What does the ‘Fourth Wave’ Mean for Teaching Feminism in Twenty-First Century Social Work?

There is no straightforward definition of feminism today. In spite of this, scholars and researchers who describe themselves as ‘feminist’ continue to produce work that both interrogates the specific and general conditions of women's lives and explores the more ubiquitous construct of ‘gender’, and in social work, feminist understandings remain central to practice, theory and research. This may, in large part, be reflective of the continuing over-representation of women as providers and users of social work services. It may also echo social work's broader emancipatory, ‘social justice’ aspirations. Whichever is the case, we are currently witnessing a resurgence of interest in feminism across the world, with a claim that we are experiencing a ‘fourth wave’ in the global North that has its birthplace primarily on the Internet. Given that this is so, this paper asks: what (if any) is the impact or possible influence of fourth wave feminism on teaching social work today?     

Third Sector Social Policy Research in Australia: New Actors,New Politics

Human service NGOs have become central actors in contemporary welfare states. The broadening of the role of NGOs in Australia as both providers of the human services that are an integral part of the welfare state and as lobbyists or advocates and agents of social change has been widely acknowledged; however, this paper focuses on a recent deepening of the role of human service NGOs in the Australian welfare state by exploring an additional dimension of their growth. Based on a recent study, it is evident that there has been increasing involvement by human service NGOs in the production of social policy knowledge through ‘policy research’ activities. The research mapped policy research activities, policy research infrastructure and policy research resources in human service NGOs, and also captured NGO policy researchers’ perceptions of the rationales and motivations driving NGOs in this direction. It was clear that this shift is based on strong beliefs that researchers located within human service agencies are best placed to produce the kind of knowledge that should form the basis of social policies responding to human need. Other drivers identified by policy researchers suggest, however, that the inclusion of third sector organizations in policy processes cannot simply be understood as the ‘opening up’ or ‘democratization’ of social policy processes to include Third Sector participants. The motivations for human service NGOs moving into social policy knowledge production in Australia are thus complex and diverse. Drawing on the findings of our study, Researching the Researchers, this paper reflects on the implications of this reconfiguration of welfare state politics. Who produces the knowledge that influences, moulds, and even determines the allocation of resources for the delivery of human services, and how this knowledge is produced have been ongoing concerns in social policy scholarship. We suggest, that in the case of human service NGOs in Australia, entry into the field of social policy research can be understood as a reconfiguring of the democratic system of policy determination. It may also be one in which the NGOs become ‘experts’ on citizens’ needs through research practices that are fundamentally less, rather than more inclusive, of the subjects of social policy. The implications of a possible shift in power to influence and in some cases determine who gets what in the welfare state is of deep concern in relation to future models of social protection and ultimately the redistributive and democratic processes of nation states. This paper seeks to question the often-unquestioned ascendancy of the third sector in welfare and asks whether this shift is in keeping with the democratic process and whether it is the best way to determine and satisfy human need.     

Toward an Expanded Definition of Adaptive Decision Making

This article draws from the life-span, life-space model (Super, 1980, 1990) of career development to examine the definition of adaptive decision making. First, the existing definition of adaptive decision making as “rational” decision making is reviewed. Next, alternate perspectives on decision making are offered with an emphasis on the implications for deciding in a life-span, life-space context. Finally, suggestions are made for future directions in theory, research, and practice.