British Journal of Social Work - recent issues

Editorial

Skehill, C. — 2008-06-10

Paradigms and Politics: Understanding Methods Paradigms in an Historical Context: The Case of Social Pedagogy

Lorenz, W. — 2008-06-10

This paper treats the case of social pedagogy, which is an important but widely misunderstood member of the social professions, as an example of how only by exploring the historical roots and trajectories of methods paradigms can we hope to understand their contemporary, cross-national and cross-cultural relevance. It locates the rise of social pedagogy as both a method and as a set of social policy institutions in the historical context of the development of the German nation state with its particular relationship to a corporatist, conservative model of the welfare state. This illustrates not so much a singular development under particular historical circumstances, but the intricate interrelationship between social policies and social work methods which are a feature of this profession in all societies. By analysing the dynamics of this close relationship with social policy, which gave rise to the ambiguous reputation of social work as a semi-profession, the conditions of a theoretical engagement with contemporary social policy developments can be determined with much greater clarity. This is necessary, for instance, in relation of the rising importance of social care in the UK—a development which appears as yet under-theorized. Parallels and differences to the social pedagogy paradigm can only be discerned against the background of the analysis of the respective relationship to social policy. This, in turn, underlines the necessity for professional social work, under whatever title it is practised, to critically observe and contribute to the shaping of social policies in order to regain the professional initiative.

The Present Finnish Formation of Child Welfare and History

Satka, M., Harrikari, T. — 2008-06-10

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the nature of Finnish child welfare as a strategy of social control. It applies Michel Foucault's ‘history of the present’ approach to illuminate what is hidden or taken for granted in the present practice and discourse. The article problematizes child welfare in the present and illuminates its current formations by recourse to the past. Since Finnish child welfare has developed in connection with the Anglo-American and Central European discourses of the field, the provided insights are also transferable to international contexts in the contemporary conditions of governance.

State Social Work: Constructing the Present from Moments in the Past

Harris, J. — 2008-06-10

Social work is often seen as a straightforward response to self-evident human needs and problems or as the outcome of ‘professional projects’ pursued by social workers. However, consideration of social work's history suggests that it is a contingent activity, conditioned by and dependent upon the context from which it emerges and in which it engages. The contingent nature of social work is considered by locating it in the contexts of five historical ‘moments’ that have had significant implications for social work's profile and practice: the nineteenth century origins of social work; social work in the post-war period; the Seebohm Report; the New Right; and New Labour. The review of these historical moments shows that welfare regimes are key in shaping the manner in which social work is constituted and enacted. Furthermore, aspects from each historical moment have been carried forward into present day social work; the construction of the present always owes something to moments from the past.

Humanitarian Narrative: Bodies and Detail in Late-Victorian Social Work

Taylor, C. — 2008-06-10

How should we interpret the humanitarian narratives of early social work? This article suggests that we explore the ways in which bodies and detail were used to establish the grounds for humanitarian action in the late-Victorian period. Drawing on case material from a child welfare organization in Manchester and Salford, it explores how the ‘filthy body’ of the child and the failings of ‘worthless’ parents were used to justify interventions to ‘rescue’ children from urban slums. Thus, progressivist and revisionist accounts of history are dispensed with in favour of a form of cultural history that recognizes the multifarious activities that comprise social work past and present and the fluidity of categorizations that are deployed in the practice of intervening in the flow of lives of the poor. This, it is argued, moves us beyond the tendency to focus on secondary sources relating to a few prominent organizations such as the Charity Organisation Society and the metropolis. Instead, emphasis is placed on the contribution of regional histories and localized, fine-grained empirical studies to broadening analytical approaches and deepening understanding of social work past and present.

A Tale of Two Reports: Social Work in Scotland from Social Work and the Community (1966) to Changing Lives (2006)

Brodie, I., Nottingham, C., Plunkett, S. — 2008-06-10

This paper identifies ‘key moments’ over a forty-year period of the history of Scottish social work, from the publication of Social Work and the Community in 1966 to the outcome of the 21st Century Review contained in Changing Lives of 2006. A recurring theme is the Scottish dimension, for social work in Scotland needs to be understood as distinct in many important respects from social work elsewhere in the UK. The paper traces the evolution of a vision - of a unified profession promoting social equality - underlying Social Work and the Community, arguing that its redefinition in Changing Lives represents both a departure from the earlier, radical aspirations and an opportunity for Scottish social workers to re-examine the question of professionalism.

Transatlantic Transfers in Social Work: Contributions of Three Pioneers

Hegar, R. L. — 2008-06-10

Internationalism has been a prominent theme in the transatlantic history of social reform, and many pioneering social workers championed the causes of peace, war relief, human rights, and international avenues for dispute resolution. For some, internationalism was inseparable from social welfare. Jane Addams in the United States, Alice Masaryk of Czechoslovakia, and Alice Salomon of Germany were central figures during the early 20th century in transatlantic campaigns for social reform and international co-operation, as well as in the emergence of social work. This article draws from letters, autobiographies, and published works of these three pioneers to reconstruct their social networks and to examine their contributions to the transatlantic transfer of knowledge. International diffusion of thought and practice has high salience for a profession embracing change in the 21st century.

Engendering Social Work Education under State Socialism in Yugoslavia

Zavirsek, D. — 2008-06-10

City Welfare in the Sway of Eugenics: A Swiss Case Study

Hauss, G., Ziegler, B. — 2008-06-10

In the 20th century, the eugenics movement in Europe became acceptable for European social work in a number of different contexts. ‘City Welfare in the Sway of Eugenics’ investigates the municipal youth welfare system in Switzerland based on the guardianship case files and reports of two medium-sized Swiss cities. Our research provides insight into how eugenics is linked to social work activities and practices in various political, economic, and institutional contexts.

Our findings reveal how complex and often paradoxical the connection between integration and exclusion in the various fields of social work can be. Crucially, we show that the general principle of integration in welfare was not formulated without any involvement of political programmes. This insight is highly relevant today: amid increasing inequality, social work must be aware of its ambivalent social function in the force field between integration and exclusion. Based on stringent historical research, our article seeks to contribute to the current critical debate on contemporary social work in the context of ever radical social change.

Making Refugees: A Historical Discourse Analysis of the Construction of the 'Refugee' in US Social Work, 1900-1957

Park, Y. — 2008-06-10

This paper traces the discursive constructions through which refugees were produced as particular kinds of subjects in US social work discourse in the first half of the twentieth century. Prior to the onset of the Second World War, the refugee ideal was valorized in social work discourse to both exhort and contest immigration restrictions. In the war years, actual refugees became framed, instead, as the most troublesome immigrants. The many anti-restrictionists among social work's leaders persistently and prolifically opposed problematized constructions of refugees. But through its uncritical uses of the same unstable measures of fitness through which the problematized identities were constructed, the liberal, anti-restrictionist discourse of social work re-inscribed the discourses it sought to counter. As a study of the disciplinary construction of a particularly vulnerable identity, and a methodological exemplar for examining key constructs, this analysis has broad implication for study of the many categories of identity (e.g. child, client, etc.) upon which social work builds its practice models and explanatory theories.

From Melting Pot to Multiculturalism: The Impact of Racial and Ethnic Diversity on Social Work and Social Justice in the USA

Reisch, M. — 2008-06-10

Since the turn of the twentieth century, the relationships among race, citizenship and culture have been central to debates about the goals of social policy and social work in the USA. To date, however, even the best histories of social work have focused primarily on the influence of mainstream (i.e. white) organizations and their leaders, ignoring and often objectifying the contributions of minorities. Based on extensive primary source materials, this essay—part of a larger scholarly project—analyses the differential responses of US social work to demographic and cultural changes during the past century. The findings illuminate discussions not only of social work's past, but how the profession could address such contemporary issues as the compatibility between multiculturalism and other social justice-related goals; the congruence between social equality and professional identity; and the means by which social work practice and ethics can adapt successfully to demographic and cultural transformation.

Introduction

Littlechild, B. — 2008-06-10

The Quest for Community, Robert A. Nisbet, New York, Oxford University Press, originally published 1953, edition reviewed, published 1970, with new preface by author

Bowman, A. — 2008-06-10

Improving Children's Lives: Global Perspectives on Prevention, George Albee, Lynne Bond and Toni V. Cook Monsey, Newbury Park, California, Sage Publications, 1992, ISBN 0-8039-4610-4 (cl)

Buchanan, A. — 2008-06-10

Character Disorders in Parents of Delinquents, Beatrice Simcox Reiner and Irving Kaufman, New York, Family Service Association of America, 1959, pp 179, ISBN 0 87304 089 9

Howe, D. — 2008-06-10

Casework: A Psychosocial Therapy (second edition), Florence Hollis, New York, Random House, 1972, pp xxii + 393, ISBN 0 394 31379 8

Jones, D. N. — 2008-06-10

The Fifth Social Service: A Critical Analysis of the Seebohm Proposals, Peter Townsend, Adrian Sinfield, Barbara Kahan, Peter Mittler, Hilary Rose, Michael Meacher, John Agate, Tony Lynes and David Bull, Glasgow, Civic Press Publishing, undated--circa 1970, pp. 159, ISBN 7163 4010 0 (cloth), ISBN 7163 4011 9 (paper), 90p (pb), {pound}1.50 (hb)

Lyons, K. — 2008-06-10

Character Is Destiny: The Autobiography of Alice Salomon, Andrew Lees (ed.), Michigan, University of Michigan Press, 2004, pp. x+264, ISBN 0472 11367 4, $75.00

Healy, L. M. — 2008-06-10

The Client Speaks, John Mayer and Noel Timm, London, Routledge, 1970, pp. 193, ISBN 0 7100 7673 8

Preston-Shoot, M. — 2008-06-10

The Casework Relationship (12th Edition), Felix P. Biestek, S.J., London, Unwin Hyman Ltd, Loyola University Press, 1989, pp. 149

Mwansa, L.-K. — 2008-06-10

The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckman, Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1967, pp. 249, ISBN 978-0140135480

Parton, N. — 2008-06-10

Social and Moral Theory in Casework, Raymond Plant, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970, pp. xi +99, ISBN 0 7100 6809, 60p (original price)

Orme, J. — 2008-06-10

All Quiet on the Western Front, E. M. Remarque (translated by A. W. Wheen), London and New York, Little Brown and Company, 1995 (reprinted)

Beresford, P. — 2008-06-10

Parents and Children in the Inner City, Harriett Wilson and G. W. Herbert, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978, ISBN 0-7100-8715-2

Tunstill, J. — 2008-06-10

Hooligan: A History of Respectable Fears, Geoffrey Pearson, Basingstoke, MacMillan, 1983

Berry, L. — 2008-06-10

Social Work Values: An Enquiry, Noel Timms, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983, ISBN 0-7100-9404-3

Shardlow, S. M. — 2008-06-10

Books Received

2008-06-10

Editorial

Lymbery, M. — 2008-04-25

Beyond Assessment: Social Work Intervention in Family Court Enquiries

Mantle, G., Williams, I., Leslie, J., Parsons, S., Shaffer, R. — 2008-04-25

Most parents or carers who separate or divorce are able to make arrangements themselves about where their children will reside and how the children’s contact with the non-resident parent will be managed. A further group of parents or carers are able to come to agreement with the assistance of community- or court-based dispute resolution/ mediation services. There are times, however, when disputes cannot be resolved without recourse to the courts and, when this happens, the court will normally request that a welfare report be prepared by a CAFCASS (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) practitioner. While the boundary between assessment and intervention in social work is often less than clear, the commissioning of a court welfare report in family proceedings strongly suggests an assessment focus and appears to carry little expectation that the practitioner should intervene in order to meet the needs of the children or adults involved. This article presents recent research findings that illustrate ways in which CAFCASS practitioners do go beyond the assessment role expected of them in the course of the enquiries they undertake. Implications for policy and practice in this area of social work are then discussed.

Preventive Services for Adolescents: Exploring the Process of Change

Biehal, N. — 2008-04-25

This paper reports on a quasi-experimental study which compared outcomes for young people referred to specialist family support teams with those for others referred to mainstream social work teams. Although there was no evidence that the specialist service was more effective in promoting changes in child and family functioning, nevertheless, many young people in both groups showed improvement in this respect. This paper explores how, why and in what circumstances these positive changes occurred. The factors which moderated or mediated the effectiveness of interventions included both risk and protective factors for emotional and behavioural problems and aspects of the interventions themselves. The paper explores the mechanisms whereby these factors interacted to help or hinder workers’ efforts to promote change. Child and family attributes and histories, the duration of child and family difficulties, motivation and optimism all moderated the impact of interventions, making change more, or less, likely to occur. Aspects of the interventions themselves also mediated their effectiveness, such as their ecological approach, the strategies used to change child behaviour and parenting style and the development of a therapeutic alliance. These moderators and mediators of change had a stronger impact on the outcome of interventions than differences in service type.

Community Intervention with Jewish Israeli Mothers in Times of Terror

Itzhaky, H., Dekel, R. — 2008-04-25

The article examines the effectiveness of a community programme designed for Jewish Israeli mothers who have been exposed to terrorism. The aim of the intervention was to empower the women and increase their sense of belonging to the community, and to reduce stress symptoms, mainly by encouraging and facilitating their participation in community activities. Thirty-eight women, all residents of the same terror-ridden community, participated in intensive workshops over a six month period designed to help them to become active in the community. The workshops provided the women with the information and skills required for activity in the community projects in which they were interested. A qualitative evaluation reveals that, at the end of the programme, most of the women reported that they felt better and more secure, and all of the women were participating in at least one activity in the community. The quantitative evaluation revealed lower levels of distress, higher levels of empowerment and no change in the feelings of belonging to the community. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of the persistence of terror and theories of community intervention.

Black African Children and the Child Protection System

Bernard, C., Gupta, A. — 2008-04-25

This paper explores black African children’s experiences of the child protection system in the UK. The central focus of the paper is a review of the available literature on the social circumstances and environmental influences affecting many black African families involved in the child protection system; specific parenting practices and care-giving environments; and their experiences of social work and other professional interventions aimed at safeguarding and promoting the needs of African children. This paper examines these themes to elucidate the factors that contribute to the provision of effective, culturally competent interventions with black African children at risk of significant harm. It suggests that there are a number of tensions inherent for professionals in working with culturally diverse African families such as reconciling different beliefs and behaviours concerning child-rearing practices; affirming the parenting practices of these families in the engagement process; adopting a strengths-based orientation whilst at the same time safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable children. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for practice.

Grounding Constructions of Carers: Exploring the Experiences of Carers through a Grounded Approach

Burton, M. — 2008-04-25

Social and political constructions of carers have been criticized for undervaluing the complexities of the experiences of carers. However, relatively little research has attempted to generate more meaningful constructions of carers by drawing these considerations together. The purpose of this article is to begin addressing this need. To accomplish this, the article is presented in two sections. First, an overview is provided on the current constructions of carers and suggested considerations for research. Second, with this overview as its context, a study, taken from the author’s academic dissertation, is presented. The study sets out to generate more meaningful constructions of the caring experience through a grounded approach. The findings are based on a focus group and interviews with fourteen carers in total. A diverse range of participants were involved, in order to generate categories that would hold more relevance across caring experiences. Four common categories for carers emerged, along with properties that explained differences in experiences. The categories of when carers start to care, circumstances change over time, justifying the use of support and using support are subsequently discussed in relation to current constructions, practice and policy.

Preventing Suicide: A Neglected Social Work Research Agenda

Joe, S., Niedermeier, D. — 2008-04-25

Social workers encounter suicidal clients; however, little is known about social work’s empirical knowledge base for suicide assessment and treatment. In the first comprehensive study of social work’s contribution to the suicide literature, the authors conducted systematic electronic and manual searches for suicide research published in peer-reviewed journals by social work investigators for the period 1980–2006, with the purpose of ascertaining the state of clinical knowledge related to suicide risk factors and effective treatments. These findings reveal that despite recent increases to the study of suicide by social work researchers, they have contributed limited evidenced-based knowledge in the last twenty-six years on the treatment or prevention of suicide or suicide-related behaviours. The article outlines the risk factors for suicide and discusses the implications for clinical social work practice and research.

Accountability to Welfare Service Users: Challenges and Responses of Service Providers

Leung, T. T. F. — 2008-04-25

Influenced by the consumerist sentiment in New Public Management, the last decades have witnessed a revival of the call for accountability to service users in the public service sector. As an act of accountability, social care and health care professionals are increasingly obliged to involve their service users in the service planning and monitoring process. Despite the popularity of this accountability and user involvement rhetoric, critics have, however, been skeptical of the prevailing user involvement initiatives as an effective measure of accountability to service users (Barnes and Wistow, 1994a, 1994b; Bowl, 1996; Peck et al., 2002; Rea, 2004). Based on a study of user involvement in the welfare sector of Hong Kong, this paper argues that the discourse of accountability to the service users can be a source of unrest for welfare professionals, in the manifestation of accountability as a power relationship. Their ensuing response is to accommodate the ensuing challenge arising from the demand for accountability to service users by manoeuvring the accountability discourse. It is the contention of this paper that the institutional inclusion of welfare service users into a discursive space is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the realization of a mandate of accountability to welfare service users.

Practitioners' Documentation of Assessment and Care Planning in Social Care: The Opportunities for Organizational Learning

Foster, M., Harris, J., Jackson, K., Glendinning, C. — 2008-04-25

This paper analyses practitioners’ documentation of social care assessments and care plans for disabled adults of working age. The data were collected in the course of an innovative project that introduced new outcome-focused documentation into routine social care assessment, care management and review processes. The project aimed to encourage practitioners to focus during these processes on the full range of outcomes that individual disabled adults might seek to achieve; and identify the appropriate services for realizing those outcomes. Analysis of the new documentation provides insights into the diverse range of priorities and outcomes that service users aspire to achieve as a result of receiving services, and the service inputs that were agreed between practitioners and service users. However, despite the new documentation, the majority of both outcomes and services that were recorded tended to cluster around a fairly narrow range of conventional social care service functions. Moreover, the emphasis of both outcomes and service inputs differed between different groups of social care professionals. In the context of current policies to make social care services more individualized and outcome-focused, each of these findings has major organizational implications. The opportunities for using routine practitioner documentation to identify areas of organizational and professional change and learning are discussed.

Liquid Social Work: Welfare Interventions as Mobile Practices

Ferguson, H. — 2008-04-25

This paper re-examines the nature of social work from the perspective of movement and ‘mobilities’. It shows that social work is at all times ‘on the move’, yet theory and analyses of policy and practice largely depict it as static, solid and sedentarist. The paper draws on the ‘new mobilities paradigm’ (Sheller and Urry, 2006), through which a concern with flows and movements of people, objects, information, practices, speed and rhythm, with complexity, fluid images and liquid metaphors, is moving to the centre of social theory. An understanding of the ‘liquid’, mobile character of social work means producing accounts which are much closer to what its practices are, how and where they are performed and experienced by service users and professionals, and the opportunities and risks inherent to them. Three key domains of practice—the home visit, the car journey and the office/organization—are examined in terms of the movements that go on in them. Viewed through systemic and complexity theories, it is shown that social work interventions in late-modernity are best understood in terms of a flow of mobile practices between public and private worlds, organizations and the home, at the heart of which is the sensual body of the practitioner on the move.

Calling Social Work

Coleman, N., Harris, J. — 2008-04-25

New Labour has promoted the use of information and communication technology. Call centres are a key development in this strategy and are now in use for accessing social services. In official policy, the use of call centres is presented as an aspect of attempts to change the relationship between service users and the purchasers and providers of services. In contrast, we suggest that the use of call centres in social care does little to shift the balance of power. Call centres bring together four dimensions of New Labour discourse: learning from the private sector, cutting costs, technology and consumerism. Three issues emerge from their development: the undermining of social work’s sense of place; the circumscribing of service user participation; the rationalization of social workers. The call centre serves as a signifier of what, it is claimed, the combination of New Labour’s consumerism and technology can achieve. This signification disguises call centres’ properties of efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. Contrary to the rhetoric that accompanies them, call centres may be curtailing service user participation, as well as delimiting the social work role. Accordingly, their use has important, but as yet largely unresearched, implications for service users and social workers.

Working with Black Young People, Momodou Sallah and Carlton Howson (eds), Lyme Regis, Russell House Publishing, 2007, pp. 242, ISBN 978-1-905541-14-0, {pound}24.95

Soroya, B. — 2008-04-25

Child Neglect: Identification and Assessment, Jan Horwath, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, pp. 281, ISBN 1-4039-3346-4, {pound}20.99

Scott, D. — 2008-04-25

Globalisation and Child Welfare: Some Lessons from a Cross-National Study of Children in Out-of-Home Care, June Thoburn, Norwich, University of East Anglia, Social Work Monographs, 2007, pp. 70, ISBN 9781857841268, {pound}8.00

Broadhurst, K. — 2008-04-25

Multicultural Aspects of Disabilities: A Guide to Understanding and Assisting Minorities in the Rehabilitation Process, 2nd edn, Willie V. Bryan, Springfield, IL, Charles C. Thomas Publisher Ltd, 2007, pp. xii + 336, ISBN 978 0 398 07708 2, US$69.95

Lucas, J. — 2008-04-25

Experiences of Mental Health In-Patient Care: Narratives from Service Users, Carers and Professionals, Mark Hardcastle, David Kennard, Sheila Grandison and Leonard Fagin (eds), Routledge, The International Society for the Psychological Treatments of Schizophrenias and Other Psychoses (ISPS), pp. xxviii + 218, ISBN 9700415410823, {pound}19.99

Rapaport, J. — 2008-04-25

Social Work in the 21st Century: An Introduction to Social Welfare, Social Issues and the Profession, Morley D. Glicken, Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage, 2007, pp. 493, ISBN 1 4129 13160, US$64.95

Beddoe, L. — 2008-04-25

In Black and White, Nathalie Seymour, British Association for Adoption and Fostering, 2007, pp. iii + 154, ISBN 978 1 905664 10 8, {pound}7.95

Dunworth, M. — 2008-04-25

Non-Accidental Head Injury in Young Children, Cathy Cobley and Tom Sanders, London, Jessica Kingsley, 2007, pp. 192, ISBN 184310-360-5, {pound}19.99

Lister, P. G. — 2008-04-25

Racism and Racial Identity: Reflections on Urban Practice in Mental Health and Social Services, Lisa V. Blitz and Mary Pender Greene (eds), Binghamton, Haworth Press, 2006, pp. xv + 279, ISBN 7890-3109-4, US$36.00

Allan, R. — 2008-04-25

Negotiating Death in Contemporary Health and Social Care, Margaret Holloway, Bristol, The Policy Press, 2007, pp. viii + 216, ISBN 978 1 86134 722 0, {pound}19.99

Richards, S. — 2008-04-25

Books Received

2008-04-25

Editorial

Blyth, E., Masson, H. — 2008-04-04

Resilience across Cultures

Ungar, M. — 2008-04-04

Findings from a 14 site mixed methods study of over 1500 youth globally support four propositions that underlie a more culturally and contextually embedded understanding of resilience: 1) there are global, as well as culturally and contextually specific aspects to young people’s lives that contribute to their resilience; 2) aspects of resilience exert differing amounts of influence on a child’s life depending on the specific culture and context in which resilience is realized; 3) aspects of children’s lives that contribute to resilience are related to one another in patterns that reflect a child’s culture and context; 4) tensions between individuals and their cultures and contexts are resolved in ways that reflect highly specific relationships between aspects of resilience. The implications of this cultural and contextual understanding of resilience to interventions with at-risk populations are discussed.

Differential Impacts of Stressful Life Events and Social Support on the Mental Health of Mainland Chinese Immigrant and Local Youth in Hong Kong: A Resilience Perspective

Wong, D. F. K. — 2008-04-04

Based on a resilience perspective, this study attempted to explore the risk and protective factors influencing the mental health of immigrant and local youths in Hong Kong. A structured questionnaire which consisted of The Chinese Adolescents Life Events Checklist, The Perceived Satisfaction of Social Support Scale and The Brief Symptoms Inventory was used. Two hundred and ten local and immigrant youths between the age of 15 and 20 were individually interviewed by the trained interviewers. Contrary to our hypotheses, the findings revealed that immigrant youth had better mental health and similar levels of stress than local youth. Moreover, peer support was found to exert a strong impact on the mental health of immigrant youth. While ‘Interpersonal relationship difficulties’ was identified as a common risk factor faced by local and immigrant youths, immigrant youth faced additional risk factors in relation to a change to a new school and parental conflicts. On the other hand, endurance of hardship, social competence and peer support were considered as the protective factors that might be associated with better mental health in immigrant youth. The implications of this study included: to adopt a resilience perspective to understand the protective mechanisms that enhance the mental health of immigrant youth; to develop a national strategy to build up the interpersonal relationship skills of youth in a society; and to organize specific programmes to strengthen the peer system and tackle parental conflicts in immigrant youths.

Changes in the Form of Knowledge in Social Work: From the 'Social' to the 'Informational'?

Parton, N. — 2008-04-04

This paper examines the changing form of knowledge in social work over the past thirty years and its implications for theory and practice. In particular, it considers the impact of new systems related to a range of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the shift from a narrative to a database way of thinking and operating. In doing so, it attempts to identify a series of key challenges and questions which need to be considered in order to engage with the changes. In particular, it addresses how far social work is still primarily concerned with subjects and their social relationships and argues that social work now operates less on the terrain of the ‘social’ and more on the terrain of the ‘informational’. Such changes have implications for the relationship between theory and practice in social work and the nature of ‘social’ work itself.

How to be Modern: New Labour's Neoliberal Modernity and the Change for Children programme

Garrett, P. M. — 2008-04-04

In England the New Labour administration is seeking to embed a ‘transformational reform agenda’ within children’s service. Social workers, among others appear, however, to be wary of the agenda which is now rhetorically rooted in the Every Child Matters: Change for Children programme (CfC). The main social work practice elements of this programme are associated with the introduction of a Children’s Index, a multidisciplinary Common Assessment Framework and the role of Lead Professional. In terms of the promotion of this programme, the government has maintained that the focal aim is to create a ‘modern’ children’s workforce. However, the entire ‘transformational agenda’ can be interpreted as reflecting New Labour’s neoliberal modernity. This is particularly apparent in the terms of the ideas associated with ‘flexibility’ which are so central to the CfC programme.

Exploring Potential 'Extra-Familial' Child Homicide Assailants in the UK and Estimating their Homicide Rate: Perception of Risk--The Need for Debate

Pritchard, C., Sayer, T. — 2008-04-04

High-profile child murders lead parents to fear for their children’s safety, but perception of risk is often at variance with reality. We explore the numbers of potential ‘Extra-familial’ child homicide assailants in the United Kingdom and estimate their actual murder rate to determine risk levels. A South of England study, equivalent to a 4 per cent sample of the UK population, of a decade of consecutive child homicides identified the characteristics of child homicide assailants, finding that the most frequent assailants—the ‘Intra-familial’—were very different from ‘Extra-familial’ assailants. ‘Extra-familial’ killers were all males, aged nineteen to forty-two, with convictions for Violent-Multi-Criminal-Child-Sex-Abuse (VMCCSA) offences and Multi-Criminal-Child-Sex-Abuse (MCCSA), whose victims were aged seven-plus years. Projecting these characteristics onto the male UK population enables us to estimate the numbers of potential UK ‘Extra-familial’ assailants, which are set against known UK child (five to fourteen) homicides (WHO, 2005). To account for any ‘hidden’ child homicides, deaths in the ‘undetermined’ violent death category, designated ‘Other External Cause’ (OEC), are calculated to provide a ‘maximum’ child homicide rate. There were potentially 912 VMCCSA and 886 MCCSA ‘Extra-familial’ offenders in the United Kingdom, who could be responsible for the WHO-reported UK three-year average of ‘Extra-family’ fifteen child homicide and seventeen OEC deaths per annum; a homicide rate of 12,061 per million (pm) for VMCCSA and 3,386 pm for MCSA, which is 1.21 and 0.34 per cent; however, the VMCCSA homicide rate was 403 times greater than the all children accident and cancer death rates. Though the vast majority of these potential assailants did not kill, comparatively, they are extremely dangerous. Practice and ethical issues are debated, which considers active outreach for the ‘treatable’ to possible ‘reviewable’ custodial sentences for the VMCCSA.

Locus of Control, Coping and Proto Prevention in Child and Family Care

Sheppard, M., Crocker, G. — 2008-04-04

Despite a sustained emphasis that appropriate responses are made to children and families in need, recent policy documents express a concern about the high thresholds for receipt of children’s services preventing many high-need families from accessing help. Where this is the case, families are liable to have to fall back on their own resources. This raises the question: how do these families, particularly mothers (frequently the primary care-givers), cope? Locus of Control (LoC) has been shown to be a significant factor in the confidence, and capacity, of individuals to respond to their external environment. This article focuses on applicants for children’s services who did not meet the thresholds for service receipt, focusing on their coping strategies in the light of the LoC of the women. The findings show that LoC did have an impact on coping strategies, and, in particular, points to the greater likelihood of avoidance strategies in those with an external LoC and of stress undermining Active Coping by those with internal LoC, in the absence of services. These are discussed in the light of prevention, recently conceptually extended to include activities by the families, as well as the provision of services.

Identity Development and Grieving: The Evolving Processes for Parentally Bereaved Women

Cait, C.-A. — 2008-04-04

This paper is a report of the findings from a qualitative research study that explored how the death of a parent influences female adolescents, with particular focus on women’s evolving identity development. A sample of eighteen women was recruited for the study. Findings highlight that constructing a relationship to the deceased, shifting family dynamics and the ebb and flow of grieving influenced identity development. The women’s development allowed them to more fully recognize their parent’s subjectivity and, in turn, allowed them to see more aspects of themselves. The active process of ‘re-membering’ (Myerhoff, 1982) the deceased through a variety of activities contributed to identity development. Implications for social work practice will be discussed.

Painting the Prison 'Red': Constructing and Experiencing Aboriginal Identities in Prison

Martel, J., Brassard, R. — 2008-04-04

Dominant Western paradigms of the social work profession have largely failed to integrate Aboriginal traditional knowledges and practices on healing and helping. This paper contributes to the promotion of a context-based approach to social work in prison by examining Aboriginality from both institutional and individual points of view. Drawing on documentary analyses and interviews with Aboriginal women prisoners in Canada, the paper sheds light on the prison’s endorsement of a hegemonic vision of Aboriginality, and on social work practitioners’ inclination to adhere to it. Conversely, we argue that Aboriginal women prisoners negotiate their passage into prison through Aboriginal self-identification configurations that often have little in common with the prison’s vision of Aboriginality. Service delivery in prison may be enhanced by considering individual modes of resisting identity-based oppression in prison, and by challenging prisons’ master narrative on Aboriginality.

'Anti-Oppressiveness': Critical Comments on a Discourse and its Context

Millar, M. — 2008-04-04

This paper identifies and aims to explain an apparent dissonance between the dominance in Britain of ‘anti-oppressive’ social work discourse and the socio-political context surrounding its use; a context often claimed to feature excessive regulation and control. Pursuing this, some politically radical aims associated with ‘anti-oppressiveness’ are spelt out, and the difficulty of achieving these in an unconducive climate is discussed. Then, a distinction made by Robert Merton between ‘latent’ and ‘manifest’ functions is used to suggest that the manifest radicalism of ‘anti-oppressive’ discourse can helpfully be distinguished from some latent largely unrecognised consequences of its use – not consequences with politically radical impact, but with a social meaning congruent with a climate of control. It is concluded that the ‘success’ of anti-oppressive discourse might well be viewed as requiring more of the kind of critical analysis that the discourse itself was supposed to espouse.

Using Students' Written Feedback on 'Race' Issues to Enhance Self-Regulated Learning

Heron, G. — 2008-04-04

Encouraging students to self-regulate their learning in relation to ‘race’ issues would appear to be pertinent to a profession that promotes life-long learning and holds values of self-determination and respect for the individual at its core. This study examined the written feedback students received in relation to key assignments in years two and three of a social work degree programme. The findings suggest that feedback is seldom used in a way that might enhance students understanding of ‘race’ issues. If students are developing an understanding of racism and anti-racist practice, then it does not appear to be a result of the written feedback from tutors and practice teachers. Given the importance of feedback in helping students to self-regulate and develop their learning, it may be useful to adopt a more principled approach.

BJSW Critical Commentary: What Works in Probation Offender Management: evidence for a new direction?"

Ward, D. — 2008-04-04

The Welfare State and Social Work: Pursuing Social Justice, Josefina Figueira-McDonough, Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage Publications, 2007, pp. xvi + 436, ISBN 0761930248, $55.95

Hardcastle, D. — 2008-04-04

A Quarter Century of Classics (1978-2004): Capturing the Theory, Practice, and Spirit of Social Work with Groups, Andrew Malekoff and Roselle Kurland (eds), Binghampton, NY, The Howarth Press, 2005, pp. xxv+266, ISBN 13: 978-0-7890-2873-0, $24.95 * Effective Groupwork (2nd edn), Michael Preston-Shoot, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, pp. ix+212, ISBN 978-1-4039-0552-9, {pound}18.99

Ward, D. — 2008-04-04

International Social Work: Social Problems, Cultural Issues and Social Work Education, Stefan Borrmann, Michael Klassen and Christian Spatscheck (eds), Opladen, Barbara Budrich Publishers, 2007, pp. 189, ISBN 978 3 86649 0871, {pound}12.95

Bridge, G. — 2008-04-04

Mental Health Care for People of Diverse Backgrounds, Julia D. Buckner, Yezzennya Castro, Jill M. Holm-Denoma and Thomas E. Joiner Abingdon, Oxon, Radcliffe Publishing Ltd, 2007, pp. xi + 164, ISBN 10 1 84619 0904, {pound}21.95/$39.95

Warrener, J. — 2008-04-04

Going Local: Working in Communities and Neighbourhoods, John Pierson, Abingdon, Routledge, 2008, pp. xvi + 195, ISBN 978 0 415 32840 1, {pound}19.99

Brown, K. — 2008-04-04

Understanding Social Work Research, Hugh McLaughlin, Sage, London, 2007, pp. 210, ISBN 9781412908481, {pound}19.99

Janouskova, K. — 2008-04-04

International Social Health Care: Policy, Programs and Studies, G. Rosenberg and A. Weissman (eds), New York, Haworth, 2006, $19.95

Lymbery, M. — 2008-04-04

Revitalising Communities in a Globalising World, Lena Dominelli (ed.), Aldershot, Ashgate, 2007, pp. xiii + 451, ISBN 978 7546 4498 9, {pound}60.00 (hb)

Clarke, S. — 2008-04-04

Doing Anti-Oppressive Practice: Building Transformative Politicized Social Work, Donna Baines (ed.), Nova Scotia, Fernwood Publishing, 2007, pp. 229, ISBN 978 1552662236, {pound}24.95

Butler, A. — 2008-04-04

Cross-Cultural Child Development for Social Workers: An Introduction, Lena Robinson, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, pp. 222, ISBN 978-0-333-72610-5, {pound}18.99

Bernard, C. — 2008-04-04

Books Received

2008-04-04