Financial Credit: Social Work's Role in Empowering Low-Income Families

Social workers interact with families and communities that financially struggle and have credit challenges. Social workers could benefit from increasing their financial literacy to knowledgeably educate, assist, and refer families in financial need. Specifically, knowledge about credit is imperative in today's economy. This article provides information about financial credit, financial literacy efforts, and the basics about credit, credit reports, and credit scores. Discussion is centered on the roles social workers could play in assisting families to build credit and make sound financial decisions. Areas for policy advocacy about financial literacy and credit are delineated.     

Crafting Organization

The recent shift in attention away from organization studies as science has allowed for consideration of new ways of thinking about both organization and organizing and has led to several recent attempts to 'bring down' organizational theorizing. In this paper, we extend calls for organization to be represented as a creative process by considering organization as craft. Organizational craft, we argue, is attractive, accessible, malleable, reproducible, and marketable. It is also a tangible way of considering organization studies with irreverence. We draw on the hierarchy of distinctions among fine art, decorative art, and craft to suggest that understanding the organization of craft assists in complicating our understanding of marginality. We illustrate our argument by drawing on the case of a contemporary Australian craftworks and marketplace known initially as the Meat Market Craft Centre ('MMCC') and then, until its recent closure, as Metro! Stella Minahan was a board member and then the Chief Executive Officer of the Metro! Craft Centre     

Lesbian Desire in the Age of AIDS: From the Head of Medusa Sprung

In the age of AIDS, lesbians' sexualities were strangely protected from the epidemic spread of the HIV virus, even while many lesbians' social and political lives were deeply impacted by its catastrophic effects on the gay community. The “so close but yet so far” phenomenon defining lesbian experience during the AIDS crisis evoked mixed and complicated emotions unique to that sector of the gay community. This article highlights the manifold emotional experience for lesbians, which paralleled an equally complex web of identifications and disidentifications with gay men. Although this perpetuated a sense of invisibility for lesbians during the epidemic's crisis years, it may have contributed to opening a space for new possibilities of feminine sexualities and identities as the crisis receded.     

Finding a Place for a Muslimah Heroine in the Post-9/11 Marvel Universe: New X-Men's Dust

Soon after the attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, Marvel Comics introduced Dust, an observant Sunni Muslim, as a member of the New X-Men. In this study, we point out how the focus upon her Islamic faith departs from conventional depictions of superheroes in American popular media. Additionally, we discuss how her religious beliefs and practices define her as different, and thus sets her apart, from other superheroes. We also examine how, in keeping with the American monomyth metanarrative that informs the superhero genre, Dust functions as a liminal character, one who bridges the worlds of Islam and the West. The paper concludes by noting that Dust, in common with other superheroines, is relegated to the periphery of Marvel's narratives primarily because she is female.     

The Contraceptive Role of Breastfeeding

We review (1) neuro-hormonal mechanisms by which breastfeeding postpones the return of ovulation and menstruation after birth, and (2) various statistical procedures used to analyse this effect in human populations. This review reveals that the biology and the statistical procedures are incompatible. We propose a statistical approach, compatible with present knowledge of physiology, that differentiates between ovulation-inhibiting mechanisms at birth and the weakening of these inhibitions thereafter, so that it is possible to investigate the effects on these mechanisms due to breastfeeding and to other determinants such as mother's age. An empirical test with typical recall data indicates that full breastfeeding postpones ovulation longer than does supplemented breastfeeding, and that both have stronger contraceptive effects than has previously been thought.     

Blueprint for Creating a Social Work-Centered Disaster Relief Initiative

Abstract

The damage to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast caused by Hurricane Katrina and the resulting need for comprehensive and sustained assistance to affected communities and families revealed limitations in conventional disaster responses. A blueprint for creating a disaster relief initiative was developed by a school of social work and a local human service organization. This, then, became the impetus for creating a three-stage, family-focused, extended disaster relief initiative. Using ecological theory and service-learning as frameworks, the initiative helped address the needs of families who moved to Athens, Georgia in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The responsive, adaptable, and sustainable nature of this model in addressing both immediate and long-term needs of the families is presented. Process evaluation and data on the helpfulness of the model by stakeholders who participated in the project are also provided. Implications are directed to social workers, educators, helping professionals, and policymakers who respond to such disasters .     

Collaborations between young people living with bodily impairments and their multiprofessional teams: The relational dynamics of participation and power

This paper explores how more or less relationally oriented forms of professional practices could be expressed in collaborations between young people living with bodily impairments and their multiprofessional teams. The analysis was based on life-mode interviews with young people (16–20 years), individual and focus group interviews with the professionals and participant observation in team meetings. Drawing on sociocultural perspectives on participation and the workings of power, different discourses, subject positions and participatory strategies were recognised and related to the participation of the young people. Finally, the relevance of the findings for practice is reflected on in a participation rights perspective.     

How lesbians learn to negotiate the heterosexism of corporate America

The purpose of this study was to understand how lesbians learn to negotiate the heterosexism of corporate America. The sample consisted of ten women at the management or executive level who were over the age of 30, identified as lesbians, had worked in their organization for at least two years, had at least two people who report directly to them and had budget responsibility. The primary data collection strategy was in-depth interviews and data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Lesbians who have learned to negotiate the heterosexism of the corporate setting successfully have learned: a) to pre-screen individuals and groups for their receptivity toward the issue of lesbianism, b) to come out as individuals/lesbians in a strategic way, and c) to educate others about the unique issues that lesbians face in corporate settings. This learning occurred informally and incidentally through: a) dealing with human resources, b) participating in committees and groups, and c) participating in social/corporate events.