Suchergebnisse

This article aims to identify the changes in institutions and discourses resulting from global/local interaction in social work in today's Russia. We consider the contribution of international co-operation to the development of local institutions and discourses, focusing on emerging discrepancies and contradictions between international and local actors. Based on a review of relevant literature and mass media, survey data and interviews with social workers and managers in an industrial region of Russia, we conclude that when global social work values are embedded in local traditions, it can support the development of social work in Russia.

Independent scholarship in the Russian social sciences has received significant support from the West in the 1990s, but since 2000, it has faced increasing difficulties. In this overview, the authors describe the development of the non-profit sector and its relationship with academia from the founding of the Soviet state to today, paying particular attention to the social sciences and social policy analysis. The survival of many independent research facilities established over the last decades is threatened by a government deeply suspicious of Western influence. This will limit the possibilities to include Russia in comparative research and make collaboration between Russian and international social scientists much more difficult.

Helping professions address the growing number of social problems which have emerged, along with contextual changes in Russian society, culture and state social policy. Social work only emerged in Russia in 1991 and it still lacks recognition by public opinion and by other caring professions. This paper addresses the current development of the social work profession in Russia, considers its context and reviews the main issues affecting processes within social work practice and education. Many social work agencies are in search of new forms of organization and are trying to develop new philosophies of service, in order to build positive relations with communities. However, given the 70 years of the Soviet era when social protection was highly centralized and bureaucratized, the organizational cultures of the new social services sometimes reproduce old patterns of bureaucracy, especially where employees lack professional education. The reflective practitioner type of professionalism is here argued to be more appropriate for social workers in today's Russia. The paper includes an analysis of interviews with social workers and administrators in a large Russian city and considers the results of an ethnographic study of social services in the same city.

PurposeThis article seeks to uncover the gendered nature of discourses in social services and social work textbooks and their impact on the professional identity of social workers in Russia.Design/methodology/approachIt is based on qualitative methodology, referring to interview material, and discourse analysis of the Russian textbooks used in social care education. It addresses three dimensions of gender: labour market policies and women's work/low wages; identity constructions of the social workers; and the discourse of gender in teaching material and textbooks.FindingsThe research shows that, by setting up inadequate wage policies for social workers, the state has reinforced the societal assumption of cheap women's labour. In addition, power relations in social work practice reinforce social inequalities. The ideology of a specific female work‐capacity is reproduced in social work, as in other forms of care work.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings highlight that gender differences are represented as biologically materialised substances, while social conditions of their construction are not taken into account. Single mothers are often portrayed as immoral or unfortunate and considered dangerous for their own children and society as a whole.Practical implicationsIn the education and professional development of social workers, major emphasis needs to be given to anti‐discriminatory practice and critical thinking.Originality/valueThe lack of professionalisation of social work is explained in terms of gender inequality in the social order, which is mirrored in the conditions of labour market and therefore especially in "female work".