The Changing Nature and Context of Social Work Research

Summary Social work research is constantly diversifying and expandingand this article explores its changing nature; including changesto epistemology and practice; and the critical influence ofthe wider economic, political, theoretical and practice changesoccurring to social work itself. The author discusses a numberof issues facing social work research: the enduring conflictsof ways of knowing, doing and valuing social work research;the role of practitioners as researchers; and the challengeto empower service users as self-determining researchers.     

社会工作研究中的价值介入与社会研究伦理考量

社会工作研究在研究方法、研究手段等方面都受到社会研究多种方法论范式的影响,社会工作研究者无论选择何种社会研究范式进行研究,都会在选题、分析、总结等过程中有不同程度的价值介入,而源于价值观的社会研究伦理又将直接影响研究者的研究选题、方法和结论。本文从社会研究中的价值介入问题入手,探讨社会工作研究中的价值与伦理问题带来的思考。     

The Current Status of Social Work Research

Summary This article reviews the range of research relevant to socialwork. It suggests a tentative framework within which differentstudies can be viewed, and particular emphasis is placed onthe importance of exploratory research. There is an evaluationof the contribution of research findings to current thinkingin casework, and it is argued that the researcher's task isto compel the practitioner, the teacher, the student, the administrator,always to re-define aims and activities in the light of accumulatingknowledge     

Changing Social Work Roles in Family Centres: A Social Psychological Analysis

Correspondence to Dr R.J. Brown, Institute of Social and Applied Psychology, The University, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7LZ. Summary This article reports a longitudinal study of field and residentialsocial workers' perceptions of each other in the first ten monthsafter the introduction of a new children and families policyby a large social services department. 1 A central element ofthis policy was the setting up of Family Centres designed tofacilitate closer co-operation between field and residentialstaff. Data was collected from two interviews ten months apartwith 52 field and residential social workers based in two divisionsin the county. Mutual role perceptions indicated a consensusover the traditional division of labour between field and residentialworkers with field workers being seen as having superior skillsin counselling, crisis intervention and case responsibility,whilst residential workers were regarded as better at providingbasic care for and developing close relationships with childrenin care. On only three role dimensions (engendering trust withclients, accuracy in assessments, and preparation work) wasthere any disagreement between the two groups. None of theserole perceptions changed perceptibly over the course of thestudy. However, the social workers' perceived outcomes fromtheir work (for example, pay, training opportunities, promotionprospects, etc.) changed markedly over the ten month period,and varied between the two divisions. In one division evidenceof a changed and more egalitarian relationship between the fieldand residential staff was visible; in the other, both groupsseemed to show a decline in morale and no real change in thetraditional status difference between the groups was apparent.These findings are interpreted in the light of social psychologicaltheories of intergroup relations, and some policy implicationsare discussed.     

Social Adjustment: The Design and Use of an Instrument for Social Work and Social Work Research

Please address correspondence and reprint requests to: Dr. R. Corney, General Practice Research Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5. Summary This article discusses some of the problems encountered whentrying to assess social adjustment and describes a standardizedsemi-structured interview designed to measure social adjustmentand dysfunction. The interview can be used by social workersas a research tool, a screening device or in making an assessmentThe interview is composed of items grouped under the three headingsof ‘Material conditions’, ‘Social management’and ‘Satisfaction’. Ratings are made on a four-pointscale by interviewers standardized in its use. The interviewwhich takes 40 minutes to one hour to administer, covers housing,finance, occupation, social and leisure activities, and relationshipswith significant individuals in the subject's life.     

社区社会工作本土化的实践——以佛山市罗村街道为例

在中国社会工作蓬勃发展的过程中,如何扎根国情,实现从西方专业社会工作到本土化社会工作模式的转型已经成为各界关注和探讨的焦点。广东省佛山市南海区罗村街道自2007年实行社区体制改革以来,积极探索出一条社会工作本土化发展的道路和模式,成效显著,反响巨大。本文尝试总结了罗村街道在实现社会工作本土化方面的探索和创新。     

社区社会工作本土化的实践——以佛山市罗村街道为例

在中国社会工作蓬勃发展的过程中,如何扎根国情,实现从西方专业社会工作到本土化社会工作模式的转型已经成为各界关注和探讨的焦点。广东省佛山市南海区罗村街道自2007年实行社区体制改革以来,积极探索出一条社会工作本土化发展的道路和模式,成效显著,反响巨大。本文尝试总结了罗村街道在实现社会工作本土化方面的探索和创新。     

社会工作介入刑满释放人员社会融入问题研究

如何发挥社会工作在促进刑满释放人员社会融入中的作用,是加强和创新社会管理的重要内容。本研究以长沙市8名刑满释放人员为研究个案,运用定性研究方法,以社会工作系统理论为研究视角,探讨社会工作介入刑满释放人员的身份融入、职业融入、家庭融入、社会交往融入的服务模式。在此基础上,建议建立社会工作介入刑满释放人员社会融入的服务模式,以便有效地促进刑满释放人员的社会融入,为维护社会稳定和构建社会主义和谐社会添砖加瓦。     

The Limits of Positivism in Social Work Research

Correspondence to David Smith, Leaturer in Social Work, Department of Social Administration, Fylde College University of Lancaster, Bailrigg, Lancaster LA1 4LX. Summary This paper considers the argument that research on social workshould be more rigorously scientific in its methods, using thework of Brian Sheldon as representative of this position. Itis argued that a wholly positivist approach is inadequate onepistemological grounds, and that the procedures characteristicof this approach, particularly the experimental method, areunlikely to prove generally feasible or useful. Evaluation researchin other fields is used to illustrate this argument, and itis suggested that social work is far from unique in its under-useof research findings. A possible alternative, that social workshould be evaluated by artistic criteria, is briefly examinedand found to be problematic. The paper concludes with an argumentthat research in future should be more concerned with process,and more open, participative and pragmatic in style.     

社会工作与农村社会工作的使命

从社会工作与农村社会工作发展的现状入手,论述了社会工作尤其是农村社会工作的基础、特征、使命,强调农村社会工作的实践性与反思性,在此基础上提出丰富本土社会工作知识,加强与国际社会工作的对话能力。     

社会工作专业实践教学研究综述

社会工作不同于其他理论学科的实务性特点使社会工作专业实践教学成为社会工作学科建设的重点和难点。本文对中国近十年社会工作专业本科实践教学领域的研究内容、建设现状及问题、解决对策等方面进行了梳理。     

The Post- and the Anti-: Analysing Change and Changing Analyses in Social Work

Correspondence to Dr Liz Lloyd, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, 7 Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1UA Summary This article considers some of the issues raised by criticsof postmodern analyses of social work. It analyses the waysin which social services departments have changed to a ‘post-fordist’organizational form and considers the implications for equalitypolicies and anti-oppressive practice. It challenges the viewthat preserving a more professional approach to social workoffers greater opportunities for anti-oppressive practice thanthe more deprofessionalized approach currently being developedand argues that social workers committed to the principles ofanti-oppressive practice can develop new tactics appropriateto the changing organizational context It also argues that postmodernistanalyses offer new insights into experiences of power, oppressionand inequality. In particular, it stresses the importance ofunderstanding the linkages between broader, political and economictrends and the experiences of individual social workers andservice users. Drawing on research in Avon Social Services, it considers theways in which race equality strategies in community care continueto reduce issues of race and racism to culture and identity.Reflecting critically on anti-oppressive and anti-racist actionit argues that the limitations placed on anti-oppressive practiceunder the postfordist context of community care are unlikelyto differ greatly from those felt under previous organizationalregimes.     

Disaster Research in Social Work

SUMMARY

Disaster research in social work has deep roots in the profession'S history of disaster relief, social work'S mission to create resources and make them accessible to people, and the profession'S service to vulnerable populations. Social workers have important and unique contributions to make to disaster research through their expertise in ecological approaches, prevention, stress and coping, and promoting change in micro and macro systems. Disaster research in social work borrows primarily from psychology and sociology, and is conducted in clinical, organizational, and community contexts. Further social work research on disaster promises improved theory, measurement, and practice in situations of collective Stress.     

The Changing Face of Social Administration

This article explores the changing nature of the discipline of Social Administration in the post‐1945 era. The vigorous challenge to Traditional Social Administration in the 1970s and 1980s did not lead, as some had feared, to the demise of the subject's applied, problem‐solving, ethos. Within the broader discipline of Social Policy, the Social Administration perspective adapted and evolved. While retaining some elements of Traditional Social Administration namely, empiricism and a problem focus, the emergence of Contemporary Social Administration represents a significant and distinctive change in this sphere of academic enquiry.     

社会工作专业学位研究生教育本土化研究初探

中国社会工作专业学位研究生教育在学习西方经验的同时,无可逃避的要走一条适合中国国情的本土道路。能否“对话交往,融入中心,实现应用性与学术性的统一;互为主体,知行合一,实现理论性与实践性的统一;视域融合,专兼相济,实现专业性与综合性的统一”是本土化能否顺利进行的关键因素。     

Hypothesis Generation in Social Work Research

This article describes the process of generating hypotheses from empirical, qualitalive data. Arguing that a discovery oriented, qualitative method of hypothesis generation has great potential for the development of social work knowledge, the paper shows how the grounded theory method originated by Glaser and Strauss (1976) builds on both induction and deduction and develops the research design over the course of the research. The conceptual framework, the research question, the sample, and the hypotheses evolve in response to the empirical patterns which the researcher discovers in the conduct of the research. The processes of hypothesis generation are demonstrated through examples taken from a research project on factors which distinguish perpetrators of child sexual abuse from persons of similar background and who have not acted out sexually with children. A discovery-oriented approach can help build social work knowledge of the situation-to-be-measured and changed.     

Survival Analysis in Social Work Research

Correspondence to Dr Richard Pugh, School of Social Relations, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK. E-mail: spa08{at}keele.ac.uk Summary Survival analysis is a method of analysing any data set thatconsists of time to event where the data set is not temporallycompleted. That is, where not all of the initial events havebeen succeeded by the end events. Its major advantage is thatit allows the researcher to model the data using the whole set.Although widely used in other disciplines, with a few exceptions,it has received relatively little attention in social work.This paper provides a review of the method and illustrates itsapplication in a study of child protection practice.     

Loglinear Analysis in Social Work Research

Loglinear analysis is a method of statistical analysis that is used when all the variables of interest are categorical. The method has had wide use in the social sciences, but has not been used extensively in social work research. Loglinear analysis has several advantages over less appropriate methods that tend to be used frequently in social work research. Among the most important of those advantages is the capability of accounting for multicollinearity among variables; multiple bivariate tests cannot detect such relationships and may thus produce distorted and misleading results. This article explains the appropriate uses of loglinear analysis, describes briefly the calculations involved, and finally illustrates applications of the method.     

Statistical Considerations in Social Work Research

Correspondence to David Goda, School of Computing and Information Technology, University of Wolverhampton, Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton WV1 1SB. Summary Guidelines are presented in an attempt to assist those consideringsubmitting to this Journal papers containing quantitative data.