Understanding citizen perceptions of the Eastern Hills of Bogota: a participatory place-based ecosystem service assessment

Urban Ecosystems - Integrated assessment of natural and human systems is regarded as a way to facilitate effective governance of complex environmental issues, and engagement of stakeholders is...     

Relevance of Direct Practice for Today's Social Work Educator

This paper attempts to bring together some of the strands in general learning and instructional theories and the conceptualizations growing out of contemporary education theory and practice that may be helpful to sensitizing the teacher in continuing education to the problems and potentials in the learning-teaching situation.     

Problems and Issues in Social Casework,by Scott Briar and Henry Miller. New York,Columbia University Press, 1971. 274 Pages, $9.00. Hardbound

Abstract

The rapid growth and increasing visibility of ethnic and racial groups has vigorously challenged social work to educate students for ethnic-competent practice in cross-cultural settings. This article examines an approach to teaching effective intervention involving ethnic and racial groups and helping students integrate cultural factors and society's concerns into clinical practice. Pedagogical issues and classroom processes of teaching culturally sensitive and competent interpersonal practice are discussed. Implications are drawn for culturally sensitive education and issues are raised for critical examination.     

Reflexivity in Practice: Developing a New Attitude as Part of Teaching and Engaging in Participatory Research and Development

The position taken in this article derives from a reflexive self-discovery of the assumptions underlying my teaching and conducting of social research over the years. Undoubtedly, as qualitative approaches continue to evolve in recognition of the plurality of persons, cultures, and ways of knowing, participatory research and development will increasingly require of teachers and researchers new self-knowledge, sensitivities, and humility. Using my experiences as the context for discussion, the article examines existing definitions and the place of participatory research and development within the qualitative paradigm and posits that there is room for radical reflection on the value of inclusionary processes in both the teaching and practice of social research and development.     

‘Whose side are you on?’ Dilemmas in conducting feminist ethnographic research with young women

Drawing on two recently completed ethnographic studies of young women in the West Midlands, this paper explores a series of issues about the application of feminist principles and practice to such research. One study analysed young women's friendships, mainly through participant observation in school, supplemented by participation at a youth club. The other explored the likely success of the former Conservative Government's ‘Health of the Nation's’ targets for aspects of young women's health, through extended attendance at two youth clubs, supplemented by ‘shadowing’ informants at school. Both studies also used interviews, diaries and other data sources. Driven by the researchers' desire to ‘give a voice’ to their informants, this paper reviews power relationships in the production of knowledge; issues about self-presentation; securing access to and winning the trust of the young women; and their resolution of some of the ethical dilemmas which confronted the researchers in the course of their fieldwork.     

An emotion-based model of risk perception and stigma susceptibility: cognitive appraisals of emotion, affective reactivity, worldviews, and risk perceptions in the generation of technological stigma.

A study (N=198) was conducted to examine hypotheses derived from an emotion-based model of stigma responses to radiation sources. A model of stigma susceptibility is proposed in which affective reactions and cognitive worldviews activate predispositions to appraise and experience events in systematic ways that result in the generation of negative emotion, risk perceptions, and stigma responses. Results of structural equation modeling supported the hypotheses. Radiation sources that scored higher on a measure of stigma were included in the analyses (i.e., nuclear power plants, radioactive waste from nuclear power plants, radiation from nuclear weapons testing). Individual differences in negative reactivity and worldviews were associated with the strength of emotional appraisals that were associated, in turn, with negative emotion toward stigmatized radiation sources. As hypothesized, the model fit better with perceived risk as a function of negative emotion rather than vice versa. Finally, a measure of stigma was associated with negative emotion and, to a lesser extent, with risk perceptions. Risk communication about stigmatized objects may benefit from a more complete understanding of how affective and emotional reactions are constructed and the routes through which they affect responses and behaviors.