Showing papers in "International Social Work in 1988"

Indigenization and authentization in terms of social work in Egypt

Abstract: Related concepts to indigenization and authentization have appeared in some of these developing countries, for example, the concept of ’re-conceptualization’ and ’conscientization’ in the Latin American countries (Costa 1987: 115-27, Resnick,1976: 21-9; Walfe, 1972: 41; Alfero, 1973). Similar concepts to indigenization and authentization have appeared in some Western countries which have attempted to decrease the influence of imported models of social work, particularly from America. The search for domestic alternatives is illustrated, for example, in the concept of Agology in Holland and Animation in France (Kendall, 1973: 5-15). This paper reviews the indigenization and authentization issue in the social development of the two concepts.

Social work education in developing countries issues and problems in undergraduate curricula

Abstract: Over the last two decades there has been increasing concern with the transferability, appropriateness and adequacy of western social work education for professional training in developing countries. During the 1970s, as many indigenous social work educators and practitioners became progressively more dissatisfied with the ability of the western and particularly the American model of social work to fit the needs of their societies, the recurrent calls for curriculum changes to social work education were ’the rallying cries throughout the Third World’. Recent developments suggest a growing interest in developing and adopting new approaches to social work education in many developing countries. This change in curriculum building is reflected in the emphasis which many Third World schools put on the concept of indigenization and social development. However, as Kendall (1986:27) realized, the profession is still challenged by ’ever more complex tasks and responsibilities’ to overcome in order to survive. The challenge to professional social work education in developing countries notwithstanding the apparent patterns of change in some schools’ curricula, mainly in Africa and Latin America is still to avoid the unabridged adoption of western social work education and practice. In Asia, and while schools are still struggling with the problem of indigenization and the implementation of social development objectives in social work education, ’efforts to change curriculum patterns in order to increase their relevance seem to move rather slowly’ (Kendall,1986:21 ). In fact, as one survey of social work education patterns in five Asian countries reported, the predominant curriculum focus is still heavily influenced by the American model (Brigham, 1982).

Collaboration between Western and African schools of social work: problems and possibilities:

Abstract: Schools of social work are concerned with transmitting knowledge, values and skills directed towards improvement of the human condition at various levels of need. Ideally, the social work enterprise ought to be capable of transcending the parochial confines of geopolitical territoriality and be manifest wherever human need and underdevelopment exist. The United Nations General Assembly, in a number of resolutions, has recognized the urgency of measures to be taken by the international community in response to the social and economic conditions in Africa (United Nations, 1986). Bilateral and unilateral levels of cooperation have been encouraged by both government and non-government organizations. In this regard, some Western schools of social work have expressed interest in collaborating with schools of social work in Africa ’networking’ in the sense used by Hepworth (1987) as a linking of friends, acquaintances, colleagues or even strangers. This article discusses issues that are pertinent to establishing such links.

Heavy drinking among young adult Asian males

Abstract: A common belief about young adult Asian American male drinking behaviour is that few, if any, are heavy drinkers. It is often further assumed that different groups of Asian males exhibit similar drinking patterns. This article challenges both of these common beliefs. Heavy drinking is indeed very rare among the Asian American females regardless of age (Chi et al., 1986). However, heavy drinking is not uncommon for Asian males, especially among young adults. For example, a survey by the Health and Welfare Ministry (Hokubei Manichi, 1981 ) showed widespread drinking among males in Japan. In 1981, over 37 percent reported that they drank every day, compared to 32 percent who reported that they drank every day in a 1966 survey. A similar rise has been noted in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Council of Social Services, 1983). This rise in Asian alcohol consumption has kindled interest in a better understanding of Asian American drinking behaviour, especially potential heavy drinking among young adult males. Do the Asian American males exhibit a similar pattern of increased drinking? The answer to that question is not readily apparent. A problem exists with previous research on Asian drinking behaviour. Although several studies have noted differences in rates of alcohol use across various major ethnic groups (e.g. Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Asians, etc.), few studies have determined whether the rates among various Asian groups are also different. Studies of Asian American drinking have tended to concentrate on the drinking behaviour of one Asian American group at a time (Chi et al., 1988; Kitano et al., 1985, 1988; Lin and Lin, 1982; Lubben et al., 1988a, b; Sue et al., 1985). Unfortunately, the results of these studies are often

Consultation in social work education in the international context

Abstract: Increasingly, with the recognition that we inhabit a ’global village’, there is a desire to share knowledge internationally. In the disciplines of science and applied science, interchange of knowledge and technology has been accomplished with relative ease. In disciplines and professions more reliant on interpersonal processes and where knowledge and practice are culture bound, cultural knowledge plays

Social services for the enemy? Education for social work and the Arab sector in Israel

Abstract: would ’ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or origin’ (State of Israel, 1948). Ideologically, this principle still exists; however, it is not fully practised with regard to the Arab subgroup in Israeli society (Cnaan, 1985, 1987). In reality, the new State of Israel has, since 1948, applied double standards for its Arab minorities. In 1949, Arab property was nationalized or simply taken, and those who stayed within the territorial boundaries of the State of Israel became subject to a military government. Under this rule they were, in fact, second-grade citizens; the special administration limited their mobility out of their villages and prevented them from developing new services or industries (Segev, 1984). With time their economic, educational and social status has somewhat improved, but the gap between them and the Jewish sector was widened (Levin-Epstein and Semyonov, 1985, 1986). The sources of this contradiction between ideology and practice

Support systems intervention in crisis situations: theory, strategies and a case illustration

Abstract: The social work profession all over the world, as well as other disciplines, has shown a great interest in the significance of social support in coping with stressful situations. Much has been written in recent years about the ability of social support to ’moderate’ or ’buffer’ the impact of psychosocial stress on physical and mental health. More specifically, it has been found that deleterious effects of psychosocial stress on health may be lessened or even eliminated in the presence of social support while remaining strong for individuals having little or no support. The literature which deals with social support systems has not yet fully explored the use of these systems through the different stages of crisis. Conversely, crisis intervention literature has not yet examined thoroughly the functions of the social support systems, though the importance of these systems in the intervention process is acknowledged. This paper attempts to analyze this ’intersection’ between crisis stages and the use of support

The development of new towns in Hong Kong and Singapore: some social consequences:

Abstract: New Towns have become a common feature in Hong Kong and in Singapore (Housing Authority 1984/85; Housing and Development Board 1984/85).’ Since the 1960s, both the Hong Kong and Singapore governments have found it necessary to develop New Towns to house their growing populations. The growth of the population in the post-war years has been remarkable in both countries. In Hong Kong, between 1951 (2.01 million) and 1981 (5.13 million) the population increased by 3.12 million (H.K. Census 1981). With regard to Singapore, between 1947 (0.94 million) and 1980 (2.41 1

Influence through political power: the emergence of social workers as politicians in the recent political reform in Hong Kong

Abstract: function debate has not been resolved totally, but an emerging consensus seems to be that social work should aim at changing not only the individual but also the environment, if and when necessary (Pincus and Minahan, 1973; Goldstein, 1973; Compton and Galaway, 1975). Even social casework, which is often criticized for containing conservative tendencies (Briar, 1968), acknowledges the importance of ’indirect treatment’, or intervention in the social environment.

Developing neighbourhood organizations as social structures for peace

Abstract: This paper is an attempt to present a practical, realistic, noncontroversial, and a cost-effective approach in the field of peace education, specifically relevant for geographically identifiable selected poor urban communities. The suggested approach is based on the author’s association with two community development programmes (Vikas Mandals during 1959-65 in Delhi, India: Block Clubs during 1970-84 in Ohio, USA). The main assumption of the approach is that residents in selected communities are likely to be very receptive to the suggestion of working with their neighbours for their own physical and emotional well-being since that is partly dependent on peace and harmony in the areas where they live. The viability of the idea that people can be organized around common concerns in geographical areas where they live and that an attainable problemsolving programme can be accomplished on a self-help basis has been tested and found workable in various community develop-

The evolving family: an international perspective

Abstract: There is both good news and bad about one of our most durable and most resilient social institutions the family. The bad news is that the family appears to be in a state of crisis all over the world. The good news is that there is unquestionably universal recognition that the family, as the basic unit of society, will survive despite its apparently weakened state in every geographical region. Throughout the world the family is characterized by enormous complexity and variety in its forms, functions, roles and responsibilities, but the basic needs of families are all common human needs and, thus, universal. To understand those needs, this article will look, albeit in a most superficial manner, at a host of factors, policies and programmes that influence, both positively and negatively, the situation of families today. Fortunately, excellent documentation is available because the United Nations, along with a number of international non-governmental organizations, has recently rediscovered the family and the relation of family well-being to the general well-being of societies everywhere. Within the past five years there has been a veritable explosion of international research, reporting and conference activity from Vienna to New York, from Moscow to New Delhi, from Tokyo to Porto Alegre, Brazil, which has served as the source of the information here presented about the evolving family.’ I

Hong Kong: A model of ‘social happiness’ for the New China

Abstract: The terms ’she-hui-fu-li’ (social welfare) and ’she-hui-jui-ji’ (social assistance) often appear together in governmental publications of the People’s Republic of China. Literally ’she-hui’ means ’society’, ’fu’ refers to ’happiness’ and ’li’ is equivalent to ’benefits’ and ’jm-ji’ is interpreted as ’relief. Social welfare and social assistance in Chinese, therefore, are taken to mean ’happiness and benefits provided by the society’. (Bong-ho Mok, 1983)

A life dedicated to humanity: Alice Salomon under Nazi rule (1933-7) and in exile (1937-48:

Abstract: one of the founding mothers of professional social work, particularly social work education, and a pioneer in the international women’s movement. She was born and lived most of her life in Germany but was at home in many countries. Fifty years ago, at the age of sixtyfive, she was banished from Germany. Friends in other countries supported her while she was helping younger colleagues to leave Hitler-Germany and during her last eleven years in exile. Nevertheless, she died rather lonely in her small New York City apartment and was soon forgotten. Her written legacy consists of twenty-seven books and approximately 250 articles in journals and newspapers. Nearly fifty of her publications are in the area of international and intercultural concerns. It is very likely that many of her writings ended up on the heaps of books burned during the Hitler regime. This biographical description is not just an account of what was, because history has meaning only to the extent that it is linked to the present and future. Many of Salomon’s ideas are part of a foundation that we can build upon today. For instance, in this ’Century of the Refugee’ (Heinrich Boll), it seems that we would have much reason to learn from past experiences, both the successes and the failures. Salomon attests to this by accepting her part of the responsibility for the world-wide disaster, even though she herself was a victim of Nazi atrocities. This may encourage us to do our part in preventing the next and probably final disaster.

Caring for the carers in a laggard welfare state: crises and alternatives

Abstract: This paper briefly examines the changing shape of the human service delivery system in the United States over the past quarter century, focusing primarily on one area of glaring gaps and inequities that deserves to be addressed if the USA is to become less a laggard and more a leader among welfare states.’ Of particular concern is the need to provide special supports for those families that function, in effect, as a social service by caring in the home for dependent or otherwise vulnerable members of society the young, the infirm elderly and/or the disabled. Among the critically needed family supports in the United States are better-funded, more imaginatively structured social policies and programmes. Equally critical is the need for more comprehensively and competently prepared professional practitioners in the human services who will be capable of obtaining and orchestrating the social supports needed by family caregivers.

Identifying management training needs for social service workers in Madrid, Spain

Abstract: This is a report on a project which assessed the training needs of social service workers in Madrid in the area of policy, planning and administration. The project was funded by the US-Spanish Joint Committee for Cultural and Educational Cooperation under the auspices of the Agreement of Friendship, Defense, and Cooperation between the United States and the Kingdom of Spain (Flynn and Diaz, 1987). The project was conducted with the support and cooperation of the Instituto Regional de Estudios de Salud y Bienestar Social de la Consejeria de Salud y Bienestar Social de la Communidad de Madrid from September 1986 through March 1987.

Book Reviews : Hewstone, Miles and Rupert Brown (eds) (1986) Contact and Conflict in Intergroup Encounters. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 231 pp

Abstract: This book is well worth reading. Its focus is an examination of the hypothesis, first developed by Allport in the mid-1950s, that contact between individuals from distinct and opposing groups will improve group relations. Hewstone and Brown approach analysis of this disarmmgly simple hypothesis in two ways: first, they critically review its development; and second, and innovatively, they present a collection of international case studies which serve to illuminate the strengths and weaknesses of the hypothesis when applied to a range of issues including race and industrial relations. As social psychologists, Hewstone and Brown seek to identify both the individual and social processes associated with the reduction of conflict, and to include historical, political and economic information for each country. Individual contributors from different national backgrounds discuss the sigmficance of contact in resolving deeply rooted conflicts and conclude a cautious optimism for the idea. The editors advance a new model, albeit untested, which distinguishes between perceptions of contact as either interpersonal, i.e. exchanges between individuals ignoring the group to which they belong, or as intergroup, i.e. exchanges between individuals as group representatives. The former, it is argued, is suf‘’~ient to change personal relations between individuals from different groups, but the latter is necessary if these improved relations are to be generalized to the wider group. Whether the

Book Reviews : Dixon, John (ed.) (1987) Social Welfare in the Middle East. London: Croom Helm. 218pp. Hb £25.00

Abstract: welfare systems in some fifty-five countries round the world. The first vplume Social Welfare in Asia was published in 1985 and subsequent volumes will cover Africa, Latin America, Developed Market countries and Communism. John Dixon, the series editor, is perhaps best known for his detailed and pioneering study on the Chinese welfare system ( 1981 ). Apart from a brief introduction and a concluding overview by Dixon, the book contains descriptive accounts of aspects of the welfare systems of five Middle East countries: Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait and Turkey. Inevitably, in such a collection some choice of countries has to be exercised, but it seems unfortunate that those countries in the region with different political systems, such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, or the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, were excluded. Indeed, the list, composed as it is of countries which have largely looked to Western developed countries for models of economic and social development, could be taken to reflect a rather one-dimensional perspective on forms of social policy. The format of the five accounts is similar. After a brief discussion of the ideological and socio-economic context and an overview of welfare provisions, each author deals in more detail with provisions for the aged, the disabled and handicapped, the sick, children and youth, needy families and the unemployed in the country concerned. Each account also contains a brief evaluation of the services examined. In a short

Book Reviews : Miles, Agnes (1987) The Mentally Ill in Contemporary Society. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 229 pp

Abstract: to accept that the accounts can provide a serious basis for an evaluative study of the policies and programmes described. The contribution of the book to comparative social policy studies on a theoretical rather than a descriptive level is limited. As is noted by the authors of a recent book (MacPherson and Midgley 1987) on comparative social policy in the Third World, unless descriptive studies of legislation and services are inserted into their social, economic and political context, it is difficult to conceptualize models of social policy and almost impossible to generate and test theories that can help locate the

Book reviews : Abel Smith, Brian, and Titmuss, Kay (eds) (1987) The Philosophy of Welfare: Richard M. Titmuss. 275 pp. £8.75 (paper

Abstract: 1. For a discussion of the doubtful value of moral theory, see, for example, B. Williams, Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985). 2. See, for example, F. Loewenberg and R. Dolgoff, Ethical Decisions for Social Work Practice, 2nd ed. (Itasca, IL: F.E. Peacock, 1985); M. Rhodes, Ethical Dilemmas in Social Work Practice (Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986); and H. Goldstein, ’The Neglected Moral Link in Social Work Practice’, Social Work 32 (May-June, 1987): 181-186.

Book Reviews : Stock Whitaker, Dorothy (1985) Using Groups To Help People. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 410 pp. £6.95:

Abstract: definitive texts towards which we all turn. The other contributions are useful as statements about the current state of play in the English service and the concerns which tax those looking to develop it; of these Richard Green’s (Chapter 9) paper in particular is worthy of closer scrutiny by an international audience for it states very clearly the manner m which anti-racist strategies are currently being formulated amongst at least some of those working in Britain’s welfare services. As a guide to practice developments in the English Probation Service and those modelled on it this volume offers a helpful compendium; nevertheless (and somewhat ironically) it is to the American contributor that we must of necessity turn more readily to understand the significance of what appears in the remainder of this collection.

Anti-poverty programmes for the urban poor in Korea

Abstract: developed from one of the poorest countries to a newly industrializing country, its real per capita income has increased four-fold. This rapid economic growth, and the accompanying structural change, has produced a massive movement of the population and a corresponding dislocation of families. The population of the city of Seoul increased from a little more than four millions in 1966 to about 8.3 millions in