Student Community Work: A Social Problems Approach in Newcastle, Australia

Abstract This paper presents findings from a historical study of community renewal, as it was articulated and operationalized in NSW, Australia in the period 1999–2006 to improve conditions on public housing estates. The key argument is that community practitioners need to pay closer attention to the power relations involved in actual interventions that claim to empower others. Further, it is argued that such an analysis is a crucial aspect of developing critical, reflexive and innovative forms of practice which have the potential to reconfigure power relations and open possibilities for new understandings of community. Case examples of the implementation of community renewal are included to show the tensions involved when practitioners engage in empowerment practices that are coercive in that they include the exercise of regulatory and disciplinary power. It is incumbent upon community work practitioners and those who educate aspiring practitioners to understand that policies and programmes utilizing community as a solution to social problems are not benign, nor are they necessarily solely politically expedient, although the dangers lay in conceiving and enacting them as such.

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The factors of conflictogenity of student environment of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia)

Конфликтология / nota bene ◽

10.7256/2454-0617.2021.1.33329 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 43-53

Author(s):

Aliya Kutumovna Kutumova ◽

Aiza Borisovna Neustroeva

Keyword(s):

Social Problems ◽

Demographic Characteristics ◽

Conflict Situation ◽

Family Status ◽

Sakha Republic ◽

Student Community ◽

Social Risks ◽

Conflict Situations ◽

Subjective Assessments ◽

Financial Issues

This article determines the factors of conflictogenity of student environment in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). The student environment is permeated with a lot of conflictogenic factors and tensions that need to be managed and reduced to an acceptable level. The key research methods involve sociological surveys conducted among university students and students of the specialized secondary educational establishments in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). The authors explore the concept of “conflictogenity” and ”conflictogenic factor”, and analyze the demographic characteristics of student youth in the region. The article reveals the current social problems of student community, determines the external and internal conflictogenic factors faced by modern student youth, describes the behavioral tactics of students in conflict situations, and gives subjective assessments to the level of conflictogenity among students. It is noted that the level of conflictogenity of student environment is affected by objective and subjective factors, social risks and problems. As a result, the author identifies that not owning a place to live, unemployment, and financial issues are the most pressing social problems of students. In a conflict situation, most students try to follow the tactics of compromise and cooperation. The authors reveal the differences in the behavior and assessments of respondents depending on such socio-demographic characteristics as gender, age, year of study, family status, and place of residence. The article makes recommendations on reduction of the potential of conflictogenic factors and improvement of student’s situation in the region.

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Community Work as Opposition

Journal of Comparative Social Work ◽

10.31265/jcsw.v15i2.304 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 33-55

Author(s):

Christian Franklin Svensson ◽

Vibeke Bak Nielsen

Keyword(s):

Social Problems ◽

Social Situation ◽

Social Enterprises ◽

Service Users ◽

Human Suffering ◽

Community Inclusion ◽

Community Work ◽

Social Challenges ◽

Increased Sensitivity

A number of tensions pertaining to social problems and human suffering become apparent when analysing community work in a Danish welfare setting. As a source for critical reflection, we discern some of these challenges, but also potentials, which relate not only to a Danish context, but to challenges in any highly institutionalized welfare system. Three community work social enterprises serve to exemplify the objectives of addressing social problems by fostering participation and empowerment. To enhance and include the voice of service users, the programmes attempt to cultivate human resources as opposed to perceived formalism and a subsequent diminishment of the potentials of community inclusion. The formalistic governmental agendas are perceived to be unable to appreciate the diversity of service users’ individual needs and social challenges, which produces conflicting prospects. Such a dichotomy between formalistic welfare practices and the ideals represented in the three enterprises offers a podium for users, professionals, policymakers and researchers to consider alternative expressions of community work, and how these can address social problems. We maintain that rapidly changing welfare models require an increased sensitivity to human suffering as a position embedded in the habitus and sociological imagination of community work. It is a source for reflection on the role of welfare arenas perceived as spaces in which service users ideally, based on their own social situation, can improve their social circumstances. It is an invitation to reflect on the potentials of community work in a diversity of cultures and practices.

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Student Community Work: An Experiment in Western Australia

Community Development Journal ◽

10.1093/cdj/12.2.122 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 122-126 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

GLEN STICKLAND

Keyword(s):

Western Australia ◽

Community Work ◽

Student Community

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Translating Inclusion

Space and Culture ◽

10.1177/1206331218800237 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 23 (4) ◽

pp. 536-547 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mia Arp Fallov ◽

Rasmus Hoffmann Birk

Keyword(s):

Social Problems ◽

Local Community ◽

Active Citizenship ◽

Theoretical Point ◽

Residential Areas ◽

Community Work ◽

Different Dimensions ◽

Point Of Departure

The purpose of this article is to explore how practices of translation shape particular paths of inclusion for people living in marginalized residential areas in Denmark. Inclusion, we argue, is not an end-state but rather something that must be constantly performed. Active citizenship, today, is not merely a question of participation but also learning to become active in all spheres of life. The article draws on empirical examples from a multisite fieldwork in six different sites of local community work in Denmark, to demonstrate how different dimensions of translation are involved in shaping active citizenship. We propose the following different dimensions of translation: translating authority, translating language, and translating social problems. The article takes its theoretical point of departure from assemblage urbanism, arguing that cities are heterogeneous assemblages of sociomaterial interactions. Through the practices of translation, local community work both transforms the possibilities for residents and disrupts the compositions of urban assemblages. Through this, we argue, local community work creates new opportunities for residents.

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