Psychosocial community work as an alternative mode of political action (The construction and critical transformation of society)

From its start, community social psychology (CSP) has been oriented to produce changes in social actors enabling them to develop their capacities, to empower them so that they are able to obtain and produce new resources and effect transformations in their environment as well as being in control of their own actions and decisions. This has led to a redefinition of power in the sense of assuming that asymmetry does not mean absolute lack of resources. As understood in Latin America, CSP configures a mode of knowledge production that could be considered as belonging to a construction and critical transformation paradigm, which assumes that society is a collective construction effected by persons who consider that their life circumstances must be transformed, and about which they have developed a critical perspective. Applying participatory action-research, psychosocial community work (PCW) merges ordinary knowledge and scientific knowledge, producing a third form of knowledge that enriches both and which, through reflexivity, engenders new transforming actions. This paper shows some of the main characteristics of PCW, and its orientation towards social and individual change, incorporating the participation of the community, and highlighting its political character. It is concluded that PCW is basically a form of political psychology, in so far as it is concerned with the public field, that it develops from social needs and conflicts and that it attacks or palliates the distorting and concealing effects of ideology, through the conscientization processes.     

Banking on community: The use of time banking as an innovative community practice teaching strategy

ABSTRACT

This article explores the use of a classroom-based, experiential time banking project as an innovative community practice teaching strategy. It presents a preliminary, qualitative evaluation of a seven-week, time banking project among 40 students enrolled in a Master of Social Work community practice course, spanning two academic years. Findings highlight challenges (e.g., lack of time) and benefits (e.g., building a sense of community) associated with the model specifically, as well as the ways in which participation expanded understandings of and appreciation for the power and potential of community practice more generally. Recommendations for future teaching and research applications are offered.     

The effects of consideration of future consequences and CSR fit in stigmatized industries: Perceived CSR motives as mediators

This study explored the effects of fit between corporations and their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in stigmatized industries. Specifically, it examined how these effects vary depending on stakeholders’ consideration of future consequences (CFC) in influencing individuals’ attitudes toward CSR and corporations and purchase intentions; further, it explored whether such interaction effects are mediated by three underlying perceived motives. The study involved a between-subjects experiment with 144 college students. The results showed that high-CFC individuals perceived corporations with strong fit to their CSR initiatives as more stakeholder- and self-serving. The interaction effect also was mediated by stakeholder-serving motives in influencing purchase intentions and by self-serving motives in influencing CSR and corporation-related attitudes.     

The effects of public's cognitive appraisal of emotions in crises on crisis coping and strategy assessment

This study tested a cognitive appraisal model that examines the variance in publics’ emotional responses, strategies of coping with crises, and acceptance of different organizational crisis responses, as a function of publics’ appraisal of crisis predictability and controllability. A within-subjects experiment was designed to induce participants’ primary negative emotions (i.e., anger, sadness, and fright, and anxiety), which were found to have differential influences on publics’ coping strategy preference and organizational crisis strategy acceptance.     

The use of GIS in informal settlement upgrading: its role and impact on the community and on local government

The Urban Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Group within the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Cape Town has been coordinating a pilot informal settlement upgrading in Cape Town since 1998. The project objective has been the evolution of a model-based approach to informal settlement upgrading that is both structured and replicable. It was felt that the only way this could be achieved was through the use of a spatial data management system operated through a GIS system. The spatial database has been used for all facets of data collection and data process and forms the basis for all decision-making. Thus it covers all physical data pertaining to the site, cadastral and shack data, demographic and socio-economic data (with an in-depth review of every household) economic opportunities and physical planning and design data. The result is a comprehensive, integrated, settlement upgrading methodology that is built upon a GIS-based spatial data management framework. Such a framework is seen as the basic building block for large-scale informal settlement upgrading.     

The effects of conflict,quality, and time on small group information use and behavior in evaluative decision making situations

Graduate students simulated school board members making decisions about educational programs. Situation contexts within the program evaluation reports were varied by conflict (high, low), quality (high, low), and time (long, short). Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) of the qualitative measures m the 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design indicated significant results at the .01 level. The quality of decisions affect support for program continuation. Interactions of conflict and quality affected need for more information and more time in decision making. A conflict and time interaction affected preference to talk to other board members. Changes in situational contexts affected information need and use in small, decision making groups.     

Agreement on water and a watered-down agreement: The political ecology of contested coastal development in Down East, North Carolina

In 2006, land use planning emerged as a contested issue in the rural area known as ‘Down East’, Carteret County, in eastern North Carolina, USA. Down East is experiencing a transition from a commercial fishing to an amenity economy and concerns about related changes led to the formation of ‘Down East Tomorrow’ (DET), a grassroots group that proposed a one-year development moratorium in order to facilitate a community planning process. In this paper, we use political ecology to examine the fate of the moratorium as reflected in the public written record, primarily minutes of meetings of the Carteret County Board of Commissioners. We illustrate how issues of community, science, and governance were linked to an increasing focus on coastal water quality in the debate, and argue that this focus facilitated a switch by the Board from considering a development moratorium to adopting a conservation ordinance, one that fell short of addressing DET’s concerns. This outcome illustrates the power of formal political institutions in ’First World’ environmental conflicts and the difficulties of reconciling competing values associated with land use in areas of transition, especially where historical resistance to planning has been the norm.     

The effects of under‐skilling on need for recovery,losing employment and retirement intentions among older office workers: A prospective cohort study

Based on a sample of older workers from the Maastricht Cohort Study, the authors investigate the prevalence and dynamics of self‐reported under‐skilling and its effects on workers' need for recovery, their risk of losing employment and their retirement intentions over a two‐year period. They find that being under‐skilled is associated both with higher levels of need for recovery over time and with the risk of losing employment, but not with early retirement intentions. To achieve sustainable employment, they argue, the course of under‐skilling should be monitored throughout workers' careers, enabling timely interventions to avoid its negative consequences.