Warriors in suits: A Bourdieusian perspective on the construction and practice of military masculinity of Korean men

Within masculinity scholarship, there is a gap about how masculinity carries over from a broad social context to an organizational context. This article explores the construction and capitalization of masculinity through a series of experiences in social fields such as the military and college, and the transfer of militaristic masculinity into the workplace. Drawing on grounded theory methods, we conducted in‐depth interviews with 20 Korean men who completed their mandatory two‐year military service and subsequently joined large corporations in Korea. We uncovered a four‐phase model that depicts how Korean men's masculinity is constructed during military service and transferred to their organizational positions characterizing them as warriors in suits. Informed by a Bourdieusian perspective, this study shows how masculinities are constructed, reinforced and legitimatized by the structural influences of society, and how masculinity becomes the desired image of men at work, which perpetuates the gender and power gaps among organizational members.     

A Stakeholder Analysis of Admission in a Baccalaureate Social Work Program

Social work programs shape the profession through their admission practices. A stakeholder analysis of a baccalaureate social work program was conducted to seek stakeholder perspectives on admission practices through interviews and focus groups with 53 participants representing seven stakeholder groups. Results suggest that external stakeholders such as field instructors, social service employers, and adjunct faculty members are not widely represented in the BSW admission process. Four categories of stake-holder expectations for social work admission were found: gatekeeping for professional suitability, a process of self-reflection for students, an indicator of educational quality for the social work program, and progression of students’ professional socialization as a social worker. Findings provide insights to inform faculty as they oversee social work admission.     

MSW Graduates’ Readiness to Respond to Intimate Partner Violence

The purpose of this study is to better understand the relationship among factors affecting social workers’ overall readiness to respond to intimate partner violence (IPV) in a sample of recent MSW graduates (N = 205). Findings suggest MSW IPV education and postgraduate IPV training are significantly associated with perceived preparedness and perceived knowledge but not actual knowledge of IPV. Personal experience with IPV was also significantly associated with perceived knowledge but not perceived preparedness. Furthermore, perceived knowledge appears to be positively associated with perceived preparedness. Findings can inform social work educators’ strategies to increase students’ perceived preparedness to respond to IPV. Specific IPV topics that MSW graduates might be particularly underprepared in are also discussed.     

The nature and culture of social work with children and families in long‐term casework: Findings from a qualitative longitudinal study

Social work in the United Kingdom is preoccupied with what social workers cannot do due to having limited time to spend with service users. Yet remarkably little research has examined what social workers actually do, especially in long‐term relationships. This paper draws from an ethnographic study of two social work departments in England that spent 15 months observing practice and organizational life. Our findings show that social work some of the time has a significant amount of involvement with some service users and the dominant view that relationship‐based practice is rarely achieved is in need of some revision. However, families at one research site received a much more substantial, reliable overall service due to the additional input of family support workers and having a stable workforce who had their own desks and were co‐located with managers in small team offices. This generated a much more supportive, reflective culture for social workers and service users than at the second site, a large open plan “hot‐desking” office. Drawing on relational, systemic, and complexity theories, the paper shows how the nature of what social workers do and culture of practice are shaped by the interaction between available services, office designs, and practitioners', managers', and service users' experiences of relating together.     

Seeing people in the computer: The role of information technology in remote employment services

Information technologies have been important in the emergence of new forms of control and surveillance of welfare recipients and of those who administer labour market programmes. These technologies have often appeared at the margins of accounts of welfare reform, for example as means of increasing the efficiency or consistency of services, or as constraining frontline discretion. Henman has argued, however, that information technologies need to be analysed not just as administrative tools, but as “non-human actors,” shaping policy development and implementation in ways beyond the intentions of their human creators (Henman, Governing Electronically: E-government and the Reconfiguration of Public Administration, Policy and Power, Palgrave MacMillan). This paper explores the way that the use of government information systems has shaped employment services in remote Australia where over 80 per cent of those included are Indigenous people. The article describes how the production and use of administrative data within employment services have supported and extended the framing of Indigenous people in remote communities as non-compliant and as needing external direction.     

Are Baby Boomers Richer Than Their Parents? Intergenerational Patterns of Wealth Ownership in the United States

This study compares wealth ownership and mobility patterns among baby boomers and their parents to explore whether the baby boomers have fared as well during their working years and whether they will be as secure in retirement as their parents. Cohort comparisons using survey data indicate that baby boomers had accumulated more wealth as young adults than their parents had at a similar age. Estimates from a simulation model reveal that baby boomers had more wealth than their actual same‐sex parents at every stage of the life course. The simulation model also reveals that baby boomers were considerably more likely than their actual same‐sex parents to experience upward wealth mobility at each point in the life course. These results suggest that speculations that baby boomers may be the first generation to do worse than their parents are misleading.