Philosophical Disputes in Social Work: Social Justice Denied

The debate in the social work academy about the pertinence of empiricist/positivist modes of knowing and doing is epistemological in character. It is the argument of this essay that prior ontological questions must be answered before the profession of social work can profitably enter this debate. These questions center on the nature of social work, the symbolic and moral essence of the social work enterprise and what the profession is becoming

Technological Fix: Altering the Consciousness of the Social Work Profession

Social work, like other professions, seeks a jolt of technology and technical sophistication into its theoretical and practical repertories. Such efforts have, thus far, ignored the considerable ethical and axiological freight that Techne brings with it. Ironically, many of the implicit values of techniques subvert the unique and defining values of the social work profession. This paper offers a cautionary note and a prescription for avoiding the technological fix

Theory and the Generation and Subversion of Knowledge

This essay is an argument for the refurbishing of theoretical thinking in social work. In particular, the author calls for the infusion of generative as opposed to normative theory in the profession. Only generative theory has been proven to invigorate the thinking and doing of professional social workers

Power, Pathological Worldviews, and the Strengths Perspective in Social Work

This article takes up Blundo’s (2001) assertion in this journal that in order to practice from the strengths perspective, social workers need to alter their “frames.” Expanding on this assertion, we specify a particular frame that requires change: a pathological worldview. Examining the strengths perspective with regard to a Foucauldian analysis of power, we argue that to thoroughly implement the strengths perspective, we need to consider the dividing practices that allow us to maintain power and that reflect a pathological worldview. This article provides considerations for social work practice that will be of interest to practicing social workers and social work educators interested in continuing to develop their strengths-based practice

The Power of Situations: An Approach to Understanding Powerlessness and Oppression

Much of the difficulty people have in organizing, directing, and coping with their lives is, perhaps, directly traceable to their lack of awareness of, and erroneous assumptions about, the interactional contexts in which they seem or feel powerless. This is especially true, but not exclusively so, of the poor and ethnic, sexual, and political minorities. To the extent that powerlessness exists and is implicated in the various miseries of existence, the role of social worker as advocate, broker, counselor, or agent of change might profitably and accurately be defined in interactional, structural terms

Factors Influencing the Decision of Minority Students to Attend Graduate Schools of Social Work

This study of 255 minority students enrolled in Graduate Schools of Social Work examined factors which influenced them to decide to attend these schools. The most frequently mentioned reasons were the curriculum and location of the school followed by prestige, financial incentives, emphasis on minority concerns and influence of significant others. Those schools which attracted greater numbers of minorities tended to attract them on the basis of curriculum, emphasis on minority concerns and not requiring entrance examinations. Formal recruitment activities were not seen as particularly effective

'No coughing for me, but I'm okay!': a human service worker's narrative exploration of her own and other workers' body stories told in a domestic violence service

Relational, body-oriented and brain-based approaches to recovery and change are increasingly popular modalities for working with traumatised children and adults. However, although these approaches encourage the awareness, and the harnessing of workers' visceral experiences, there is little in the literature to describe how practitioners navigate their own somatic maps. In a research project undertaken from 2008–16, I invited nine human service workers to tell and explore stories about their own experiences of the body that emerged during, and/or in relation to, their own professional practice. A narrative methodology was used to help facilitate a depth of understanding of how the participants used their own bodies as a source of knowledge and/or as an intervention strategy with those with whom they worked. In this paper, I explore one of many stories told by Coral in which she describes the processes she uses to navigate her own somatic map as she interacts with clients and workers in a domestic violence service. I conclude that creating spaces for workers to explore embodied experience in the professional conversation is important, but is difficult without an acceptable discourse or narrative template. Nonetheless, given the opportunity, including the 'body as subject' encourages better outcomes for clients and provides richer accounts of human service workers' professional experience

Uses of strength-based interventions for people with serious mental illness: a critical review

Background: For the past 3 decades, mental health practitioners have increasingly adopted aspects and tools of strength-based approaches. Providing strength-based intervention and amplifying strengths relies heavily on effective interpersonal processes. Aim: This article is a critical review of research regarding the use of strength-based approaches in mental health service settings. The aim is to discuss strength-based interventions within broader research on recovery, focussing on effectiveness and advances in practice where applicable. Method: A systematic search for peer-reviewed intervention studies published between 2001 and December 2014 yielded 55 articles of potential relevance to the review. Results: Seven studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. The Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies was used to appraise the quality of the studies. Our review found emerging evidence that the utilisation of a strength-based approach improves outcomes including hospitalisation rates, employment/educational attainment, and intrapersonal outcomes such as self-efficacy and sense of hope. Conclusion: Recent studies confirm the feasibility of implementing a high-fidelity strength-based approach in clinical settings and its relevance for practitioners in health care. More high-quality studies are needed to further examine the effectiveness of strength-based approaches

What do older people learn from young people? : Intergenerational learning in ‘day centre’ community settings in Malta

This study analyses what motivates older people to attend ‘day centres’ in Malta and what they believe that they derive from young people who carry out their placements at these day ‘centres’ These young people, who are aged 16–17, attend a vocational college in Malta and are studying health and social care. The study is based on a qualitative approach and employs the usage of focus groups. The main findings are that the elderly see the students as helping them on an emotional level by giving them encouragement, and on a practical level, by offering them insights that help them in modern-day life

Polly’s story : using structural narrative analysis to understand a trans migration journey

There is scant theoretical and empirical research on experiences of trans and its significance for social work practice. In this paper we premise that research on trans identity and practice needs to be located in particular temporal, cultural, spatial/geographical contexts and argue that a structural narrative analytical approach centring on plot, offers the opportunity to unravel the ‘how’ and ‘why’ stories are told. We posit that attending to narrative structure facilitates a deeper understanding of trans people’s situated, lived experiences than thematic narrative analysis alone, since people organise their narratives according to a culturally available repertoire including plots. The paper focuses on the life and narrative of Polly, a male-to-female trans woman, and her gender migration journey using the plot typology ‘the Quest’. We are cognisant of the limitations to structural narrative analysis and Western conventions of storytelling, and acknowledge that our approach is subjective; however, we argue that knowledge itself is contextual and perspective ridden, shaped by researchers and participants. Our position holds that narratives are not – and cannot – be separated from the context in which they are told, and importantly the resources used to tell them, and that analysing narrative structure can contextualise individual unique biographies and give voice to less heard communities