Encouraging interactional processes with couples in therapy

The complexities of clinical social work with couples involve interactional and intrapsychic processes of all three participants: the partnersand the therapist. Highlighted in this paper are the social interactional processes of the three-person therapeutic system when the couple are seen conjointly. Examined are the general effort of the therapist, the treatment stages or procession, and delicate processes and balances monitored and facilitated by the clinical social worker.     

The theoretical costs of ignoring childhood: rethinking independence, insecurity, and inequality

Childhood scholars have found that age inequality can be as profound an axis of meaningful difference as race, gender, or class, and yet the impact of this understanding has not permeated the discipline of sociology as a whole. This is one particularly stark example of the central argument of this article: despite decades of empirical and theoretical work by scholars in “the social studies of childhood,” sociologists in general have not incorporated the central contributions of this subfield: that children are active social agents (not passive), knowing actors strategizing within their constraints (not innocent), with their capacities and challenges shaped by their contexts (not universally the same). I contend that mainstream sociology’s relative imperviousness has led to theoretical costs for both childhood scholars—who must re-assert and re-prove the core insights of the field—and sociologists in general. Using three core theoretical debates in the larger discipline—about independence, insecurity, and inequality—I argue that children’s perspectives can help scholars ask new questions, render the invisible visible, and break through theoretical logjams. Thus would further research utilizing children’s perspectives and the dynamics of age extend the explanatory power of social theory.     

Considering the Countryside: Is There a Case for Rural Social Work?

Correspondence to Dr Richard Pugh, School of Social Relations, University of Keele, Keele, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK. Email: spa08{at}keele.ac.uk Summary Most British social work literature is written with the implicitassumption of an urban context, but large numbers of peoplestill live in comparatively rural settings. Rural social workremains a largely unrecognized dimension of practice, receivinglittle attention beyond the reportage of individual projectsor initiatives. This paper considers whether it is a sufficientlydistinctive area of practice to warrant specific consideration.It concludes that it is an under-researched aspect of practicewithin the UK which merits particular attention and identifiessome areas for future development.