Defining the Universe of Social Enterprise: Competing Metaphors

After more than a decade of research the debate over social enterprise definitions and classifications continues. EMES network in Europe argues that there is an ideal type of social enterprise to which all ventures should aspire. The spectrum approach emphasizes the trade-off between pure profit-making and social impact, locating organizations on this continuum. The Schumpeterians take innovation as its central focus, arguing that the disruption of the status quo is an important differentiator. We argue that each falls short of providing an adequate framework for future research, policy, and practice. Instead we offer an alternative metaphor, that of a social enterprise zoo; many different “animals” combine social and market goals in substantially different ways and each species has distinct environments and needs. Using the metaphor we consider the important components of a meaningful research agenda and examine the place of social entrepreneurs within the social enterprise zoo.     

Social Media: Defining,Developing, and Divining

What is a social medium, and how may one moderate, isolate, and influence communicative processes within? Although scholars assume an inherent understanding of social media based on extant technology, there is no commonly accepted definition of what social media are, both functionally and theoretically, within communication studies. Given this lack of understanding, cogent theorizing regarding the uses and effects of social media has been limited. This work first draws on extant definitions of social media and subcategories (e.g., social network sites) from public relations, information technology, and management scholarship, as well as the popular press, to develop a definition of social media precise enough to embody these technologies yet robust enough to remain applicable in 2035. It then broadly explores emerging developments in the features, uses, and users of social media for which future theories will need to account. Finally, it divines and prioritizes challenges that may not yet be apparent to theorizing communication processes with and in mercurial social media. We address how social media may uniquely isolate and test communicative principles to advance our understanding of human–human and human–computer interaction. In all, this article provides a common framework to ground and facilitate future communication scholarship and beyond.     

Organizational Social Media Accounts: Moving Toward Listening Competency

Researchers apply Bodie, St. Cyr, Pence, Rold, and Honeycutt’s (2012) model of listening competency to social media messaging for organizations. The article provides examples of how organizations and their social media managers, as de facto “listening agents,” can incorporate important verbal listening behaviors that represent active-empathic listening—pertinent responses, elaboration, offering advice and opinions, and answering and asking questions—into their social media profiles. In addition, guidance is provided to social media managers and organizations for how to adopt listening skills that will foster dialogue between organizations and their online publics. Potential areas for future research are also examined.     

A Culture-Centered Approach to Listening: Voices of Social Change

Drawing on an understanding of marginalization as intrinsic to mainstream communication theorizing and research, this essay argues that exploitation is rooted in the denial of the communicative capacity of the margins and in the co-optation of the margins as the subjects of top-down communication directed at the margins by experts. The distributions of communicative infrastructures map out the inequities in distributions of economic resources, reifying the unequal distribution of resources by perpetuating values embedded in the interests of the power elite. Listening offers an opening for interrogating the inequities in the global landscape of distribution of power, by attending to the unvoiced assumptions and principles underlying the logics of concentration of power in the hands of the transnational elite. Drawing from postcolonial and Subaltern Studies theories, I engage with the culture-centered approach to outline key tenets of listening as entry points to addressing the global inequities that are produced by neoliberal globalization. Listening through inversion, incompleteness and imagination works in solidarity with the margins to co-construct theory rooted in the ontologies, epistemologies, and values of the margins.     

Social Capital in Emerging Democracies

Theorists have linked the creation of social capital to the development of the kind of robust civil society that underwrites the well formed and stable democracy. This understanding raises the problem of what is social capital in specific national contexts. A critical issue is whether and to what extent a model of social capital moulded to the EuroAmerican experience is applicable to the new democracies. Three arguments are made in the context of a review of the works of Putnam and Touraine. First, the question of social capital foundationally concerns not only the production of institutions and values but the conditions of production. Analysis thus needs to grasp not only the specifically social process of its creation, distribution, and institutionalization, but the political culture and economy that serve as its foundation. Second, theories of social capital created in the context of nation-state based production-centered political economy do not capture what is going on in an increasingly globalized and circulatory political economy. And third, theories of social capital centered on the United States and Europe are only partially applicable to the emerging democracies of Africa and the postcolony generally.

Scholarship and Research in Social Work: Emerging Challenges

Abstract

One of the defining elements of a profession is its capacity to generate and transmit knowledge about practice. This paper reviews and assesses the state of scholarship and research in social work through diverse perspectives, among them research methods found in the core literature, the scholarly productivity of faculty and doctoral graduates, the research curricula in graduate programs, and the use of scholarship by practitioners. Finally it posits challenges for improving the profession's research training, scholarly production, and knowledge transmission.     

Defining Coparenting for Social Work Practice: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis

Coparenting, referred to as “an enterprise undertaken by two or more adults working together to raise a child for whom they share responsibility,” is responsive to intervention, associated with multiple indicators of individual and family well-being, and applicable to diverse family structures. Because of a lack of conceptual clarity, however, and absence from social work publications, coparenting has not yet entered the purview of social work. In this review, the authors attempt to synthesize existing coparenting definitions into one that is conceptually clear and clinically useful for social work practice with families. Implications for social work practice and research are discussed.     

Defining the Professional Foundation in Social Work Education

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a national study designed to identify preferred curriculum content important to the “professional foundation” in social work education. All BSW program directors were surveyed, using the Delphi Technique, to evaluate potential curriculum content The heavy response indicated a strong interest in this timely issue. The authors found that there is a high degree of consensus on curriculum material thought to be appropriate for a professional foundation.     

Naming the Beast: Defining and Classifying Service Innovations in Social Policy

Over the last decade, the search for innovationhas become a core component of much social policyformulation and implementation. This search, however,has often been undertaken with little attempt to define the actual nature of innovation or to classifyits different modes. This paper reports recent researchwhich has developed a typologyof organizational changewithin which to situate and analyze innovation in social policy. It argues that thistypologyis an essential tool both for socialpolicymakers and for those concerned with itsanalysis.     

Defining Social Inclusion for Children with Disabilities: A Critical Literature Review

Social inclusion is a complex and often misunderstood concept. For children with disabilities, research has documented the degree of loneliness, bullying and exclusion they often experience in their social lives. This paper presents the findings of a critical literature review on the social inclusion of children with disabilities. Study methods comprised rigorous criteria for study selection followed by established protocols for evaluating studies. Reputable rating scales were used to examine peer‐reviewed research published within the last 10 years. Fifty‐four studies were analyzed for essential themes. Findings reflect a broad range of stakeholder perspectives and factors that promote or inhibit social inclusion, including child‐specific variables as well as environmental influences. Additional research should focus on the perspectives and experiences of children in inclusive settings, particularly those with disabilities, as a means of safeguarding their future social and emotional well‐being.     

Connecting Two Sides: A Qualitative Study on Social Innovation Ventures and Poor Communities in an Emerging Economy

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - The relationship between social innovation venture and poor communities has received little attention from studies in the...     

Listening within the Social Contexts of Tutoring: Essential Component of the Mentoring Relationship

This qualitative research study targeted fourth grade at-risk children in a culturally diverse elementary school in a mid-sized city in the southwestern United States. The purpose of the study was to describe the nature of social interactions within the context of tutorial sessions and to describe the role of listening within the mentoring relationship. Major findings were that highly successful tutors were skillful communicators who modeled effective listening skills, used body language effectively, were knowledgeable about students' cultures, and possessed a social conscience.     

Relational Listening II: Form & Variation across Social and Personal Relationships

This research examines, and provides theoretical extension regarding, those processes that characterize the construct of relational listening. First, a rationale for the continued examination of listening as everyday relational activity is provided. Second, data generated among relational partners representing (a) acquaintance, (b) friend, (c) good friend, (d) best friend, (e) romantic friend, and (f) relative relationships are analyzed in light of a grounded theoretical model of relational listening (Halone & Pecchioni, in press). Finally, implications for theory and research concerning listening and relational communication are discussed. Assessing relational listening across an array of social and personal relationships concurrently accomplishes objectives of (a) conceptually extending the knowledge base on relational listening while (b) providing scholars with comparative insight into those processes that govern the course and conduct of everyday relating.     

Mirroring,Mentalizing, and the Social Neuroscience of Listening

Listening to another speak is a basic process in social cognition. In the social neurosciences, there are relatively few studies that directly bear on listening; however, numerous studies have investigated the neural bases of some of the likely constituents of successful listening. In this article, I review some of this work as it relates to listening, with a focus on two auxiliary processes in the comprehension of speech: perceiving the nonverbal behaviors, such as facial expression, that accompany an utterance (i.e., how it is being said); and interpreting an utterance and the nonverbal behaviors that accompany it in terms of the speaker's state of mind (i.e., why it is being said). The review indicates the presence of two large-scale systems in the human brain that play a major role in successful listening: the putative mirror neuron system, which likely facilitates the relatively automatic perception of the how of speech; and the so-called mentalizing system, which likely underlies our ability to actively reach conclusions about the why of speech behavior. I conclude by considering the possibility that the dynamic interaction of mirroring and mentalizing processes may be pivotal for successful listening and social interaction more generally.     

Emerging Social Work Field Education Trends in China

MSW field education in China has been adopting Western models. However, this adaptation cannot address all educational and professional training needs in China. This study used an exploratory qualitative study design and interviewed 54 MSW students regarding their field experiences at a university in Shanghai. Results revealed six key themes: field education curriculum design’s influence on student field experiences, faculty advisers’ influence on student field experiences, field agencies’ expectations toward MSW intern performance, field agencies’ capacity to host MSW interns, student perceptions of their professional competencies, and students’ coping strategies to manage challenges in field practicum. Competency-based social work field education is a potential solution to address the current social work field education challenges in China.