Teacher,Researcher and … Policy Actor? Social Work Academics’ Involvement in Social Policy

This cross‐sectional quantitative study expands the knowledge on the level of involvement of social work academics (SWAs) in social policy formulation processes, and the factors associated with this. SWAs are an interesting case for exploring the academia–policy nexus because they are affiliated with a profession in which the discourse regards social policy as a target of intervention. The study took place in Israel, where social work is strongly embedded in academia and enjoys relatively high professional status. The study drew upon a sample, which consisted of 57 per cent of all SWAs in Israel, and employed questionnaires developed specifically for the study. The findings show that the highest levels of involvement were in activities characterized by more active, public sphere routes of influence within the policy arena that were undertaken in conjunction with traditional social work partners. Social work scholars engaged in these activities more during the initial stages of the policy process. These forms of policy involvement reflect the dual impact of academia and the social work profession upon SWAs. Associated with level of involvement were individual factors, which included academic rank, perception of the social role of academia, perceived individual policy role, and perceived policy competencies. By contrast, factors linked to institutional support for policy engagement were not found to be associated with policy involvement.     

Dream Recall Frequency and Unusual Dream Experiences in Early Adolescence: Longitudinal Links to Behavior Problems

Unique dream patterns are related to psychopathological distress in adults. In adolescence, this was investigated almost exclusively regarding nightmares. This longitudinal study examines developmental trajectories of various adolescent‐reported dream patterns, and their associations with parent‐reported psychopathology (internalization and externalization problems) in early adolescence. Ninety‐four 10‐ to 11‐year‐old normally developing children completed a week of sleep, dreaming, and pubertal development assessments. Parents reported behavior problems. Assessments were repeated after 1 and 2 years. Reports of unusual dreams decreased over time, and dream recall decreased among girls. Internalizing symptoms longitudinally predicted an increase in dream recall and unusual dreams. Moreover, unusual dreams longitudinally predicted increased behavior problems (internalization and externalization). Assessing dream patterns during early adolescence may help early detection of covert psychopathological distress.     

Where Does it Begin? A Comparative Perspective on the Professional Preferences of First-year Social Work Students

Correspondence to Dr John Gal, Paul Baerwald School of Social Work, The Hebrew University, Mt Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel. Summary The goal of this paper is to contribute to a better understandingof international social work by examining the professional preferencesof students at the beginning of the social work training processin the United States, Great Britain and Israel. The study, uponwhich the paper is based, examined the preferences of the studentswith regard client groups, social services, types of sectorsand of practices, and sought to identify the similarities andthe differences between these preferences in different countries.The findings indicate that the students from the United Statesand Israeli universities prefer to work with social groups andto be employed in services, that can be defined as "less stigmatic",while these trends were not identifiable in the case of theBritish students. They expressed a greater readiness to workwith more needy social groups and to find employment in thestate sector. By contrast, the students in all the universitiesstudied expressed a similar unwillingness to work the unemployed,the chronically ill and to find employment in old-aged homes.In addition, casework with individuals was the most preferredtype of social work practice. Clearly, the findings indicatethat the preferences of students in different countries reflectvariations in the nature of social work in each of the specificnational settings.     

Experimental evidence on the effect of incentives and domain in risk aversion and discounting tasks

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty - Environmental policy evaluation is often criticised for employing discount rates that have little grounding in research. Yet, experimental research aimed at...     

Policy-practice in social work and social work education in Israel

Policy-practice is a form of social work intervention that is intended to influence social policy. It is linked to an understanding of the role of social workers which places the struggle for social justice at the forefront of social work activity. However, this form of social work intervention has remained on the sidelines of social work practice and education in most welfare states. This paper seeks to understand the role that policy-practice and social policy play, and have played, in social work and social work education in Israel. The findings indicate that, despite a growth in interest in the political role of social workers in Israel during the 1970s, policy-practice has remained a mode of practice adopted by a minority of members of the profession in Israel. An empirical study of the curriculums of the schools of social work in Israel indicates that this is the case for the study program in most of the schools. The reasons for this can be linked primarily to the overwhelming influence of American social work upon the development of the Israeli profession and to the process of liberalization and privatization of the Israeli welfare state in the last two decades.     

Modeling Supply Chain Dynamics: A Multiagent Approach*

A global economy and increase in customer expectations in terms of cost and services have put a premium on effective supply chain reengineering. It is essential to perform risk-benefit analysis of reengineering alternatives before making a final decision. Simulation provides an effective pragmatic approach to detailed analysis and evaluation of supply chain design and management alternatives. However, the utility of this methodology is hampered by the time and effort required to develop models with sufficient fidelity to the actual supply chain of interest. In this paper, we describe a supply chain modeling framework designed to overcome this difficulty. Using our approach, supply chain models are composed from software components that represent types of supply chain agents (e.g., retailers, manufacturers, transporters), their constituent control elements (e.g., inventory policy), and their interaction protocols (e.g., message types). The underlying library of supply chain modeling components has been derived from analysis of several different supply chains. It provides a reusable base of domain-specific primitives that enables rapid development of customized decision support tools.     

What Options Do We Have? Exploring Routes for Social Workers` Policy Engagement

For social workers, engagement in policy processes aimed at furthering social justice is a professional obligation. Nonetheless, the literature on social workers’ policy engagement has yet to clearly explicate the range of options open to social workers seeking to realize this obligation. This article discusses six policy routes through which social workers in democratic societies can affect the policy process: voluntary political participation, holding elected office, policy practice, policy involvement by and through professional organizations, academic policy involvement, and street-level policy involvement. This conceptualization of policy routes can serve as map of options for social workers and as a heuristic tool for students.