Affective spaces, humour and power in 24-hour care institutions for young people in vulnerable positions

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-514
Author(s):  
Michael Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Young People ◽  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
Children And Youth ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
Underdeveloped Area ◽  
Spatial Approach ◽  
The Relationship

This article examines humour and its connectedness to spatiality in social work by drawing on examples from fieldwork involving vulnerable young people. The article argues that the relationship between a spatial perspective and humour as a phenomenon in social work is an underdeveloped area of social work research. The article draws on De Certeau’s concepts of tactical behaviour and strategically defined spaces, both of which involve a dynamic spatial approach. Connecting these concepts to humour, the article concludes that applying a humour-affective spatial theoretical approach to social work research greatly aids the identification of power dynamics and the tensions that can arise in social situations. In short, the article offers another way of conceptualising the production of the spatial dynamics of power, inclusion and exclusion. The empirical basis for the article is a comprehensive field study carried out at a 24-hour residential institution for children and youth in vulnerable positions.

scholarly journals ‘I know what I like and I like what I know’: Epistemology in practice and theory and practice again

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 762-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Hardy
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Current Understanding ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
The Relationship

This article is a reflective piece in which I account for how and why I have developed my current understanding of the relevance of epistemology to practice, to social work research and to the relationship between the two. Social work as a profession has itself faced something of an epistemological crisis of late, which has impacted on both practice and research in ways which have not necessarily been beneficial. I will draw my own practice and reseach to highlight the twists and turns in the development of my thinking about these issues and as a corollary, my views regarding the bridging role that pragmatic epistemology might play between research and practice.

Enriching social work research through architectural multisensory methods: Strategies for connecting the built environment and human experience

2020 ◽  
pp. 147332502092445
Author(s):  
Alison L Grittner ◽  
Victoria F Burns
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Built Environments ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Spatial Justice ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
The Relationship

Scholars have called for greater emphasis on the physical environment to expand social work research, policy, and practice; however, there has been little focus on the role of the built environment. Redressing this gap in the literature, this methodological paper explicates how four multisensory research methods commonly used in architecture—sketch walks, photography, spatial visualization, and mapping—can be used in social work research to create a greater understanding of the complex, interconnected, and multidimensional nature of built environments in relationship to human experience. The methods explored in this paper provide social work researchers with a methodological conduit to explore the relationship between the built environment and vulnerable populations, understand and advocate for spatial justice, and participate knowledgeably in interdisciplinary policy realms involving the built environment and marginalized populations.

Gaining and Maintaining Access

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Clark
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Systematic Research ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
Ongoing Development ◽  
The Relationship

Gatekeepers occupy increasingly important positions within qualitative social work research and their engagement with research is crucial to the ongoing development of a useable knowledge base. However, while some studies have hinted at the mechanisms that support and challenge the relationship between gatekeepers and researchers, there is a paucity of systematic research concerning how these relationships can be maintained more effectively for all concerned. This article aims to develop the literature in this respect by examining how researchers in the child and families research arena (n = 13) understand the mechanisms that support and challenge the engagement of gatekeepers. Several mechanisms that support engagement are identified. These are: political representation, civic and moral responsibility to engage, and the identification of good practice. Similarly, a number of mechanisms that can challenge engagement are also explored. These include: methodology, representation, intrusion, and, disruption. These results are discussed in relation to the current developments within the field of qualitative social work that have seen a rise in collectivized responses to research requests.

What is the Difference between ‘Desistance’ and ‘Resilience’? Exploring the Relationship between Two Key Concepts

Youth Justice ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Fitzpatrick (née Taylor)
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Young People ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Practical Implications

This article seeks to explore the relationship between two very important and distinct key concepts – desistance and resilience – by bridging theoretical insights from Criminology and Social Work. These concepts have developed quite separately and in different disciplinary contexts, and there are some clear differences between them. However, it is argued here that research on desistance and resilience also has much in common, in terms of the underlying mechanisms that enable these two distinct ‘processes’ to occur and in relation to the practical implications for working with vulnerable young people.

What is social work research?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
Clear Sense ◽  
Science And Art ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter outlines what seems feasible by way of describing the nature of social work and its linked research. If scholars are to have a clear sense of what ‘research’ means, both in general and in their own field, they need to think of what ‘science’ means. This will include a brief consideration of the relationship between ‘science’ and ‘art’. Following from that, the chapter asks the curious question — curious because it seems strange but also because it encourages curiosity — of whether successful, interesting, or worthwhile research depends at all on serendipity.

Why do research in social work?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Cooperative Work ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter distinguishes different ways scholars can understand the purpose of social work research, giving examples from the literature. Having recognised a range of appropriate purposes for doing research, it considers the consequence of this for how scholars deal with the tensions between these purposes. From there, the chapter considers how the presence of multiple purposes, sometimes in tension with one another, raises the question of how the purposes of social work research are, or should be, taken forward by collaborative, cooperative work. While collaboration may seem an obvious virtue, its achievement is not straightforward. One of the difficulties stems from how best to understand the relationship between social work in the academy and social work in the outside world.

scholarly journals Giving up the ghost: Findings on fathers and social work from a study of pre-birth child protection

2021 ◽  
pp. 147332502110194
Author(s):  
Ariane Critchley
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Social Work Research ◽  
Research Interviews ◽  
Expectant Fathers ◽  
The Relationship

This article reports findings from an ethnographic study of pre-birth child protection, conducted in an urban Scottish setting. The study was designed to explore the interactions between practitioners and families in the context of child protection involvement during a pregnancy. This research aimed to understand the activities that constituted pre-birth child protection assessment, and the meaning attached to those activities by social workers and expectant parents. Very different perspectives on fathers and fatherhood emerged through the study. Fathers shared their feelings of familial tenderness in the context of research interviews. Yet social workers often focused on the risks that the fathers posed. This focus on risk led professionals to ignore or exclude fathers in significant ways. Fathers were denied opportunities to take an active role in their families and care planning for their infants, whilst mothers were over-responsibilised. Children meanwhile were potentially denied the relationship, care and identity benefits of involved fatherhood. This article shows how pre-birth child protection processes and practice can function so as to limit the contribution of expectant fathers. The way that fathers and fathering are understood continues to be a wider problem for social work, requiring development through research and practice. This study was not immune to the challenge of involving men in social work research in meaningful ways. Nevertheless, the findings highlight how participation in social work research can create a forum for fathers to share their concerns, and the importance of their perspective for practice.

scholarly journals COVID-19: changing fields of social work practice with children and young people

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne Dillon ◽  
Ffion Evans ◽  
Lauren Elizabeth Wroe
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Welfare Systems

Drawing on the theoretical work of Wacquant, Bourdieu and Foucault, we interrogate how the COVID-19 pandemic has weaponised child and family social work practices through reinvigorated mechanisms of discipline and surveillance. We explore how social workers are caught in the struggle between enforcement and relational welfare support. We consider how the illusio of social work obscures power dynamics impacting children, young people and families caught in child welfare systems, disproportionately affecting classed and racialised individuals.

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