Social Work Theory Research Articles

Advocacy in Action: Theory and Practice of Social Work

Advocacy in Action: Theory and Practice of Social Work

Psychosocial Intervention Needs and Psychiatric Social Work Practice

From the very beginning of the Social Work, human needs have long been part of the social work theory, practice and research as an implicit conceptual foundation but practically it has long been a neglected and contested concept in the published literature of social work though social work has been instrumental in meeting the various needs of individuals. Social Work Practice in the field of mental health is also not an exception for the same. The need of an hour is to explicitly discuss the role of social work in meeting the human needs on the research and literature; the practice of which has already begun. It will have a significant influence on the contemporary practice of Psychiatric Social Work as well in India.       
 Keywords: Psychiatric social work, psychosocial intervention, needs

Looking back, looking forward: using a duoethnographic study to explore the role of personal positioning in social work education in the UK and Slovenia

ABSTRACT This article highlights the importance of learning about reflective processes in social work education, because acts of reflection enable us to learn from past experiences in order to improve our future practice. We show how duoethnography, as a reflective method, enables us, as two social work academics from the UK and Slovenia, to investigate our personal positioning and its influence on our practice. This duoethnographic study allows the authors to challenge their place in the status quo, and consider their social and political position in society. Alongside the use of duoethnography as a reflective method, the analysis of critical incidents, is used herewith to develop our personal and professional knowledge base. We consider how our own educational experience taught us to value the perspectives of experts-by-experience in all aspects of our practice, investigating the disclosure of our own self and identity in this process; furthermore we consider the importance of incorporating the perspectives of experts-by-experience in the wider professional development of social workers. Consequently, we recommend that social workers reflect on their experience throughout their professional development; and suggest the potential of duoethnography as a potentially significant method in the development of theory and practice in social work.

Social work and welfare bordering: the case of homeless EU migrants in Norway

ABSTRACT This article contributes to the emergent European-wide conversation questioning the nation-state as the given unit of analysis for social work theory and practice through exploring encounters between migrants with precarious citizenship statuses, specifically homeless EU migrants, and social workers in Norway. It contends that the Norwegian social work profession has yet to engage critically with the exclusionary potential inherent in its self-identification as a welfare state profession. Paying attention to how homeless EU migrants are increasingly demarcated as ‘illegal’ in Norwegian welfare legislation, I argue for the aptness of employing the analytical lens of ‘welfare bordering’ when analysing encounters between these migrants and social workers. Building on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, the analysis further suggests that even social workers not mandated with administering public social welfare provisions get entangled in welfare bordering, at times enacting the border themselves. While social workers actively attempt to contest the exclusionary mechanisms of the welfare state in individual cases, such attempts might not challenge the migrants’ general exclusion from public welfare services per se, leaving homeless EU migrants in Norway dependent on welfare structures based on empathy and charity rather than realisation of rights.

An Update on the Relevance of the Life Course Perspective for Social Work

In recent years, the life course perspective has received increasing support from researchers across a number of behavioral science disciplines. The purpose of this article is to examine the relevance to social work of selected findings of the last 15 years of empirical investigation of life course concepts and themes. This discussion is organized around five basic concepts (cohorts, transitions, trajectories, life events, and turning points) and six interrelated themes (interplay of human lives and historical time, timing of lives, linked or interdependent lives, human agency in making choices, diversity in life course trajectories, and developmental risk and protection). Implications of life course theory and research for social work are overviewed.

Pathway of Employment From Uncovering Barriers to Discovering Hope: Nontraditional, Student-Centered, Relationship-Based Approach

This study explores the experiences and perspectives of service providers with regard to the process of psychological self-sufficiency (PSS) among students in the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) program. Based on a social work theory of PSS as our organizing framework, combined qualitative content analysis (inductive to deductive) was conducted with two service provider focus groups ( n = 16) and three student focus groups ( n = 27). The overarching theme of nontraditional, student-centered, holistic staff approaches which lead to the pathway from uncovering perceived employment barriers to discovering employment hope emerged with four phenomenological categories. The findings supported the adaptations of service providers’ different roles when providing student-centered approach in service delivery to reach maximal PSS for a better outcome in case management.

The digitalization of a social work theory: Experiences of a German child welfare social worker

A German child welfare practitioner describes the municipal endeavor to digitalize aspects of a social work theory within an electronic information system for use in daily practice and its reception of the practitioners. Reflections on implications for practice and future research are provided.

Assessing change using psychoanalytic theory in children and families social work

ABSTRACTThis article focusses on psychoanalytic theory of change and how this can be used by Children and Families Social Workers. It firstly summarises change theory from a psychoanalytic perspective and provides a theoretical overview. The article then discusses the author’s experience of working with a family where domestic abuse and substance abuse were the presenting issues and where assessment work focussed on the child’s father. The article seeks to demonstrate how psychoanalytic theories of change can be utilised by Social Workers to understand and affect change when working with complex family dynamics.

Agent-Based Modeling: Value Added to Social Work Research

Social workers have taken large strides in adopting rigorous research methods, yet there have been computational advances that could enhance the social work knowledge base. This article introduces a computational method, agent-based modeling, which can facilitate theoretical and methodological innovations by strengthening the alignment of our research methods with common social work theories. We review three theories, identify how current methods do not allow for the full exploration of the social phenomena under investigation, and provide justification for using agent-based modeling.

The Call to Decolonise: Social Work’s Challenge for Working with Indigenous Peoples

AbstractUsing Canada as an example, social work must not only address its historical and current role in the colonisation and assimilation efforts aimed at Indigenous people, but also deconstruct its practices. Social work theory, methodology and practice parameters have been built on Eurocentric definitions and understandings. Indigenous peoples do not identify with these constructs but find themselves assessed and case managed based upon them. This extends colonialism and runs counter to a core principle of the profession, that being social justice. Canada is presently calling social work to participate in a reconciliation effort, although that assumes that there was a mutually beneficial relationship to restore. Some argue against that but there is a strong consensus that social work should carry its share of the burden in colonialism and self-reflect while also reaching out to build a different type of relationship with Indigenous peoples. This article reports on three projects that consider Indigenous knowledge and application to social work. Child protection is seen as a major focal point of change, as Indigenous children are significantly over-represented in the children in care population. Looking at this area of practice will help to illustrate the long roots of the colonial practices but also how current practice remains problematic.

Praca socjalna w mieście. Perspektywa koinopolityczna

Social work sensitive to meeting man, strongly connected with the pulsating experience of human lives, take the effort of effective relief operations with concern for the dignity and human agency. Reflection on social work in meeting with “point” of human experience affected by the suffering, it shapes possibilities for creative and emancipatory for so undertaken social practice. The aim of this paper is to look at the social work in the koinopolis perspective in the context of the subjectivity and social inclusion. Significant for the theory and practice of social work in view of the koinopolis is to undertake the point of human experience and the extraction of it to expand the local community experience and knowledge. This social practice for human recovery returning to society, can effectively develop the community of thought and the common knowledge socially useful for agreement and cooperation

On Social Knowledge and Its Empirical Investigation in Contemporary Organisations

Abstract The focus of knowledge management theories on codification and quantification and aspirations to manage knowledge in a similar manner to managing physical resources did not create a stable ground for knowledge management practices in organisations as was expected. Consequently, the theories of social knowledge work take the place of the theories of knowledge management and instead of simplifying they promise to address the issues of complexity. This paper presents a conceptual model of social knowledge – its observable characteristics and associated organisational processes – and aims to help in adopting and contextualising the new theories of knowledge work in organisational research and practice.

(Re)cognition

In this paper I draw from critical work on the historical, social, political, economic, and cultural functions of race, to trace how Axel Honneth’s recognition as a critical social theory of justice is activated through racial thinking. In my analyses, I outline the need to theorize recognition as a “racial recognition”; complicating current theories, which seem to continuously inscribe the bourgeois white male as the true provider of justice and the bearer of rights; the true subject. Critical questions for social work are raised. How might race/racial thinking underlie our visions of social justice, and who benefits from this? What happens when we re-view the social and political justice intentions of social work through the lens of global white supremacy, say, as we move towards international development work in the global south? This paper presents important theoretical positions on race and the "morality" of recognition as social justice, which contribute highly to critical, socio-political, anti-racist social work theory and practice.

Breaking free of the neoliberal paradigm: refocusing the lens for social work and the social work curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand (part I)

ABSTRACTThis article is the first of two detailing the outcomes of a study into a largely unrecognized role for social workers as educators in their everyday practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. The study explored social workers’ understandings of an educator role and their perception of its significance in their work with service users. A key finding was that this role is indeed undertaken regularly and is considered important in achieving successful outcomes. Despite these findings, the study also showed that it is rarely acknowledged in the New Zealand literature, is not included in social work job descriptions, and educational theory is not explicitly included in the Social Work Registration Board’s requirements for curricula for professional qualifications. The results indicate that there is potential for social work practice in this country to be enhanced through formal recognition of an educator role and an extension of the social work curriculum to incorporate education frameworks. This study adds to the growing body of international literature addressing the potential of education theory for social work’s practice and knowledge base.

Looking for elderly people´s needs: teaching critical reflection in Swedish social work education

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on how to use critical reflection in social work education in order to encourage students to critically reflect on their standards regarding assessment, opinions and values about aging. Material, both oral and written, from needs assessments of older persons conducted by 106 social work students was analyzed. The result shows that the students initially interpreted needs based on prejudice and assumptions about aging. However, when using Schön´s three steps of reflection in the exercise, together with knowledge of critical social work theories, students became more concerned and reflected more critically on their assessments. This study shows the possibilities of working with pedagogical exercises in order to increase the awareness and critical knowledge of social work students in order to attempt to reduce discrimination. Educating students in critical social work enables them to learn how to comment on and transform the profession of social work and our unjust society, while questioning their own as well as society’s prejudice regarding the needs of elderly persons.

Contemporary challanges of social work in Ohio, USA

Social work deals with problems of individuals, families, organizations and communities. However, an evolving set of challenges continues to shape the future of social work theory, research and interventions. Social work is a profession with its own code and follows a set of standards and ethics rules at the federal level, but the licensing processes are controlled at the state level and the professional policies are set at the national and local level. Social workers, therefore, are trained to think in a systemic way and to work with a person-in-environment perspective at the individual and the community level. This text shows how the challenges of the twenty-first century impact the education of social workers as well as social work practice. The economy and globalization present a number of challenges – all of which contribute to creation of new social problems and need for social innovation. New technologies have opened the door for educational and clinical opportunities to connect and engage people in need, however, the digitalization excluded a group of people with a low income. Social work education must keep up with the pressures of the economic aspects influencing the education market and the growing evidence base to support trauma-informed care, the use of psychiatric rehabilitation, prevent bullying at schools and cyberspace, care for elderly and the constant changes ushered in by modernization and globalization. The implications of these challenges are reviewed and provide guidance for social work educators, social work students and social work practitioners.

Surrender and Contemporary Social Work Theory

Surrender is an important and foundational spiritual/religious belief and practice found within many faith traditions. However, despite this important practice, valued by many clients who see social workers, little has been done to integrate this concept into social work theory and practice.
 This paper examines the fundamental beliefs of psychodynamic theory and practice, as well as several recent social work practice models, as they relate to spiritual surrender. It is suggested that areas of cooperation and conflict exist between the fundamental tenets of these models and the practice of surrender. These areas of difference and commonality have important practice implications for religious/spiritual clients. A danger exists within social work theory and practice to overemphasize time limits and control for some religious/spiritual clients.

Putting the Social Work Academy on the Couch: Exploring Emotional Resistance to Psychoanalytic Education

ABSTRACTPsychoanalytic social work scholars lament the marginalization of psychodynamic theory in contemporary social work academia. Modern conflict theory applied to social work theories of pathogenesis and cure can serve as a means to explore this marginalization. Unconscious fantasy is important for understanding the resistance to psychodynamic theory in social work education. I offer some psychoanalytically informed strategies that might begin to restore psychodynamic theory in mainstream social work academia.

Demarcating Gender and Sexual Diversity on the Structural Landscape of Social Work

The importance of demarcating gender and sexually diverse populations in structural social work theory is discussed from a differently centred cultural group perspective highlighting distinct qualities that fall outside normative gender identities and heterosexuality. Historical oppression experienced by these populations has likened their inclusion in structural social work theory yet the continued marginalization of these populations and associated implications are not to be lost sight of. A means of bringing currency to structural social work theory with regard to these populations is to embrace liberationist goals taking intersectionality into consideration. Such goals are in alliance with the social work values of acceptance, self-determination and respect working towards social justice and emancipation, and go far beyond the rights-claims equality agenda that sustains a slightly varied hegemony, giving the social location of gender and sexually diverse groups relevancy and viability on the structural landscape of social work.

A Paradigm Framework for Social Work Theory for Early 21st Century Practice

AbstractThis article explores whether paradigms for social work that helped structure and focus social work theory in the late 20th century can continue to inform social work theorising in the present day. The question is considered by reviewing the work of Burrell and Morgan (1979), Howe (1987), Whittington and Holland (1985), Johnson et al., 1984 (cited in Rojek, 1986) and Mulally (1993) who offer specific considerations of paradigm frameworks. The main argument developed in the discussion is that while the nature and orientation of theories in paradigms from later 20th to early 21st century are more diverse and complex, the value of a paradigm as framework for theory for practice persists. But for a paradigm framework to hold sway, there are some essential requirements. These include a need to: emphasise more the importance of local context in global conditions; broaden scope of theory away from predisposition to ‘Western’ dominated ideas; include space for certain constants in social work and recognise the role of critical reflexivity in activating theory. The need for further global and local research studies that systematically test and interrogate the range of social work theories and practices to progress this project is emphasised.