The task dilemma in human service organizations and its impact on efficacy A possible solution developed out of the theory of society of ürgen Habermas

In modern societies the professional social worker within human service organizations suffers from a phenomenon which can be called a task dilemma. According to this model, social service agencies are confronted daily with two ideal types of basic tasks: social integration and system integration. It is the paradox of these agencies that they are asked to fulfil both basic tasks, although the accomplishment of one works against the accomplishment of the other. The problem which will be discussed in this article is that both tasks must be accomplished, but each requires a different structure. Consequently, the task dilemma provokes a structure dilemma which necessarily diminishes work quality in this type of organization. The task dilemma will be explained according to specific elements of the theory of society derived from Habermas (1987a, 1987b). Using this approach, a new conceptual design will be derived which allows social work organizations to consciously and constantly determine their basic task priority. This concept is called the programme of structuration. It implies, as in a learning organization, a continuous evaluation of the specific organizational norm and basic task as well as the adaptation of the corresponding organizational structure. The implementation of this programme promises the guarantee of high efficacy in social service agencies in the long run.     

The Internationalization of Educational and Vocational Guidance

The authors identify and discuss the main themes from the discourse on the internationalization of educational and vocational guidance at the 2004 Symposium on International Perspectives on Career Development, cosponsored by the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance and the National Career Development Association. Participants from 46 countries discussed international perspectives on and comparative features of educational and vocational guidance. They concentrated on issues of designing and adapting models, methods, and materials for career education and counseling. Three additional themes revolved around the importance of public policy initiatives, training enough practitioners to meet the growing international need for career services, and the promise of information technology for expanding the delivery of educational and vocational guidance and for supporting career counselors.     

Certainty,Fairness, and Balance: State Resonance and Environmental Justice Policy Implementation1

Little research has examined how and why institutional context and framing dynamics shape the institutionalization of movement claims into the state’s formal policies, and what the implication of these processes might be for movements attempting to mobilize on the same conceptual terms after institutionalization. In this study, I explore the role institutional context and framing play in the institutionalization of movement claims in a case: the implementation of environmental justice policy in the California Environmental Protection Agency from 2002 to 2007. I ask: How and why were aspects of the environmental justice frame institutionalized into regulatory policy while others were not? I use ethnographic field methods and content analysis of archival data to answer this question and offer two contributions to previous research. First, I add to previous scholarship on the environmental justice movement by identifying the character of newer problems faced by movement actors as they engage in regulatory policy processes with opponents in the United States. Second, I extend social movement framing theory by developing the notion of “state resonance” to understand how and why a collective action frame is institutionalized and implemented in regulatory policy.     

Introduction to the Special Issue: Global Perspectives on Vocational Guidance

This special issue of The Career Development Quarterly presents the outcomes from an international symposium, titled International Perspectives on Career Development, jointly sponsored by the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance and the National Career Development Association. The articles in this special issue discuss international perspectives on and comparative approaches to educational and vocational guidance that differentiate career development practices in different nations. In addition to the articles in this issue, a selection of papers presented at the symposium has been jointly published in a thematic issue of the International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 5(2).     

The contradictory politics of the right to travel: mobilities,borders & tourism

ABSTRACT

The freedom of movement and right to travel are intrinsic to the growth of international tourism. Notwithstanding the inchoate nature of the right to tourism, the entitlement to travel and to pursue tourism without hindrance is firmly established in advanced capitalist societies. Moreover, the right to tourism has been recently enshrined in the 2017 United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics. Tourists’ ease of mobility contrasts starkly with the movements of less privileged forms of mobility that may be variously constrained by racism, xenophobia and restrictive border controls. This paper contends that rather than a mere reflection of accumulated political rights (citizenship), such unequal and differentiated mobilities are conditioned by a complex assemblage of discursive frameworks and structural forces that are played out in specific historical-geographic contexts. Accordingly, we argue that the rights associated with global tourism must be analysed in the context of the contradictory politics of global mobility, or indeed in terms of the ‘mobility crisis’. This ‘crisis’ is one that is rooted in and shaped by the cumulative legacy of past colonial orders, global capitalism and geopolitical realignments, in addition to multi-scalar systems of governance through which borders are constituted, managed and policed.