Formal and Informal Social Organization: Do Geography,Structural Inequality,and Other Forms of Social Organization Matter?

Neighborhood social organization is one way that neighborhoods matter for residents, as well as an intervention opportunity for macro practitioners. Neighborhood social organization encapsulates how neighborhoods differentially organize, both formally and informally. We tested whether neighborhood structural inequality, types of social organization, and spatial clustering were associated with both formal and informal neighborhood social organization. Formal and informal social organization were mutually reinforcing. Formal social organization, measured by organizational participation, predicted informal social organization. In multivariate spatial analysis, organizational participation was also influenced by adjacent neighborhoods. Practitioners should consider how adjacent neighborhoods could affect place-based interventions.     

Is the Problem of European Citizenship a Problem of Social Citizenship? Social Policy,Federalism, and Democracy in the EU and United States*

The development of supranational (European) social rights, and therefore social citizenship, is undermined by strong, direct relationships between citizens and national welfare states. Social policies contribute to national identities because they entail direct relationships between states and citizens. In well‐developed European welfare states strong relationships between citizens and their member‐states are expected. This may prevent the development of a similar relationship at the European level. The U.S. provides a comparison case, wherein a successful transference of citizenship identity from a lower to higher level has occurred, partly as a result of the building of national‐level social citizenship, at least for certain classes of people. Revolutionary War Pensions provide an example of how social policy influences national identity. The lack of EU‐level social policy precludes the possibility of this type of identity formation. Finally, the interplay of social citizenship and democracy in both cases is explored. T.H. Marshall’s work regarding citizenship as the basis for democracy is used to understand how the inability to create a common social policy in the EU is harmful to democracy.     

A Challenge for Social Studies Educators: Teaching about Islam,Jihād,and Shari’ah Law

In this article, the author investigates the controversial curricular and instructional aspects of teaching about Islam in social studies courses. Specifically, the author discusses pedagogically sound approaches to teaching about jihād and Shari’ah law, two of the most important and controversial concepts in Islam that often generate intense debates among scholars, policy-makers, social studies teachers, and the general public. It is crucial that social studies teachers present all of the competing and complex definitions regarding jihād and Shari’ah law; this task is exacerbated by passionate disagreements among Islamic scholars, lawyers, and historians over the true nature of these concepts. Many K–12 textbooks omit or distort the multiple interpretations of jihād and Shari’ah law because of political pressures, space limitations, and efforts to avoid controversies inherent in discussing religion. Thus, many students are confused by competing views and ideological perspectives by experts regarding Islam; this situation is untenable, given the importance of Islam in contemporary American politics and international affairs.     

Ideology,Practice, and Process? A Review of the Concept of Managerialism in Civil Society Studies

Managerialism is today a frequently applied concept in studies of how ideas and practices related to corporate management are diffused in society. Some assert that managerialism even is what mostly affects the development of contemporary civil society organizations. It is, however, far from clear how the concept of managerialism is used and defined across interest fields. The main conclusion in the present review, involving 105 peer-reviewed articles in civil society studies published between 1990 and 2014, is that the concept of managerialism is so broadly defined that it runs the risk of losing its analytical powers. To avoid this, the paper argues for a more precise conceptual use and suggests that the concept of managerialism should be applied to denote an ideology, the concept of management to capture managerial practices, and the concept of managerialization to describe an organizational change process.     

Freedom,Identity, and the Social History of Empire in Atlantic Cuba, 1795–1817

This essay examines a maritime case involving a Charleston-based French privateer in 1795 as well as members, subjects, and citizens of multiple societies from Western Africa, Cuba, Spain, and Great Britain in order to reveal the fluid legal foundations of trans-Atlantic regimes with respect to slavery and freedom. The French maritime seizure of a British slaving vessel in the Caribbean and the subsequent transfer of enslaved African peoples from British to French to Spanish authority in Cuba set the stage for nearly 40 years of litigation in both hemispheres. The case led to legal disputes in Philadelphia, Madrid, and Havana as members of this Atlantic society sought to confront the most prominent political and social issues of this era. While officials in Philadelphia sought to avoid entanglement in the imperial wars between France and Great Britain, officials in Madrid and Havana competed with each other in order to define the legal identities of a group of Carabalí-Oru peoples onboard the British vessel. For their part, this group of Carabalí-Oru peoples exploited the ambiguities created by a system of Atlantic jurisprudence while relying on their memory of the Middle Passage in order to challenge their unjust enslavement in Cuba.     

Alienation of Civic Engagement in China? Case Studies on Social Governance in Hangzhou

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This article tries to map the state of civic engagement in social governance at local level in China. Using case studies...     

Saviors and Services: The Interface of Neoliberal Deprivation,Hegemonic Christianity,Social Exclusion,and Rural Church Resource Provision☆

With one-third of rural areas in the United States living in persistently high poverty, churches are some of the most prolific—and often only—sources of resource-provision in rural places. This paper qualitatively examines the complex role that churches play as resource providers in rural areas. Further, we examine the ways churches are helpful and/or harmful in meeting the needs of those experiencing vulnerability. We fuse hegemonic Christianity with social exclusion and neoliberalism to argue that rural people may not only experience ostracization and othering, but can also lose access to already-limited resources in rural areas as a result. Using community-based action research, ethnography, 47 semi-structured interviews, and research participant-driven photography from a town we call Gordon, we find that while churches are important resource-providers, they perpetuate hegemonic Christianity, hold exclusionary power, and act as critical gatekeepers for resources. This often results in ostracization and jeopardizes resource provision for those most vulnerable. This is a critical finding that demonstrates the complexity of resource provision, church influence, and rurality. We highlight participants’ suggestions for ways to expand services in rural places without solely relying on religious organizations.     

‘How Do You Feel About Studying Social Work?’—Social Work Students in Greece: Demands,Support, Feelings About Their Studies and Attitudes Towards Themselves

This paper presents the results of a study exploring the nature and extent of the demands placed upon social work students during their studies, the support available to them inside and outside the course, their feelings about their work and their attitudes towards themselves. Demands from the course were rated higher than demands from financial, family and part-time work responsibilities. Important support was obtained from friends, relatives and fellow students while, except for practice teachers, the lack of support from the course was emphasized. A large number of students often felt exhausted, not due to the actual work with users but mostly due to obligations to the course such as essays. On the whole, however, students felt good about what they had accomplished so far and held positive attitudes towards themselves. The need for structured support resources offered within the educational institution was evident and recognized by more than half of the students, who stated they would be willing to use them had they been available. Students expressed no intention to quit their studies despite the demands placed upon them; the prospect of unemployment was an additional source of worry for more than half of them.     

The Social Studies—a Slogan or a Service

This article discusses the role that teacher educators can play in helping their students develop a fuller understanding of world history. Trends such as globalization have led to calls for increased teaching about the diverse cultures and peoples of the world. However, prospective teachers’ educational backgrounds have in most cases not adequately prepared them to teach world history effectively. The article begins with a discussion of the historical evolution of the course in world history; it then defines different approaches to this field, and concludes by providing suggestions for how teacher educators can help their students bring a true version of world history to their classrooms.     

(Social) Democracy in the Blood? Civic and Ethnic Idioms of Nation and the Consolidation of Swedish Social Democratic Power, 1928–1932

This paper attempts to explain Swedish Social Democrats' consolidation of power between 1928 and 1932 through an examination of idioms of nation. Qualitative analysis of articles and editorials from a Social Democratic and a liberal newspaper is carried out. The analysis focuses on how civic, ethnic and, a mixed civic‐ethnic idiom of nation were deployed in order to expand the Social Democrats' electoral base. The Social Democrats could combine egalitarianism/democracy with ethnic nationalism because ethnic bases for the nation were more inclusive than other, especially class, bases available to them. Two challenges for the literature on nationalism and the welfare state are raised: (1) the civic‐ethnic distinction must be rethought to accommodate the Swedish case, wherein ethnic nationalism was used for “civic” ends; and (2) the focus on the Social Democrats as promoting working class interests may be misplaced given the party's mobilization on the basis of nation.     

Adolescents’ Friends,Parental Social Closure,and Educational Outcomes

There is a growing recognition of the importance of the social resources accessed through friends on adolescents’ educational outcomes. However, the research on the influence of these social resources remains inconclusive, due primarily to the different ways in which social resources have been conceptualized and measured. Using panel data from the Educational Longitudinal Study, we estimate the association between two measures of adolescents’ social resources in the Educational Longitudinal Study base-year, their high school grade point average in the first follow-up, and the likelihood of attaining a four-year college degree by the third follow-up. Grounded in the literature on social capital, our findings show that friendships that provide access to high social closure parental networks are favorably associated with grade point average and college completion. We discuss results in terms of their implications on school reform efforts intended to manufacture adolescents’ access to norm-reinforcing networks.     

New Grandparents’ Mental Health: The Protective Role of Optimism,Self-Mastery,and Social Support

The current study examines the contribution of optimism, self-mastery, perceived social support, and background variables (age, physical health, economic status) to mental health following the transition to grandparenthood. The sample consisted of 257 first-time Israeli grandparents (grandmothers and grandfathers, maternal and paternal) who were asked to complete a series of self-report questionnaires. The results indicate the importance of internal and external resources, as well as of health and economic status, for mental health of new grandparents. The value of designing relevant preventive interventions by family social workers to assist grandparents in coping with their new role is discussed.     

Perceptual,Attitudinal, and Behavioral Outcomes of Organization–Public Engagement on Corporate Social Networking Sites

This study proposes and tests a conceptual model that not only measures public engagement with corporate pages on social networking sites, but also evaluates the influence of such engagement on important perceptual, relational, and behavioral outcomes. Study results provide empirical evidence of the positive effects of public engagement on perceived corporate authenticity, organizational transparency, organization–public relationships, and public advocacy. Findings underscore the importance of public engagement via social media on enhancing perceived corporate transparency and authenticity, and thereby cultivating strong relationships. Additionally, organization–public relationships emerged as a deciding factor driving the effects of public engagement on advocacy behaviors.     

Student,Practitioner, or Both? Separation and Integration of Identities in Professional Social Care Education

This paper presents and discusses some of the findings from a qualitative study of identities in work-related learners. The theoretical framework of structural symbolic interactionism is outlined and the two identities of interest, that of student and practitioner, discussed. The aim of professional education is viewed as enabling the practitioner to better deal with ambiguity and change through critical examination of work practices and location of these within theoretical frameworks. It is argued that for knowledge and behaviour to transfer to the work setting, the student and worker identities need to be integrated rather than kept separate. Factors identified as influencing the integration and separation of the social identities of student and social care practitioner are discussed.     

Twenty Years of Social Studies Textbook Content Analysis: Still “Decidedly Disappointing”?

In an article published in 1993, Rahima Wade reviewed the quality of social studies textbook content analyses published in three major social studies journals between 1982 and 1992. She concluded that the quality of this research was disappointing. Borrowing and refining Wade's methods, this article presents the findings of a review of all 29 textbook content analyses published in the same journals between 1994 and 2016 to see whether textbook content analysis research has improved during the past two decades. The results indicate that the quality of this research has improved little: many studies were unclear in their sampling strategies, validity and reliability of coding variables, and data collection and analysis procedures. The methodological limitations rendered their substantive findings questionable. This article concludes with recommendations for textbook researchers to explicate their data collection and analysis processes and make their results more useful to social studies teaching and learning. It also has implications for social studies teachers on how to use textbooks critically to provide students a more meaningful and powerful learning experience.     

Social Justice as Concept and Practice in Australian Social Work: An Analysis of Norma Parker Addresses, 1969–2008

Abstract

Social justice is central to Australian social work. Principles of social justice underpin the definition of social work as a profession, its code of ethics, and its standards of practice and education. However, there is a dearth of empirical research regarding what social justice has meant to social work over time and how it has been enacted in practice, topical as social inequalities continue to escalate. As a first-stage study, this paper examines how social justice was represented within 19 Norma Parker Addresses delivered by Presidents of the Australian Association of Social Workers at national conferences between 1969 and 2008. Two key themes were evident: social justice as a concept and social justice as social work practice. Social justice was represented conceptually throughout the Addresses as an enduring guiding principle and moral responsibility for social work. How social justice was enacted in practice included themes of: standpoint; practices and strategies; educating social workers; and contested and constrained practice. The meanings and practices of social justice were embedded within the changing contexts within which the Addresses were delivered. Further historical studies can inform social work knowledge, practice, and critical reflection as the profession continues to evolve and confront persistent social justice challenges.     

Direct,Facilitate, Enable—the Juxtaposition of the Duty of Care and the Duty of Disclosure in Social Work Field Education

This article examines the significance of field education placements within contemporary social work field education, particularly considering the increasingly complex issues of the duty of care (to student, agency and field teacher) and the duty to disclose (to student, to field teacher) which schools of social work must negotiate. The dilemmas facing schools and field educators, and the steps taken to resolve them at the University of Melbourne (Australia), are considered to highlight the ongoing liability and accountability difficulties which continue to face social work education.     

Social software and internal communicators’ gatekeeping sense of self

Social software creates opportunities for internal communication. Public relations literature suggests it affords more two-way internal communication that can meet the ideal of symmetry as promoted in the excellence theory (Grunig, 1992). This study involved in-depth interviews with internal communication professionals at 54 companies. Our findings indicate that these professionals tend to view social software positively, often stimulating its use among employees. Additionally, we found that they appropriate social software in such ways as to maintain and even strengthen their gatekeeping role identity. More specifically, our data reveal that traditional gatekeeping, which characterizes mass media systems based on the centralized production and distribution of information, is complemented with networked forms of gatekeeping in decentralized digital media environments. Furthermore, our data suggest that an underlying management ideology hampers the symmetric potential of social software.     

How and Why Do Social and Sustainable Initiatives Scale? A Systematic Review of the Literature on Social Entrepreneurship and Grassroots Innovation

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Social and sustainable initiatives generally start small and need to scale to create substantial impact. Our systematic...