Administrative Buy-in for User Participation in Managing Social Services

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of a study conducted in Hong Kong on the value position of the social service providers regarding user participation in service management. Using a survey instrument to collect data from 642 service providers in an elderly service organization, the study explored whether or not the value position had an effect on the views of the service providers on the structural set-up for user participation, and whether the value position of the professional staff was significantly different from that of the non-professional staff. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA), confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were applied in the analysis. The findings identify that administrative buy-in needed to support shared decision-making with the welfare service users has not been achieved in the studied organization, owing to the absence of value commitment to the user participation cause. As the professional staff was more supportive of values favoring user participation, the paper calls for an acculturation process that would be stimulated and led by professionals to develop a participatory culture. The paper also recommends conducting similar study on a larger scale and qualitative inquiry into factors influencing the formation of values about user participation in future research.     

Defining and Estimating the Scope of U.S. Faith-Based International Humanitarian Aid Organizations

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This study illuminates the size, scope, and impact of U.S. faith-based nonprofits in the international affairs sector....     

Teaching self-care: The utilization of self-care in social work practicum to prevent compassion fatigue,burnout, and vicarious trauma

ABSTRACT

Field practicum is paramount to social work pedagogy in the preparation of emerging direct practice professionals. Field students integrate foundational knowledge as they implement practice skills learned in the classroom during the social work practicum experience. Working with clients who are suffering is inevitable in direct social work practice and field practicum students can be exposed to a broad range of intense emotional experiences as they assist clients in need. Integrating self-care skills, techniques and strategies into daily social work practice becomes essential to prevent compassion fatigue, burnout, and vicarious trauma. Incorporating self-care skills into the field practicum enhances opportunities for transformative student learning and helps to strengthen professional socialization during this critical educational experience. This article highlights the implementation of professional self-care instruction, use of activities and written student critical reflection assignments designed to enhance the practice experience through incorporating self-care education and strategies among undergraduate students within the field practicum seminar.     

Novel biotechnologies for eradicating wasps: seeking Māori studies students’ perspectives with Q method

Aligned with the New Zealand government’s ‘Predator-Free 2050’ target for Aotearoa New Zealand, National Science Challenge: Our Biological Heritage supports research into five distinct ‘novel biotechnological controls’ of exotic wasps. A framing question within this project is which controls are considered ‘socially acceptable’ and thus suitable for further development to control and potentially eradicate introduced wasps? How can the public answer this question without first engaging with complex technologies? Can they develop and express an informed view that still reflects their ‘gut’ reactions and unique positions? To model and explore the views of an ‘informed public’, university students in Māori studies engaged in reflection, writing and mapping activities; choice and ranking exercises; Q Method; and focus group interviews. Amongst the interviewees, Q Method analysis distinguished three ‘factors’, describing unique viewpoints: those who see the potential of biotechnologies, those who are in doubt about them and those in a position of trust in scientists. Overall, the group see potential in new biotechnologies for wasps but are wary of political, economic and social decision-making mechanisms.     

When corporate actors take over the game: the corporatization of organic,recycling and breast cancer activism

Social change endeavors are increasingly shaped by corporate interests and, in some instances, large corporations take over ideas and practices initiated by social change advocates. We label this process ‘corporatization’ and argue that, while it is clearly a variant of co-optation, it has specific qualities that warrant a separate analytical framework. Using existing research to examine the cases of breast cancer activism, organic food, and recycling in the United States – all extreme examples of corporatization – we conceptualize corporatization as a subset of co-optation in which: (1) corporations come to dominate fields initiated by activists; (2) corporatized versions become widespread; and (3) alternative, ‘response,’ movements emerge to oppose corporatized versions. We posit that, in each case, ‘corporate takeover devices’ allowed corporate entities to ‘join the game’ and eventually come to dominate fields initiated by social movements.     

The female antihero and police power in FX’s Justified

The male antihero in the police procedural is marked by a fundamental conflict. On the one hand, his hypermasculine behavior signals that he is an independent actor with no allegiance to the state for which he works. On the other hand, his actions usually work to shore up the power of the state, which relies on his hypermasculine displays of independence to get the job done. Through this sleight of hand, audiences are encouraged to embrace the cop and loathe the system, not recognizing the fundamental complicity of the two. We argue that this formula is significantly interrupted in Season Two of Justified, when audiences are introduced to a female antihero—Mags Bennett—as powerful and trigger-happy as its main protagonist—Raylan Givens. As Mags emerges as the primary unlawful force of the show, Raylan increasingly aligns himself with the federal forces he was more at odds with in Season One. Mags strips Raylan of his antihero status, exposing him as a working stiff for the feds. The season ends with Mags’s death, but not before it presents audiences with a glimpse of an alternative order—one in which toxic masculinity gives way to matriarchal ascendance and extra-legal violence is revealed as the modus operandi of the state.     

Are Mixed-Ethnic Unions More Likely to Dissolve Than Co-Ethnic Unions? New Evidence from Britain

The increasing proportion of ethnic minorities in Britain has been paralleled by an increase in the occurrence of mixed-ethnic marriages between one White partner and an ethnic minority partner. Such marriages are thought to be at higher risk of divorce, but empirical studies so far have been inconclusive. This paper uses the Office for National Statistics longitudinal study for England and Wales to investigate whether mixed-ethnic unions are more likely to end in divorce than co-ethnic unions. We followed married couples in 1991?C2001 and examined their risks of divorce. We found evidence that mixed-ethnic unions have a higher risk of dissolution than co-ethnic unions. However, after controlling for partners?? characteristics, most importantly the younger ages of people in mixed-ethnic unions, the risk of divorce for mixed-ethnic unions was no longer elevated, but lay close to the higher risk found for the two constituent co-ethnic unions.