The political participation of social workers: a comparative study

This article reports on a comparative study that examined the political participation of social workers in KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa, the state of New South Wales (excluding the Hunter region) in Australia, and New Zealand. Each of these contexts had roughly the same number of social workers, that is, approximately 1,200. It was found that social workers in New Zealand tended to be more politically active than their counterparts in New South Wales and KwaZulu-Natal, and the reasons for this are examined. In the process, New Zealand is presented as a case study of the way in which social work has responded to its political context. Finally, conclusions are drawn as to the engagement of social workers in the policy cycle and of the need for them to become more active politically.     

Birthmothers and Subsequent Children: The Role of Personality Traits and Attachment History1

Fifty-five women who had surrendered their first child for adoption and went on to have subsequent children, and 32 women who had surrendered their first child for adoption and did not have more children were given the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and the Attachment History Questionnaire. Women who had more children scored significantly higher on the Extroversion scale of the NEO-PI-R. Women who did not have more children were more apt to never marry and, when there was marriage, more apt to divorce. Women who had more children reported more pressure from family to relinquish their child. Attachment History Questionnaire results showed women who did not have more children reported “Friends” as significant support figures more often than women who did have more children.     

Hyperconsciousness of Race and Its Negation: The Dialectic of White Supremacy in Brazil

Brazilian social relations—their practices and their representations—are marked by a hyperconsciousness of race. Such hyperconsciousness, while symptomatic of how Brazilians classify and position themselves in the life world, is manifested by the often vehement negation of the importance of race. This negation forcefully suggests that race is neither an analytical and morally valid tool, nor plays a central role in determining Brazilian social hierarchies. The hyperconsciousness/negation of race dialectic allows us to understand how a system that is on the surface devoid of racial awareness is in reality deeply immersed in racialized understandings of the social world. To approach the hyperconsciousness/negation of race conundrum, I review pertinent Brazilian and United States bibliography focusing on problems associated with the racial democracy myth, and utilize ethnographic data and interpret newspapers articles reporting on one of the many events of police corruption and brutality in Rio de Janeiro.     

Site-specific focus groups: analysing learning spaces in situ

This article reflects on the focus group as a research technique used in an analysis of the relationship between learning spaces and pedagogy, developed as part of the assessment of the secondary school modernisation programme in Portugal. The research proposes a methodological innovation in the use of focus group, by developing focus groups before, during and after tours to the schools. The focus groups in this format were particularly important for the research since they facilitated a dynamic of social interaction and the expression of views and opinions among groups of pupils and teachers about the impact of the renovations on education practices. They also highlighted some of the specific aspects of the interaction between the appropriation processes and the object of the intervention, which was in itself object of contradictory interpretations. Further, this technique enables the attainment of a triangulation strategy, central to the study.     

Photocopylore at work: aesthetics,collective creativity and the social construction of organizations

In this paper we develop a model of the photocopylore process consisting of selection, reproduction and distribution with further potential for consumption and elaboration. After explaining and illustrating these practices, which are always aesthetic and sometimes political, we discuss how our model contributes to theorizing social construction processes, both in terms of the creation and maintenance of organizational and transorganizational communities and of the social construction of technology and innovation.