Social Relations of Production and Consumption in the Human Service Occupations

1976 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gelvin Stevenson

The human services require an explicit theoretical analysis of the social relations of consumption in addition to the social relations of production. The purpose of this paper is to begin such an analysis.<p class="mrlink"><p class="mrpurchaselink"><a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-28-number-3" title="Vol. 28, No. 3: July-August 1976" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the <em>Monthly Review</em> website.</a></p>

1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gelvin Stevenson

This paper presents a Marxist analysis of human service occupations. As the forces of monopoly capitalism increased the need for human services and destroyed the social institutions which previously satisfied those needs, employment in the human service industries grew rapidly, and may now exceed that in manufacturing. The nature of human services is discussed: production and consumption occur simultaneously; the social relations of consumption and production are closely related; and service workers play a direct social control role. These characteristics generate contradictions between service and control in service work, and between service workers' roles as both oppressed workers and oppressors. Discussions of the ideologies impacting on the relationships between workers and “clients,” the dynamics of these relationships, and the struggles to which they give rise conclude the paper.


1976 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Batya Weinbaum ◽  
Amy Bridges

The housewife is central to understanding women's position in capitalist societies. Marxists expected that the expropriation of production from the household would radically diminish its social importance. In the face of the household's continuing importance, Marxists have tried to understand it by applying concepts developed in the study of production." Yet obviously, the household is not like a factory, nor are housewives organized in the same way as wage laborers. As Eli Zaretsky has written, the housewife and the proletarian are the characteristic adults of advanced capitalist societies." Moreover, households and corporations are its characteristic economic organizations. Just as the socialization of production has not abolished the housewife, so accumulation has not abolished the economic functions of the household. Harry Braverman has demonstrated how the accumulation process creates new occupational structures, and he has documented the expansion of capital's activity to new sectors. We will argue that these developments also change the social relations of consumption, an economic function which continues to be structured through the household and performed by women as housewives.<p class="mrlink"><p class="mrpurchaselink"><a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-28-number-3" title="Vol. 28, No. 3: July-August 1976" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the <em>Monthly Review</em> website.</a></p>


1989 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yeheskel Hasenfeld ◽  
Mark A. Chesler

The authors juxtapose autobiographical accounts of their personal and professional lives to examine the interplay of their personas and work in the social sciences. Chesler is an action researcher and change agent who focuses primarily on young people and their parents and on those providing them human services. Hasenfeld is an academic who focuses primarily on relations between clients and human service providers and on the systemic changes needed to improve these relations. They share domain assumptions, particularly a belief in the “good” society based on justice, social equality, and respect for diversity, are committed to improving the life chances of the oppressed and disadvantaged, and believe that empowering the clients of human service agencies is crucial to improving the effectiveness and responsiveness of such organizations.


1976 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Rosenberg

This paper will attempt to demonstrate that a major reason for the fruitfulness of Marx's framework for the analysis of social change was that Marx was, himself, a careful student of technology. By this I mean not only that he was fully aware of, and insisted upon, the historical importance and the social consequences of technology. That much is obvious. Marx additionally devoted much time and effort to explicating the distinctive characteristics of technologies, and to attempting to unravel and examine the inner logic of individual technologies. He insisted that technologies constitute an interesting subject, not only to technologists, but to students of society and social pathology as well, and he was very explicit in the introduction of technological variables into his arguments.<p class="mrlink"><p class="mrpurchaselink"><a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-28-number-3" title="Vol. 28, No. 3: July-August 1976" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the <em>Monthly Review</em> website.</a></p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (10) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Peter Dickens

As astronauts penetrate ever further into the cosmos, how are their bodies and subjectivities being transformed? While space travel remains governed by mechanisms of power and domination that tend to treat astronauts as tools, the practice of "space medicine" is now beginning to interact with astronauts' bodies in a more multidirectional, dialectical fashion.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-11

This article is a theoretical overview of the main standardized techniques for assessment of the social relations of the individual. The study of these techniques allows professionals to get the basic information about the microsocial environment of people. Theoretical analysis shows that the study of the social network of an individual involves the analysis of its structure, composition and function of its components. Described and analyzed the most common techniques for assessment of human social networks - "Name generator", "Drawing a social network", "Inventory of Social Network" (K. Bartholomew), "Social Networks Inventory " (Treadwell T. and co.), "Social Network Index "( L. Berkman, S. Syme), "Social Network List" (B. Hirsch, J. Stokes). Separately, the method of drawing up clients structured diary and method network card are shown.


2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 195
Author(s):  
Adriana Tenório Cordeiro ◽  
Sérgio Carvalho Benício de Mello

Neste artigo, examinamos em práticas discursivas da ruralidade contemporânea como se dá o enfrentamento dos problemas decorrentes do atual padrão de produção-consumo e seus impactos sobre a concepção de propostas de desenvolvimento. Por meio da discussão articulada ao campo empírico de duas organizações sociais pernambucanas engajadas no desenvolvimento rural, é possível percebermos como a tecnologia produtiva perde seu caráter neutro ou inerentemente progressista e é posta em uma matriz de relações sociais. Evidencia-se uma nova racionalidade que tem a sustentabilidade como elemento reorganizador, de acordo com uma ótica multidimensional e subordinando a técnica aos sujeitos sociais. E problematiza-se, também, o poder de ser consciente numa práxis de mercado ao se estabelecer uma racionalidade distinta na relação produtor-consumidor. A subjetividade política envolvida na incorporação da dimensão ideológica ao âmbito produtivo e de consumo contribui na busca de um marco em que possam ser consideradas conjuntamente as atividades de produção e consumo que configuram uma dimensão da cidadania. Palavras-chave: produção, consumo, sustentabilidade, desenvolvimento, Teoria do Discurso. Abstract In this paper, we examine in discursive practices of contemporary rurality how problems related to current production-consumption patterns are confronted, and their impacts on the conception of development proposals. Through a discussion articulated to the empirical field of two social organizations in Pernambuco (Brazil), concerned with rural development, we can perceive how productive technology looses its neutral and inherently progressive character and is placed in a social relations matrix. A new rationality is evidenced, which has sustainability as its re-organizational element in a multidimensional outlook and subordinating technique to the social subjects. We can still problematize the power of being conscious in market praxis as we establish a distinct rationality in producer-consumer relationship. The political subjectivity involved within the incorporation of ideological dimension to production-consumption scope contributes to the search of a frontier where activities of production and consumption configured through a citizenship dimension can be considered conjunctively. Keywords:production, consumption, sustainability, development, Discourse Theory


2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanne Saraceno

<p>This paper explores how a dominant Western ontology rooted in white masculinity and coloniality is embedded in the systems and structures of professional helping in Canada. With a critical, post-colonial feminist analysis, this paper locates Canada’s colonial history as fundamental to ongoing policies and practices in the human services and child and youth care (CYC). The implications of coloniality for CYC suggest that as practitioners we might consciously engage in deconstructing the theories, structures, and values that shape how we practice. Cartographies can assist us in reflexive and deconstructive endeavours. As one maps out the parameters and identifies the existing horizons, one might begin to envision how to then move beyond them. In examining the hegemony of professional helping, the intention is an invitation to work collectively toward models that foreground the social context of problems faced by individuals as well as creative, collective responses. Strategies of an engaged solidarity and a model of socially just, decolonizing praxis offer potential sites for affirmative and transformative social change.</p>


Author(s):  
Mimi Abramovitz ◽  
Jennifer Zelnick

Neoliberalism emerged in the United States in the mid-1970s in response to the second economic crisis of the 20th century. Seeking to undo the New Deal enacted in response to the 1930s economic collapse, neoliberalism redistributes income upward and downsizes the state using tax cuts, budget cuts, privatization, devolution, and reducing the power of social movements. Privatization, a key neoliberal strategy, is typically understood as shifting responsibility for entitlement programs such as Social Security or Medicare from public to the private sector. Managerialism (i.e., the adoption of business principle and practices) refers to operationalization privatization within human service agencies. The growing dominance of managerialist productivity, accountability efficiency, and standardization has redefined the landscape of the human services The troubling impact on service provision, working conditions, and the well-being of human service workers leads us to ask if the social work mission will become a casualty of managerialism.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S516-S516
Author(s):  
Arati Maleku ◽  
Megan Espana ◽  
Sharvari Karandikar ◽  
Njeri Kagotho ◽  
Rupal Parekh ◽  
...  

Abstract Globally, late-life migration has been a growing phenomenon. Literature on aging and migration however, has primarily focused on immigrant populations who migrated early in life. To expand our conceptualization of aging and to plan for the care of growing older immigrant populations, it is crucial to understand the compounding effects of late-life migration and aging in new spaces. Drawing on the qualitative data (N=71) from a large-scale community-based participatory research project in a mid-western U.S. region, we examined the social determinants of late-life migration on the health and well-being of older immigrants by exploring: (a) barriers and facilitators of socio-cultural adaptation, (b) patterns of human service provision in a local context, and (c) societal patterns of caring for older immigrants in places of relocation. Life course and social convoy perspectives formed the conceptual basis of the study. Using Respondent Driven Sampling method, data collection included six focus group discussions (n=48) with immigrant communities and in-depth interviews with human service providers (n=23). Data analysis followed the Rapid and Rigorous Qualitative Data Analysis technique that generated six salient themes: cultural context of aging; challenges of late-life migration; broken convoy and social isolation; gender and age intersections; human services, and community efforts and solutions. Findings suggest that late-life migration is a conglomeration of losses and gains, contingent on complex determinants such as living arrangements, language, transportation, the built environment, inter-generational relationships, socio-economic status, and social convoys. We conclude with a call to develop age-friendly, culturally responsive human services and health policies.


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