Review article

This paper attempts to discuss the Chinese cultural implications of the recently proposed document: ‘Global Qualifying Standards for Social Work Education’ by the IASSW and IFSW. It seems that this document still embraces an ideology of western social work imperialism in perceiving the development of social work in other countries. With reference to Chinese culture and social work education in Hong Kong and in mainland China, the writer advocates that responsibility and rights, stability and changes, social norms and equality, as well as empowerment and relation, should be fully articulated in the definition, ethical principles, and core purpose of social work practice as well as in the mission and curriculum in social work education within Chinese communities.     

Review article

J.P. Mallory and Victor H. Mair, The Tarim Mummies, Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West, Thames & Hudson, London, 2000. 352 pp., 44 maps, 17 tables, 146 illustrations including 13 in colour, 2 appendices, bibliography, index. ISBN: 0‐500‐05101‐1 (cloth). US$50.00, Canada $75.00 cloth.     

Review article: The archaeology of slavery

Cannon's Point Plantation, 1794–1860: Living Conditions and Status Patterns in the Old South. John Solomon Otto. Studies in Historical Archaeology. Orlando: Academic Press, 1984, xvii, 217 pp. $42.00.

The Archaeology of Slavery and Plantation Life. Theresa A. Singleton, editor. Studies in Historical Archaeology. Orlando: Academic Press, 1985, xvii, 338 pp. $65.00/£56.50.     

Review article: Globalization and the age of migration

Books reviewed in this article:
R. Holton, Globalization and the Nation-State
R. Cohen, Global Diasporas: An Introduction
S. Castles and M. Miller, The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World     

Review article: Comparing the Durkheimian and Marxist traditions

Solidarity and Schism: 'The Problem of Disorder' in Durkheimian and Marxist Sociology , David Lockwood     

Review article: Slavery and slavishness in Russia and America

Hellie, Richard, Slavery in Russia 1450–1725. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982. xix, 776 pp.

Kolchin, Peter. Unfree Labor: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987. xiv, 517 pp.     

Review article: National and racial minorities in total war

Ansel Adams, Manzanar (London: Secker & Warburg, 1989). xx + 167pp. £15.

Joseph Kennedy, British Civilians and the Japanese War in Malaya and Singapore, 1941–45 (London: Macmillan, 1987). xii + 167pp. £29.50.

Tony Kushner, The Persistence of Prejudice: Antisemitism in British Society During the Second World War (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1989). ix + 257pp. £29.95.

François Lafitte, The Internment of Aliens (London: Libris, 1988, 1990). xxiv + 266pp. £24.95 hb; £8.95 pb.

Abraham Lewin, A Cup of Tears: A Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988, 1990). vi + 310pp. £14.95 hb, £4.99 pb.

Frederick C. Luebke, Germans in Brazil: A Comparative History of Cultural Conflict During World War I (London: Louisiana State University Press, 1987). xii + 248pp. £30.90.

Graham A. Smith, When Jim Crow Met John Bull: Black American Soldiers in World War II Britain (London: I.B. Taurus, 1987). 265pp. £14.95.     

Gypsy fetish: music,dirt, magic,and freedom

This article offers a reading of Transylvania (2006) directed by Tony Gatlif. It makes evident Gypsy identity’s unconscious dynamics when it occupies the position of a fetish within the cinematic story and in the interaction of the viewer with the exotic images on the screen. This specific reading argues that Gypsy fetish signals and covers over a site of psychic pain for the protagonist as well as for the viewer. Our argument insists that as a fetish Gypsy identity props up the social order. In this sense Gypsy identity is not addressed as it often is as a symptom, or more specifically as a challenge to the social order, but instead the analysis renders it to be a concealment of the lack around which the symbolic network is articulated. The article further explores Gypsy identity’s music, magic, dirt, and freedom as its key characteristics which conserve a potential access to what was disavowed and covered over – a lost enjoyment.     

Review article: Norbert Elias – established or outsider?

The Civilizing Process: Volume 2, State Formation and Civilization Norbert Elias, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1982, £19.50. 376 pp. The Court Society Norbert Elias, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1983, £15.00. 301 pp.     

Insights into proceeds from social investments: beyond numbers fetishism and relativism

How profitable are social investments? It is necessary for social professionals to gain and give insight into the proceeds of their work. Both clients and professionals will benefit from a results-oriented approach. Subsidising agencies and financiers will reap the fruits of such an approach as well. But how can we gather evidence on the proceeds of social investments? In this article we distinguish two mutually complementary ways of gaining evidence. The first is known as evidence-based policy and practice, mainly quantitative research on the effects of social interventions and on the causal relations between interventions and outcome. However, limitations are attached to quantitative research because of disruptive factors, a variety of side effects and the dynamics of social reality. Complementary evidence is therefore needed: practice-based evidence, based primarily on qualitative methods that provide insight into mechanisms and conditions under which effects occur. The practice-based method presumes systematically studying a series of small-scale and mindful practices in order to uncover tacit knowledge of professionals. It is exactly this combination of rigid quantitative research and flexible qualitative methods which does justice to the challenging undertaking of clarifying the proceeds from social investments.