Historic Preservation and Elementary Student Extracurricular Community Service

Elementary students survey buildings in an extracurricular community service project to learn social studies and historic preservation. From these experiences students formed values and dispositions by engaging in a constructivist process of creating knowledge by examining their community. They gathered data, transformed it into information, and shared it with the larger community. Because students learned what community means in reality, not just reading about it, they had a different understanding of how they related to the place they called home. Examining these types of questions helped elementary students have significant experiences that helped them to connect community members with the importance of place. The built environment is the context for historic structures. Student engagement with the social studies curriculum allowed them to create investigations with architecture to broaden their understanding of their world.     

Gaining by giving? Peer research into service user and carer perceptions of inclusivity in Higher Education

Abstract

Service users and carers (SUAC) have made significant contributions to professional training in social work courses in Higher Education (HE) over the past decade in the UK. Such participation has been championed by government, academics and SUAC groups from a range of theoretical and political perspectives. Most research into the effectiveness of SUAC involvement at HE has come from the perspectives of academics and very little SUAC-led research exists. This qualitative peer research was led by two members of the University of Worcester’s SUAC group. Findings were that SUAC perceived their involvement brought benefits to students, staff, the University and the local community. Significant personal benefits such as finding a new support network, increased self-development and greater confidence to manage their own care were identified in ways that suggested that the benefits that can flow from SUAC involvement at HE are perhaps more far-reaching than previously recognised. Barriers to inclusion were less than previously reported in the literature and the humanising effects of SUAC involvement are presented as a partial antidote to an increasingly marketised HE culture.     

The Meaningful Involvement of Service Users in Social Work Education: Examples from Belgium and The Netherlands

This article links the development of service user involvement championed in the United Kingdom to two examples in Dutch-speaking qualifying social work programmes: one from Belgium and one from the Netherlands. In both projects, a longer lasting cooperation with more marginalised service users was established. The Belgium project highlights social work lecturers and service users living in poverty, working in tandem to deliver a module to social work and socio-educational care work students. The example from the Netherlands involves young people from a homeless shelter as peer-researchers, working together with social work students.

Both projects, one focusing on social work education and on social work research, highlight striking similarities in the positives and challenges of working with service users including how this challenges both groups preconceptions of the other, deepens learning but also creates greater potential for confrontations which need to be managed creatively. The article also identifies the pre-requisites for this to be effective including appropriate resourcing, training, facilitative skills and acknowledges that collaborations can be extremely fragile. However, such projects need further investment, experimentation and implementation on an international scale to share learning and promote creative approaches for the development and learning of social work students.     

Afterschool programs that support homeless youth: igniting hope and opportunities in the midst of trauma,uncertainty, and displacement

Across the United States, many afterschool and out-of-school time programs are making constructive and lasting impacts on the lives of homeless children and youth by providing expanded learning opportunities and positive youth development outcomes in a safe space. In this brief, we profile two youth-serving organizations and the After School Division of the California Department of Education to illustrate how afterschool programs can be part of the solution for homeless children and youth. Staff from these organizations shared their practices, successes, challenges, and lessons learned. Most importantly, they shared a message of hope and a vision for what is possible in the midst of trauma, uncertainty, and displacement.     

论和谐社会构建中的和谐社区建设——对合肥市社区建设的调查

和谐社区建设是在构建社会主义和谐社会的背景下提出的重要课题,也是其重要切人点.文章主要从和谐社区与和谐社会的密切关系出发,阐述建设和谐社区的重要性和必要性,并且针对合肥市和谐社区建设中存在的问题,从政府、社区、居民三个方面提出了建议性对策.     

交往的发展——居民参与的社区营造模式探讨

居民参与社区建设和营造是解决我国当代居住社区邻里交往缺失的途径之一。本文探讨了居民参与社区建设应始于何处,建筑师应如何通过设计手段引导和启发居民进行参与活动,在参与的同时促使居住区社会网络的形成与成熟,达到改善居住区人际关系的最终目的。     

论城市规划中的公众参与

随着城市规划从技术手段到公共政策的性质转变,实践中封闭的规划编制程序逐渐成为许多城市规划问题的源头。通过对公众参与功能和外国公众参与实践的分析,我国应增加公众参与的操作性规定,发挥社区组织和居民团体的作用,构建一个开放、透明、包容、公平的公众参与城市规划程序。     

中华民族共同体建设视阈下改土归流的历程、原因及作用

明清时期中央王朝实施的改土归流,不仅彻底废除了土司的政治、经济、军事、司法等特权,将国家版图内的人事权、财政权、军事指挥权、行政管理权、文化教育权等悉数收归中央,而且也是中华民族共同体由“自在”向“自觉”过渡的关键环节。明清改土归流经历了一个长期、艰巨、复杂的过程,其中既有土司利益与王朝利益的矛盾、各地土司与辖区民众的矛盾,也有中央王朝通过改土归流以增加税收、朝廷命官与乡村民众要求改土归流等现实动因。改土归流实现了国家“大一统”的目标、凸显明清国家治理能力的进步、加快了中华民族共同体建设的速度。中华民族共同体是一个由政治共同体、经济共同体、文化共同体和社会共同体四者构成的命运共同体。改土归流的实施,不仅是推动共同体由“自在”向“自觉”迈进的关键步骤和重要举措,而且使中华民族共同体在政治、经济、文化和社会诸方面发生巨大变化。     

共生理论视阈下中华民族共同体建构的五维向度

中华民族共同体建构的基本逻辑是一个从"求同存异"到"聚同化异"的过程,旨在构建一个多民族休戚与共、血脉相连的共生关系与共生状态。中华民族共同体的有效建构必须赋予"共生"的理念,以责任、族际、文化、利益、命运为共生单元的建构逻辑,进而推动中华民族政治共同体、文化共同体、价值共同体、利益共同体、命运共同体的全面建构。     

铸牢中华民族共同体意识视角下归侨群体的“五个认同”研究——以广西侨港镇为例

作为中国最大的印支难民安置点,广西侨港镇成立至今已有四十余年的历史。在侨港镇经济快速发展,社会各项事业全面进步的同时,当地归侨群体对伟大祖国、中华民族、中华文化、中国共产党、中国特色社会主义的认同不断深化提升,其中华民族共同体意识日益形成并得以巩固铸牢。侨港镇的事实经验不仅为铸牢中华民族共同体意识的学术研究提供了个案参考,也为其他归侨安置地区相关工作的实际开展提供了借鉴启发。