Helpers “Here on the Front Lines”: Welfare‐to‐Work Managers' Moral Identity Work

Using data drawn from telephone interviews with Ohio Works First program managers (N = 69), we examine managers' moral identity work. This work included using militarized rhetoric to evoke moral identities as honorable workers. It also involved signifying helper/helpful moral identities by defining what it means to be helpful, legitimating their helper identity through connections to caseworkers, and affirming their identity through telling success stories. Additionally, managers implicitly othered clients they viewed as needy and politicians they considered to be out‐of‐touch. Our research contributes to the literature on welfare‐to‐work, but also more broadly to our understanding of moral identity work and implicit othering.     

Alternative to incarceration for low‐income non‐custodial parents

Increasingly, low‐income non‐custodial parents in the USA, primarily fathers, are at risk of incarceration for failure to make child support payments, clogging the prison system, preventing already at‐risk fathers from holding a job and removing them from relationships with their children. This paper examines an innovative programme in one south‐eastern state that provides an alternative to incarceration for non‐compliant parents, also allowing fathers an opportunity to find gainful employment; to learn valuable life skills; and to establish healthier relationships with their children. Data analysis from 3 years of programme implementation suggests that low‐income non‐custodial fathers enrolled in the Alternative to Incarceration programme have a much greater chance to fulfil their obligations, both as wage earners and as parents, when they are in a programme that provides life skills, helps them find employment and provides other supports to help them improve their life situation rather than incarcerating them for non‐payment of child support. Furthermore, this programme represents a substantial cost savings to the state, as hundreds of fathers have remained outside of the prison system. To date, this alternative to incarceration is a promising solution to a previously intractable problem.     

Supportive Group Interventions with Caregivers of Frail Older Adults

The use of supportive group interventions with caregivers of frail older adults is discussed in this article. Four categories of group interventions are described: (1) mutual support groups, (2) psychoeducational groups, (3) social, recreational and educational groups, and (4) service and advocacy groups. Research evidence on the efficacy of group interventions with this population is also considered. Recommendations are made on when to refer caregivers to support groups and on what type of support group is most appropriate. Consideration by practitioners and program planners of a broader range of types of supportive groups is also encouraged.     

Workfare Oz-Style

Summary

Traditional approaches to the promotion of welfare have disappeared in Australia, replaced by a new institutional order represented by welfare-cum-workfare. This has impacted on social work—both as a collective entity and as a set of practices. This paper maps the shift to workfare in Australia and examines its impacts on and implications for social work. We briefly discuss the Australian model of social protection, illustrating our own brand of “exceptionalism,” and lay out what we have termed “Workfare Oz-style.” Drawing upon neo-institutional theory, we review and analyze two key contexts where “Workfare Oz-style” is operationalized—the Job Network and Centrelink. Some tentative conclusions are given and the dimensions of a research agenda, which will put any emerging propositions to empirical test, are proposed.     

Unfair to Me or Unfair to My Spouse: Men's and Women's Perceptions of Domestic Equity and How They Relate to Mental and Physical Health

Research examining the relationship between household labor and health has not sufficiently considered perceptions of domestic equity, physical health, or potential gender differences in these relationships. Using survey data from 1,234 lawyers, we examine how perceptions of domestic equity are related to mental and physical health and whether these relationships differ by gender. The results indicate that perceiving the division of household labor as unfair to oneself is related to poorer mental health, whereas perceiving the division as unfair to one's spouse is related to poorer physical health, regardless of gender. This article demonstrates the importance of treating perceptions of unfairness to oneself and one's spouse as distinct experiences, while also considering the wider context wherein these relationships exist.     

Is there nothing beyond postmodernism and ‘the theoretical Other’? The need for balancing universalism and diversity in social work

In his article, 'Against difference and diversity in social work: the case of human rights', Stephen Webb captures several important problems concerning the application of a postmodern human rights perspective in social work. Although accepting Webb's diagnosis, for example that the postmodern discourse neglects basic structural conditions essential for understanding social problems and thus leads to a policy of symbols and rhetoric, this article argues that Webb reifies the perspectives of diversity and universalism and misses the need for balancing these aspects in the practice of social work. Some general argumentative techniques in the postmodern discourse are identified, and it is argued that several of Webb's conclusions are reached via those argumentative techniques, particularly when it comes to his claim that the philosopher Alain Badiou could play a central role for social work. The possibility of implementing in social work general philosophical programmes such as Alain Badiou's is questioned.     

The School Success Profile Online

SUMMARY

This article provides an overview of the purposes, development, and implementation of the School Success Profile Online (SSP)–a computerized, self-report survey for middle and high school students. The SSP takes advantage of World Wide Web technology and the increasing access of public schools to computers and the Internet to assess students' perceptions of their neighborhoods, schools, peers, and families, as well as their own psychological and physical health and school performance. The individual and group profiles generated by the SSP can help school social workers identify areas of concern, plan their interventions with students, and evaluate the impact of their efforts at the end of interventions.     

关于我国人口教育概念的重新认定

本文通过对我国人口教育发展历程的回顾 ,提出重新认定人口教育教学内容问题 ,并试图通过整合课程途径来实现这一目标     

"大跃进"前后毛泽东分配思想述论

建国以后,毛泽东对新中国采用何种分配体制和方法进行了认真思考和探索。他一方面提倡坚持各尽所能按劳分配的社会主义分配原则;另一方面又追求分配中的平均主义,并试图用供给制代替按劳分配,错误地认为工资制、按劳分配、货币交换和旧社会没有多少差别,是“资产阶级法权”,必须加以限制。这种在个人收入分配问题上的矛盾状态,致使在社会经济运行中,劳动者的劳动积极性受到挫伤。     

以德"齐家"--传统家庭美德的当代升华

以德"齐家"既是以德治国理念的必然要求,也是建设社会主义法治国家的道德基础.社会主义家庭美德固然是对传统家庭伦理的发展与升华,但是,我们也一定要根据现代家庭发展的实际情况作出适时调整,与时俱进,唯其如此,才能使社会主义家庭美德富有鲜活的生命力.