scholarly journals Modern Technologies and Transformation of Social Work Profession and Education: Insights of Teachers of the Lithuanian and Japanese Higher Education Institutions

2022 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 84-103
Author(s):  
Laimutė Žalimienė ◽  
Juratė Charenkova ◽  
Eglė Šumskienė ◽  
Donata Petružytė ◽  
Miroslavas Seniutis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Human Relations ◽  
Traditional Concept ◽  
Main Challenge ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Technologies

This article explores the attitudes of Japanese and Lithuanian social work program teachers towards the challenges posed by modern technologies that may transform social work profession and studies. Study data revealed that scientists from both countries admit that “taming” technologies and optimally “cooperating” with them is the main challenge of social work practice and studies. On the one hand, belief that technological development will provide more opportunities to fulfil the mission of social work was prevalent among the study participants, on the other hand, they had expressed concern that eventually the use of technology will change the essence of social work as a profession of human relations or will create modified forms of social exclusion. Additionally, a niche for the new role of the social worker was identified: to help the world “occupied” by technology remain “social”. Attitudes of research participants from both Lithuania and Japan can be linked to traditional concept of sociality and vision of social work as profession that belongs exclusively to area of human relations. B. Latour’s asocial sociality concept can be applied for broader look into this situation. This concept states that efforts to trace the contribution of actors of an inhuman nature to what belongs in the human world may be more successful when one ceases to view the world exclusively through human eyes and tries to reveal the inner perspectives of phenomena of a mixed nature.

scholarly journals Degrowth for transformational alternatives as radical social work practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-433
Author(s):  
Meredith C.F. Powers ◽  
Komalsingh Rambaree ◽  
Jef Peeters
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Ecological Justice ◽  
The World

Historically, and in modern times, social workers have been culpable in perpetuating the very systems of oppression that we seek to eliminate. This happens as we are part of cultures and economies that operate out of the growth ideology. Acting in accordance with the growth ideology does not lead to the outcomes that we strive for as professional social workers. Rather, the growth ideology results in growing social inequalities and increasing ecological injustices around the world. Social work can, instead, embrace an ecosocial lens and promote degrowth approaches for transformational alternatives. Rather than reinforcing the existing systems of injustice and oppression, radical social work can take an activist role and bring about urgent and radical changes to promote ecological justice through social and ecological well-being. Examples from radical social work in local and international communities demonstrate the possibility of degrowth for transformational alternatives as radical social work practice.

scholarly journals Theories in Māori social work: Indigenous approaches to working with and for indigenous people

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 5-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Awhina Hollis-English
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Ancestral Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Work World ◽  
Contemporary Context

Māori social work practice has been developed upon a strong foundation of indigenous knowledge, theories and values. Theories can be used to validate social work practice and to build and enhance the engagement between workers and whānau. This article describes some Māori social work theories and how they have developed both within the social work world and that of neighbouring professions. A number of theories have been described by Māori social workers from across Aotearoa as the foundations for their social work practice. Theoretical discourse in the world of Māori social workers enables one to grow and develop their practice, leaning on ancestral knowledge and valuing the skills that are gained through understanding tikanga in a contemporary context. Through enhancing one’s knowledge of Te Ao Māori and evidence-based practice, social workers can use, develop and create Māori theories in a social work context for the benefit of Māori whānau and communities.

Interprofessional and Partnered Practice

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina L. Aronoff
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Collaborative Practice ◽  
The World

This is an overview of interprofessional and partnered practice and how these are connected to and further the purposes of social work practice. This brief summary locates several models of collaborative practice in social work and also delineates the ways in which partnered practice provides an overarching paradigm that includes and also extends these approaches, describing a philosophy of practice that speaks to today's imperatives for change in the world.

New Public Management, migrant professionals and labour mobility: possibilities for social justice social work?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Baines
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Study Data ◽  
New Public ◽  
Unpaid Labour

Social work labour is increasingly mobile and global, as are neoliberal policy and management models such as New Public Management. These global processes overlap with local contexts to create and limit possibilities for social-justice-directed social work practice. Drawing on qualitative case study data collected in Canada, Australia, the UK and New Zealand, this chapter: 1) briefly sketches the history of colonialism and immigration that shaped, and shape, these four countries; 2) discusses the standardising influence of New Public Management and managerialism on social work practice possibilities in the four countries; analyses, in particular, the increasing use of immigrant ‘volunteer’ labour and other forms of unpaid labour, including student placements and internships, as a response to ongoing under-funding of social services and policies of ‘permanent’ austerity; and 3) explores implications for practice and possibilities for liberatory social work practice.

Social work perplexity: Dissonance, uncertainty, and growth in Kazakhstan

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Chappell Deckert ◽  
Terry L Koenig
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Social Reform ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Mutual Transformation ◽  
Jane Addams ◽  
Immigrant Populations ◽  
The World ◽  
Meaningful Relationships

Social work pioneer Jane Addams wrote of her experiences living and working with immigrant populations at the Hull-House in Chicago. In her writings, she describes a state of perplexity in which her personal and professional assumptions about the world were transformed through her interactions with that community. Perplexity is a liminal or in-between state of being in professional social work practice settings, which encourages the recognition of uncertainty, honors the dissonance between past assumptions and new understandings, and creates opportunities for meaningful relationships, personal growth, and social reform. This approach employs methods of mutual transformation through individual interpretations of experience, and holistic, critical practice. Our article argues that perplexity offers a useful alternative to social work approaches primarily based in mastery and expertise and is a good fit for the complex and diverse practice situations common to social work. By providing opportunities for truly collaborative understanding, engaging perplexity in social work is an innovative alternative to more linear, cause-and-effect thinking in the field. Specific elements of perplexity are discussed and paired with a case example from social work practice in Kazakhstan with implications for social work practice in other contexts.

Codes of Ethics

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Congress
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Codes Of Ethics ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Values ◽  
National Differences ◽  
The World ◽  
Almost All

Social work values and ethics provide the foundation for social work practice around the world. Almost all countries where social work is a recognized profession have a Code of Ethics. Although there are many similarities among Codes of Ethics in different countries, cultural and societal differences have influenced their content and focus. The extent to which Codes of Ethics have a direct effect on social work practice has been debated. While Codes of Ethics reflect societal and national differences, what is universal and fundamental to social work practice from a human rights perspective should prevail.

scholarly journals The world we’re in: Social work now and then

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 6-16
Author(s):  
Mike O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Economic Interest ◽  
End Points ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Services Delivery ◽  
The World

The last half century has witnessed significant changes in the highly influential social and economic world in which the practice of social work happens. This paper explores the beginning, middle and end points over that time – 1965-6, 1988, 2013 – identifying the major areas of social, cultural and economic focus in each of these years and examines implications for the delivery of social services and the practice of social work. Drawing on a sample of media focus and presentations for each of the three years (as reflected in a newspaper at the time), the article identifies principal areas of social, cultural and economic interest and attention in each area. It then uses that data to inform a discussion of the ways in which those areas shaped (or failed to shape) social work practice and social services delivery at the time. Drawing on those reflections, the article concludes with a discussion of the ways in which the worlds of clients and practitioners shape social services delivery and organisation and the practice of social work. It concludes with brief reflections on what this might mean for the directions of social work practice.

Rights-Based Framework and Social Work

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Androff
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Codes Of Ethics ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Welfare Professional

The past few years have seen a surge in efforts to incorporate rights-based approaches in social work practice. This rise has been spearheaded by a growing awareness that human rights can reduce or eradicate poverty and injustice while advancing human dignity and social welfare. Professional Codes of Ethics around the world maintain social workers’ responsibilities to uphold human rights. However, few rights-based approaches to social work practice have been developed. This encyclopedia entry introduces the concept of rights-based approaches, presents new models of rights-based social work, reviews the rights-based principles for social work practice of human dignity, nondiscrimination, participation, transparency, and accountability, and discusses how this framework can be applied to various practice settings and populations.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document