Some of my Students are Prisoners: Issues and Dilemmas for Social Work Educators

Higher education recruitment principles and procedures which seek to redress social exclusion have inadvertently resulted in the authors discovering that some of their students are incarcerated. Notwithstanding the important logistical issues which may emerge as a consequence of accepting prisoners into a programme of social work education, it would seem that the inclusion of prisoners is symbolic of a fundamental difference in philosophy with a risk management stance which expects that social work educators act as gatekeepers to the profession, especially in respect of students with criminal convictions.     

The Couples Life Story Approach: A Dyadic Intervention for Dementia

This article describes an approach for working with individuals who have dementia, along with their spouses or partners. The 5-week intervention focuses on helping couples communicate, reminisce about the story of their relationship, find photographs and mementoes from their past, and develop a book that incorporates these mementoes. This clinical approach highlights the strengths and the resilience of couples and adds to the limited repertoire of dyadic interventions for dementia care which are currently available. Preliminary findings from 24 couples are presented, including the intervention's feasibility and acceptability.     

Becoming,Being and Having Been: Practitioner Perspectives on Temporal Stances and Participation across Children’s Services

This article is based on a study of the changing meanings and experiences of citizenship and participation for young people in transition from primary to secondary school. One of the primary concerns of the study is to better understand how different professional practices impact upon young people’s uptake of participation and adoption of civic identity. To gain some insight into this area the article first looks at the contexts in which participation work is developing and the interrelationships between these developments across children’s services. How different practitioner’s conceptualise participation is tied into different assessments of young people’s or children’s capacity. Recasting questions of capacity as dialogues across differing temporal stances can offer practitioners new ways to reflect upon the power negotiations within their relations with young people. The key role temporality plays in configuring power relationships and transactions is explored as it arises within practitioner life history interviews. The shifts between temporal stances that young people experience as they interact with different practitioners are illustrated through fieldwork data.     

Labor force exit decisions of new mothers

Using unique administrative data from the state of Georgia, this paper investigates women’s decisions to exit the labor market upon the birth of a child. Exits rates and their changes over time varies dramatically between married and single women giving birth. Only the pattern among single, less educated women can be considered consistent with changing labor force participation rates of women over the period of analysis. Potential policy implications of these changes are discussed.     

Anglo Voting on Nativist Ballot Initiatives: The Partisan Impact of Spatial Proximity to the U.S.‐Mexico Border*

Objective. In this study, we examine how contextual factors influence voting behavior on nativist ballot initiatives using California's Propositions 187 and 227. We argue that spatial proximity to the border is associated with voting behavior on nativist initiatives. Methods. To examine the influence of environmental factors on Anglo voting behavior on nativist ballot initiatives, we utilize California Field Polls, U.S. Census data, and spatially referenced data generated using GIS software. Results. The results indicate that spatial proximity to the border is an important component in individual‐level voting on nativist initiatives and that the impact of proximity to the border on the vote for Propositions 187 and 227 varies as a function of individual‐level partisan affiliation. Conclusions. These findings hold implications for future research regarding the influence of geospatial boundaries and political behavior.     

The FACES Project: an academic-community partnership to improve end-of-life care for families

This article reports on a research partnership between a community-based hospice and a graduate school of social work. The purpose of the collaboration was to design and test a tool for assessing caregiver strain and resources in families caring for older adults receiving hospice home care services. Eighteen hospice home care social workers interviewed 162 caregivers for the study and provided their own assessment of the tool's clinical utility. Both strengths and challenges of the collaboration are evaluated and implications are discussed for social work practice and research, particularly academic-community research partnerships.     

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP — FALSE PREMISES AND DANGEROUS FOREBODINGS

As a reaction against neo‐liberalism, Social Entrepreneurship has been promoted as the solution to welfare problems brought about by social change and persistent unemployment. The Social Entrepreneurship Movement (SEM) proposes the reconstruction of welfare by building social partnerships between the public, social and business sectors. Major aspects of this agenda include non‐profit organisations undertaking entrepreneurial ventures and the pooling of government welfare funding under the control of local communities. In this paper we argue that the SEM literature is based on two false premises: the failure to understand the true causes of mass unemployment, and the assumption that the government faces financial constraints in the provision of welfare services. We also argue that implementation of the SEM proposals would erode the rights‐based eligibility to universal welfare services based on the principle of social justice. We also conclude that the SEM is indistinguishable from neo‐liberalism and as such does not represent a viable solution to unemployment and the welfare needs that accompany it.     

Qualitative exploration of the nature of grief-related beliefs and expectations

Societal expectations of grief impact the experience of bereavement. The congruence of societal expectations with current scientific understanding of grief is unknown. Therefore two qualitative studies explored community perceptions of grief. In study one, three small focus groups (N = 9) examined grief-related expectations associated with hypothetical scenarios of bereavement. In study two, the impact of grief-related perceptions on the lived experience of bereavement for 11 individuals was explored through semi-structured interviews. Across both studies, elements of a traditional stage model view of grief were evident, with participants viewing emotional expression of grief as important. An avoidant coping style in the bereaved was considered problematic. Findings of study two suggested that grief-related beliefs may impact the bereavement experience via appraisal of the grief response and willingness to support bereaved individuals. The studies suggested that stage model assumptions in the beliefs of the general population persist, although there was a recognition of diversity in the grief response.