive feature of social life, not merely an effect of it.     

Social Care Work in the Recent Past: Revisiting the Professional/Amateur Dichotomy

Abstract

The present article challenges the received wisdom of the distinctiveness of professional social work in Australia and its dichotomous juxtapositioning against work undertaken by those without formal social work qualifications. Findings are presented from a qualitative study of Australian Catholic sisters’ experiences of social care work in the recent past, based on indepth interviews with sisters who collectively worked in a variety of fields from the 1950s to the time of writing. Sisters’ accounts of work with marginalised people reveal many similarities with the values and principles of social work. This suggests a blurred line between “professional” social work and “amateur” social care work. In an era of reconsideration of many certainties, Australian social work could profitably reflect on its commonalities with, and differences from, practice domains outside professional social work.     

Swear(ING) ain't play(ING): The interaction of taboo language and the sociolinguistic variable

Swearwords influence social evaluation of a speaker in a variety of ways depending on social context (Jay & Janschewitz (2008), The pragmatics of swearing. Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture, 4(2), 267–288). Little attention has been paid to the role of linguistic variation in social perceptions of swearing, however. This paper presents two experiments that test the role of sociolinguistic variation in the social evaluation of swearing. Experiment 1 is a variant categorization task, in which participants categorized acoustically ambiguous swearwords and phonetically matching neutral and nonwords as ending in either “-ing” or “-in.” Results suggest that swearwords led participants to hear “-ing” on ambiguous items. Experiment 2 is a matched-guise task in which listeners heard a passage featuring a mix of swearwords and neutral “-ing” words in one of four conditions: fully velar (All-ing), fully alveolar (All-in), only swearwords as velar (Swear-ing), or only neutral words as velar (Swear-in). Participants rated speakers on Likert scales (Schleef et al. (2017), Regional diversity in social perceptions of (ING). Language Variation and Change, 29(1), 29–56). Participants again displayed a tendency towards hearing “-ing” on swearwords. As a result, responses to the Swear-in guises were similar to those for the All-ing guises. The consequences for our understanding of swearing, sociolinguistic perception and cognition, and style, are discussed.     

Social Policy Practice

This paper identifies and discusses issues for a school of social work in the context of collective bargaining. Attention is given to the implications of collective bargaining on a professional social work program. The paper is based on a theoretical framework and an experience of approximately three years in the advent and development of collective bargaining in a large midwestern public university. Major substantive areas discussed have to do with intragroup and intergroup relations among students, community professionals, faculty and administration; the definition of “work” and “work load”; and the reward system for promotion, tenure, and recognition of merit. Major implications relate to the concerns of professionalism, the balancing of. democratic participation and responsible management, and the codification in contract of social work's historical role in participatory decision making.     

A Comparison Study of Traditional Helpers in a Late Nineteenth Century Canadian (Christian) Society in Toronto,Canada and in a Late Twentieth Century Bedouin (Muslim) Society in the Negev,Israel

ABSTRACT

This study compares the practice significance of two distinct models of traditional helping: a religiously inspired Protestant approach in late nineteenth century Toronto, Canada; and the Dervish, a religiously imbued traditional helper in a contemporary Bedouin Muslim community in the Negev, Israel Among major similarities are gender inclusiveness, the lack of explicit restrictions on the basis of age or education, the enabling of women as helpers to overcome predominant social constructions of gender, and a religious basis of the helping process itself. Differences were found in the acquisition of social status, and in methodologies of helping. One way for social work to be more sensitive to traditional populations is to realize the commonalities which exist among “modem” and “traditional” helping models.     

Getting is Giving: Time Banking as Formalized Generalized Exchange

This article applies principles of the social exchange framework of social psychology to the social phenomenon of time banking. A “time bank” is an organization that facilitates the giving and receiving of services among its members by allowing them to provide a service, such as an hour of tutoring, in exchange for a “time credit,” which can then be redeemed for receipt of a service, such as an hour of yard work. Empirical research on time banking has focused on its ability to build community and its place within the sharing economy as a form of “connected consumption.” We build on these lines of thought by examining the practice of time banking as a formalized version of generalized exchange. Generalized exchange is a prosocial type of social exchange in which benefits are repaid indirectly, sometimes referred to as “paying it forward.” We discuss how two of time banking's most commonly cited benefits, building social capital and empowering members, can be better understood through this lens of generalized exchange. We then identify two specific motivational issues that time banks face and use a social exchange perspective to propose a possible solution under a framework we refer to as getting is giving.     

Becoming an Ally: Breaking the Cycle of Oppression (2nd edn)

Abstract

In the present context of “get tough on crime” and “back to criminal justice” campaigns that continue to dominate political agendas throughout Australia, critics point to the inadequacy of “welfarist” or reformist criminological and sociological theories that have informed interventions in the past and reinforce the need for “retributive justice” models of penal policy. The present paper examines historical evidence on the role of the human sciences in juvenile justice administration during the 1940s, a formative time when psychiatric, psychological, and social work expertise came together in the form of the Children's Court Clinic in Victoria. It suggests that contemporary critiques about the failure of the welfare model of juvenile justice inadequately capture the historical functioning of expertise in justice administration and the real extent to which the welfare model as “actual rehabilitative intervention” was ever implemented.     

Direct and Indirect Measures of Learning Outcomes in an MSW Program: What Do We Actually Measure?

Abstract

Rankings of professional schools are often flawed and always controversial. This was certainly the case when, for the first time, U.S. News & World Report published a list based on “reputation” of the “best” schools of social work. This article compares the results of that study with the findings of eight other attempts to rank social work schools over the last 20 years. The similarities and differences among those studies are discussed in terms of what we may learn from them.     

Paradigms Lost

“Paradigms Lost” is a socionarrative which can be read or performed. Through a variety of literary techniques (e.g., the flashback, dialogue, rhythm, enjambment, etc.), I detail the wide-ranging consequences to my life and my family of a body-trauma and coma. Through the tacit sociological framework, I concretely show how a self reconstructs itself through language; how conceptually separable social institutions permeate each other; and how the mind and body split does not work as a meaning-making paradigm. I intend the article to work on multiple levels and to reach diverse audiences, including those who have experienced similar trauma. The debt immense of endless gratitude. John Milton     

The Dark Side of Art’s Social Turn: Towards a Discourse on the Impact of Art’s Use of Social Forms Upon the Social

The recent “social turn” in art, in which art favours using forms from social life above its own, has been extensively discussed. Relational Aesthetics by Nicolas Bourriaud, Conversation Pieces and The One and the Many by Grant Kester, essays by Claire Bishop who supplies the term “the Social Turn,” and her recent publication Artificial Hells, are now as important to the field as the art they scrutinise. Ironically, however, when this discussion regards the implications of the “turn”, it habitually addresses the effects of this development from – and for – art’s point of view, overlooking the way in which artists’ inroads into social life may be differently regarded in the social realm. As much as this represents a failure to illuminate a particular area for knowledge, it also signifies a failure to take art’s revalorised commitment to the social to its ethical conclusion: such, from two perspectives, is the “dark side” of art’s social turn. This article seeks to mitigate these oversights. In particular, it looks at art in which an artist undertakes another person’s professional work. Considering the effects of this on those whose practices are appropriated, I propose a consultative approach, involving ethnographic and empathetic modes of address. Consequently, this article does not present an answer to the question it poses, “how do professionals in the social realm see art’s appropriations of their practices?” but rather, a framework for approaching that.     

Asylum Discourse in New Zealand: Moral Panic and a Culture of Indifference

Recent law changes in New Zealand allowing for the detention of a “mass arrival” of asylum seekers reflect a concerning international rhetoric and associated policy trend in Australia and the United Kingdom towards those seeking asylum. This paper argues that, although the New Zealand public has not (yet) reached a “moral panic” that is prevalent within international contexts, there are concerns about a “culture of indifference” in relation to asylum seekers. By providing a policy analysis about asylum seekers and an examination on the associated discourses utilised in international contexts, this discussion presents the New Zealand context through the process of risk signification. The paper discusses how the social work profession can respond to this culture of indifference through addressing collusion (often through silence) with oppressive asylum policies, the need for stronger advocacy and action, and the associated role of social work education.     

Examining the Psychometric Properties of the Identify as a Professional Social Worker Subscale

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Identify as a Professional Social Worker Subscale, which assessed the Council on Social Work Education–prescribed competency identify as a professional social worker and conduct oneself accordingly. The results of confirmatory factory analysis indicated that the items on the measure assessed the underlying latent construct of identification as a professional social worker. The item response theory analysis indicated that the measure could be shortened to a four-item measure, and the item “demonstrate professional demeanor in behavior, appearance, and communication” was the highest discriminating item, whereas “advocate for client access to the services of social work” was the lowest discriminating item. Implications for research, measurement development, and the 2015 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards are discussed.     

Rethinking Modernity and the Holocaust: The Application of Zygmunt Bauman's Thesis to the Jewish Council of Lodz, 1940–1944*

When Zygmunt Bauman first published Modernity and the Holocaust (1989) it elicited a variety of reactions among historians and sociologists. In his work, Bauman sought to address the Holocaust, a topic that he argued sociologists hitherto neglected, and to provide an alternative theoretical explanation for why the Holocaust occurred. Although historians have accused Bauman of having “no clear idea what genocide is,” historians have not fully assessed the validity of his work. This essay suggests that despite aversion to incorporating sociological and anthropological theories to historical studies of the Holocaust, they remain valuable in helping scholars understand the multivalent nature and complexity of the Holocaust. Using unprinted ghetto documents, this paper evaluates Bauman's work by placing it in the historical context of the Lodz ghetto administration from 1940 to 1944.     

An Andragogical Application to the Training of Social Workers

This paper presents a critical consumer model for teaching social work research. Critical consumption is defined as the ability to understand, evaluate, utilize, and apply the results of social work research. The authors describe the use of this approach in their classroom and summarize a battery of “critical questions” they have used successfully to teach the skills of critical consumption. Although this model was developed in an undergraduate context, it has considerable relevance for teaching social work research at other educational levels as well.