The Nature of Child Neglect

Correspondence to Brian Minty, Lecturer in Psychiatric Social Work, University of Manchester, Department of Psychiatry, Mathematics Tower, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL. Summary The paper discusses the nature of child neglect, and draws onthe existing literature to provide evidence that neglect canbe extremely damaging to children. This is in contrast to theviews we hear personally from some social workers: that neglectis simply the consequence of material poverty, or a conditionthat need not arouse the same degree of professional concernas physical or sexual abuse. We report on a study of neglectfulfamilies, in which we have attempted to devise a simple instrumentfor quickly detecting the probable existence of neglect. Useof this instrument confirmed that among families referred toan NSPCC Child Protection Team there was a strong associationbetween physical and emotional neglect. Working on the use ofthe first questionnaire we have developed a second and shorterScale of Parental Caregiving, which has yet to be tested inpractice.     

Reconsidering the role of the digital in global production networks

Global production networks (GPNs) have become a key framework in conceptualizing linkages, power and structure in globalized production. However, this framework has been less successful in integrating the influence of digital information and ICTs in production, and this problematic in a world where relationships and power are increasingly mediated by digital information flows and resources. We thus look to adapt the GPN framework to allow more substantive analysis of ‘the digital’. Primarily, this is done through a theoretical analysis of the three core categories of the GPN framework – embeddedness, value and networks – to highlight how these categories can better integrate a more dynamic and contested conceptualization of the digital. Illustrations from research on the digitalization of tea sector GPNs in East Africa highlight how these theoretical advances provide new insights on the digital and its expanding role in economic production.     

The Impact of Character-training Courses Upon Young People: an Empirical Investigation

Summary This article reports an attempt to assess the impact of character-trainingcourses upon young people. Seventy-seven young people from aLancashire-based company were interviewed both before, and aftertheir participation on the courses. From previous studies andliterature produced by the courses, five possible effects werehypothesized: (1) That the courses increase the social competenceof trainees. (2) That following the courses young people putmore into and get more out of life. (3) Trainees subsequentlydevelop new leisure interests. (4) The courses develop leadershipqualities. (5) Following courses young people are more likelyto participate in community service. The interview scheduleswere designed to test these hypotheses. Comparisons betweenreplies received from pre- and post-trainees confirmed onlyone of the hypotheses: following their training the young peopledid develop leisure interests related to the content of thecourses. Otherwise the data collected before and after the coursesdid not follow the predicted patterns. Further analysis of thedata suggested that the courses have an additional and unintendedeffect: namely that they make young people less settled at work     

The Impact of Incentives Upon Risky Choice Experiments

Much of the evidence raising doubts about expected utility theory (EUT) comes from experiments involving hypothetical decisions. Most of the rest of the evidence comes from experiments where respondents are asked to make a large number of decisions, knowing that only one of these will provide the basis for payment. Concerns have often been expressed about the "realness" of such data, and their reliability as a basis for criticizing EUT and promoting alternative theories. The present article reviews this debate and reports new experimental results that directly address this issue.     

Social Work and Blood Vengeance: The Bedouin-Arab Case

Correspondence to Alean Al-Krenawi, Department of Social Work, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel Summary The practice of blood vengeance, the obligation to kill in retributionfor the death of a member of one's family or tribe, is illegalin most countries of the world; however, many traditional culturesstill demand this form of maintaining honour. This paper outlinesthe cultural and historical contexts of the practice of bloodvengeance among the Bedouin of the Negev of Israel. It considersthe consequences for the targeted family and details the copingstrategies adopted by the family, especially the children, underconditions of extreme social, emotional and economic deprivation.It discusses social work intervention, from initial contactto partial resolution; strategies of cultural sensitivity arealso outlined.     

Making connections between global production networks for used goods and the realm of production: a case study on e‐waste governance

Recent scholarship on waste within economic geography and global production network (GPN) studies has identified several unique characteristics of networks for used goods vis‐à‐vis ‘traditional’ GPN studies focused on production, exchange and consumption. However, in un‐bracketing GPNs to include analysis of post‐consumption activity, identifying how the distinct moments of production, exchange, consumption and disposal/recycling are related becomes a crucial task. Towards this end, I present a case study on the governance of e‐waste networks that draws upon discussions of performativity and Hudson's cultural political economy approach to GPNs. In my analysis, I demonstrate how multiple factors, such as ideological differences over how to handle e‐waste, the non‐standardized nature of used goods, as well as production factors such as design choices and planned obsolescence, all shape and disrupt efforts to standardize and coordinate resource recovery and hazard mitigation in the post‐consumption phase of electronic goods. Such analysis moves past the novelty of GPNs for used goods toward a more integrated understanding of GPNs as a whole.     

A Political Critique of Kantian Ethics in Social Work

Correspondence to Stephen A. Webb, Department of Social Work, University of Dundee, DD1 4HN. Summary This paper addresses the Kantian theory of the subject whichis found in contemporary social work discourse on ethics andvalues. It is argued here that the Kantian idea of persons as(i) rational, (ii) autonomous, and (iii) ends-in-themselvesis wholly inadequate to the social work doctrine of ‘respectfor persons’. To show this, we counterpose a Foucauldianview of history, moral codes and theory of the person, and themeaning this can have in the social worker-client relation.This alternative reading claims that social work is essentiallya political practice which is constructed by various discursiveand institutional strategies of power. Therefore, it is suggestedthat social work needs a political reading of its own discourse.To this end we outline a Foucauldian micro-political analysisof the social work ‘subject’ or person as a pointwithin a field of discursive-knowledge based strategies.     

Informal Networks of Care: Issues Raised by Barclay

Summary In calling for the creation of ‘community social work’,the Barclay Report argues that social workers should aim todevelop informal caring networks. This entails exploiting anindividual's informal social contacts, such as kin, friends,and neighbours, to provide care. This paper firstly examinesthe assumptions and thinking behind the concept of informalcaring networks. It then assesses the feasibility of using differentinformal relations in care provision by analysing the normativepatterning and exchange content underlying them. It concludesthat strategies like Barclay's are unlikely to be successfulbecause they entail a transformation of these relationshipsthat is incompatible with their normal organisation.     

Evangelical Christianity, Secular Humanism, and the Genesis of British Social Work

Correspondence to Dr Graham Bowpitt, Department of Social Sciences, The Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU, UK. E-mail: graham.bowpitt{at}ntu.ac.uk Summary This paper is a reappraisal of the Christian origins of socialwork and, as such, is a contribution to writing the profession'shistory. It examines the competing ideological roots of theconcept of ‘social work’ which emerged in late nineteenth-centuryBritain, and the extent to which they are derived from the Christiancharitable tradition or its secular transformation. Two featuresof early social work are examined in particular depth: its moralpurpose in relation to the Evangelical belief in charity asan instrument of spiritual revival; and its rational methodsin relation to secular beliefs about the possibility of personaland social change. Much of the paper focuses on the ideological and institutionalrelationship between the emerging activity of social work andEvangelical revivalism which formed the context for most latenineteenth-century philanthropy. The crisis of faith experiencedby Victorian intellectuals is a significant motif throughoutthis period. This is not an attempt to rewrite the history of social work,but to re-examine neglected features in its origins: EvangelicalChristianity and its secular humanist transformation. In doingso, it is hoped to throw light on the recent revival of interestin the importance of religion to social work.