Context Of Social Work Research Articles

Technology-assisted supplemental work: A meta-analysis

Due to the increasing digitalization and connectivity of work, more and more employees engage in technology-assisted supplemental work (TASW). TASW refers to the performance of work-related tasks after regular work hours with the aid of technological tools. Based on a conceptual model of TASW, we present a comprehensive meta-analysis of potential antecedents and outcomes of TASW (K = 89 independent samples, N = 39,085 employees). Results showed that TASW is associated with social normative work context characteristics, such as availability expectations after work (ρ¯ = 0.45), and work characteristics, such as job demands (ρ¯ = 0.32). Associations were also found between TASW and person characteristics, such as work identity (ρ¯ = 0.35) and segmentation preference (ρ¯ = −0.20). Moreover, TASW is related to important employee outcomes, including recovery-related outcomes, such as psychological detachment (ρ¯ = −0.38); well-being outcomes, such as job strain (ρ¯ = 0.12); nonwork-related outcomes, such as work nonwork conflict (ρ¯ = 0.32); as well as attitudinal and performance-related outcomes, such as organizational commitment (ρ¯ = 0.16) and work performance (ρ¯ = 0.27). We also found TASW to be related to certain demographic characteristics, such as male gender (ρ¯ = 0.11) and job-level (ρ¯ = 0.23). Exploratory moderator analyses further revealed that gender moderated the relationship between job demands and TASW, such that the relationship was stronger for samples with a higher percentage of females. We conclude by discussing potential directions for future research to advance the understanding of TASW.

Telling Stories of Practice in the Neo-liberal Context of English Social Work

Abstract The authors contend that the rise of neo-liberal codified management systems within English social work increasingly restricts social workers freedom to be creative in their practice reducing them to social administrators. We are two registered social work professionals and academics who believe managerial contexts encroach on our professional values. As insider researchers, we engaged in conversations and case storytelling to examine how our knowledge and practice as social workers positively influenced outcomes for people who have lived experiences. The two stories articulated in this article magnify how professional use of self can enact emancipatory empathy in the minutiae of practice. Collaborating as insider ethnographers supported us to deconstruct practice using critical reflection and reflexivity in post-modernist contexts. We highlight how micro examinations in collaborative autoethnography have potential for engaging wider philosophical conversations about social work identity.

Children’s Rights to Participate in out-of-Home Care: International Social Work Contexts, Claudia Equit and Jade Purtell (eds.)

Children’s Rights to Participate in out-of-Home Care: International Social Work Contexts, Claudia Equit and Jade Purtell (eds.)

‘Rocky road’ & ‘brick walls’ – Multiple meanings of resilience in a social work context through the lens of critical realist Informed grounded theory

This study seeks to build an explanation of the multiple meanings of resilience in a social work context, centralising the interplay between human agency (meaning-making, motivations and intentionality) and social structures (enduring patterns, social rules, norms and laws). Specifically, this research provides insight into how care-experienced people (aged 17–50 years old) and social workers and affiliated practitioners in England make sense of ‘resilience’ and ‘resilient’ behaviours. Critical realist informed grounded theory (CRGT) provides unique opportunities here, with critical realist’s primacy of ontology as the starting point and grounded theory providing the epistemological force, contextualising research and imbedding this more firmly into practice. Drawing on the four stages of retroductive argumentation proposed by Kempster and Parry (2014) and developed by us, we identify a number of key themes, namely, ‘Having/Building an Ability’ – ‘Rocky Road’ and ‘Brick Walls’ – Resilience as Resistance – ‘Compliance’, as well as causal factors impacting upon the themes (such as traumatic life experiences, protective factors, external support systems, political agendas, structure-agency relationships and stigma, discrimination and marginalisation). The research highlights how multiple causal mechanisms, including interpretations of situations by individuals (in this case care-experienced individuals and social workers/affiliated practitioners) interact and generate multiple meaning in relation to process and outcomes of resilience. The research thus provides insight into deeply embedded interpretations of resilience, which should be viewed in light of the stratified non-linear dynamics of embodied experiences, material/institutional forces and social relationships, that co-constitute subjectivity, as well as having an ongoing influence on body–brain systems.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORK CHARACTERISTICS AND SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING OF EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION MANAGERS AND EMPLOYEES.

Aim: To empirically investigate the relationship between work characteristics and subjective well-being of managers and employees in educational organizations. Materials and Methods: Analysis of work characteristics was done using The Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ). The modified BBC Subjective Well-being scale (BBC-SWB) was used to analyze educational staff's well-being. The research data were processed using mathematical statistics: descriptive statistics (mean, std. deviation), Pearson correlation, and independent samples t-test. 345 respondents from the Central region of Ukraine participated in the survey. Results: Although educational staff had a generally positive assessment of work characteristics, there were certain disproportions in their assessments of individual work characteristics: work autonomy characteristics were rated lower than task characteristics, while social characteristics and work context characteristics were rated lower than knowledge characteristics. In addition, educational organization managers rated the vast majority of work characteristics higher than employees, which suggests a more favorable organizational environment for managers than employees. There were three work characteristics groups in the context of their associations with staff's subjective well-being: 1) work characteristics that had a positive statically significant relationship with both managers and employees' subjective well-being indicators; 2) work characteristics that had positive and negative statistically significant relationships with employees' subjective well-being indicators; 3) work characteristics that had positive and negative statistically significant relationships with managers' subjective well-being indicators. Conclusions: The obtained findings may be helpful for managers and employees of educational organizations in promoting staff's subjective well-being and increasing educational organizations' effectiveness.

현대사회의 변화와 헌법학의 전개와 과제

The year of 1987 is the beginning time of democratization and the epochal moment for the constitutional law and constitutional research as well. The constitution was taken root as the universal basic norm in the various spheres of the people’s lives beyond the political order. The constitutional research had to incorporate the social phenomena and problems into the constitutional structure, analyse and evaluate them on the base of the constitutional criteria on the one hand. On the other hand it should have the constitutional law sustain and develop its vitality by actively taking the social changes into the constitutional structure. This is the large point of difference from the former era where there existed a large gap between the constitutional value and norm, as well as between the constitutional norm and reality, so that the research area of the constitution was narrow. The task of the constitutional research after 1987 could be put together as follows. The constitution has to strengthen its character as the universal basic norm. It should actively communicate with the society to work in social context. This could be realized on condition that it understands the characteristics and the structure of realization of the relevant legislation. It could suggest the possible range of the legislation and its limit, and avoid the unconstitutionality in advance. The first obligation to adapt the legislation to the social change lies in the legislative branch. But the constitutional research should lead the evaluation if it would pass over the constitutional hurdle. Today the task of the state is increased and complicated. The participation of the interested parties at the decision making could enhance the rationality and transparency of the project. And it would lesson the burden of the state. But from the point of the constitutional theory it should explain the possible conflict of this structure of decision making with the democratic legitimacy. The principle of the welfare state is yet focused on the minimum standard living. As the welfare policy includes almost all population, it should enlarge its view of the research. The modern society encounters the new problem that the public discourse forms itself with great difficulty because the political idea and identity in the society too much atomized. This is the functional condition of the constitutional law which would be the new challenge to the constitutional research.

Functions, Utilities and Limitations: A Scoping Study of Decision Support Algorithms in Social Work

ABSTRACT Purpose This scoping study aims to provide an overview of the functions, utilities and limitations of applying “decision support algorithms” (DSAs) in different social work contexts. Method The study involves searching the Scopus and Web of Science databases, which results in the inclusion of 55 articles in the analysis. Results We find important differences in the functions, utilities and limitations of DSAs according to the choice of data, variables, technology and social work context. Discussion The reviewed literature indicates that social workers are rarely involved in developing DSAs. This seems to result in a limited innovation of DSAs that are capable of stimulating the reflection of social workers and thereby qualifying their decision-making process. Conclusion This study calls for further research on how to enhance interaction between social workers at the street level and system builders and managers at the system level in developing DSAs designed for reflection.

Unpacking social innovation by nonstate service providers in the challenging social work practice

Nonstate service providers in the form of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play an important role in the delivery of social services and the development of social work practice, in particular in fragile and conflict-affected countries. In such challenging settings, NGOs also mobilize various resources, implement novel activities or service delivery models that may induce the development of social innovation; however, such perspectives have been overlooked in the social work literature. This study outlines a framework for understanding how social innovation generates by nonstate service providers in a challenging social work context. By analyzing 15 interviews from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the study identified three interrelated key mechanisms that drive social innovation by local NGO service providers: a) transcopy, b) coactive novelty and c) knowledge construction. The processes underlying these mechanisms include transnational networking, copying and adapting, contextual modification, relationship-building, pioneering novel solutions, knowledge production and transfer. This study offers new insights into the role of nonstate service providers in the development of social innovation in a challenging social work context and has several implications for practice.

On the other side of the rabbit proof fence: decolonizing social work education - a framework for change

ABSTRACT The push to improve Indigenous student retention and completion rates in higher education programs is a strategic goal across Australian universities. Similarly, the notion of decolonizing education to allow for a more culturally relevant educational experience is being discussed in university curricula development. In this article, we highlight challenges within the current neoliberal political context influencing a decolonized approached to higher education. We will draw on experiences from a case study of a creative therapy course situated within a Social Work program at a regional university. A team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers will propose a framework for navigating pedagogical and administrative challenges to design a course that serves as a powerful tool to advocate for changes in higher education and social work systems. We suggest that this framework can be used to build valuable connections across Indigenous and Western knowledge systems and promote truth-telling in the social work context. Finally, we argue that our framework for decolonising education is inter-disciplinary and a useful tool in helping staff and students take back their knowledge from colonial power structures.

An Epidemic of Virtue: A Review of Social Work's Complicity in “Prostitution” Interventions

This article engages with the field of social work's role in humanitarian and criminal legal responses to sex work in the United States over the last century. Our historical review reveals that, through interdisciplinary collaboration in the criminalization and rehabilitation of sex workers, social workers have contributed to the transformation of “prostitution” from an issue of sex workers’ rights to a psychological, criminal legal, and medical phenomenon. This has exacerbated the harm and stigma experienced by sex workers. In exploring social work interventions on sex work from the Progressive Era through the rise of neoliberalism, this article places its modern iteration, prostitution diversion programming, within the context of social work's carceral history with sex workers. We choose these periods not for their chronicity, but rather for the salient themes in these historical interventions that characterize modern diversion programming: power and control, punitive service provision, patriarchal rescue, and carceral feminism. To align with social work's mandate for social justice and client self-determination, this article offers policy and practice implications grounded in the decriminalization of sex work and divestment from the police and courts. Alternative service approaches spearheaded by sex workers are explored and placed within the context of labor, racial, gender, and immigration justice.

The Power of Arts in Old Age: Implications for Social Workers

This article attempts to bridge various forms of arts and social work interventions through an exploration of how arts can fit within the social work context and have a positive impact on clients’ lives. The focus of the article is on the older adults, a population group that is considered as a vulnerable, from the social and health perspectives. The objective of the study was to examine whether arts have a positive impact on older adults or not. By examining the impact of various kinds of arts on the quality of life of older adults, this article aims to strengthen the idea of using alternative approaches in social work interventions with older adults. It also suggests the idea of introducing social work courses within the curriculum that combine social work and arts. Through a pen-and-paper, closed-ended questionnaire, 179 Greek Cypriots over the age of 65 were surveyed in order to measure the power that participation in art activities may have on their lives.

Against a bitter tide: How a small UK charity operationalises dissent to challenge the “hostile environment” for migrant children and families

INTRODUCTION: Dissent is currently under political and ideological assault in the UK and immigration has long been a target for those looking to quell dissenting practices. At the same time, dissent appears increasingly out of place in the contemporary social work context in England. Yet, as the authors argue, dissent is codified within the professional and ethical standards that social workers in England must adhere to. APPROACH: This article introduces the work of a small UK Charity, Together with Migrant Children, and applies to it key facets of the theoretical basis for dissent through case study and practice-based reflections on challenges in immigration policy and opportunities for dissenting practice. IMPLICATIONS: The authors set out the challenges and opportunities for dissent in practice in statutory, non-statutory and wider community development settings, illustrating how dissent can bring individual ‘success’ that is located within a cumulative structural and tactical change that points to dissent and its practice as a necessary feature of democracy.

Clinical and Forensic Interviews in Child Sexual Abuse Allegations in South Africa: Literary Reflections on the Roles of Practitioners

Very few universities in South Africa offer postgraduate training on forensic social work, hampering the ability of social workers to conduct forensic interviews. This article is birthed by concerns raised by professionals (in particular, social workers) regarding their roles during the interviews with children alleged to be sexually abused. Professionals from across disciplines such as social workers, mental health practitioners, police officers and psychologists are involved in interviews with child victims of sexual abuse. In this conceptual article, we argue that each of these professionals must be vigilant about their roles and responsibilities when interviewing victims of child sexual abuse because if they conduct forensic interviews without proper knowledge of doing so, the prosecution and conviction of perpetrators might be compromised. The focus of this article is within the context of social work with an attempt to differentiate between the roles of forensic social workers and clinical social workers dealing with child sexual abuse allegations in South Africa. Forensic social work training and practice in South Africa is still a developing field of specialisation which requires experts to have generic social work interviewing skills. There have not been studies in South Africa that intensively focus on the difference between clinical and forensic interviews. We conducted an extensive and integrative review of literature as a research method to pursue the purpose of this article.

Care Support Experiences of Older Ethiopian Refugees Resettled in Australia

ABSTRACT Drawing on qualitative research, the authors analysed the care support experiences of older Ethiopian refugees resettled in Australia. In-depth interviews conducted with 12 Ethiopians revealed that older Ethiopians experienced language and cultural barriers in accessing formal care services, and that they often did not view these services as entitlements they were due as citizens. Findings demonstrated a significant familial orientation to expectations around, and provision of, care support to older Ethiopians, which may be under-recognised in the Australian social work context. The authors argue that given this familial orientation and the difficulty in accessing formal care services, the reconfiguration of care relationships post-resettlement has resulted in increased reliance on adult daughters’ attenuated capacity to meet the care needs of older parents, which raises serious concerns about the long-term viability and gender equity of such arrangements. IMPLICATIONS Older Ethiopian refugees resettled in Australia may experience “care poverty” due to unmet needs for aged care services. Social work practice to redress this should recognise gendered cultural and linguistic barriers to services, and provide effective, culturally competent translation services. The familial orientation of elder care among Ethiopians may potentially over-burden adult daughters who are care-givers; care support policies should, therefore, aim to provide services to prevent gendered care inequalities.

Possibilities of using the humanistic ethics and psychoanalysis of Erich Fromm in establishing a relationship with a client within the context of anti-oppressive social work

This article has been conceived as a theoretical essay on the possibility of using the theory of Erich Fromm in establishing and maintaining a client relationship in the context of anti-oppressive social work. The first section of the text presents possibilities of using Fromm’s models in resolving the risk of self-sacrifice to the client; the second focuses on how to work within the client’s boundaries and the risk of paternalistic approaches; the third proposes concepts with regard to working with client ir/responsibility.

Sustainable Development Goals and social work in the migration context – a higher education dialogue between Germany, Jordan, and Lebanon

ABSTRACT Germany, Jordan, and Lebanon’s social, political, and socio-economic structures are influenced by a long history of them receiving refugees and migrants. This was a starting point for the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg (Germany), the German Jordanian University, Yarmouk University (Jordan), and the Lebanese University to engage in an intercultural and professional exchange project on social work in the field of (forced) migration. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) served as a conceptual framework to examine the lives of refugees, community development and social cohesion in receiving societies, and the role of social work in this context. The project concept focused on engaging in cultural dialogue, linking theory to practice, and fostering academic exchange through research projects. The paper provides practical insights into and reflections on the international dialogue project that proved to be an insightful learning experience for students and staff even in exceptional times of crises, exploring the relevance of SDGs for a profiled social work profession and scientific discipline.

‘You Took me Back to the sea:’ Using Narrative to Explore and Inform the Practice of Social Work with Dying People

This article centres on a qualitative interview extract, the ‘Story of the Pebble’, in which a West African Hospital Social Worker Ado, working in a UK context, and identifying as a Shaman, describes successfully trusting his instincts to create a symbol for a dying patient. Despite criticisms from colleagues, Ado's capacity to understand his patients needs are justified both before and after her death. The article discusses significant themes from the interview extract, including the meaning of professionalism, practice wisdom and cultural influences in a UK social work context, as well as through Ado's heritage and identification as a Shaman. The article considers holistic patient care in a medical context and suggests this has some useful lessons for social workers, particularly those involved with dying people. Although the extract, and wider research study from which it is drawn, pre-date the Covid 19 pandemic, this is referenced throughout, linking the interview extract to ways of helping practitioners and educators to consider people holistically at end of life.

Samskabelse mellem frontmedarbejdere og udsatte grupper

Co-production in its ideal sense, involves new roles for front-line workers and citizens. The potentials and barriers for the development of new roles for socially vulnerable citizens through co-production within social work has been discussed in the literature. Still, the consequences of these new roles, and in particular their transferability to other social work contexts has not been adequately investigated, why this is the aim of the article. Data are based on two qualitative case studies of co-production involving a Danish-Somali women’s association and the users of a Drop-in center for socially vulnerable citizens, respectively. The analysis is conducted through a lens of selected theoretical notions from Goffman’s role theory. It shows that although the citizens acquire new roles transcending the traditional professional-client relation, this only takes place within the concrete social situation of the specific co-production process and are not easily transferable to other contexts with other social actors.

Pedagogy or “trauma porn”? Racial literacy as a prerequisite for teaching racially dignifying content in the Australian social work context

PurposeOn June 21, 2021, a motion was introduced to the Australian Senate calling on the federal government to reject critical race theory (CRT) from the national curriculum, claiming that CRT is divisive and racist. This was allegedly sparked by revisions to the national school curriculum, which included a more accurate reflection of the historical record of First Nations peoples’ experiences of colonisation and the framing of British arrival onto the continent as an invasion. This paper aims to overview the omnipresence of Western thought systems in the academy and critiques how knowledge production as a disciplinary practice positions race as a “marginalised knowledge”.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is conceptual and it theorises the morphology and functions of racism within the Australian education system specifically, and across the board. This theorisation offers an invaluable starting point in rethinking how we advocate for and preserve Blac/k scholarship in academia. It examines how the political economy of racism in education offers a transformative position from which scholars can contribute to potential systemic change that promotes racial literacy and racial dignity, and the conditions necessary to foster these changes.FindingsThe paper confirms what studies by Blac/k scholars already highlight: that racialised knowledges are marked – as an aesthetic addition or as disruptive – or unnecessary – and how these patterns of colonial desires are manifested in the classroom or in race discourse.Originality/valueSpecifically, the arguments made in this paper examine two undertheorised concepts, namely, “racial dignity” and “trauma porn” to foreground the reimagination of practices that inform racial literacy in education. This offers a helpful starting place to consider how this form of education facilitates ongoing settler colonialism in Australia. The authors then propose an anti-racist pedagogical practice in social work education entailing three core crucial and transformative elements: self- reflexivity, storytelling and collaboration with Blac/k people.

Positioning structural social work in Indian context

Postmodern ideologies and human rights movements in the last quarter of the 20th century contributed to the development of a critical, radical approach in social work practice and education in North America. This ‘structural social work’ approach argues that social problems are largely the result of oppressive social structures, not individual deficiencies. Social workers are ethically obligated to change oppressive structures rather than simply helping clients to adjust to them. Structural social work, a transformative approach, can benefit Indian society. This article discusses introducing ‘structural social work’ into an Indian social work context and proposes a framework for its practice.