Suchergebnisse

Understanding the effects of White femininity on social work practice is a worthy endeavour provided the disproportionate numbers of White women that have built and occupied the professional role of social worker from the origins of colonization to present. Mainstream accounts of social work history narrate the profession to be a pursuit of well-intentioned middle- and upper-class White women, concealing the colonial operations that underpin the formation of social work as a White feminine project. While Whiteness and its effects within social work have been a subject of study, the intersection of gender and Whiteness has been minimally addressed, disregarding significant nuances that inform the relationship between the project of colonization and social work. This paper provides a detailed analysis of semi-structured interviews with eight White, woman-identified social workers who have practiced community-based social work for a minimum of two years in Alberta, Canada. Foucauldian discourse analysis is used to trace the ways the participants perform the dominant discourse of White femininity. The findings illuminate the social work profession's ongoing complicity with its colonial origins, which collude with White femininity and ultimately foster practices steeped in racism. A vital need to disentangle social work from its colonial and racist scripts is emphasized.

The number of asylum rejections has increased in recent years, yet successful claims differ dependent on the originating county of the asylum seekers. In 2018, the European Union rejected 25 per cent of the 519,000 asylum requests which it received (Eurostat, 2019). Kosovars were the fourth-largest group of asylum seekers in Europe in 2015 and 96 per cent of them were rejected and returned to Kosova. Rejected asylum seekers and those who lose their temporary status are returned to their countries of origin partly because the EU endorses repatriation, or the return of forced migrants to their country of origin, as a preferred solution to the migration crisis. This, despite a significant body of research which substantiates that repatriation is not sustainable and current repatriation policies have seldom considered the experiences of rejected asylum seekers. Considering that social workers are the first point of contact for many rejected asylum seekers, models of practice which inform social work with this population are needed. This article uses the case of Kosovar returnees to examine the utility of a social pedagogy lens to better prepare social workers to work with returnees. Social pedagogy, with its dedication to social justice, the importance it places on local and regional contexts, as well as its attention to praxis, is well placed to guide social workers in partnering with return migrants as they navigate the complex realities of reintegration. While grounded in Kosova's context, the social pedagogy framework has global implications considering the increasing number of return migrants worldwide.

Employing Reid and Frisby's feminist participatory action research model (FPAR) as a guide, men from diverse ethno-cultural backgrounds worked with women leaders to take action on the issue of intimate partner violence. Engaging with four interconnected phases, the research team adopted shared roles of leadership which led to 29 collective actions. Through trust-building dialogues, we interrogated issues related to masculinity, gender equity, anti-racism, and decolonization. A "collective cultures approach" to men's violence prevention work was articulated and a grassroots movement emerged. As white women situated in both academic and community spaces, we discuss knowledges, actions, and learnings from this FPAR process, underscoring the tensions and contradictions of employing FPAR in real-life contexts. The importance and limitations of inter-relational reflexivity and power accountability are emphasized as a core tenet of FPAR.

Youth participatory action research (YPAR) is a methodology to engage youth in the research process and is focused on emancipation and empowerment. Although benefits have been outlined, ethical issues have also arisen. This article provides a narrative review of peer-reviewed literature regarding these ethical issues. After applying standardized search criteria and inclusion/exclusion criteria, 26 articles remained. Examination of the literature revealed seven categories of ethical issues: level of participation, power, consent, risk/benefit ratio, confidentiality and anonymity, remuneration and empowerment. To mitigate these issues, recommendations are provided, including: being explicit about, and inclusive of, youths' participation; critically reflect upon the researcher as 'expert'; consent as an ongoing process and based on capacity rather than biological age; balancing the need to protect youth with the benefits of participation; challenge blanket anonymity policies to maximize participation and empowerment; remuneration beyond monetary compensation; and incorporate concepts of empowerment into research design and process.

Debates around the issues of knowledge of, and for, social work and other social justice–oriented professions are not uncommon. More prevalent are the discussions around the ways by which social work knowledge is obtained. In recent years, social work scholars have drawn on the epistemology of pragmatism to present a case for its value in the creation of knowledge for social work and other social justice–oriented professions. The primary focus of this essay is on providing a critical review and synthesis of the literature regarding pragmatism as a research paradigm. In this essay, we analyze the major philosophical underpinnings and methodological challenges associated with pragmatism, synthesize the works of scholars who have contributed to the understanding of pragmatism as a research paradigm, articulate our thoughts about how pragmatism fits within social work research, and illustrate how it is linked to the pursuit of social justice. This article brings together a variety of perspectives to argue that pragmatism has the potential to closely engage and empower marginalized and oppressed communities and provide hard evidence for the macro level discourse.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a methodology increasingly used within the social sciences. CBPR is an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of research methodologies, including participatory research, participatory action research, feminist participatory research, action research, and collaborative inquiry. At its core, they share five key attributes: (i) community as a unit of identity; (ii) an approach for the vulnerable and marginalized; (iii) collaboration and equal partnership throughout the entire research process; (iv) an emergent, flexible, and iterative process; and (v) the research process is geared toward social action. While there is no shortage of literature that highlights the benefits and potential of CBPR, relatively little discussion exists on the ethical issues associated with the methodology. In particular, current gaps within the literature include ethical guidance in (i) balancing community values, needs, and identity with those of the individual; (ii) negotiating power dynamics and relationships; (iii) working with stigmatized populations; (iv) negotiating conflicting ethical requirements and expectations from Institutional Review Boards (IRBs); and (v) facilitating social action emerging from the findings. For CBPR's commendable goals and potential to be realized, it is necessary to have a more fulsome discussion of the ethical issues encountered while implementing a CBPR study. Further, a lack of awareness and critical reflection on such ethical considerations may perpetuate the very same problems this methodology seeks to address, namely, inequality, oppression, and marginalization. The purpose of this article is to provide a narrative review of the literature that identifies ethical issues that may arise from conducting CBPR studies, and the recommendations by researchers to mitigate such challenges.

This study explores the role of informal social support networks of male homeless shelter residents. Authors utilized ethnographic methods, relationality and reflexive research approaches and key informant interviews with 10 shelter residents to investigate perceptions of belonging in overcoming social exclusion and countering the stigmatization cast onto as a result of their condition of homelessness. Study findings challenge our normative conceptions of homelessness by discerning between "rooflessness" and "rootlessness" suggesting that homelessness is more than the absence of shelter, but rather denotes the absence of support and inclusion in one's community. This research highlights a community within the shelter characterized by notions of acceptance and companionship. The associations shelter residents developed are creative and collaborative survival strategies allowing residents to negotiate their conditions of homelessness. As a result, some residents expressed reluctance to leave the shelter and (re)integrate into the community that had cast them off.

The primary objective of the qualitative study was to describe women's resilience in older adulthood according to older women's interpretations of their experiences and the contexts of their lives. Intersectionality and critical feminist gerontology served as theoretical frameworks for examining, interpreting and highlighted the dynamic nature of intersecting identities and the interrelationships between identity and contextual factors. Constructivist grounded theory methodology was used to identify themes that represent older women's subjective interpretations of their experiences with adversity and to construct definitions of resilience based on their experiences. The aspects of identity that women in the study associated with their experiences of adversity and their resilience were age, physical and mental health, marital status and income. Women in the study emphasized how subjective interpretations influenced the meaning they associated with events, circumstances, or changes that accompanied aging and their understanding of the role of identities in those experiences.

Climate change research requires integrative and collaborative research from multiple disciplines because of its complexity and sizeable consequences. Eco-social work has an important role to play. Relatively new, scholarship on eco-social work is growing and identifying ways in which the discipline's unique values, theories, perspectives and practices can contribute to this body of research. The aim of this article is twofold: (a) to contribute to this emerging scholarship by identifying climate change adaptation as an area of research for international social work and (b) to examine the utility of applying an integrated theoretical lens of eco-social work and feminist gerontology within this area.

The Caribbean region has high levels of migration, yet limited research exists on the effects of parental migration on children left behind. We searched electronic databases, websites and grey literature and found 20 studies examining the experiences of Caribbean children left behind as a result of migrating parents. Left-behind children of migrants are more likely to experience emotional distress and negative effects of the breakdown of family structures and relationships than those in non-migrant households, with evidence being mixed for the effects on education and health. For children who eventually migrate, the resettlement process compounds the impacts experienced in the home country. Results should be interpreted cautiously since quantitative investigations comprise single studies on a limited number of variables within selected populations. Challenges in qualitative investigations include underrepresentation of males and inability to fully capture participants' experiences prior to resettling. More research is required on the impact of gender differences of the migrating parent and gender-specific responses of children.

A traditionally nomadic people, the Irish Travellers have experienced a long history of marginalization and discrimination in modern Ireland. This volume explores colonisation as an unresolved trauma which has contributed to this marginalisation of Travel