The role of social support when giving up drug abuse: a female perspective

This article contains a presentation and analysis of the results from two qualitative studies, which examined female drug abusers' everyday lives and the social support available to them within their close relationships. Both studies concerned women who were participating in work-training or treatment programmes and who were in the process of giving up drug abuse. The two main questions concerned the supply of social support from the women's social networks and whether the amount of support available or lack of support had any impact on the exit process. Social support within different relationships of the women's social networks is presented, as well as different types of professional social support and treatment. The results in relation to previous research about female drug abusers and social support from gender and class perspectives are discussed. Conclusions about three important factors when creating a new life after drug abuse are drawn.     

Protective legislation: The “third pillar” of the welfare state

Welfare states are built upon three central social policy pillars: (1) income programs, including an assortment of income maintenance and security benefits; (2) social services, comprising a diverse constellation of provisions, which furnish care such as health care and education, and “in kind” benefits; and (3) protective legislation, encompassing a dense web of proactive and preventative laws, rights, and entitlements, such as health and safety legislation, minimum wage laws, child protection acts, rent controls, and laws governing evictions and foreclosures. Despite its centrality to the welfare state and to our well‐being, this third pillar has received considerably less attention in comparative social policy research. The dominant welfare state typologies have focused almost exclusively upon income measures and, more recently, on social services, to construct their welfare state categories or “worlds” of welfare while largely neglecting this crucial third pillar. A greater focus on protective welfare legislation can help sharpen the distinctions among welfare states within and across the welfare worlds, which is particularly valuable in light of the ongoing erosion of the other two pillars over the past few decades.     

Extending the Pillars of Social Policy Financing to Aged Care

Against the background of a recent resounding rejection of substantial increases in user contributions for funding long-term residential care in Australia, and especially of measures that could require realization of housing assets, this paper examines the scope for extending to long-term care the "pillars" approach to financing of retirement incomes and health care. The two latter areas are funded through pillars of general revenue, private insurance, social insurance by way of compulsory levies, and direct user contributions, whereas long-term care is financed only by a large pillar of general revenue and a smaller pillar of user contributions which are themselves drawn largely from transfer payments. Examination of the various pillars in each area suggests that there is limited scope for extending private insurance and user contributions in long-term care, but that there are several social policy grounds for incorporating a social insurance pillar. However, while discussion of social insurance options is growing in several quarters, the current political climate offers little prospect for the adoption of such a scheme.     

Social Networks of Mining Town Women

This study examined the social ecology of families in new mining towns by means of network analysis. It compared the personal social networks of 44 mothers living in mining towns with a similar group of mothers living in rural service towns, in terms of structural, interactional and support characteristics. Qualitatively different adaptation patterns were found between the two groups, which suggest that mining women are under more psychological stress than women in country towns. Mining women were less socially integrated into their community, had more fragile social networks, and were in greater need of social support than their country-town counterparts.     

Response to Commentaries:

It is time to bring nature (genetics) together with nurture (environment) in the study of social development. Following a brief overview of behavioral genetic theory and methods, three examples are described of new genetic research especially relevant to social developmentalists. First, initial research findings on three key domains of social development (attachment, empathy, and social competence) suggest that genetic factors contribute to individual differences in social development. Second, research on widely used measures of social environment implicates a genetic contribution, which opens up new directions for research at the interface of nature and nurture in social development. Third, by the turn of the century, it is predicted that behavioral genetic research will be conducted using DNA markers that assess genetic variation among individuals directly rather than resorting to indirect estimates based on twin and adoption methods. This will revolutionize behavioral genetic research and make it more accessible and applicable to developmentalists. As a first step in the direction of behavioral genetics, social developmentalists are encouraged to include siblings in their research.     

社会网络资源在职业配置中的作用*

本文运用大规模问卷调查资料探讨了社会网络资源在职业配置中的具体作用。我们的主要研究发现是：（1）人力资本和政治资本较贫乏、经济地位较高的人更可能频繁使用社会网络资源以实现职业流动;（2）运用社会网络资源的职业流动者比不用者的求职效率低,但前者的目标收入却高于后者;（3）运用社会网络资源的职业流向是从政府部门和国有企业流向个体、集体、外资合营、外国独资、新经济部门或无主管上级的市场化的经济实体;（4）社会网络资源的运用,对劳职配置的吻合程度没有显著的影响。     

Knowledge,power and the city since 1700

Between the mid-nineteenth century and the early twentieth century the trend of recorded violence in New Zealand broadly paralleled that of Britain. This review appraises critically two local interpretations of social attitudes and behaviour seen to be reflected in the colonial trend. Both provide 'frontier-type' theses in viewing disorder as a by-product of either colonial masculinity or the social atomization of migrants. Accordingly the decline in recorded violence is viewed as the outcome of either a local civilizing process or the emergence of social networks. However, the parallelism of the colonial and British trends suggest that there could be common processes at work. In this context, the nature of colonial violence, patterns of colonial litigiousness and the applicability of V. A. C. Gatrell's interpretation of the development of a disciplinary 'policeman-state' are considered. The need for further comparative research in both the colonial and British context is suggested, so as to test the extent to which the colonial experience of violence may be explained by 'frontier' and/or 'cultural fragment' explanations.     

Social Networks Derived from Affiliations and Friendships, Multi-informant and Self-reports: Stability, Concordance, Placement of Aggressive and Unpopular Children, and Centrality

This study compares three variations in how researchers construct middle childhood social networks: (1) with friendships or affiliations as a relational tie; (2) with children providing self reports of relationships, or in addition, multi-informant reports of relationships in which they are not involved; and (3) whether network computation is correlational or distance-based . The sample was 357 fourth- and fifth-grade students in 17 classrooms. The strongest differences were between self-reported friendship and affiliative networks. Results showed that compared with affiliations, friendship networks had smaller groups, more isolates, and lower fall-to-spring stability. Agreement in social placement between friendship and affiliative networks was generally average, but poor for unpopular and aggressive children. Multi-informant affiliative networks were most robust in their positioning of aggressive children. Multi-informant centrality was uniquely uncorrelated with aggression. Network computation differences were not substantial. Discussion focuses on recommendations for research and the educational promise of network technology.     

‘His mam,my dad,my girlfriend,loads of people used to bring him up’: the value of social support for (ex) offender fathers

This research analyses key findings from qualitative research conducted with (ex) offender fathers and their probation officers. This paper focuses on the critical role of family and social support for (ex) offender fathers who seek to build and maintain relationships with their children. The research reported in this paper shows that the men receive social support, both formal and informal from a wide ranging and complex network of family, friends and practitioners, which facilitates and enables their commitment to fathering. Drawing on social support theory, I argue that identification of support networks recognizes the productive possibilities of vulnerable families which constitute a source of strength and connection to be nurtured in contexts of adversity. This strengths‐based paradigm advocates the need to identify and facilitate family, friendship and professional networks in the context of social work with offenders and their families.     

Excluding Children: Autonomy, Friendship and the Experience of the Care System

The concept of social exclusion is increasingly important in policy and research but has rarely been addressed from a child-centred perspective. Childhood is a social experience in itself, one that has its own norms and customs, and where the demands of participation and inclusion may be considerable, likewise the costs of exclusion. This paper explores the meaning and experience of social exclusion for children by focusing on a particular group of children and young people, those 'looked after' in the public care system. The sample involved children who had minimal contact with their parents, and who although not currently materially poor were vulnerable to a high future risk of experiencing poverty. They thus provided a valuable opportunity to explore some of the relational aspects of social exclusion. Using in-depth interviews to explore the meaning of friendship in their lives, the study revealed the importance of social relationships for these children, andin particular the impact of the care system on their capacity to make and sustain social networks. The findings suggest that the relational aspects of poverty are not just consequences of material poverty but can have a dynamic of their own, one that may have a particular resonance for children. This has implications not just for children in the care system, but also for children in families, where family poverty and the restricted social and economic integration of parents may also have an impact on children's capacity for developing social relationships and wider social networks.     

占有、经营与治理：乡镇企业的三重分析概念—— 重返经典社会科学研究的一项尝试（上）

本文系统梳理了社会学领域中具有代表性的几项产权研究,试图从占有、经营、治理三个经典理论概念出发来分析乡镇企业的生成结构和运行机制。文章指出,乡镇企业在占有关系上汇合了公有制、共有制和私有制等多重因素;在经营关系上则充分利用双轨制的体制环境,将土地承包、企业承包经营和财政包干结合起来;在治理关系上将体制的、知识的和民情的等多向度的治理机制相融合,解放了家庭、宗族、习俗等各种传统资源,并以此寻求实践中的改革与创造。乡镇企业作为社会运行的多重因素和多重环节的交集点,不仅蕴涵着丰富的制度创新空间,也充分反映出改革时代的制度精神。     

Dealing with the wicked issue of child poverty: Inter-organizational networks as forums for collective debate and reflection

In the international realm, inter-organizational networking is perceived as a highly relevant instrument in social policy that enables welfare organizations to deal with “wicked issues.” In this article, we discuss the central empirical findings acquired from a recent qualitative research project that focuses on inter-organizational networks that were formed at the local level to deal with the wicked issue of child poverty as a complex and multidimensional social problem. We explore how the network discussions about normative value orientations in four inter-organizational networks evolve, and identify three central fields of tension that illustrate the complexity for local welfare actors in and across networks to create network strategies in dealing with child poverty: (a) selective versus universal provision, (b) conditional versus unconditional strategies, and (c) instrumental versus lifeworld-oriented approaches. Our findings show that networks can function as valuable forums for collective debate and reflection, since different approaches and perspectives to tackle the problem of child poverty can be confronted with each other. Creating such a forum has the potential to challenge dominant conceptualizations and undesirable assumptions of complex social problems that are present in welfare practices and policies.     

Social capital and its relevance to the Japanese-model welfare society

Current debates and initiatives relating to the welfare regime in Japan focus on the contributions of informal and community networks. In this article, we adopt the concept of social capital, which is assessed according to three categories – structural social capital, experiential individual social capital and anticipatory individual social capital – in order to evaluate the assumptions and strengths of community in Japan. The findings are based on a small-scale survey conducted in the Greater Kobe area in 2002. The study revealed that the level of structural social capital is 'average' and the level of experiential individual social capital is 'rather low'. However, the anticipatory individual social capital, which is the expectation of future assistance whether conditional or unconditional, is higher than the experiential individual social capital. The findings suggest that, in Japan, people's belief that they will receive assistance in the future has a significant impact on their level of achievement. Such findings may help us understand the nature of the welfare regime in Japan: it depends on a sense of general trust, which effectively supports the informal groups and community networks that provide assistance to their members.     

‘It was better when it was worse’: blue-collar narratives of the recent past in Belgrade

Based on oral history research conducted among networks of blue-collar workers in Belgrade, Serbia, this article develops three interrelated arguments regarding workers’ appraisals of the recent past (1980–2014). Firstly, although the tumultuous years of late socialism and post-socialism in Serbia have been represented by scholars as a series of ruptures, I suggest that for blue-collar workers the boundaries between socialism and post-socialism and pre-conflict and wartime eras are blurry. Secondly, despite the conditions of war and economic collapse, blue-collar accounts of the 1990s in Serbia are not universally negative. Some individuals experienced upward social mobility, strongly influenced by class and gender positioning in late socialism. Female workers who had experienced hardship during the 1980s were often better equipped to navigate 1990s ‘economies of makeshift’. Thirdly, social dislocation associated with neoliberal economic reforms since 2000 disproportionally affects blue-collar workers, reshaping narratives of late socialism and the 1990s (sometimes inducing workers to overlook or downplay coercive aspects of the Milo?evi? regime). The accounts of this diverse group of (former) workers highlight that social class, gender and generational cohort condition the rather divergent ways in which the last three decades were experienced, are remembered and continue to be reevaluated in Serbia.     

The Relationship between Social Networks and Volunteerism among Seniors

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article was to examine the role of social networks in the fostering of volunteering as a social activity among older adults. Two different data sources were used. First, a secondary analysis was conducted of 2,057 Spanish respondents to the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, previously published in 2013. The features of the social networks of volunteers and non-volunteers (network structure, interaction and quality) were analyzed. Second, a questionnaire was administered to 152 older volunteers in Spain to determine the role played by social networks in the recruitment of older people to volunteer work by looking at which network members had suggested volunteering, among other variables. The analysis of the two datasets found that the low participation of older Spanish people in volunteering is related to the structure of their social networks. While the social networks of older Spanish people are mostly comprised of family members, recruitment to volunteering tends to happen through relationships with friends and acquaintances rather than relatives. Future research in this area should consider the impact of gender on the uptake of volunteering and address other issues such as the role of social networks in the benefits that people get from volunteering.     

An ecological approach to social work with children and families

This paper examines research into the social ecology of parents and children, with particular reference to the effects of social support on family functioning and outcomes for children. The historical failure of social work in the UK to successfully apply the findings from this area of research to mainstream work with children and families is considered in the light of the prevailing child protection discourse. Challenges to this discourse are now beginning to emerge from developments in both research and practice. The implications of these developments for the construction of a new discourse, which recognizes the wider social and political factors that shape the family environment, are discussed. It is argued that there is sufficient research evidence available to demonstrate the potential of community social work strategies, which enhance the social support networks of families, to significantly reduce the incidence of child abuse. A number of successful action-research projects of this nature are considered.     

The Social Separation of Old and Young: A Root of Ageism

Ageism has been the focus of numerous publications, while age segregation is a neglected topic. Ageism on a micro-individual level is linked to segregation on a macro level in a segregation-ageism cycle. Possible linking mechanisms, which might help break this cycle, can be found on a meso level of social networks—their structure and functions. Data from the United States and the Netherlands show that non-family networks are strongly age homogeneous. Based on earlier work by a range of scholars, we suggest that time, group identity, perspective-taking, and affective ties are factors that must be considered with regard to the functions of networks. Addressing meso level mechanisms poses challenges to social policy as well as research.     

占有、经营与治理：乡镇企业的三重分析概念——重返经典社会科学研究的一项尝试（下）

本文系统梳理了社会学领域中具有代表性的几项产权研究,试图从占有、经营、治理三个经典理论概念出发,分析乡镇企业的生成结构和运行机制。文章指出,乡镇企业在占有关系上汇合了公有制、共有制和私有制等多重因素;在经营关系上则充分利用双轨制的体制环境,将土地承包、企业承包经营和财政包干结合起来;在治理关系上将体制的、知识的和民情的等多向度的治理机制相融合,解放了家庭、宗族、习俗等各种传统资源,并以此寻求实践中的改革与创造。乡镇企业作为社会运行的多重因素和多重环节的交集点,不仅蕴涵着丰富的制度创新空间,也充分反映出改革时代的制度精神。     

权力的嵌入性分析——国有资产重组下的企业结盟

本文对企业行动者之间的权力关系、策略互动及其所嵌入的社会网络与制度环境提供了一个解释框架。文章运用组织决策学派的“权力”概念,对国有资产重组下的国有资产经营公司与民企联盟的结盟进行了分析。在 “嵌入性”概念的基础上,作者认为,作为结盟前提的权力嵌入于社会网络之中,并且嵌入于中国市场化改革与政体连续性的制度背景之中,因此给权力关系与结盟带来了不确定性。文章试图把“权力”带回企业结盟分析的中心,在理论上对格兰诺维特的社会网络嵌入与倪志伟的制度嵌入进行综合,提出应洞察行动者所嵌入的社会网络以及更为广泛的制度因素对企业行动者的影响。     

企业社会工作介入农民工服务：内容和推进模式

企业社会工作是专业社会工作的重要的实务领域,是专业社会工作服务于农民工的重要路径。企业社会工作介入农民工服务,将有助于农民工问题的解决。企业社会工作可以在维权和协调劳资关系、协助解决各种实际困难和问题、教育与培训、营造有利于农民工的企业文化等诸多方面为农民工提供服务。企业社会工作介入农民工服务主要有＂企业主动引入＂和＂政府购买服务＂两种基本的推进模式,以及作为重要补充的＂校企合作＂、＂社会捐助＂等其他推进模式。