Underexplored Aspects of Group-work Education in MSW Programs

Warnings about social group work’s diminished place within social work education date back to 1978. This article reports the findings of a national study exploring the state of group-work education in Council on Social Work Education accredited programs. Our 2014 publication compared study results with those of the 1994 Birnbaum and Auerbach publication. This article highlights additional findings regarding underexplored aspects of group-work education including concentrations/specializations in group work, social work faculty expertise and involvement in group-work associations, efforts to link students with professional group-work associations, continuing education opportunities in group work for field supervisors, online/hybrid group-work course offerings, links between institutional characteristics and group-work offerings, and faculty members’ perceptions of the state of group-work education.     

Are we there yet? En route to professionalism

The debate on the professional status of Communication Management/Public relations¹ has been high on the worldwide agenda for decades. While previous research has focused on the criteria for professionalism in this field, practitioners and academics often question the efforts of professional associations to adequately address the issue of implementing systems to facilitate professional status. The emergence of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management (GA) as an umbrella body for various regional professional associations, as well as the increased emphasis on regulation, standards and governance in all spheres of the global business environment, have led to renewed questions about global efforts to achieve professional status for this field. This study focused on the goals and actions of member associations of the GA in relation to the question of professional status. In order to understand the current state of affairs an exploratory qualitative approach was followed in which member associations were surveyed and their websites reviewed. The fact that fewer than half of the 27 member associations responded to the survey suggests that a study about this matter is not deemed particularly important and/or that the issue of professional status is not widely pursued. However, the associations that participated in this study agree that professional status is important. The study has also found that many similarities exist across continents in terms of the mechanisms utilized to achieve professional status. Codes of ethics, contributions to a body of the knowledge and the provision of professional training opportunities are regarded as quite important while divergent viewpoints exist in relation to issues like accreditation and a standardized tertiary curriculum.     

张謇与清末民初南通的慈善事业

清末民初，政局变幻，张謇立足南通，致力于实业，教育、慈善事业．成果卓著。其慈善事业主要包括兴办新育婴堂、养老院、残废院、济良所、贫民工场等。为兴办慈善事业，张謇取法西人，虚心借鉴；广开渠道，多方筹措；立足南通，自治为本。慈善事业使张窖倾注大量财力，精力。在纷繁芜杂的中国近现代社会，由张謇兴办的南通慈善事业取得良好社会效应，赢得世人赞许。     

Stakeholder-oriented brand management: A Venn-diagram approach to monitor brand associations

Adopting a multi-stakeholder perspective on brand management, this paper discusses different methodological approaches that allow for a cross-stakeholder evaluation of associations the brand triggers. Our main contribution is the proposal and illustration of a Venn-diagram approach as a simple-to-implement, yet insightful methodology to visualize findings from free association questions. This approach helps brand management understand and compare the associations attached to a brand by multiple stakeholders and their degree of match with management-desired brand associations. We illustrate the managerial relevance of this approach with results from an international study comparing brand associations desired by the management of a company with brand associations elicited by customers and employees, with some 1500 respondents respectively. For the particular case investigated, we find that management-desired associations may not (yet) be top-of-mind for customers, employees or both groups, while these groups hold (and partly share) associations not desired by the organization. The findings also show that specific types of associations are more likely to be top-of-mind with multiple stakeholders than others. We discuss how brand management should use the insights gained via this Venn-diagram approach in their brand-building efforts.     

国家治理中科技社团的角色缺位与行动策略——以湖北省为例

当前,中国正处于社会管理向社会治理转型的重要时期,政府、企业、社会组织三大社会主体格局逐步确立。湖北省作为中部地区的代表,其政府的管理职能亦在由直接管理向间接管理、微观管理向宏观调控转变,亟须社会组织参与其中。科技社团作为湖北省社会组织的重要力量,在参与社会治理方面扮演着重要角色,然而当前湖北省科技社团虽然在国家治理中发挥了一定的角色功能,但也存在较严重的角色缺位,尚未真正形成国家治理体系建设中成熟的第三方力量。因此,湖北省科技社团应采取积极的行动策略,大力推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化。      

福利慈善、社会资本与社会发展--论宗教在当代中国社会中的参与需要和可能

社会的成熟不仅仅意味着经济的发展,更是一个社会作为整体的全面发展,中国社会已经深刻意识到这一点,并大力提倡可持续发展社会以及和谐社会这样的概念。社会的和谐和健康发展所需要的也不仅仅是经济资本,也需要政治或政府力量,也需要社会各方面的参与。倘若将这些社会资源和力量视为社会资本,宗教无疑是其中一个相当重要的组成部分。根据1996年国务院《中国的宗教信仰自由状况》白皮书的数据,中国的宗教信徒有1亿多人①,本可以对社会的全面发展做出更多的贡献,但事实上在目前的社会发展场景中却很少看到宗教的参与。福利慈善的完善程度在很大程度上代表了一个社会成熟的程度,其中除了政府理所应当扮演的主导角色外,也是社会参与的最为广泛的领域。本文将福利慈善放置于社会发展的大场景之下来进行考察,从对宗教参与福利慈善的历史、现状的讨论开始,进而从宗教自身的角度来考察其对于社会参与的内在要求,最终探讨宗教在当前中国社会中的参与之可能前景。     

社团组织参与法律援助的运作机制研究

社团组织参与法律援助具有其独特的优势,但目前在具体的运作方式上还存在相当多的空白,因此应当建立健全一系列的制度予以促进和规范,使法律援助真正成为实现社会公平与正义的有力手段,为更多的社会弱势群体提供法律帮助。     

Top-Down Civic Projects Are Not Grassroots Associations: How The Differences Matter in Everyday Life

Research on civic associations blurs an important distinction between the unfunded, informal, ongoing associations that theorists like de Tocqueville described versus current participatory democracy projects that are funded by the state and large nongovernmental organizations, are open to all, and are usually short-term. Based on a long-term ethnography of youth programs in the United States, this paper shows that entities like these, which participants and researchers alike often called “volunteer” or “civic” groups, operate very differently from traditional civic groups. The ethnography systematically details prevalent tensions that actors face when they try to cultivate the civic spirit in these increasingly typical organizations.

美国民间协会组织对联邦高等教育立法的参与

美国民间的协会组织作为高等教育利益的代表者,在联邦有关高等教育的立法中发挥着重要作用。协会组织参与联邦立法的形式主要是游说,这包括内部游说和外部游说两类。协会组织对联邦立法的参与为立法过程提供了准确真实的信息。增加了决策层与实践层的沟通和联系,形成利益攸关者的互动和博弈,增加了优秀立法方案形成的机会,也在一定程度上制约了政府的权力。另外,协会组织参与联邦有关立法还为高等教育自身争取到了更多的发展资源,对高等教育的发展有着重要意义。     

Austerity common sense and contested understandings of the austerity measures within a leadership of a professional association of social workers

ABSTRACT

This paper introduces a preliminary conceptualisation of ‘austerity common sense’ in order to understand why austerity policies, despite the social harm they cause, have support not only from the economic and political establishment but also from the wider population including members of the social work profession. Building on the Gramscian concept of common sense, ‘austerity common sense’ refers to the set of beliefs circulated by the ruling elite and adopted by members of the leadership of the Professional Association of Social Workers (SKLE), as well as others within Greece and the European Union, to understand austerity policies. Through this framing, austerity measures are largely accepted as inevitable rather than challengeable. The paper maintains that the concept of austerity common sense provides an analytical framework for understanding the acceptance of austerity measures in Greece and elsewhere, since similar ‘austerity common sense’ framing is encountered in many countries. Furthermore, it is maintained that the concept of ‘austerity common sense’ can facilitate the interrogation of the socio-economic construction of ideas and phrases. This is an important process with which the social work profession needs to engage.