Suchergebnisse

The aim of this article is to explore how social workers represent the experience of parenting in conditions of economic precariousness, and the role of social work in supporting these families. Interviews were administered to a sample of social workers in different Italian regions in both public and non-profit agencies. The grounded theory method, coherent with the interpretative paradigm chosen in this research, guided the process of data collection and data analysis. Our findings reveal that the majority of the social workers recognized the impact of poverty on families' lives, however this aspect was not always taken into account in the helping process with low income parents. Several variables, both at the individual and the organizational level, seemed to hamper the possibility to "look up" from direct practice with individuals only, and to be involved in policy-shaping and in community work to address roots of family troubles in the wider social context. The analysis is useful to show how poverty of the families and poverty of resources dedicated to them within the welfare state system are interconnected issues that should not be viewed as background factors, but as variables that influence in various ways the decisions made everyday in social services. We identify the need for improvement in the institutional framework of public services and in social work education. ; Lo scopo di questo articolo è esplorare come gli assistenti sociali rappresentano l'esperienza della genitorialità in condizioni di precarietà economica e il ruolo del lavoro sociale nel sostenere queste famiglie.Le interviste sono state somministrate a un campione di assistenti sociali di diverse regioni italiane in enti pubblici e non profit. Il metodo della teoria fondata, coerente con il paradigma interpretativo scelto in questa ricerca, ha guidato il processo di raccolta e analisi dei dati.I nostri risultati rivelano che la maggior parte degli assistenti sociali ha riconosciuto l'impatto della povertà sulla vita delle famiglie, tuttavia questo aspetto non è stato sempre preso in considerazione nel processo di aiuto con i genitori a basso reddito. Diverse variabili, sia a livello individuale che organizzativo, sembravano ostacolare la possibilità di "guardare in alto" dalla pratica diretta con i soli individui e di essere coinvolti nella definizione delle politiche e nel lavoro di comunità per affrontare le radici dei problemi familiari nel più ampio contesto sociale. L'analisi è utile per mostrare come la povertà delle famiglie e la povertà delle risorse ad esse dedicate all'interno del sistema del welfare siano questioni interconnesse che non devono essere viste come fattori di fondo, ma come variabili che influenzano in vario modo le decisioni prese quotidianamente nei servizi sociali . Identifichiamo la necessità di miglioramento nel quadro istituzionale dei servizi pubblici e nell'educazione al lavoro sociale.

The persistence of a separation in work roles and tasks between men and women, which reproduces the partition between the private sphere, linked to the feminine, and the public sphere, unbalanced on the masculine, is particularly evident in the social, health and educational professions even in the most economically advanced countries, regardless of the welfare structures. Starting from the unequivocal evidence of the numerical prevalence of women in social work - a feature common to all the different conjugations in which the profession is expressed from State to State - the authors discuss the issue of gender in social work from different angles, offering the reader a rich plurality of themes, theoretical concepts and research approaches. National and international researches show the persistence of cultural matrices and gender stereotypes with regard to the division of labour, noticeable already during training, in the mentality of students and trainers, and often also in professionals themselves. The critical reflections of the authors are oriented towards the search for an antidote to the permanence of the status quo, and at the same time towards the development of an advanced mode of social intervention and gender-aware attention, both among professionals and with users and clients of the services. These research paths are offered as a contribution towards developments of a different kind in the multiple fronts of training (university education and lifelong learning), collective and mass media narration, research and reflexivity produced by the professional community of social workers themselves.