Suchergebnisse

Our parents often have a significant impact on the content of our beliefs, the values we hold, and the goals we pursue and becoming a parent can also have a similar impact on our lives. In Conceptions of Parenthood Michael Austin provides a rigorous and accessible philosophical analysis of the numerous and distinct conceptions of parenthood. Issues considered are the nature and justification of parental rights, the sources of parental obligations, the value of autonomy, and the moral obligations and tensions present within interpersonal relationships. Austin rejects the 'proprietarian', 'best interests of the child', and 'biological' conceptions of parenthood as failing to generate parental rights and obligations but considers more sympathetically the 'custodial relationship', 'consent', and 'causal' conceptions of parenthood and ultimately defends a 'stewardship' conception. Finally Austin explores the 'stewardship' view for practical and moral questions related to family life and social policy regarding the family, such as the education of children, the religious upbringing of children and state licensing of parents.

This analysis seeks to bridge the differences between micro and macro practice within the context of the shared mission of social work. The search for common ground, given decades of specialization, includes the identification of the different ways that the two forms of practice can inform each other, describes core workplace skills relevant to interventions at the micro and macro levels of organizational and community life, and explores the need for bilingual capacities to enhance communications between both domains of social work practice. It concludes with implications for future curricular changes.

MANGA: AN ANTHOLOGY OF GLOBAL AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES, TONI JOHNSON-WOODS (ED.) (2010) New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 350 pp., ISBN: 978-0-8264-2938-4, Paperback, US $27.95 THE GOOD MOTHER: CONTEMPORARY MOTHERHOODS IN AUSTRALIA, SUSAN GOODWIN AND KATE HUPPATZ
(EDS.) (2010) Sydney: Sydney University Press, pp. 246, ISBN: 9781920899530, Paperback, AUD $35.00 VAMPIRES: A BITE-SIZED HISTORY, JUDYTH A. McLEOD (2010) Sydney: Murdoch Books, 239 pp., ISBN: 9781741967739, Paperback, AUD $24.95 POLITICS AND RELIGION IN THE NEW CENTURY: PHILOSOPHICAL
REFLECTIONS, PHILIP ANDREW QUADRIO AND CAROL BESSELING (EDS.) (2009) Sydney: Sydney University Press, 416 pp., ISBN: 9781920899318, Paperback, AUD $40.00 REG GRUNDY, REG GRUNDY (2010) Sydney: Murdoch Books. 367 pp., ISBN: 978-1742660349, Hardback, AUD $45.00

In the post-welfare reform era, increased discretion has been given to frontline staff for day-today welfare policy implementation. To determine how frontline staff address the complex needs of welfare program participants in this new policy environment, the decision-making processes of welfare staff (N = 52) in 11 San Francisco Bay Area county social service agencies were assessed through a case vignette using a Web-based survey design. We examined staff decision making in four areas: problem recognition, goal formulation, information search processes, and evaluation. The results suggest that the high level of staff discretion apparent in the day-to-day implementation of welfare policy may have important implications for participants. Several recommendations for policy, practice, and future research are presented.

Organizational support represents a critical driver of practice research projects. This analysis includes four international examples of such support (Norway, Finland, Belgium, and USA and China). The four studies capture the similarities and differences between university support and national government support. The analysis is placed within the context of defining practice research and the core components of organizational support. The findings emerged from presentations in a Practice Research Collaborative sponsored by the International Community on Practice Research in Social Work. The conclusion includes a discussion of a cross-case analysis along with the identification of implications for practice research studies in social work and affiliated professional disciplines.

This Statement on Practice Research is a work in progress. It emerges out of deliberations from three international conferences on defining and operationalizing practice research. It seeks to capture both a process and outcome in which practitioners, researchers, service users, and educators collectively engage in a negotiated process of inquiry. One of the goals of this form of research is to place equal emphasis on improving practice and improving services. Practice research also seeks to rebalance the power relations in terms of integrating the voices of service users, service providers, service researchers, and instructors preparing future and current service providers. This third statement emerges out of the most recent international conference in New York City (2012) and continues the construction of the social science and social philosophy foundation of practice research. It seeks to expand the dialogue on practice research to include more international voices while also searching for linkages with the evolving process of defining the mixed methods approach to evidence-informed practice. This Statement provides a platform for the 4th International Conference on Practice Research planned for Hong Kong in 2017.