Concept Of Social Work Research Articles

Analysis and social work intervention of adolescent premature dating from a social-ecological perspective

By applying social ecological theory and social work concepts and methods to analyze the phenomenon of adolescent early dating, it is found that the causes of adolescent early dating involve changes in physiological and psychological structures, the influence of family atmosphere, school education, peer group effects, and the impact of social environment and traditional culture on three levels. Social work can intervene in the social ecological system of adolescents through professional methods such as case counseling, group work, and community work, carrying out practical work in their individual, family, school, and community aspects, and contributing to the resolution of adolescent early dating issues.

A review on social work and climate change: the need for a transdisciplinary approach

ABSTRACT Climate change is a global emergency due to its social and economic impacts. This comprehensive review examines how climate change affects society and emphasises the role of social work in solving this problem with a multidisciplinary approach. Despite the least responsible, marginalised groups suffer hugely from climate change impacts and the global GDP will plummet, if no action is taken to mitigate its effects causing severe economic hardship for developing nations, and marginalised communities, which already face inequalities, resource shortages, and poor governance. There is a necessity for strategies to lower vulnerable population risks, thus emphasising the role of social work in addressing the inequalities of the climate change impacts. This paper discusses how social work concepts relate to environmental challenges and how they advocate for sustainability during climate change adaptation and mitigation, and promote environmental justice. Furthermore, the review also emphasises the need for transdisciplinary action on climate change. Scopus and Google Scholar databases was used to retrieve literature, based on the review questions, 51 literature items were selected for the evaluation and case examples. The review concludes that transdisciplinary action, including social workers’ role in decision-making and implementation, can create an equitable climate change mitigation plan.

“We Owe It to Those Who Shall Come After Us”: Considering the Role of Social Work Education in Disrupting Carceral Complicity

Reflecting upon Mary Richmond’s early call for formalized social work training to address the historical struggles of the field, this analysis examines how American social work education has addressed the paradoxes of help and harm present in the field for more than a century. We examine how, under the guise of benevolence and care, social work has exerted social control and contributed to gendered criminalization. We use the term carceral complicity to extend the concept of carceral social work, illustrating how carceral complicity has contributed to women’s criminalization through the embedding, enacting, and invisibilizing of carceral logics in social work. In addition to describing how carceral complicity has been addressed in social work education, we illustrate the gendered nature of carceral complicity, highlighting how women have historically and contemporarily been positioned as both the proprietors and the recipients of carceral complicity. In line with recent scholarship, we suggest that through a transformative approach to social work education we may disrupt carceral complicity and support liberatory futures.

Innovative Approaches to Social Activation Using Collaborative Social Work Concepts: The Case of Social Enterprise in Working with the Vulnerable Long-Term Unemployed

ABSTRACT The article presents a case study of a social enterprise in Slovenia that offered an innovative social activation program based on collaborative approaches. The characteristics of social activation in Slovenia with the legal context of social entrepreneurship are presented, and the innovative approach to social activation is discussed. The results are based on small qualitative research with two focus groups (with professionals and users of the project) and suggest the great importance of collaborative social work concepts: the individual working project of help and working relationship of co-creation as a potential for better results for users. Both the barriers and supportive factors to the use of collaborative approaches are discussed. Suggestions are made on how to put collaborative social work concepts into practice and how to increase competence for their consistent application.

‘Meeting them halfway’: legitimation in the discourse of secular social work educators at ultra-Orthodox campuses

ABSTRACT This paper critically examines the discursive practices used by secular social work educators when teaching ultra-Orthodox students, whose strict interpretations of Jewish religious law often clash with professional values. Utilizing data from a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews with 16 social work faculty members, the paper elaborates van Leeuwen’s framework for analyzing legitimation in discourse. The findings indicate that the lecturers often encounter controversial situations that require them to abandon their professional ethics in order to accommodate the differential needs of their ultra-Orthodox students. I contend that in order to legitimize and camouflage conflictual pedagogic actions, such as the exclusion of women, self-censorship or the acceptance of discriminatory attitudes, the interviewees use social work concepts and terminology, such as cultural sensitivity, discretion or rapport. That is, the lecturers paradoxically use their professional identity to suspend social work principles in an attempt to implement multicultural politics in the classroom. The study uses identity construction as a complementary analytical lens to van Leeuwen’s approach and illuminates the use of discursive legitimation in educational and professional settings.

The journey to becoming a qualitative social work researcher: seven mile-markers

ABSTRACT This paper deals with the meaningful relationships between qualitative research and social work. It seeks to explore seven mile-markers through which one can develop the identity of a qualitative social worker. These steps are: listen to the story, become your own teacher, be systematic, remember the context, make a change, find a friend, and take care. Each step is conceptualized and explained using key theories and concepts in social work and qualitative research. They are further exemplified through the examination of the author’s experience in both the qualitative and social work fields in the context of child sexual abuse. The article aims to provide social workers and qualitative researchers with tools that will help them improve and empower their professional and research skills, and to clarify and achieve the connection between the two realms.

Spatial issues in social work education in Chile: curriculum analysis of universities and professional institutes

ABSTRACT In response to the growing use of spatial concepts in social work, this article addresses their incorporation in the curriculum of undergraduate programmes and the differences among diverse types of higher education institutions. The aims were 1) to identify how spatial issues are incorporated in social work curriculums in Chile and 2) to compare how this incorporation is made in social work programmes in different higher education institutions. The method was a quantitative and descriptive analysis of the curricula of the totality of the programmes in the country (N = 45). We defined 11 concepts to search: community, spatial concepts (territory, environment, place, space), spatial phenomena (city, rural, housing), and social concepts associated with spatial issues (networks, poverty, citizenship). The results show that community is the most relevant concept. Nevertheless, when viewed collectively, spatial concepts hold similar significance. However, there are noticeable differences in how different higher education institutions use spatial concepts. Professional institutes often overlook spatial concerns compared to universities. We recommend regulating social work education to incorporate a minimum curriculum that addresses these issues. Further research is needed to evaluate course content, references, and scientific publications in Chilean social work.

Clown-based Social Work as Dissent in Child Protection Practice

Abstract This article presents Clown-Based Social Work (Steggall, 2023) as a form of dissent consistent with Paul Michael Garrett’s (2021a) conceptualisation of Dissenting Social Work. It contributes to the debate sparked by Chris Maylea (2020) and continued by Paul Michael Garrett (2021b) and Joe Whelan (2022). Clown-Based Social Work is an outcome of Steggall’s, doctoral research findings. Clown theory is a relational practice that offers an alternative way of being with people in an impossible situation. Correlations between Clown Theory and Social Work Theory were observed and explored. These correlations were conceptualised into Clown-Based Social Work as a new approach to child protection practice. Three key concepts of Clown-Based Social Work are discussed as forms of dissent from established ways of knowing and normative familial ideals in child protection work: Failure, Stupidity and Play. These three concepts are explored as relational practices that can enact dialogue between service users and social workers. This discussion is both a response to what Maylea (2020) has called the contemporary failures of social work and to Garrett’s (2021a, p. 226) call for dissenting imbued perspectives in social work practice.

Spiritual Needs of the Elderly and Social Work Intervention in the Context of Healthcare Integration

As a new type of pension service, the combination of medical and nursing services has increasingly become a new trend in the development of China's pension industry with its advantages of combining pension services and medical services. In this paper, we analyse the spiritual needs of the elderly in healthcare-integrated institutions from four levels, namely, emotion, social interaction, culture and entertainment, and respect, and put forward corresponding intervention strategies in combination with the professional concepts of social work, aiming to enhance the spiritual and psychological adaptation of the elderly in healthcare-integrated institutions.

Digital social work or e-social work? Towards social work in a digital environment

The goal of this paper is to summarise and remark on contemporary issues of emerging social work in the digital environment, which were accelerated by social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss the concepts of e-social work and digital social work. We debate where the boundaries of social work in the digital environment are and whether it constitutes a new, distinct branch of social work. We investigate the process and barriers to enhancing social workers’ digital capabilities (using the Technology Acceptance Model, SAMR theory, and Digital Natives-Digital Immigrants contexts). We analyse the key advantages and disadvantages of social work in the online setting.

Social work at the crossroads. Dissident social work and changes in education for the field of social work in Poland

The critical debate on the current condition of social work in assistance systems is reflected not only in Poland, but also internationally, and it concerns the issue of the role of social work in societies affected by various crises. The article discusses the assumptions resulting from Paul Garret’s concept of dissident social work, referring some assumptions of the concept to several problems related to the scientific and professional condition of Polish social work and the needs and barriers to developing such forms of education for social work that correspond to changing social and market needs.Reviewing the educational offers of universities in Poland in the field of education for social work and comparing the popularity and possibilities of education for social work with the situation from a dozen or so years ago, the author of the text notes new educational opportunities, as well as a decrease in both the number of universities offering education in this field and the number of applicants for studies. Analysing the changes, she also draws attention to the dilemmas and the role of the Polish Association of Social Work Schools, which for over thirty years has been participating in the development of research, education and practice of social work in Poland and the integration of schools educating for social work, connecting three generations of researchers, teachers and social work practitioners.

“I didn't know it would be like this”: Professional Preparation for Social-Service Information Work in Public Libraries

Recent semi-structured interviews with 28 librarians and branch managers on the placement of social workers in public libraries revealed a need for library and information science (LIS) programs to better prepare students for their role as social service information providers and to provide models for working with and supervising social workers in the library. It is clear that libraries are experiencing increasing demands to respond to the social-service information needs that users bring to the library, and the importance of libraries to communities in times of uncertainty and crisis is clear. In response, some libraries are including social workers on staff, but this trend does not completely relieve librarians of the need to serve the public's social-service information needs. LIS students need to understand the professional boundaries of librarianship and social work and to develop the ability to feel confident in their interactions with users who have been traumatized, are in crisis, or are struggling with challenges such as the need for credible health information; home and food insecurity information; legal aid; access to the Internet for individuals and families from low-income situations; accessible adult education programs; and more. Interview participants offered a number of suggestions for how to incorporate social work concepts into LIS education and asked for several specific skills such as training in mental-health first aid, de-escalation techniques, and greater knowledge of social-service resources.

Harm reduction social work with people who use drugs: a qualitative interview study with social workers in harm reduction services in Sweden

BackgroundSocial work with people who use drugs (PWUD) has traditionally focused on abstinence and rehabilitation. In recent years, harm reduction has gained an increasingly more important role in social work with PWUD, and social workers are key professionals in many harm reduction services. This study investigates how social workers in harm reduction services for PWUD in Sweden understand the concept of harm reduction and how it relates to goals of rehabilitation, and how they assess and deal with dilemmas and challenges in everyday work.MethodsThe study is based on interviews with 22 social workers in harm reduction services for PWUD in the Scania region of Sweden. A thematic analysis in three steps was used in coding and processing the data.ResultsThe social workers pointed to similar values between social work and harm reduction and argued for combining the two fields to improve services for PWUD. Three overarching principles for Harm Reduction Social Work (HRSW) were developed based on the social workers accounts: (1) Harm reduction is a prerequisite for rather than a counterpoint to rehabilitation and recovery, (2) motivational work must be non-mandatory and based on the client’s goals, (3) a holistic perspective is crucial for Harm Reduction Social Work. Challenges in doing HRSW concerned restrictive laws, policies, and guidelines, resistance from managers, difficulties in setting boundaries between client autonomy and life-saving interventions, and the risk of normalizing high-risk behaviors.ConclusionsWe use the concept of Harm Reduction Social Work to show how social work with PWUD can have a primary focus on reducing harm and risks, while at the same time it involves a holistic perspective that facilitates motivation and change. The suggested principles of HRSW can provide guidance in practical social work with vulnerable PWUD. Social workers can have important roles in most harm reduction settings and may act to enable recovery.

Love and Social Work in the UK: A Critical Evaluation

Recently social work scholars have been exploring the concept of love and social work. A focus on love takes social work back to its roots, reinforcing care for, sensitivity and responsiveness to, the feelings of service users and relationships between service users and practitioners. Some scholars see love operating not only at individual levels, but also with action elements at structural levels challenging power, inequality, and oppression. The recent work of various international writers about social work and love is summarised. However, the concept of love and social work raises important complex, critical questions which are tentatively considered in this article. The aims of the article are to explore the concept of love as applied to professional social work, to highlight its strengths and weaknesses and offer some critical perspectives. Other aims are to begin to explore linkages between love and some existing social work theories, concepts, and values and to consider the implications of love for social work practice in statutory contexts in the UK. The role of love in social work can offer ambitious and transformative possibilities, but ambivalence, contradictions and paradox are evident; there is a need for much more debate and research about its place in the discourses of social work.

Teaching social work concepts to LIS students

While there has been tremendous growth in the number of partnerships between social work and public libraries in the last fifteen years, an educational gap exists in teaching students about social work concepts within library and information science (LIS) graduate curricula. Recent scholarship does speak to the importance of integrating social work skills and knowledge into LIS coursework, yet little has been written about what this instruction looks like in practice. This thought piece demonstrates an originality of ideas by describing the content, structure, and goals of a cross-disciplinary graduate course entitled Library Social Work. In doing so, the author aims to illustrate the significance of incorporating concepts and themes into LIS curricula to better prepare students for the field of public librarianship and ultimately to benefit library patrons and librarians themselves.

Edifying the Body: Troubling Notions of Impact When Discussing EAQ's Intellectual Structure

An Empirical Reflection on Educational Administration Quarterly’s Distinctive Contributions to the Field, 1965–2020 evaluated the impact of Educational Administration Quarterly using bibliometrics (EAQ). The authors in an analysis of articles from 1965 to 2020 highlighted scholars who made significant contributions to the journal. The outcomes, together with the most cited EAQ articles were then leveraged to infer the corpus’ essential features. While the information presented was important there were some key issues the interpretation. In this response, I questioned the concept of impact through a discussion of bias in citations and examined some of the limitations of the authors’ conception of social justice work, one of the schools of thought mentioned in the EAQ Intellectual framework.

Unsettling Discourses of Cross-Cultural Social Work Practice: Moving from Theoretical Debates to Interrogating and Transforming Praxis

Abstract Cultural competence is one of the most debated concepts in social work. Whilst some scholars view it as a central tenet of social work theory, practice and education, others critique it as a new form of racism and even encourage its abandonment in social work. Amidst this fierce debate, this article attempts to answer the following question: How do we become entrapped by our own thinking when it comes to fostering or critiquing cultural competence and related constructs as well as understanding their embodiment in everyday social work practice? Using a post-structural lens, especially Foucault’s work on the ‘Order of Things’ in society, this article interrogates discourses and praxis in cross-cultural social work practice (CCSWP). After briefly examining the pervasive concepts of cultural competence, cultural humility and structural competence currently in circulation, this article elaborates upon debated discourses and interrogates the praxis underlying CCSWP. Instead of descending into semantic and theoretical debates and promoting one dogmatism above others, it is essential to assume a position of ongoing interrogation and critique of the pervasive discourses and praxis of cultural competence and alternative concepts. Doing so can promote reflective CCSWP and create the possibility for transformative change in social work practice.

A TRANSFORMING ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE CLIENT IN SOCIAL WORK: THE PRAXIS OF THE ANTIOCH SCHOOL OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND THEOLOGY

This article is an analysis of the historical roots and ethical semantics of the social work concept ‘a marginal person, a client’ (the Greek words ξένος, ksenos and αςτος, astos). The question is relevant in modern social work in relation to the concept of ‘strange’ or ‘marginal’. The article analyses how the concepts ‘strange’, ‘other’ and marginal’ have re-entered the modern world from the Ancient world, as they were used in Ancient Syria (in the fourth century), Greece, and Medieval Europe. However, nowadays in social work theory they should be described anew using the discourses of social work and anthropology. The article explores the question of how to communicate with the ‘other’ or marginal person, based on reciprocity and internal solidarity.

Circles of hell or circles of support? (Using the «person-in-environment» concept in social work practice)

Modern trends in the development of client-centered approaches in social work, which rely on the client’s internal resources and his strengths, although they consider a person as an expert in his own life situation and one who is able to cope with life challenges, emphasize the influence of the environment in which the client is. This paper is based on the theoretical analysis of the "person-in-environment" concept and reflection of the experience of using tools based on this concept in the authors’ structured interventions focused on the clients' strengths development. The analysis of the academic literature confirmed that the “person-in-environment", developed in the 1980s, remains a popular concept of eco-system social work. It suggests considering the client's experience and life situation through the lenses of dependence on the external environment. An individual's environment affects how a person evaluates the surrounding reality and the processes occuring in their life, way of thinking, and behavior patterns in response to difficulties. From the viewpoint of this concept, the social work objective is to understand the needs and problems of clients through the study of environmental influences, finding and assessing the resourcefulness of social systems that affect the clients’ well-being, and working to strengthen them. The "person-in-nvironment" concept is used to obtain a holistic view of the impact of the environment on clients, it can be applied as a basis for practical interventions, focused on the use of strengths, which allows you to resist social pressure, to defend own interests and needs, and will strengthen faith in own ability. The experience of piloting of techniques based on the "person-in-environment" concept gives reason to say that they help clients to understand their dependence on environmental systems, to identify a "toxic environment", to realize the possibility of control over their own lives, to strengthen faith in their own strength and ability to make decisions about desired relationships in a person's life.

Examining the convergence of dominant themes related to social entrepreneurship, NGOs and globalization-A systematic literature review.

Social entrepreneurship (SE) is an all-encompassing concept in comparison to a typical non-government organization (NGO). It is a topic that has captured the interest of academics investigating nonprofit, charitable, and nongovernmental organizations. Despite the interest, few studies have examined the overlap and convergence of entrepreneurship and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), in congruence with the new phase of globalization. The study gathered and evaluated 73 peer-reviewed papers using a systematic literature review methodology, mainly from Web of Science but also from Scopus, JSTOR, and Science Direct, and supplemented by a search of existing databases and bibliographies. Based on the findings, 71 percent of studies suggest that organizations must reconsider the concept of social work, which has evolved rapidly, aided by globalization. The concept has changed from the NGO model to a more sustainable one, such as that proposed by SE. However, it is difficult to draw broad generalizations regarding the convergence of context-dependent complex variables such as SE, NGOs, and globalization. The results of the study will significantly contribute to a better understanding of the convergence of SE and NGOs, as well as the recognition that many aspects of NGOs, SE, and post-COVID globalization remain unexamined.