Awareness of Self—A Critical Tool

This paper discusses the applications of self-awareness to all levels of clinical practice, and the urgency for its development in social work students; self-reflectiveness builds clinical competence, can prevent boundary violations and burnout, and offers protection against client violence. It is a basic cornerstone for the development of the professional self, which is the foundation for evolving professional maturation. Students need guidance in becoming aware of how their own feelings, attitudes, and relationships with clients are major factors in the helping process in all service settings, and further, that helping others is in itself a process. Students are generally idealistic, and wish to ease suffering, without understanding the obstacles to be overcome, nor how they themselves would be involved in the process. Social work education, dominated by cognitive-behavioral theories and evidence-based treatments, reinforces students' own tendencies to offer advice and to provide the ‘right solution’ to clients' problems. Educational recommendations for developing self-reflectiveness include: reclaiming psychodynamic theories; emphasizing self-awareness academically and in the field; utilizing process recording; and providing special educational opportunities such as video labs and observational experiences.     

Critical Nexus or Pluralist Discipline? Institutional Ambivalence and the Future of Canadian Sociology

While some scholars believe in a transdisciplinary future for the social sciences and humanities, we argue that sociology would do well to maintain its disciplinary borders, while celebrating the plurality of its intellectual, social, and political content. Although a pluralist position can threaten disciplinary coherence and increase fragmentation, we argue the counterbalance ought to be convergence around shared institutional norms of knowledge production. Establishing these norms is not easy, since there is a great deal of institutional ambivalence at play in the field of sociology. As such, sociology is pushed and pulled between two poles of at least four major continuums of knowledge production, which include the following: (1) interdisciplinary versus discipline‐based research; (2) political versus analytical scholarship; (3) professional versus public/policy sociology; and (4) local/national versus global audiences. Since both sides of these ideal‐typical continuums contain their own pathologies, we propose adopting a balanced position to correct for the shortcomings of each. Rather than imposing one philosophical or theoretical paradigm for the field, we suggest that embracing the "chaos" of our diverse forms of knowledge and centralizing and integrating findings will serve to strengthen our collective efforts in the long term. Alors que certains chercheurs croient en un avenir transdisciplinaire pour les sciences sociales et humaines, nous soutenons qu'il serait préférable pour la sociologie de maintenir ses frontières disciplinaires, tout en célébrant la pluralité de son contenu intellectuel, social, et politique. Bien qu'une telle position pluraliste puisse menacer la cohérence disciplinaire et accroître la fragmentation, nous défendons l'idée que la contre‐balance doit converger vers des normes institutionnelles communes de production de connaissances. La mise en place de ces normes n'est pas chose aisée. Une large quantité d'ambivalence institutionnelle est en jeu dans le domaine de la sociologie. Ainsi nous tendons vers quatre grands continuums de production de connaissances : (1) la recherche interdisciplinaire en opposition à la recherche par discipline ; (2) une érudition politique en opposition à celle analytique ; (3) une sociologie professionnelle contre une sociologie publique / politique ; et (4) un public local / national contre un public mondial. Dans la mesure où deux côtés de ces continuums idéaux‐typiques contiennent leurs pathologies propres, nous proposons d'adopter une position équilibrée pour corriger les lacunes de chacun. Ceci devrait être mieux reflété dans nos systèmes de récompense. Plutôt que d'imposer un paradigme philosophique ou théorique pour un domaine en question, nous suggérons de prendre en considération le «chaos» de nos diverses formes de connaissances, tout en centralisant et en intégrant plus efficacement nos conclusions. Ceci permettra de renforcer nos efforts collectifs sur le long terme.     

Adolescents’ Use of the Internet for Sex Education: A Thematic and Critical Review of the Literature

ABSTRACT. A thematic and critical literature review was conducted to determine what is known about adolescents’ experiences with online sex education. Four major themes could be discerned from the literature, revealing that: (a) adolescents report engaging with sex information online; (b) adolescents are interested in a number of topics, including sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy; (c) the quality of adolescent-targeted sex information online can be lacking, but adolescents can evaluate these sources; and (d) Internet-based interventions can increase adolescents’ sexual health knowledge. Inconsistencies in the literature are discussed and suggestions are made for future research.     

Practice Learning and the Development of Students as Critical Practitioners—Some Findings from Research

This article reports some findings from an ESRC‐funded research project which has been examining the development of criticality in undergraduate students, taking social work and modern languages as contrasting disciplines. This twin‐track study aims to develop the conceptualisation of ‘criticality’ in the context of empirical research. This article examines the development of criticality in final year social work students, where the practice learning experience is predominant. The analysis is framed by the project's developing theoretical conceptualisation of criticality.     

Critical Demography: The Paradigm of the Future?

Sociological Forum -     

Making Critical Minds: Nurturing ‘Not‐Knowing’ in Students of Health and Social Care

The two authors have been involved in developing teaching and learning resources that can be used with students undertaking a whole range of health and social care courses. The aims of this development work included the fostering of critical thinking skills and of inter professional learning. In this Ideas in Action paper we share both some of the thinking behind our work and several of the learning activities that we have utilized with our students.     

Whatever Happened to Critical Mass Theory? A Retrospective and Assessment

Between 1983 and 1993 the authors published a series of articles and a book promulgating and explicating "Critical Mass Theory," a theory of public goods provision in groups. In this article we seek to trace the growth, change, or decline of the theory, primarily through an analysis of all journal citations of the theory. We find that the majority of citations are essentially gratuitous or pick a single point from the theory, which may or may not be central to the theory. However, we identify four lines of theorizing that creatively use substantial parts of Critical Mass Theory in their own development: (1) theories relevant to issues in communication studies such as interaction media and shared databases; (2) Macy's work on adaptive learning models; (3) Heckathorn's models of sanctioning systems; and (4) theories that are centrally concerned with issues of influence in collective goods processes. A few additional, less- developed lines of work are also discussed. None of this work identifies itself as being itself "Critical Mass Theory," but many of the innovations and assertions of the theory are important bases for its development.     

Social Work Intellectuals in the Twenty‐First Century: Critical Social Theory,Critical Social Work and Public Engagement

Frequently, observation of social work students in ‘live’ work is absent or haphazard. An overview of the key literature examines the need for observation of students during training, explores the strengths and challenges of live supervision and describes a planned process for conducting live supervision. This approach incorporates four phases: collaborative preparation for a session of direct practice; observation of the student's work by a field educator; debriefing and feedback; and the development of a plan for further learning steps. Brief vignettes are used to illustrate the process. The article is enriched by the inclusion of student comments from the evaluations undertaken after live supervision activities.     

The Myth of Research‐based Practice: The Critical Case of Educational Inquiry

Educational research in Britain has been subject to substantial government intervention in recent years. The rationale for this has been the demands made by a model of evidence‐based policymaking and practice that carries implications for other fields of social research as well. In this paper, the growing influence of this model is sketched, and it is argued that it relies on some very questionable assumptions about what research can offer policymakers and practitioners. It is concluded that the consequences of enforcing this model are likely to be negative for both sides, but especially for research.     

Commentary on “Critical Flaws in the FSFI and IIEF”

This invited commentary responds to recent criticisms of two validated and widely used sexual function questionnaires, the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) and the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) (Forbes, Baillie, &; Schniering, 2014 Forbes , M. K. , Baillie , A. J. , &; Schniering , C. A. ( 2014 ). Critical flaws in the Female Sexual Function Index and the International Index of Erectile Function . Journal of Sex Research , 51 , 485 – 491 . doi: 10.1080/00224499.2013.876607 [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). We take issue with the conceptual arguments presented, selective review of published literature on both instruments, and conclusions drawn from methodologically flawed findings from an Internet-based study in a nonrepresentative group of Australian men and women. Alternative perspectives on the IIEF and FSFI are presented.     

Ready for Qualified Practice? A Comparative Study of Capability for Critical Reflection and Analysis of MA Social Work and MA Step Up to Social Work Students at the End of Second Placement

Social Work education is faced with substantial changes. New programmes like Step Up to Social Work have emerged and were evaluated in relation to intake, programme development and subjective student experiences. The lack of evidence on outcomes of such programmes was addressed in this study. In a comparative study of a MA in Social Work and a MA in Step Up to Social Work, the authors analysed students' capability to critically reflect on and analyse social work practice scenarios at the end of their final placement at one university. The PCF domain ‘Critical Reflection and Analysis’ was operationalised and the study design employed qualitative and quantitative data analysis. Demographic data, academic marks achieved during social work education and written reflections on case vignettes from the two programmes were analysed statistically. The findings suggest that, while there are some differences in outcomes between the programmes, they are not statistically significant. However, reflections on children and family vignettes were significantly better (U = 185, p = 0.008). Thematic analysis revealed considerable variation in the levels of curiosity and critical thinking and those respondents who framed their answers with reference to policy guidance, theory and research often extended their critical thinking.     

A new sexual revolution? Critical theory, pornography, and the Internet

The "sexual revolution" was a central element of North American culture in the 1960s. Today, sex is increasingly central to mainstream culture, in large part due to the Internet, and we might wonder whether we are living through a comparable period of sexual history. In this article, I revisit the work of Herbert Marcuse-the original theorist of the sexual revolution-to ask whether it can contribute to a critical theory of sexuality in the era of digital technology. After outlining Marcuse's theory of the role of Eros in social life, I discuss two pornographic Web sites that combine eroticism and social critique. I argue that Marcuse's work is valuable for its emphasis on the intersection of sex, technology, and capitalist economy, but that it needs to be supplemented by a focus on masculinity and the male body in Internet pornography.     

Devil in the Details: A Critical Review of “Theoretical Loss”

In their review of Internet gambling studies, Auer and Griffiths (J Gambl Stud 30(4), 879–887, 2014) question the validity of using bet size as an indicator of gambling intensity. Instead, in that review and in a response (Auer and Griffiths, J Gambl Stud 31(3), 921–931, 2015) to a previous comment (Braverman et al., J Gambl Stud 31(2), 359–366, 2015), Auer and Griffiths suggested using “theoretical loss” as a preferable measure of gambling intensity. This comment extends and advances the discussion about measures of gambling intensity. In this paper, we describe previously identified problems that Auer and Griffiths need to address to sustain theoretical loss as a viable measure of gambling intensity and add details to the discussion that demonstrate difficulties associated with the use of theoretical loss with certain gambling games.     

Critical Perspectives on Hate Speech: The Centrality of ‘Dialogic Listening’

This article examines the study of listening as a cognitive process tied to memory and information processing. In examining the study of listening as a cognitive process, the authors discuss creating a theory of listening and the progress of that endeavor. Finally, they address whether or not researchers can create a theory about any concept as abstract as cognitive process or listening.     

D’Augelli’s Model of LGB Identity Development: A Critical Analysis

The authors critically analyzed D’Augelli’s model of LGB identity development, a common identity development model used in counselor and higher education as well as multicultural training, using a postmodern lens. An anecdotal review will be supported by empirical evidence to identify controversies encompassing D’Augelli’s theory. Additionally, this evaluation offers an interpretation of studies surrounding D’Augelli’s model in hopes of uncovering strengths and challenges to this identity development model. Findings of this critical analysis indicate that D’Augelli’s model can be a useful tool for counselors and counselor educators in their practice and teaching as long as clients are provided space for a more fluid, nonlinear identity development process.     

Critical rhetoric’s truth-telling function

The relationship between rhetoric and philosophy reveals competing orientations that guide what a subject can say about a domain of things and how that saying is informed by discourses of truth. In this article, I consider Raymie E. McKerrow’s admirable rendering of a “critical rhetoric” alongside Michel Foucault’s examination of parrhēsia to locate in critical rhetoric a truth-telling function that is formed in the ethopoetic relationship between subjects immersed in public discourse.     

Neoliberalism With a Community Face? A Critical Analysis of Asset-Based Community Development in Scotland

In this article, we trace the ideological and social policy roots of asset-based community development (ABCD) in the United States and the United Kingdom, and explore how this approach has been legitimized in Scotland. We argue that ABCD is a capitulation to neoliberal values of individualization and privatization. Drawing on findings from our empirical work, we discuss how ABCD generates dilemmas for community development. Although some practitioners are able to adapt ABCD to focus on renewing Scottish democracy, several practitioners are using ABCD to privatize public issues such as inequality and justify dramatic cuts to the Scottish welfare state.