From Indymedia to Anonymous: rethinking action and identity in digital cultures

The period following the social mobilizations of 2011 has seen a renewed focus on the place of communication in collective action, linked to the increasing importance of digital communications. Framed in terms of personalized ‘connective action’ or the social morphology of networks, these analyses have criticized previously dominant models of ‘collective identity’, arguing that collective action needs to be understood as ‘digital networking’. These influential approaches have been significantly constructed as a response to models of communication and action evident in the rise of Independent Media Centres in the period following 1999. After considering the rise of the ‘digital networking’ paradigm linked to analyses of Indymedia, this article considers the emergence of the internet-based collaboration known as Anonymous, focusing on its origins on the 4chan manga site and its 2008 campaign against Scientology, and also considers the ‘I am the 99%’ microblog that emerged as part of the Occupy movement. The emergence of Anonymous highlights dimensions of digital culture such as the ephemeral, the importance of memes, an ethic of lulz, the mask and the grotesque. These forms of communication are discussed in the light of dominant attempts to shape digital space in terms of radical transparency, the knowable and the calculable. It is argued that these contrasting approaches may amount to opposing social models of an emerging information society, and that the analysis of contemporary conflicts and mobilizations needs to be alert to novel forms of communicative practice at work in digital cultures today.     

The effects of rent restructuring on social housing in English rural areas

This paper discusses the impact of central government's rent restructuring policy on social housing in rural areas in England. It examines the effect that restructuring will have on the rents set by social landlords in a set of case study areas then considers some of the likely impacts on affordability and on new investment in rural social housing. One of the primary aims of rent restructuring policy is to reduce unjustifiable differences between the rents of similar dwellings in the local authority and Registered Social Landlord sectors locally. This aim seems likely to be achieved. In doing so, it is likely that affordability will be reduced in the local authority sector but enhanced for tenants of some RSLs. However, the reduction in real RSL rents that improve affordability may further constrain RSLs’ ability to invest in new social housing in rural areas. The paper concludes that rent restructuring by itself will not materially improve the housing prospects of the less well off in rural areas.     

What's wrong is right: A response to the state of the discipline

In the June issue ofSociological Forum, several authors addressed the question, What's Wrong with Sociology. Answers included increased fragmentation of the discipline, and the lack of an identifiable cumulative core of sociological knowledge. This paper examines many of the claims made by the contributors to the June 1994Sociological Forum, reframes their arguments, and by placing debates regarding the problems in sociology in a broader perspective, identifies many of the recent advances made by the discipline. Focusing on such notable contributions to the field as feminist and postmodern scholarship, we locate the positive side of multiple perspective research.Feminist Scholars in Sociology is a collective of researchers and teachers at the University of Colorado interested in exploring and sharing feminist theory and methodology.     

Verbal and Nonverbal Dynamics of Privacy, Secrecy, and Deceit

We discuss the ways in which deception can be used to protect privacy, as well as the ways in which claims to privacy can provide the latitude to lie. In their attempts to maintain their own privacy and their secrets, people can be assisted by others who overlook their lies. Habits of honoring other people's verbal and nonverbal claims about themselves, even when they are not totally convincing, and expectations of similar indulgences from others can keep interactions from getting derailed by small interpersonal bumps. But they also enable exploitation in the form of frauds and scams .     

Family support and family therapy – same difference?

This article discusses the relationship between family support and family therapy and the historical ambivalence between them. Decisions on what form of help to offer families based on effectiveness, efficiency and acceptability are therefore crucial. A review of the characteristics and measures of effectiveness is used to articulate the similarities in both interventions. By illustrating the false dichotomy between them, practitioners in both modes can learn from each other to benefit families.     

Contingent on Context? Social Work and the State in Australia, Britain, and the USA

Correspondence to John Harris, School of Health and Social Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. E-mail: j.harris{at}warwick.ac.uk Summary The notion that social work is an international profession,operating with generally similar goals, methodologies, and commonvalues is considered critically. Examining the political andsocial contexts of three countries with liberal democratic governments—Australia,Britain and the United States—the role of social workwithin the welfare processes of each country is compared. Whilesocial work as an identifiable professional activity sharessome features, it is argued that the idea of its having a coreessence needs to be tempered with a realistic assessment ofthe importance of contextually created difference. Recent andrapid developments in the institutional context, such as thoseexperienced in these three countries, further underscore thelimited utility of the notion of a common professional project.     

Perspectives on Social Care Practice in Romania: Supporting the Development of Professional Learning and Practice

This paper examines the authors’ experiences of developingand delivering training for workers in social care servicesin Romania, through a European Union PHARE¹ funded project.The authors use their experiences to draw on the past and currentpractices of those social workers who were participants in thetraining and to explore their understanding of the emergingissues and themes for social work in Romania. There is alsoan exploration of the potential opportunities for the furtherdevelopment of professional social work learning and practicewithin Romania. The case is made that learning and developmentof social workers could be supported through the encouragementof participatory networks and ‘communities of practice’.     

Reforming Supplementary Benefit: The impact on claimants

The Government bill to reform social security will become an Act in 1986, and is planned for implementation in April 1987. One of the most significant areas for change will be the supplementary benefit scheme, which now has some four million claimants, and supports over seven million people. It will be replaced by the income support scheme, which will differ in important respects from the current provision. The review of the SB scheme, set up by Norman Fowler, was the second major review of the scheme in less than a decade. The first review was set up by the Labour Government in 1976 and culminated in major changes introduced by the Conservative Government in the Social Security Act 1980. This article examines what impact the 1980 scheme had on claimants, on their standard of living, on their understanding of the scheme and on the extent to which the scheme meets their needs. It then goes on to examine whether the Fowler Act will meet some of the criticisms of the 1980 reforms and, in particular, if it will improve the position of claimants.     

Adolescent dialysands in group therapy

Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the psychological effects of chronic illness and its treatment. Group treatment of girls with renal failure proved to be of therapeutic value in improving self-image and reducing emotional stress.