Geographers of small things: a study of the production of space in children's social work

This study explores children's social workers' experiences of and practices in space. It is based on ethnographic research with social workers in two sites and examines data from observations, interviews with social workers, photographs and other images of the spaces in which social workers practised. The study draws on the work of Henri Lefebvre, concerned with how space is produced through spatial practices, conceptions of space and moments of lived space, which occur beyond these conventions and escape complete articulation. The study uses this analytical frame in order to explore how social workers produce certain kinds of spaces as significant in their practice. It identifies a small number of affect-heavy spaces which hold great importance for children's social work: social work offices, children's and practitioners' bodies, families' homes as they are experienced by practitioners during home visits, the wider neighbourhoods which social workers associate with service users. In particular, it identifies social workers' attention to small things and micro-scales in their practice. This enables social workers to present their work as sensitive to that which is imperceptible to others but also leads to a restricted focus and limited engagement with the social and political contexts of service users' lives

El contra-mapeo en el grado de educación social: una práctica crítica y atmosférica para repensar el espacio urbano

In recent years, the neoliberal policies related to higher education have conditioned universities to be mercantilist spaces, making difference invisible. This article analyses a university teaching project carried out in social education studies at a Spanish university. The project aimed to generate learning situations so that future social educators could critically reflect on how power relations are produced and maintained in urban space. For this, the students used the counter-mapping technique, which aims to make power relations and inequalities visible, in order to critically reflect on the experiences and practices in those spaces. The article investigates data in the form of cartographies and student narratives, showing the benefits of moving education outside the classroom and interacting with space and its ways of life to specify training practices consistent with current social realities.En los últimos años, las políticas neoliberales relativas a la educación superior han condicionado a las universidades a ser espacios mercantilistas, invisibilizando las diferencias étnico-culturales. Este artículo presenta una investigación de docencia universitaria realizada en el grado de educación social en una universidad española. El proyecto utilizó las contra-cartografías con el fin de visibilizar la dimensión cotidiana de las atmósferas del espacio urbano y, así, reflexionar críticamente sobre él. Se obtuvieron cuarenta y seis contra-cartografías a través de un enfoque visuales-sensorial y, estas, fueron analizadas a través del prisma de la pedagogía crítica. Los resultados evidencian cómo generar prácticas sociales situadas en un contexto sociocultural específico mejora la docencia y formación universitaria, posibilitando a los futuros educadores tomar consciencia de sus entornos y realidades sociales

Counter-mapping in social work: A critical and atmospheric practice to rethink urban space

In recent years, neoliberal policies regarding higher education have conditioned universities to be mercantilist spaces, making ethnocultural differences invisible. This article presents an investigation of university teaching carried out in a Spanish university's degree of social education. The project aimed to generate counter-cartographies to explore the everyday dimension of the atmospheres of urban space and reflect on it critically. Forty-six countercartographies were obtained through visual-sensory approaches and analysed through the prism of critical pedagogy. The results show how generating social practices in a specific socio-cultural context improves teaching and university training, enabling future educators to become aware of their environments and social realities.En los últimos años, las políticas neoliberales relativas a la educación superior han condicionado a las universidades a ser espacios mercantilistas, invisibilizando las diferencias étnico-culturales. Este artículo presenta una investigación de docencia universitaria realizada en el grado de educación social en una universidad española. El proyecto utilizó las contracartografías con el fin de visibilizar la dimensión cotidiana de las atmósferas del espacio urbano y, así, reflexionar críticamente sobre él. Se obtuvieron cuarenta y seis contracartografías a través de un enfoque visuales-sensorial y, estas, fueron analizadas a través del prisma de la pedagogía crítica. Los resultados evidencian cómo generar prácticas sociales situadas en un contexto sociocultural específico mejora la docencia y formación universitaria, posibilitando a los futuros educadores tomar consciencia de sus entornos y realidades sociales

Invisible families: The strengths and needs of black families in which young people have caring responsibilities

This study investigated the experiences and needs of black young people caring for disabled or ill family members and their access to services. A joint research team from Manchester Metropolitan University and the Bibini Centre for Young People interviewed young people and adults from 20 families and also sought the views of professionals from relevant social care agencies

Open spaces, supple bodies?:considering the impact of agile working on social work office practices

There has been a shift towards social workers in many areas of the UK being based in large open plan offices and working more flexibly and remotely in space. This approach is commonly referred to as ‘agile working’. The paper explores the impact of agile working on social workers’ practices and experiences in office spaces. It discusses data from an ethnographic study of children’s safeguarding social work teams in two locations. One team was based in a large open plan office and was engaged in agile working, the other team was located in a much smaller office and was not using this approach. Data from observations of practice, analysis of material spaces, and interviews with social workers and those responsible for planning office space are examined. The paper concludes that there are qualitative differences between such spaces which are due to agile working arrangements and which are likely to impact significantly on social workers’ experiences of practice, interactions with colleagues and development of practice knowledge. The data also suggest a lack of understanding in social work of the spatial requirements of practitioners and the significance that private and open space has for children’s social work in the current UK context

Building heteronormativity: the social and material reconstruction of men's public toilets as spaces of heterosexuality

This paper concerns changes in the spatial structure of British public toilets for men over the last ten years from secluded, indistinctly public/private spaces towards open, largely public structures. It examines a number of past and present toilet spaces in the British city of Manchester using spatial syntax analysis to consider how spaces have been adapted and policed differently in order to reduce opportunities for sex between men. It considers how these changes relate to shifts in the legislative context and in planning and policing initiatives away from explicit homophobia towards policies of inclusion of certain sexual minorities. The paper concludes that the way in which inclusion and a post-homophobic context have been expressed through legislative changes and planning and policing initiatives in relation to public toilets has led to a more explicit heteronormalisation of public spaces. The discussion relates to current debates in cultural geography about the consequences of greater participation of sexual minorities in public and issues of surveillance, control and privacy in public spaces

A clarification of 'White Noise' and some observations about Paul Michael Garrett's response

In this issue, Paul Michael Garrett responds to my paper about social work education and whiteness studies, which was published in a previous issue of this journal (Jeyasingham, 2012). His response includes a number of misreadings of my article and therefore this short paper will begin by clarifying the original article's focus and main argument. It then moves on to make some observations about Garrett's stated criticisms of my paper and the ways in which he presents scholarship about race, ethnicity and Irish people. It ends with some discussion about binary oppositions and the tone of Garrett's response