Suchergebnisse

Este artigo introduz algumas questões inspiradas pelo Fórum Social Mundial que dizem respeito às relações entre os movimentos sociais e o projeto de transformação social, interpretado como processo político de superação das formas de exploração, dominação e discriminação presentes na sociedade. Compreende-se essa transformação na perspectiva de uma democracia radical, ou seja, na democratização da própria esfera política no campo da esquerda.

These essays provide a panoramic view of current thinking on biblical texts that play important roles in contemporary struggles for social justice. Here, from the hands of an ecumenical array of leading biblical scholars, are fresh and compelling resources for thinking biblically about what justice is and what it demands.

Introduction. This paper presents a research project aiming at eliciting the potential of public libraries in building social capital, and promoting generalized trust in today's multicultural society. Method. Two approaches to research, the societal approach and the institutional approach are identified. The concept of low intensive versus high intensive meeting places is presented. A survey among inhabitants in four different metropolitan communities varying according to demographic characteristics in general, and the percentage of the population with a non-Western background in particular was undertaken. Initial results from a survey on how the public library is taken into use as a meeting place are presented and analysed. Analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the research question. Results. The survey results indicate that the library is a complex meeting place with a range of meetings along a continuum from high intensive to low intensive meetings. Conclusions. The library's potential role as a promoter of social capital by functioning as a low intensive meeting place seems to offer a promising research agenda.

"This book brings together research on the latest trends and patterns of data mining tools and techniques in dynamic social networks and fuzzy systems"--Provided by publisher

My PhD thesis related the growth of a large social system devoted to the treatment of personal problems; i.e. problems successively labelled as madness, mental illness and mental health problems, from the early fifties to the present days. That system involved heterogeneous networks of actors, including scientific experts, established professions, social movements, policy makers, services users and international organisations; instruments and knowledge ranging from psychoanalytical theories to biological knowledge and models of governance. It meant to explain how institutional change happened in that complex social system, by studying past and ongoing reforms, considered as interrelated steps towards complete paradigm shift, including shifting policy means, policy objectives and social organisation. By relying on in-depth analyses of five past reforms, it conceptualised the system as composed of interrelated ecologies, corresponding to different kinds of knowledge of personal problems, whose development was directed by protective and expansion strategies used by two coalitions of actors, holding different kinds of resources to influence the change process. The traditional coalition was embedded in the Belgian institutional system; it referred to medical knowledge of personal problems; and held many institutions delivering residential treatments. By contrast, the reformist coalition was connected to international professional and policy networks stimulating change in OECD-mental health systems; it referred to practical knowledge of social psychiatry and evidence produced by international organisations as the World Health Organisation; and it held non-profit associations delivering community treatments. Cross-regulations exerted through joint-participation of those coalitions in successive reforms caused rapid changes in the system's structural configuration while hindering change in its social organisation. Thus, we suggested thinking of the issue of change in the system as consisting in setting conditions in which the reformist coalition might extensively use its resources in conducting a new reform starting in 2010. By relying on that assumption, I presented three case studies analysing the devising of that reform at the policy level and its implementing through local networks. Those case studies drew attention to the kinds of knowledge used by key actors and to the way in which they used it in joint-attempts to take the leadership of the reform. Three main findings resulted from those case studies. First, the designing of the policy guide framing the reform consisted in assembling different kinds of knowledge together, including policy learning achieved through past changes in the system and knowledge of alternative care models implemented in OECD-countries, in a way that encouraged sustained enactments of knowledge specific to the reformist coalition, while decreasing the relevance of resources specific to the traditional coalition. Second, local meetings caused by the implementing of the reform enabled adaptations of knowledge embodied by the participants, i.e. multiple actors representing different ecologies and members of one of the two coalitions, to enacted knowledge, i.e. knowledge collectively produced by thinking about concrete means to implement the reform locally. Third, enacted knowledge caused, in turn, adaptations of the care model inscribed in the policy guide to local particularities. Those adaptations did not prevent, however, the global philosophy of the new reform, inspired by social psychiatry, from pervading in local networks, among other by being inscribed in operational documents resulting from meetings. Thus, by following the policy guide through local networks where it was translated into concrete practices, I have been able to indicate new directions in the global process of change in the system, towards a complete paradigm shift, from medical to social psychiatry, and to highlight social and learning processes making it possible.

This article examines the possibilities and potential of spirituality in critical social work, both in relevant literature and in the views of participants in a research inquiry undertaken over the past two years. My purpose is twofold: first, to explore how critical conceptualizations of spirituality might alter the ways in which social workers frame social and individual change; and second, to suggest that it is imperative for critical social work to address spiritual issues.

In this work we propose a dynamic agent-based model of social identity, named IDeA, which is capable of creating characters that have an improved ability to handle and comprehend the social context in which a game situation takes place as well as the social identities involved in that context. The model explores how a character can use identity processes that are grounded on the social sciences literature as a tool for behaviour selection and filtering. As a result, characters will choose to adopt different identities dependent on their resources and goals as well as the relevant features of the contexts in which they find themselves in. A simple demonstrator application was implemented using our model to illustrate how a character can make different decisions in the same game scenario. Using the implemented demonstrator, a study was conducted where participants observed and judged how the character behaves in different conditions regarding the context of the situation. The results obtained revealed the presence of a dominant identity among the alternatives. ; This study is part of the RAGE project. The RAGE project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 644187. This publication reflects only the author's view. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

In this paper I try to show the value that the study of the relationship between Social Psychology & Literature would have to improve our psychosocial knowledge of the human being. On one hand, the psychosocial analysis of the novel would provide us with the wide & deep knowledge that is contained in the classic literary works. On the other hand, it is also useful to analyze how these literary works have been reflecting both their own time as well as the social changes in the last centuries and, furthermore, its effect on the readers, their mentality, their behaviour & even the way they relate each other. This approach would be of great value for a Social Psychology that pretends to look beyond a positivist perspective, a perspective that is pervasive in Psychology for the last century.

In 2016–2017, a large Swedish hospital introduced a mobile team of asylum social workers to work with asylum-seeking and undocumented patients. Based on interviews with the asylum social workers and the theoretical concepts of jurisdiction and professional discretion, this study explores how they experienced their work and developed their specialist competence and strategies for health social work with migrants. The findings show that they not only relieved staff and supported patients and relatives but also systemised the knowledge about health social work with migrants and created a professional specialty with a socially, rather than medically, defined group of patients.

This article demonstrates the utility of explicating underlying forces that have brought about, shaped and underpinned provision of social protection in each sub-Saharan African country. It does so in the context of examining six such forces, namely: tradition and culture, drought and famine, relations among key actors, the mainstream paradigm of development, the poverty reduction agenda of the ruling party, and constrained fiscal space that have historically contributed to current provision of social protection in Ethiopia. Recommendations are given for social work policy practice to enable decision-makers to integrate developmental and human rights objectives in Ethiopia's forthcoming national social protection strategy.

This paper addresses the increasing socio-spatial inequalities in European cities and their impact on the possibilities for fostering social cohesion. Many policy programmes tackle spatial unevenness in order to build more cohesive communities. These policies have some impact, but their effect on reducing inequalities at city level is limited. Therefore, an important question is how the overall socio-spatial organisation of European cities affects social cohesion and the capacity to form an urban community able to decide on a common future. First, the complex relation between present-day societal and spatial dynamics is discussed, asserting that it produces segregation. The second part reflects on how segregation is regarded in terms of social cohesion. Many authors stress the social innovative capacities within segregated areas. However, European cities display different socio-spatial structures. How these structures influence negotiation processes between different social groups is poorly treated. The last part of the paper addresses this issue.

This deliverable presents and describes the first delivery of assets that are part of the core social agency bundle. In total, the bundle includes 16 assets, divided into 4 main categories. Each category is related to a type of challenge that developers of applied games are typically faced with and the aim of the included assets is to provide solutions to those challenges. The main goal of this document is to provide the reader with a description for each included asset, accompanied by links to their source code, distributable versions, demonstrations and documentation. A short discussion of what are the future steps for each asset is also given. The primary audience for the contents of this deliverable are the game developers, both inside and outside of the project, which can use this document as an official list of the current social agency assets and their associated resources. Note that the information about which RAGE use cases are using which of these assets is described in Deliverable 4.2. ; This study is part of the RAGE project. The RAGE project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 644187. This publication reflects only the author's view. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

This article analyses the appropriate duty of care under English tort law for social auditors towards third parties at risk of suffering damages from their negligence. After explaining the work of social auditors, the article considers whether the duty of care established for financial auditors is an appropriate one for social auditors. It concludes that a robust duty of care does exist for social auditors to guard against negligent audits that could harm workers at audited facilities. Due to differences between the financial and social audit, it further argues the duty of care for social auditors should be both broader than that required of the financial audit industry and non-delegable.

Nations in the region have subordinated social policy to economic growth. The pandemic has demonstrated the need for universal provision of health care and other essential assistance.