Conceptual analysis of critical moments in Victoria Climbié's life

Victoria Climbié was a West African child sent to Europe in the care of her aunt, Kouao. She died as a consequence of cruelty and neglect at the hands of her aunt and her aunt's boyfriend, Manning, in particularly extreme circumstances. A major inquiry by Lord Laming into the failings of the statutory services revealed widespread problems and made many recommendations to government. Drawing on the Victoria Climbié Inquiry Report, the paper aims to describe and understand Victoria's states of mind during her time in England. The report contains many clues to the meaning of what happened, but their significance for learning from the entire tragedy is missed. The paper explores why professionals found it impossible to see what was happening, despite the evidence being available. Both Victoria's states of mind and those of the professionals who came into contact with her are analysed in terms of defences against extreme mental pain. The importance of the right kind of training and organizational support being available for child protection staff is discussed.     

Including the Socially Excluded: The Impact of Government Policy on Vulnerable Families and Children in Need

This paper is based on a literature review undertaken for theOffice of the Deputy Prime Minister in 2004 (Buchanan et al., 2004)on the impact of government policy in England and Wales forchildren aged from birth to thirteen at high risk of socialexclusion as recorded up until May 2004. It describes the conceptof ‘social exclusion’; its meaning for children;the aims of government policy; the specific impact of governmentpolicy on vulnerable families and children in need (includingchildren needing child protection and all ‘looked after’children) as defined by the 1989 Children Act. The paper demonstratesthat although progress has been made, there are still majorareas of concern. The more discursive parts at the end of thepaper reflect the views of the author and later thinking, andwere not part of the original submission to the Social ExclusionUnit.     

"An Inner Group of Willing People": Volunteering in a Religious Context

In the age of "welfare pluralism", volunteers are attracting increasing attention from academics and policy-makers. This paper focuses on volunteering in the context of religious congregations. It is found to be similar in some ways to that in secular organizations but there are also significant differences including the impact of religious values on motivation, the fact that congregational volunteers are also "members", and the special relationship with clergy. It is concluded that congregational volunteers can be important constituents of the "mixed economy of care"and "civil society". However, long-term care may be provided better by institutions which are less dependent on individual enthusiams.     

Going to Camp Together: Lighting the Group Work Fire in a New Generation

This article describes the structure and process of Group Work Camp, an experiential training program sponsored by the International Association for Social Work with Groups (IASWG). The purpose of this 3-day event, which offers workshops and activities in a camp environment, is to transmit the skills, culture, and philosophy of social work with groups to students and new professionals. Camp also aims to connect participants to the group work community through interaction with skilled and enthusiastic professionals and educators. Participants live together as a large group and engage in ever-changing small groups. They learn primarily by experiencing group membership in the present moment, reflecting on this experience, and then discussing its implications. As the Chinese proverb says, “Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will understand.” In the course of this experiential learning process participants develop strong connections with peers and mentors and become familiar with IASWG, a resource for support and stimulation that will be invaluable as they pursue group work practice in an environment likely to isolate them from group work peers. The article ends with a discussion of the implications of this model for group work education, supervision, and practice.     

The Family Contexts of Gender Development in Childhood and Adolescence

We review research on the family's role in gender development during childhood and adolescence. Our discussion highlights children's dyadic family relationship experiences with their parents and siblings; additionally, we describe ways in which the larger system of family relationships, including gendered dynamics in the marriage and the differential family experiences of sisters versus brothers may have implications for gender development. We also emphasize the significance of contextual factors—ranging from situational demands and affordances to forces emanating from the larger social ecology—in family gender socialization. We conclude that family experiences may have a more important impact on gender development than has previously been believed, and we highlight directions for future study. These include: (1) applying more complex models of parent socialization and family dynamics to the study of the family's role in gender development; (2) expanding on research directed at the socialization of sex differences to study how family dynamics are linked to individual differences in girls’ and boys’ gendered qualities and behaviors; and (3) further exploring how contextual factors exert an impact on gender socialization in the family.     

Research Review Editor: Margaret Boushel

No Time to Waste: The Scale and Dimensions of the Problem of Children Affected by HIV/AIDs in the United Kingdom     

"So Many Tiers, So Many Agendas, So Many Pots of Money": The Challenge of English Regionalization for Voluntary and Community Organizations

This paper looks at the challenges facing voluntary and community organizations (VCOs) within the new policy context of English “regionalism”, drawing primarily on an empirical study in one of the emerging Regions. Barriers to voluntary and community sector (VCS) engagement with the new regional governmental organizations and the new regional policy agenda are identified. The role of VCS “infrastructure” organizations in facilitating relationships with regional levels of government is also considered. The concepts of exchange, ownership, trust and legitimacy are then employed to analyse and explain the implications for English VCOs of working with a new tier of government at regional level. The paper concludes by reconsidering the nature of the relationship between VCOs and “government” in the light of the new policy context presented by English regionalism combined with central government interest in building the capacity and infrastructure of the voluntary sector.     

Popular Moralities and Institutional Rationalities in Malawi's Struggle Against AIDS

The AIDS epidemic in sub‐Saharan Africa is fertile ground for examining how moral evaluations evolve over time and across different settings. We compare the discourse on AIDS in Malawi as presented in the media with that of everyday conversations. Drawing on two sets of texts, newspaper articles and conversational journals, produced over a ten‐year period from 1999 through 2008, we analyze their moral injunctions, or what individuals should or should not do in response to the AIDS epidemic. The predominant injunctions in the early years in both sources were premarital abstinence and marital fidelity. Following the introduction of HIV testing and treatment, however, the discourses diverged. Discourse in the media turned toward moral injunctions requiring individuals to interact with authoritative institutions; thus the conceptual center of gravity of the struggle against AIDS in the media shifted from collectivities of individuals to collectivities of institutions. Rural Malawians, however, received these moral injunctions with great skepticism and continued to advise each other to prevent death by controlling one's sexual appetites.     

The gendered frontiers of globalization

Women are rarely to be found in the elite international corporate structure of the globalizing economy. They are, however, an important component of the new mobile global labor force. This article examines the pros and cons of economic globalization for women; in particular, why so many women are disproportionately disadvantaged by the globalizing forces associated with the neoliberal international economy. It also outlines some ways in which women's organizing at the grassroots, national and international levels is working toward efforts to diminish gender hierarchies which have the effect of disempowering women and contributing to economic inequalities more generally.