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This exciting new edition delivers the comprehensive, detailed and sound conceptual framework that is essential in the management and supervision of social work. It offers a unique approach through its dual focus on management and supervision, providing a critical analysis of the contemporary debates related to the issues and challenges specific to social work management and the supervision of social workers. The content draws on South African and African practice examples throughout, as well as relevant research that can also be applied to other social service professions and courses.
With escalating poverty, rising individualism, outright destruction of social security networks and diminished civil liberties across the world many professionals appear to be settling down for individual fixes rather than system overhauls . Social work has a rich history of community development, yet seems to be a semi-passive spectator to the growing listlessness in our communities. Fuelled by the elites, government and agencies the models of community development seem to perpetuate dependency. A right oriented citizen's perspective has been a long overdue in the discourse of empowerment of people. Professions with espoused commitment to human rights ought to step up their role and and rekindle the roots in community empowerment. 'Some Aspects of Community Empowerment and Resilience' addresses the above central themes and offers fresh and refined approach on aspects of coping and resilience community and building hope.
This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of social work supervision internationally and presents an analytical review of social work supervision theory, practice, and research. Presented in seven parts: International perspectives Supervision settings Roles, responsibilities, and relationships Models and approaches The interactional process Leading and managing supervision Emerging areas The book examines how supervision contributes to the well-being, development, and practice of social workers. It also sets the agenda for the future development of social work supervision internationally. Social work supervision is examined across countries, practice settings, and in terms of participants' roles, relationships, and responsibilities. Contributors show how and why social work supervision is integral to social work and the rich diversity of ways supervision can be practiced. Bringing together an international team of social work supervision scholars, researchers, supervisors, and practitioners, this handbook is essential reading for social workers, supervisors, managers, policy advisors, and professional leaders.
This book illustrates the relationship between, and role of, various political, economic and social factors in solving the social problems caused by the advance of neoliberalism in the three biggest developing countries of three continents: Russia in Europe, India in Asia, and South Africa in Africa. It details a number of rational strategies, and highlights various gaps of socio-economic development, their compatibility with neoliberal reforms and systems of social policy, and the development of social services in geopolitical and socio-economic conditions at the turn of the millennium. The book also discusses differences in the symbiosis of paternalistic and neoliberal ideologies, and will be of interest to specialists and students in political science, economics, sociology, international relations, and social work.
This book addresses several fundamental aspects of social work practice. From a qualitative and exploratory perspective, the book analyses pre-professional practices in the formation of social workers by contrasting the perspectives of students, institutional supervisors and university lecturers. Areas of opportunity in training are identified, such as handling personal and family crises of high conflict, the lack of specialised knowledge according to intervention areas, and limited participation in technical processes. The book proposes strengthening communication, mediation and emotional support skills, as well as incorporating optional courses and specific diplomas to fill these gaps. Methodologically, the book is based on semi-structured interviews and focus groups, allowing a systemic understanding of the educational phenomenon from the voice of the main actors. Together, this work offers an enriching overview of the challenges and opportunities in the practical training of social workers, laying the foundations for improving the quality of these training processes.
Troubling Images explores how art and visual culture helped to secure hegemonic claims to the nation-state via the construction of a unified Afrikaner imaginary Emerging in the late nineteenth century and gaining currency in the 1930s and 1940s, Afrikaner nationalist fervour underpinned the establishment of white Afrikaner political and cultural domination during South Africa’s apartheid years. Focusing on manifestations of Afrikaner nationalism in paintings, sculptures, monuments, buildings, cartoons, photographs, illustrations and exhibitions, Troubling Images offers a critical account of the role of art and visual culture in the construction of a unified Afrikaner imaginary, which helpe...
Social work supervision has been identified as one of the most important factors in determining the job satisfaction levels of social workers and the quality of service to clients. As an indirect but vital factor in the social work process, it is surprising that supervision has not received as much attention as other components of social work practice, such as social work research or administration. A book on social work supervision is desperately needed to bridge the gap between the demands of the field and the absence of literature. Social Work Supervision: Contexts and Concepts aims to provide readers with basic knowledge of theories, research, and practice of supervision. The book will a...
In Cooking Data Crystal Biruk offers an ethnographic account of research into the demographics of HIV and AIDS in Malawi to rethink the production of quantitative health data. While research practices are often understood within a clean/dirty binary, Biruk shows that data are never clean; rather, they are always “cooked” during their production and inevitably entangled with the lives of those who produce them. Examining how the relationships among fieldworkers, supervisors, respondents, and foreign demographers shape data, Biruk examines the ways in which units of information—such as survey questions and numbers written onto questionnaires by fieldworkers—acquire value as statistics that go on to shape national AIDS policy. Her approach illustrates how on-the-ground dynamics and research cultures mediate the production of global health statistics in ways that impact local economies and formulations of power and expertise.