In this paper, we provide a critical review of the literature that discusses the nexus between feminism and postmodernism. Further, we argue that the current debates about using postmodernism to enhance structural theories such as feminism are often polarised, and continue to limit the potential for developing critical social work practice and theory. In transcending these dualistic debates, we have explored what the possibilities are for postmodernism to contribute to critical objectives such as those espoused by feminism and why this is particularly important for social work at this point in time. We have contended that engaging with postmodernism critically has significant potential to enhance feminist practice. We begin the article with a justification for the importance of re(visiting) the nexus between postmodern and structural theory in the current context.

The nexus between feminism and postmodernism: Still a central concern for critical social work

Understanding the landscape of potential harms from algorithmic systems enables practitioners to better anticipate consequences of the systems they build. It also supports the prospectof incorporating controls to help minimize harms that emerge from the interplay of technologies and social and cultural dynamics. A growing body of scholarship has identiﬁed a wide range of harms across diﬀerent algorithmic technologies. However, computing research and practitioners lack a high level and synthesized overview of harms from algorithmic systems arising at the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels of society. We present an applied taxonomy of sociotechnical harms to support more systematic surfacing of potential harms in algorithmic systems. Based on a scoping review of computing research ( n =172), we identiﬁed ﬁve major themes related to sociotechnical harms — representational, allocative, quality-of-service, interpersonal harms, and social system/societal harms — and sub-themes. We describe these categories and conclude with a discussion of challenges and opportunities for future research.

Sociotechnical Harms: Scoping a Taxonomy for Harm Reduction

Violence against women in South Asian communities: issues for policy and practice, by R.K. Thiara and A.K. Gill, London, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2009, 256 pp., £25.00 (paperback), ISBN 978 1 8...

Violence against women in South Asian communities: issues for policy and practice

Electronic learning management systems provide live environments for students and faculty members to connect with their institutional online portals and perform educational activities virtually. Although modern technologies proactively support these online sessions, students’ active participation remains a challenge that has been discussed in previous research. Additionally, one concern for both parents and teachers is how to accurately measure student performance using different attributes collected during online sessions. Therefore, the research idea undertaken in this study is to understand and predict the performance of the students based on features extracted from electronic learning management systems. The dataset chosen in this study belongs to one of the learning management systems providing a number of features predicting student’s performance. The integrated machine learning model proposed in this research can be useful to make proactive and intelligent decisions according to student performance evaluated through the electronic system’s data. The proposed model consists of five traditional machine learning algorithms, which are further enhanced by applying four ensemble techniques: bagging, boosting, stacking, and voting. The overall F1 scores of the single models are as follows: DT (0.675), RF (0.777), GBT (0.714), NB (0.654), and KNN (0.664). The model performance has shown remarkable improvement using ensemble approaches. The stacking model by combining all five classifiers has outperformed and recorded the highest F1 score (0.8195) among other ensemble methods. The integration of the ML models has improved the prediction ratio and performed better than all other ensemble approaches. The proposed model can be useful for predicting student performance and helping educators to make informed decisions by proactively notifying the students.

Intelligent Decision Support System for Predicting Student’s E-Learning Performance Using Ensemble Machine Learning

This paper aimed to explore the changes posed by the new COVID-19 pandemic to the field of social work and its impact on social workers in terms of job stress and burnout in Romania. Two conceptual models were used to frame the discussion: the theoretical framework of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) to discuss the challenges that the unprecedented context of the COVID-19 pandemic has created for social workers; and the Job Demands and Resources model (JD-R) to understand job demands perceived as stressors and burnout. Based on convergent mixed methods, the study sample consisted of 83 social workers employed in statutory and private social services in Romania, from different areas of intervention. Results showed that social workers perceived a high level of job stress related to work during the pandemic, which was associated with higher levels of burnout in the areas of personal burnout (average score 55.9) and work-related burnout (average score 52.5). Client-related burnout was lower (average score 38.4), indicating that stress was generated mainly by organisational factors and work-related factors (workload, aligning to new legislative rules and decisions, inconsistency, instability, ambiguity of managerial decisions, and lack of clarity of working procedures) and less by client-related stressors (lack of direct contact with clients, risk of contamination, managing beneficiaries’ fears, and difficulties related to technology). High job demands and limited job resources (managerial and supervisory support, financial resources, and recognition and reward) led to a high to very high level of work-related burnout for 15.7% and an upper-medium level for 44.2% of respondents. A group of 27.7% reported lower to medium levels of work-related burnout, while 14.5% had very low levels, managing to handle stress factors in a healthy manner. Study results pointed to the importance of organisational support and the development of a self-care plan that help to protect against job stress and burnout. Recommendations were made, putting forward the voice of fieldworkers and managers fostering initiatives and the application of sustainability-based measures and activities designed to deal with the challenges of the VUCA environment.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/13/7109/pdf

Job Stress and Burnout among Social Workers in the VUCA World of COVID-19 Pandemic

Online education has long been a controversial issue within the Australian social work community. Although technological advances have improved the quality of teaching substantially, scepticism and...

Online education in social work, effectiveness, benefits, and challenges: a scoping review

COVID-19 pandemic intensified feelings of uncertainty about the future. Although uncertainty is not a new phenomenon for social workers, the uncertainty that has been produced due to COVID-19 pande...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1473325020981078

Approaching uncertainty in social work education, a lesson from COVID-19 pandemic

Objective:Women from different backgrounds and cultures are at risk of domestic violence. Disclosing the abusive experience and seeking help is not straightforward and easy and might be a complicat...

Seeking Help in Domestic Violence Among Muslim Women in Muslim-Majority and Non-Muslim-Majority Countries: A Literature Review.

Women are increasingly at risk of gender-based violence through technology and digital tools. Some digital devices and apps such as GPS location tracking, spyware, mobile phones and social media pl...

The Nature, Patterns and Consequences of Technology-Facilitated Domestic Abuse: A Scoping Review.

\n The voice of Afghan women has been little heard, particularly in Australia and other western societies, despite the considerable number living in those societies. The main aim of this study was to understand Afghan women’s experiences of domestic violence and their perceptions about the extent of domestic violence among the Afghan community in Australia. The study involved semi-structured interviews with twenty-one Afghan women who had been living in Australia between six months and ten years. The interviews were conducted in either Farsi (Persian) or English according to participant’s preferences. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. An inductive analysis of the data was used to explore details and build main themes. Some women spoke about their experiences of domestic violence, mainly psychological and emotional violence. Although women insisted that domestic violence was prevalent and widespread in both contexts, many remarked that Afghan women were less vulnerable to physical violence in Australia than in Afghanistan. This article concludes with a number of implications for social work practice based on the study findings.

Rojan Afrouz

Papers

Online education in social work, effectiveness, benefits, and challenges: a scoping review

Approaching uncertainty in social work education, a lesson from COVID-19 pandemic

Seeking Help in Domestic Violence Among Muslim Women in Muslim-Majority and Non-Muslim-Majority Countries: A Literature Review.

The Nature, Patterns and Consequences of Technology-Facilitated Domestic Abuse: A Scoping Review.

Experiences of Domestic Violence among Newly Arrived Afghan Women in Australia, a Qualitative Study