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Stressing his importance, a number of writers have endeavoured to explain Emmanuel Levinas's complex philosophy to a social work readership. In contrast, this article takes a much more critical stance and remains wary about Levinas's gradual incorporation into the profession's literature. It begins by briefly sketching his biography and outlining the case made for Levinasian social work. After illuminating some of his main themes and concerns, four interrelated conceptual problems are identified. First, the encounter with the 'Other' seems to take place in a vacuum drained of social, economic and political content. Second, Levinas's antipathy to Marxism and the conflating of Marxism with Stalinism is redolent of the politics of the Cold War. Third, his usefulness as a resource for 'critical social work' is eroded because he fails to adequately account for the operation of the state. Finally, Levinas often appears to valorise 'charity', rather the 'welfare state', with the recipient 'Other' frequently evoked as merely an abject and passive figure.

This paper presents one case study of state-sponsored cultural activities that occurred throughout 2014, Turkmenistan's Year of Magtymguly, the 290th anniversary of this Turkmen poet's birth. Such activities constitute examples of public culture; they can organize representations of a society's past and present to reaffirm for participants the values and power structure of their society and revalidate its philosophical underpinnings. After examining this Turkic poet's iconicity, this paper compiles 2014's celebratory events from disparate sources, complementing broader general literature on Central Asia's spectacles of public culture and their role in nation-building and identity-formation. Rather than merely resulting from any top-down decision specifying required activities nationwide, the year's events involved numerous synergies as artists, museum and theater administrators, composers, and other cultural-sector workers benefited by responding to the potential of aligning their work with a theme as broad, as widely appreciated, and as eligible for various forms of support as this one. In addition, Turkmenistan's strong central leadership benefited from this widely shared and highly visible celebration, especially emphasizing one element within Magtymguly's eighteenth-century vision, an end to his people's tribal conflicts within a unified Turkmenistan under one leader.

It has been categorically asserted that Emmanuel Levinas's philosophy, dwelling on accepting responsibility for the 'Other', can be used to bolster the theorisation of 'critical social work'. Furthermore, a number of social work academics maintain that his complex contributions create a new framework for working across 'differences'. In contrast, this article will challenge these assertions, shedding light on an array of deeply problematic aspects of Levinas's philosophy and politics. These have so far been omitted in the way he has been presented to a social work readership. Particular attention will be paid to Levinas's self-proclaimed Euro-centrism and racist condescension toward those beyond Europe. The discussion will then turn to explore his ethnic nationalism which functions to conceptually misrecognise, disrespect and discursively delete Palestinians.

Summary During the summer of 2014 reports that a 'septic tank grave' containing 'skeletons of 800 babies' had been discovered on the site of a former home for 'unmarried mothers' in Tuam, County Galway appeared in the international press and social media. Doubts quickly began to surface around the assertion that the remains of children had, in fact, been 'dumped' in a 'septic tank, but it is still important that responses to 'unmarried mothers' and their children are subject to contemporary scrutiny because substantial concerns clearly warrant investigation. In June 2014 the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, in the Irish coalition government, announced the setting up of an inquiry. Findings Acknowledging the significance of historical and archival research for social work, the article provides a more expansive contextual account than that featured in the media coverage. The main focus is on policy and practice in relation to 'unmarried mothers' in the early years of the state and the establishment of quasi-penal Mother and Baby Homes. The lack of legal child adoption also restricted the meaningful choices available to expectant, unwed women in Ireland. Many, known to social workers as P.F.I.s ('pregnant from Ireland'), decided to flee to England to give birth and have children placed for adoption. Drawing on the annual reports of the Catholic Protection and Rescue Society of Ireland, it is revealed that these women often faced being 'repatriated' back to Ireland. Applications The discussion serves to emphasise the vital significance of social history in comprehending ways of working with 'troublesome' populations.

Jacques Rancière's main philosophical thematic preoccupations stem from an understanding that human beings are equal in all respects. This article is a short introduction to key conceptual formulations central within his diverse body of work. Rancière prompts us to think more critically about how people are apt to be fixed in particular political and cultural locations. His philosophical perspective on 'police' and 'politics' pivots on a subversive endeavour to dis-order dominant ways of perceiving the world and the roles which groups and individuals are expected to fulfil. Rancière also furnishes a range of concepts which can be fruitfully disruptive of particular fields and the more encompassing economic and political frameworks in which they are located. On account of his engagement with these themes, it is argued that Rancière's work may aid social workers' critical reflection.

Drawing on Raymond Williams' approach, the article examines 'welfare dependency' as one of the most pernicious 'keywords' in neoliberal discourse and encourages those located within the field of social work to be sceptical about its uncritical usage. Bolstered by conservative scholarship, the forging of a new 'common sense' on welfare may have contributed to the harsh public perceptions referred to in a significant British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey. Problematising the widespread usage of 'welfare dependency', the article provides a critical resource for social work educators, practitioners, students and users of services.

Summary Social work practitioners and educators should be more attentive to the expansion of the penal estate occurring across a number of jurisdictions. The article presents an overview of the crisis in prisons within one European state, the Republic of Ireland. Findings Relying on official sources and critical commentaries on those sources, six factors are highlighted: the growth in prisoner numbers; the cost of imprisonment; 'inhuman and degrading' conditions prisoners are subjected to; particular hardships faced by specific groups of detainees; the changing role of probation services; the lack of robust, independent inspection mechanisms. Application The value base of the profession and its commitment to the promotion of social justice could prompt social workers to become better informed about the growth of the penal estate and more intent on campaigning for better conditions for prisoners and their families and less reliance on incarceration.

In 2010 it became apparent that no reliable data were available on the deaths of children in contact with social workers in the Republic of Ireland. As a result of this lacuna, in 2011–12, the Independent Child Death Review Group (ICDRG) and the National Review Panel (NRP) published official reports tabulating and partly describing these deaths. A close reading of the reports indicates that practitioner involvement is frequently enmeshed in factors associated with neoliberal imperatives connected to unfilled vacancies, related staffing problems and the rationing and curtailment of services. Following the appearance of the reports, an emerging 'change agenda', partly influenced by New Labour in the UK, has sought to chart a way forward. Nevertheless, given that the state remains committed to a more embracing programme of intensive neoliberalisation, efforts seeking 'reform' are likely to fail.

Schriftsteller der Moderne sind, wie Thomas Mann es einmal formulierte, Seisimographen ihrer Epoche. Einer der frühesten philosophischen Versuche Hermann Brochs trägt den Titel 'Zur Erkenntnis dieser Zeit' (KW 10/2, 11-77). Broch reagierte unmittelbar auf die historischen Umbrüche, die er erlebte. Die Revolution in Wien am Ende des Jahres 1918 war Thema seines offenen Briefes an Franz Blei, und gleich darauf veröffentlichte er eine Stellungnahme zur brisanten Frage nach der wirtschaftlichen Neuordnung des Landes. Die politischen und kulturellen Veränderungen im Wilhelminischen Kaiserreich suchte er 1930-32 in seiner 'Schlafwandler-Trilogie' (KW 1) zu erfassen. Als sich die Weltwirtschaftskrise in Deutschland auswirkte, schrieb Broch das Industriedrama 'Die Entsühnung' (KW 7, 11-132). Galt nach 1918 die Kritik dem Kommunismus, widmete er sich seit 1933 vor allem der Analyse des Nationalsozialismus. Das zeigt sein Roman 'Die Verzauberung' (KW 3) von 1934/35, das belegt seine Völkerbund-Resolution (KW 11, 195-231) von 1936/37, seine historische Erzählung 'Die Heimkehr des Vergil' von 1937 und schließlich sein zwischen 1939 und 1948 entstehendes zeitkritisches opus magnum, die 'Massenwahntheorie' (KW 12). Broch betrachtete die äußeren politischen, soziologischen und ökonomischen Veränderungen im Zusammenhang mit gesamtkulturellen, bis in die Sphären des Religiösen und Mystischen reichenden Entwicklungen. Die Massenwahntheorie ist nicht aus einem Guss, sondern besteht aus distinkten Teilen, in denen jeweils auf neue historische Einschnitte reagiert wird: auf den Beginn des europäischen Krieges 1939, auf den Eintritt der USA in diesen sich zum Weltkrieg weitenden Konflikt 1941 und auf das Ende des Krieges sowie die Gründung der UNO im Jahre 1945. Hier sollen die Entstehungstadien der Massenwahntheorie nachgezeichnet und ihr Zusammenhang mit anderen Werken des Autors konturiert werden.