Contributing Factors in Trafficking from South Asia

This pioneering research in the field of human trafficking from South Asia is an important study as the subject population has not been studied in social work literature. Victims of trafficking who were working as exotic dancers in South Asian bars in the United States were studied qualitatively. The method of recruiting, transporting, putting to work, and maintaining victims within the trafficking system is explored through interaction and observation revealing victims' personal accounts. Data analysis was conducted using NVivo and experts' analysis. The study results support a dynamic theoretical framework in which social exchanges and choice of migration networks increase South Asian women's vulnerability to trafficking.     

An analysis of major social obstacles affecting human resource development in Iran

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to analyze the major social obstacles affecting the human resource development (HRD) in Iran. The study population included faculty members in Yazd province, Iran (N = 280, n = 162). A survey and a researcher-made questionnaire were used to collect data. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by using Cronbach’s alpha (0.88) and its validity was approved by a panel of experts. The results indicated that the major social obstacles affecting HRD are ‘an increase in the share of foreigners in the labor market’, ‘frustration of native graduates’ and ‘local brain drain’, respectively. Furthermore, the results of exploratory factor analysis indicated that the most important social obstacles affecting HRD can be summarized into six factors including migration, lack of nativism, inclination towards foreigners, gender imbalance, lack of justice in distribution of resources, and lack of meritocracy. These factors altogether could explain 65.45% of the total variance. In the end, some applied recommendations (such as paying more attention to rural youth, fair distribution of facilities towards urban and rural balance, supporting native elites, preference for employment, and applying indigenous peoples based on meritocracy, creating favorable balance at different levels of academic education, avoiding gender inequality) have been presented.     

The embodiment of complex trauma in domestic minor sex trafficking victims and the dangers of misidentification

ABSTRACT

Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) victims face many barriers to getting appropriate, trauma-informed treatment. Many of these victims experience childhood trauma by trusted adults or by non-familial perpetrators of abuse. Complex trauma, later defined in depth, captures what many DMST victims endure as the harm that they experience is ongoing and cannot be identified as a singular event. Due to the complex trauma these victims experience, they become dissociated as a tool for survival. As a result of trauma, many DMST victims do not embody protective skills, and attempt to gain control of their lives through maladaptive behaviors that can lead to re-victimization. I begin by discussing the literature around embodiment, trauma and the body, and dissociation to demonstrate why a trauma-informed approach in identification and therapy is important when working with DMST victims. Subsequently, I present a case study to explore an example of how the presentation of trauma, or ways it is masked, can lead to misidentification. This case study will illustrate how social workers can effectively advocate for DMST victims at the early stages of identification and also foster a safe, accepting therapeutic space to assist these clients in trust-building and identify formation. Trauma-informed care needs to be integrated from the first interaction with law enforcement, throughout the development of a treatment plan with providers, and for the duration of the therapeutic relationship.     

Human Development Education for Social Workers in Multicultural Societies

In many countries, social workers are faced with the challenge of tailoring their practice to the diverse needs of children and families in multicultural realities. Our training and teaching practices, however, lag behind in their readiness to face this challenge. Attempts to reconcile cultural perspectives and postmodernism with the traditional goals of human development education are generally premised on the following assumptions: (a) postmodernist education fosters the ability to think critically and question assumptions underlying claims to knowledge; (b) theories should be evaluated for their usefulness and applicability to a more equitable society; and (c) a dialogic model of education in human development highlights the ‘inherently polysemous’ nature of human existence rather than transmitting a codified body of knowledge. The paper calls attention to the challenges of cross‐cultural psychology, indigenous psychology and postmodern critique and offers the means of confronting these challenges. Examples are based on teaching experiences in Israel and the US.     

The Role of Social Work Education in Advancing Social Development in the English-speaking Caribbean

This article presents a discussion of the role of professional social work education in advancing social development in the countries of the English-speaking Caribbean. It addresses issues around the development of the profession in the region, student enrolment, curriculum expansion and programme delivery by the institutions which offer social work education. The events which contributed to the emergence of social work education in the region during the fourth decade of the twentieth century and social work education's continued contribution to regional development are discussed. The prospective use of the new Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development to advance the profession in the region in the twenty-first century is noted. The article concludes by highlighting the many challenges that currently impact social work education in the Caribbean and the fact that the development of social work education in the region is inextricably linked to the region's social development needs. Social work education as delivered through the University of the West Indies is used as the case in point for discussion.     

Learning to Stay? Mobile Modernity and the Sociology of Choice

Abstract

Linking physical and social mobilities to a modernity typified by increased foci on individualization, consumption, workplace flexibilization and the need for further (and further) education, this paper argues the need for mobility scholars to pay greater attention to the role played by educational institutions in family formation and the decisions associated with where to locate oneself in relation to these institutions. The research project under consideration took place in a remote Australian resource boomtown, an epicentre of global capital concentration and a concomitant mobile modernity. It focuses on educational decision-making that absorbs increasing amounts of energy among middle-class families in various parts of the globe, exploring the sociological implications of this and the links with physical and social mobilities.     

EPA's 2006 Human-Subjects Rule for Pesticide Experiments

Arguing that the 2006 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) human-subjects rule allows use of unethical third-party research (on pregnant women and children) in setting pesticide regulations, this article first (a) provides a brief history of U.S. pesticide regulation, particularly regarding childhood safety. Next it (b) outlines ethical and scientific loopholes in the 2006 EPA rule; (c) shows how the Human Subjects Review Board, mandated by the 2006 rule, has been implemented in flawed ways; and (d) illustrates that one source of problems with the rule may be influence by those with conflicts of interest.     

A Measure of Justice: The Rabinal Human Rights Movement in Post-War Guatemala

This article explores one region’s struggle for human rights and legal justice in post-war Guatemala. Rabinal—a target of state-directed genocide in the 1980s—suffered one of the highest fatality levels of the war. In the post-war era, Rabinal human rights activists have led the struggle to demand exhumations of mass graves, build memorials, and push for criminal investigations and trials. Despite some important local victories, few of those responsible for the violence have received punishment. But that does not mean this movement is a failure. Instead, this article highlights the cultural, expressive and inprocess benefits of mobilization. Rabinal activists have restored their sense of agency and confirmed their collective identity as fighters for legal justice. Meanwhile, this local mobilization has contributed to Guatemala’s uneven process of democratization.

Marketing of Voluntary Organizations as Contract Providers of National and Local Government Welfare Services in the UK

Voluntary organisations have become major providers of numerous social welfare services that previously were supplied by the state. In Britain, between 35 and 40% of the average human services charity’s annual income now derives from government (predominantly local government) sources, meaning that the acquisition of fresh contracts to undertake government funded work, in conjunction with the maintenance of good relations with government funders vis-à-vis current assignments, is increasingly important for ensuring a human service charity’s financial survival. An organization that wishes to obtain new contracts and to keep government bodies satisfied with its present activities will need to market itself effectively. This empirical study examined two aspects of charity marketing relevant to this requirement: the extent to which voluntary organizations applied the principles of strategic account management (otherwise known as key account management) to their relations with government funders, and the organizational characteristics (passion and commitment, low wage costs, etc.) that they emphasized to government bodies when making bids. A number of organizational variables (e.g., mission rigidity, strategic intent, short term operational focus) were employed in regression analyses as possible determinants of: (i) the degree to which a charity used strategic account management; and (ii) the genres of the organizational characteristics that it accentuated when tendering for government funded work.

The quality–quantity trade-off in fertility across parent earnings levels: a test for credit market failure

The dominant economic theory of the family explains the negative correlation between family size and child achievement, a ‘quality–quantity trade-off’, through borrowing constraints and credit market failure. This paper presents a model in which the opportunity cost of time spent with children is increasing, thus creating a trade-off even in economies with perfect credit markets. While both produce a family size effect, temporal and financial constraints predict different patterns for the trade-off across levels of parent income. Using data from the National Child Development Study, the trade-off is found even among high-earning families who presumably do not face credit constraints. Moreover, the trade-off does not grow as parent earnings diminish. Both of these findings suggest that temporal and not financial constraints explain the quality–quantity trade-off.