Towards an Alternative Model of Social Groupwork

Summary This paper arose from our disagreement with some of the suggestionsin an earlier article in this journal (Brown et al., 1982).Before and since, we have both worked in and studied numerousexamples of groups of a type which, according to Brown and hiscoauthors, scarcely exists in British social work practice.This paper explains what we believe to be the actual significanceof the type of group work we refer to as ‘self-directed’,together with our view of its place within wider social work,community work, and groupwork practice. We also give examplesof such groups and conclude that their proliferation would enableworkers to go beyond the alleviation of individual distressinto the achievement of external change.     

Back to Hong Kong: return migration or transnational sojourn?

Abstract In this article we reconsider the meaning of return migration in a period of growing transnational practices. In its conventional use, return migration conveys the same sense of closure and completion as the immigration‐assimilation narrative. But in a transnational era, movement is better described as continuous rather than completed. Focus groups held in Hong Kong with middle‐class returnees from Canada reveal that migration is undertaken strategically at different stages of the life cycle. The return trip to Hong Kong typically occurs for economic reasons at the stage of early or mid career. A second move to Canada may occur later with teenage children for educational purposes, and migration at retirement is even more likely when the quality of life in Canada becomes a renewed priority. Strategic switching between an economic pole in Hong Kong and a quality‐of‐life pole in Canada identifies each of them to be separate stations within an extended but unified social field.     

Groupwork as a response to a structural analysis of child abuse

SUMMARY. This paper considers an appropriate form of intervention with parents accused of physically abusing their children where structural pressures are seen as the predominant problem. Traditional practice is regarded as too prone to individualised explanations and responses. Groupwork is therefore proposed as the method of choice and, within this, the self-directed model is shown to offer particular advantages. An account of a particular group is given, showing both the groupworkers' and the group members' aims for the group. The results of the group are outlined, and are shown to have included important practical gains as well as increases in confidence and self-esteem for the group members     

The Independent Social Work Agency: A Report on the First Year of an Experiment in Social Casework

Summary The authors present an account of their experiences in organizinga research project to explore aspects of the need and demandfor social work through the use of an independent fee-payingagency. Some of the problems encountered in setting up the projectand the agency are discussed, along with some observations onthe first year's work in the agency.     

The promise and perils of using big data in the study of corporate networks: problems,diagnostics and fixes

Network data on connections between corporate actors and entities – for instance through co‐ownership ties or elite social networks – are increasingly available to researchers interested in probing the many important questions related to the study of modern capitalism. Given the analytical challenges associated with the nature of the subject matter, variable data quality and other problems associated with currently available data on this scale, we discuss the promise and perils of using big corporate network data (BCND). We propose a standard procedure for helping researchers deal with BCND problems. While acknowledging that different research questions require different approaches to data quality, we offer a schematic platform that researchers can follow to make informed and intelligent decisions about BCND issues and address these through a specific work‐flow procedure. For each step in this procedure, we provide a set of best practices for how to identify, resolve and minimize the BCND problems that arise.     

WHY DO GOVERNMENTS END UP WITH DEBT? SHORT‐RUN EFFECTS MATTER

This paper reconsiders the impact of public debt in an economy with heterogeneous households and incomplete markets to emphasize the short‐run effects of an increase in public debt. As compared to models that rest on steady‐state analysis, we show that the welfare gains of a public debt increase are substantially higher when transitional dynamics are accounted for. The additional debt issue allows for a temporary reduction in the income tax rate, which stimulates labor supply and generates an overshooting of the interest rate. The short‐run gains create a temptation to deviate toward higher levels of debt. Debt increases continue to generate welfare gains even when debt is considerably higher than its long‐run optimal level. (JEL E60, H60)     

Anomic Pressure and Deviant Behavior: A Pilot Study

The hypothesis tested in this pilot study is that the deviant behavior of adolescents referred by juvenile courts to a social agency for group care is related to an anomic situation in the adolescent's previous history rather than to a delinquent syndrome of behavior. A small sample of court-committed adolescent girls was tested by a specially designed Anomic Pressure Rating Scale and compared to a control group. Significant differences between the two groups were found in all categories of the scale, confirming the hypothesis.