How parentline helps

In their Editorial-Child Abuse Review Vol. 3: 1-3–Kevin Browne and Margaret Lynch called for “more support for families and children in need”. They highlighted the necessity of increasing resources for children and families in need. PARENTLINE is one such source of support. PARENTLINE began in 1973 as a UK community-based response to the death of Maria Colwell, the first public acknowledgement in modem times of the existence of child abuse and neglect. PARENTLINE offers a safe, non-judgemental, non-threatening support service to anyone who parents a child, in an atmosphere where parents can feel comfortable talking about anything or any problem that concerns them or any child in their family. They are given time in which they can be sensitively and closely listened to and are helped to talk through and identify their own solutions and strategies wherever possible.     

How fields vary

Field theorists have long insisted that research needs to pay attention to the particular properties of each field studied. But while much field‐theoretical research is comparative, either explicitly or implicitly, scholars have only begun to develop the language for describing the dimensions along which fields can be similar to and different from each other. In this context, this paper articulates an agenda for the analysis of variable properties of fields. It discusses variation in the degree but also in the kind of field autonomy. It discusses different dimensions of variation in field structure: fields can be more or less contested, and more or less hierarchical. The structure of symbolic oppositions in a field may take different forms. Lastly, it analyses the dimensions of variation highlighted by research on fields on the sub‐ and transnational scale. Post‐national analysis allows us to ask how fields relate to fields of the same kind on different scales, and how fields relate to fields on the same scale in other national contexts. It allows us to ask about the role resources from other scales play in structuring symbolic oppositions within fields. A more fine‐tuned vocabulary for field variation can help us better describe particular fields and it is a precondition for generating hypotheses about the conditions under which we can expect to observe fields with specified characteristics.     

How rational we?

How rational people are is a question of interest to social sciences, public policy, and all educated persons. The answer depends, in part, on how widely or narrowly one defines the term. Wide definitions tend to make the term tautological. By narrow definitions, the recent evidence that people act rationally is not overwhelming and evidence that they frequently act on impulse or out of habit, considerable. This points to a binary approach, one that will take into account both kinds of behavior. The specific ways the two approaches may be combined are beginning to be discerned.     

How Families Learn:

No abstract available for this article.     

How to teach intersubjectivity

This article presents my dialogical teaching since 2001 at the Department of Social Work at Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences. The following describes my approach to teaching ‘intersubjectivity’ to social work students and my experience with it with reference to Martin Buber's anthropology of the ‘interhuman’ and to relevant discussions within psychoanalysis. Part of this learning programme consists of implementing ‘groups of dialogue’ in order to facilitate the skill of becoming aware of ‘otherness’ and of oneself. My teaching challenges in that it invites people to develop an awareness of the ‘interhuman’ as a living concept of intersubjectivity for the sake of openness to human growth.     

How Do They Fit?

Abstract

Despite public policies that promote an increased role for faith-based organizations in the delivery of publicly supported services, insufficient attention has been paid to assessing how service delivery by faith-based and secular providers might differ. This study considers the issues involved in evaluating the role of faith-based organizations within the broad context of a community's social service offerings. Criteria are developed for assessing role differences by comparing the types of services, delivery approaches, and service locations offered by different types of providers. The approach is then illustrated using a large sample of social service providers in Los Angeles County. Important role differences are revealed. Faith-based organizations offer fewer and different types of services than their secular counterparts. The results suggest a modest and focused role for faith-based organizations in social service delivery, but one that is complementary to the efforts of secular providers. The methodological issues raised by such analyses are highlighted.     

How an apolitical association politicizes

La participation politique augmente avec la participation dans les associations volontaires, même lorsque ces dernières sont très apolitisées. La théorie suggère que les membres de ces groupes sont politisés par la diversité du groupe, la grandeur du réseau, les activité de l'association, la prise d'un poste exécutif, 1'aide au travail administratif, ou les discussions politiques avec les autres membres de l'association. Cet article établit une stratégie adéquate pour tester ces méchanismes et en fait l'application avec une organisme volontaire à but non-politique. Cette étude suggère que seulement la discussion politique mobilise la participation politique. Ceux qui ont des ami(e)s qui discuttent de politique dans l'association le feront d'autant plus. Cet effet est plus évident chez les membres qui sont à la périphéric du groupe. La participation active dans une organisme trè apolitisée n'a pratiquement aucun effet sur la participation politique, et peut même détourner les gens de l'activité politique. Participation in politics rises with participation in voluntary associations, even when these associations are quite apolitical. Theory suggests that members of such groups get politicized through acquaintance diversity, network size, association activity, holding office, helping with administrative work, or discussing politics with fellow members. This paper pioneers a suitable strategy for testing these mechanisms and applies this strategy to an organization irrelevant to politics. Only political discussion mobilizes political participation. If people have friends who talk politics in the association, they do so more themselves. The effect is strongest for peripheral members. Intense involvement in a very apolitical organization is at best irrelevant to political participation and may even divert people from political activity.     

How I Became a Theorist

This essay tells the story of how the author became a theorist. It describes the central event—how one afternoon in the summer of 1976 the justice evaluation function jumped out of a regression equation—together with earlier theoretical influences and the new theoretical work it set in motion.