Social Policy and Social Work

The social cooperative is the opportunity for social and professional reintegration of people threatened with social exclusion:
Reintegration tool; The objectives of the social cooperative; The threefold nature of the social cooperative; Is it worth it to assume social co-operatives?

This paper will argue that wealth and income inequality are among the most pressing issues for contemporary social work. Despite this, social work as a discipline and profession has, in the main, been slow to respond to this growing problem. Critical approaches to social work, however, have always included a commitment to eliminating poverty, promoting equity and addressing both the causes and consequences of socio-economic disadvantage as a core priority. This paper will discuss the contributions critical social work can make to socially informed and ethical responses, particularly through its critical pedagogic, reflective and activist practices in contesting wealth and income inequality.

Zaštita maloletnih migranata bez pratnje u Republici Srbiji – Predlozi za njeno unapređenje zasnovani na uvidima iz prakse

Apstrakt

Zaštita maloletnih migranata bez pratnje ima prioritet u odnosu na druge postupke u sistemu azila i socijalnoj i porodičnopravnoj zaštiti migrantske populacije u Srbiji. Cilj ovog rada je utvrdjivanje glavnih problema i predloga mogućih unapredjenja zaštite. Uvidi iz prakse zasnovani su na neposrednom učešću autora u socijalnoj, porodičnopravnoj i medjunarodnoj zaštiti nepraćene i razdvojene dece izbeglica i drugih migranata u Srbiji. U radu su identifikovani glavni akteri i način funkcionisanja sistema zaštite, sa posebnim osvrtom na glavne probleme tog sistema. Predlozi za unapredjenje zaštite zasnovani su na direktnim praktičnim uvidima u probleme u postupku zaštite koji su potvrdjeni na mnogim pojedinačnim slučajevima.

Ključne reči: Maloletni migranti bez pratnje roditelja, staratelja ili odgovorne odrasle osobe, medjunarodna zaštita, socijalna zaštita, porodičnopravna zaštita, starateljstvo, smeštaj, trajna rešenja.


Protection of unaccompanied and separated refugee/migrant children in the Republic of Serbia – Proposals for its improvement based on the insights from the practice

Abstract

The protection of unaccompanied and separated refugee/migrant children has priority over other procedures in the asylum system and the social and family law protection of the migrant population in Serbia. The aim of this paper is to establish the main problems and proposals for possible improvements in the protection. Insights from practice are based on the direct participation of the author in the international, social and family law protection of unaccompanied and separated refugee/migrant children in Serbia. The paper identifies main actors and the mode of operation of the protection system, with special emphasis on the major problems of the system. The proposals for the improvement of protection are based on direct practical insights into the problems in the protection procedure which were confirmed in many individual cases.

Key words:
Unaccompanied and separated refugeee/migrant children, international protection, social protection, family law protection, guardianship, accommodation, durable solutions.

The paper explores the legal context of begging in India and contextualises it with the reality of the lives of the people living in the Lal Bagh Jhuggi, Mansarovar Park. It also addresses 'how' the people from the community are sidelined from the mainstream and face challenges which ultimately shape their personal choices, thereby making them the periphery. The submission is backed by the case illustrations depicting the life events of the individuals from the community and their experience with the very act of begging. With the challenges being discussed, some of the holistic strategies have also been discussed for inclusivity.

Glavni cilj istraživanja je analiza univerzalnog osnovnog dohotka kao instrumenta socijalne politike i osnove stvarne slobode za sve ljude. Predlozi univerzalnog osnovnog dohotka analizirani su na osnovu nekoliko kriterijuma: (1) odnosa između univerzalnog osnovnog dohotka i druga dva modela socijalne sigurnosti: socijalne pomoći i socijalnog osiguranja; (2) uticaja univerzalnog osnovnog dohotka na (ne)zaposlenost i podsticaje za rad; (3) mogućih legitimnih načina finansiranja univerzalnog osnovnog dohotka: (a) fiskalnim javnim prihodima, to jest, porezima; (b) nefiskalnim javnim prihodima iz javnih kapitalnih fondova; (4) pitanja univerzalnosti osnovnog dohotka: da li je UOD univerzalno ljudsko pravo svakog čoveka ili pravo ograničeno na građane neke države, savezne države ili pokrajine.

Za razliku od druga dva modela socijalne sigurnosti - socijalne pomoći i socijalnog osiguranja - univerzalni osnovni dohodak nije zasnovan na milosrđu prema siromašnima (kao socijalna pomoć) u kojem je „ruka koja daje uvek iznad ruke koja prima“, niti na državno subvencionisanoj solidarnosti između zaposlenih i njihovih poslodavaca (poput socijalnog osiguranja) koja je selektivna i ograničena na one koji su već dovoljno privilegovani da budu zaposleni, već na ljudskom pravu na dostojanstven život, rad, zdravlje, blagostanje i slobodan razvoj svake osobe, bez obzira na njen radni ili imovinski status. Međutim, reforma kojom se uvodi univerzalni osnovni dohodak može povećati ili smanjiti socijalnu sigurnost i slobodu ljudi u najgorem društvenom položaju. Ako uvođenje univerzalnog osnovnog dohotka podrazumeva ukidanje postojećih socijalnih davanja i usluga, za ljude u najgorem društvenom položaju to bi bio lošiji sistem socijalne sigurnosti od postojećeg. Univerzalni osnovni dohodak može povećati dohodak i imovinu, moći i prerogative, i društvene osnove samopoštovanja ljudi u najgorem socijalnom položaju jedino u razumnoj kombinaciji sa ostalim univerzalnim i uslovnim komponentama sistema socijalne sigurnosti. U svojoj konstruktivnoj funkciji, univerzalni osnovni dohodak je pod ispod ukupne raspodele dohotka koja uključuje zarade i uslovna socijalna davanja i usluge, kao i univerzalnu zdravstvenu zaštitu i univerzalno dostupno obrazovanje i stanovanje.

Univerzalni osnovni dohodak omogućio bi svim ljudima da se slobodnije kreću između manje-više plaćenog rada, doživotnog obrazovanja, i dobrovoljnih aktivnosti u zajednici, jer bi u svakom trenutku mogli odlučiti da napuste posao ili skrate svoje radno vreme, bez gubitka prava na osnovni dohodak. Kombinacija tri bezuslovnosti univerzalnog osnovnog dohotka – individualno zasnovanog prava, nepostojanja uslova provere prihoda i traženja ili prihvatanja posla – ukinula bi zamku nezaposlenosti ili isključenje siromašnog i marginalizovanog dela stanovništva iz radnog i društvenog života, i zamku zaposlenosti ili eksploataciju i sagorevanje zaposlenih. Finski nacionalni eksperiment sa univerzalnim osnovnim dohotkom (2017–2018) dokazao je da osnovni dohodak povećava radnu motivaciju i ukupno zadovoljstvo životom: nezaposlene osobe u eksperimentalnoj grupi koje su tokom dvogodišnjeg eksperimenta primale osnovni dohodak bile su mentalno zdravije, osećale su veće samopouzdanje, manje stresa i više autonomije u životu, bavile su se smislenijim radom i imale su više poverenja u druge ljude i društvene institucije u poređenju sa osobama iz kontrolne grupe. To je dokaz da univerzalni osnovni dohodak nije instrument pasivne države blagostanja koji bi se uveo kako bi neki ljudi odlučili da ne rade ništa do kraja života, već instrument aktivne države blagostanja pomoću kojeg ljudi mogu slobodno izabrati najsmisleniji način kako da najbolje doprinesu društvu.

Američki ekonomista i nobelovac Herbert Sajmon procenio je da se približno 90 odsto plate zaposlene osobe u formalnoj ekonomiji ne zarađuje ličnim radom, već predstavlja poklon od akumuliranog društvenog bogatstva za koje sadašnji zaposleni nisu nimalo zaslužni. Uvođenje univerzalnog osnovnog dohotka samo je način da se jedan deo tog prirodnog, društvenog, kulturnog, saznajnog i tehničkog nasleđa čovečanstva pravednije raspodeli između svih članova društva. Iz toga sledi da je potpuno legitiman način finansiranja univerzalnog osnovnog dohotka osiguranje vlasničkog prava svakog čoveka nad jednakim delom društvenog bogatstva koje se stvara zahvaljujući prirodnim bogatstvima, naučnim, tehnološkim, organizacionim i kulturnim dostignućima svih generacija čovečanstva. Međutim, u odsustvu takvog javnog kapitalnog fonda, univerzalni osnovni dohodak morao bi se finansirati fiskalnim javnim prihodima. Kompromisno rešenje bila bi razumna kombinacija fiskalnih i nefiskalnih javnih prihoda za finansiranje univerzalnog osnovnog dohotka.

Makroregionalni ili svetski osnovni dohodak neophodan je za pravedniju raspodelu nasleđenog društvenog bogatstva čovečanstva koje je sada raspodeljeno u krajnje nejednakim razmerama između i unutar država. Osim toga, svetski ili makroregionalni osnovni dohodak jedan je od neophodnih socijalnih i ekonomskih preduslova bezbednog otvaranja granica između država na evropskom i globalnom nivou. Što je širi nadnacionalni nivo na kojem se uvodi univerzalni osnovni dohodak, manje su mogućnosti nastanka selektivnih oportunističkih transnacionalnih ekonomskih migracija koje sada značajno podstiču transferni progami socijalne sigurnosti u bogatim zemljama Globalnog severa. 

Moralno pravo je očigledno na strani univerzalnog osnovnog dohotka. Kao što su ropstvo, rasna i polna diskriminacija konačno bili prepoznati kao nepodnošljivo kršenje osnovnih ljudskih prava, isto tako će nepriznavanje prava na osnovna sredstva za život odnosno uslovljavanje tog prava ekonomskom ucenom i prinudom na osnovu nelegitimne kontrole i vlasništva nad radom i društvenim bogatstvom, konačno biti prepoznato kao nepodnošljivo kršenje prava na dostojanstven život i slobodu svakog čoveka i porodice. Čovečanstvo nezaustavljivo ide ka ostvarenju tog prirodnog prava. Univerzalni osnovni dohodak samo bi delimično vratio ili nadoknadio ljudima to što su neki pojedinci ili grupe nelegitimno prisvojili za sebe kao ekskluzivnu privatnu svojinu, a država im svojom silom i zakonima to potvrdila i zaštitila. Nemoguće je obnoviti dostojanstvo i slobodu pojedinca, porodice i rada bez vraćanja prirodnog prava na osnovna sredstva za život.

Ključne reči: univerzalni osnovni dohodak, socijalna politika, socijalna zaštita, socijalna sigurnost, socijalno osiguranje, socijalna pomoć, socijalni model, socijalna država, podsticaji za rad, uslovljavanje radnom obavezom, društveno bogatstvo.

Depuis les années 1990, la protection de l’enfance, dans ses modalités publiques, humanitaires et militantes, se voit mise à l’épreuve par l’intensification des flux migratoires juvéniles. À la fois étrangers et mineurs, désignés par la catégorie des « mineurs non accompagnés » (MNA), les jeunes qui migrent « seuls » brouillent les contours de l’aide à l’enfance et perturbent les dispositifs de prise en charge traditionnels. Cette contribution interroge les effets de leur désignation comme groupe catégoriel et spécifique de l’enfance en danger sur les représentations et les pratiques de protection. Elle cherche à saisir, dans un contexte d’internationalisation des droits de l’enfant et de durcissement du contrôle migratoire, les reconfigurations de la protection de l’enfance, caractérisées par une tension entre une éthique du prendre soin et une injonction paradoxale au tri et au contrôle.

Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) is a social assistance initiative that aims to help people living in poverty and the needy change their condition. However, few studies have focused exclusively on defies and the grievance redress mechanism (GRM) associated with LEAP's activities. GRM and LEAP defies are essential because they have the potential to reduce LEAP programme impacts. To this end, concurrent mixed methods was applied to study defies and GRM of LEAP. A total of 302 LEAP beneficiaries took part in the study. Data were gathered using a questionnaire and an interview guide. Chi-square, descriptive statistics, and thematic analysis were used to analyse the data. The major defies of LEAP that were discovered were related to beneficiary and administrative problems. Although GRM existed, it proved to be ineffective. Appropriate support and supportive programmes must be assured to ensure full benefits for beneficiaries, while defies under recourse must be dealt with quickly.

This article will discuss how two theoretical frameworks can be useful in the analysis of conflict situations in social work practice. By viewing situations from the perspective of competing and differing values, social workers are able to come to respect the positions of those with whom they are in conflict. The respect that emanates from being empathic and validating towards another's values is crucial for negotiating resolution to difficult conflict situations.

As diferentes funcionalidades das políticas sociais remetem tanto a sua determinação hegemônica alterada pelas lutas sociais e pelos interesses hegemônicos presentes nos governos, como pelos limites estruturais que lastreiam as relações entre o Estado e o mercado dentro do modo de produção capitalista. A partir de fundamentos teóricos, objetivou-se analisar alguns paradoxos presentes nesta dinâmica, tendo como destaque a problemática relação entre as políticas sociais e a reprodução da força de trabalho na atualidade que, se de um lado, operam para a diminuição do custo de manutenção de vida do trabalhador, por outro lado, se conectam com a intensificação da precarização do trabalho. Palavras-chave: Serviço Social. Política Social. Força de Trabalho. Assistência Social. Precarização do Trabalho. (The different functionalities of social policies carry forward their hegemonic determination, altered by the social struggles and hegemonic interests present in governments and by the structural limits that form the base of relations between the state and the market within the capitalist mode of production. Based on theoretical foundations, this article analyses paradoxes in this dynamic, highlighting the problematic relationship between social policies and the reproduction of the labour power nowadays, which, on the one hand, operates to decrease the cost of maintaining the workers' life and, on the other, is linked to the intensifying precariousness of work.)

El presente trabajo busca identificar y analizar de
manera crítica la impronta del humanismo liberal burgués
en la práctica de estudiantes de trabajo social. De igual
forma, tiene como objetivo repensar dicha práctica a la
luz de las premisas del humanismo liberal revolucionario,
bajo el supuesto de que este representa una perspectiva
encaminada al cambio social porque considera a la
asistencia en el marco de los derechos ciudadanos. Para
ello, se analizaron veinte documentos de sistematización
de la práctica comunitaria. Se elaboró una matriz teórica
para identificar las características de ambos humanismos
(Liberal burgués y Revolucionario) basada en Harvey
(2014) y, categorizada según la propuesta de Denzin y
Lincoln (2012) sobre las cuatro dimensiones que conforman
un paradigma: ontología, epistemología, ética-política
y metodología. Los resultados revelan que la huella del
humanismo liberal burgués en la práctica es dominante.

Huzurlu, bütünleşmiş ve dayanışma içinde bir toplum yapısı inşa etmek
için toplumsal kurumların işlevini eksiksiz yerine getirmesi ve
toplumda insanların birbirine güvenmesi gerekir. Türk toplumunun
değer yargıları, norm ve örfleri ahenk ve uyum içinde “selam”a dayalı
bir toplum yapısı öngörür.
Ancak son yıllarda artan oranda sosyal problemle karşı karşıya
kalmaktayız. Sosyal problemler, vücuda giren virüs gibi mekanizmayı
işlemez hale getirmekte ve nasıl virüsler vücudun bağışıklık sistemini
çökertiyorsa, sosyal problemler de toplumun savunma mekanizmaları
olan değerlere ve normlara zarar vermektedirler. Dolayısıyla toplumsal
yapı yeni problemlere de açık hale gelmektedir.
Sosyal problemleri bertaraf etmenin ilk basamağı, onları tanımak ve
savunma mekanizmaları geliştirmek için yeni “aşılar” geliştirmektir.
Toplumun aşısı, sosyal değer ve normlarını koruyarak sosyal ve insani
gelişmeyi sağlamaktır. Bu kitap, günümüz toplumsal problemlerini
farklı disiplinler çerçevesinde farklı boyutlarıyla tanımlamak ve çözüm
önerileri geliştirmek amacıyla hazırlanmıştır.

This article discusses the phenomena of cyberbullying especially among young people. The discussion, based on an interdisciplinary study in the fields of brain studies, child development, psychology, social policy, victimization and Internet studies, probes the troubling phenomenon of cyberbullying which may result in suicide. It is argued that adolescents are more vulnerable than adults because they lack maturity with respect to capacities such as thrill seeking, impulse control, peer pressure, reward sensitivity, cognitive processing, rational decision-making and long-term planning. The article suggests remedies to counter online social ills and argues for responsible cooperation between parents, schools, governments, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and social networking sites.

The Covid-19 pandemic presented unique challenges to social work, and in particular welfare care of children. Many of these challenges were met with technological solutions, which were widely adopted in other domains. While the use of digital communication tools may have gained some traction in pre-pandemic years, they were quickly deployed to account for social-distancing and synchronous connection. These technologies should be more widely adopted in child welfare policies as long as they are underpinned by a renegotiated form of care ethics which can inform the responsible use of technology.

Homelessness is an increasing social challenge both locally and globally. Social problems associated with street homelessness and services provided to homeless people by social workers are well documented in South Africa. Little is known though concerning the collaborative role of social workers and homeless people in addressing street homelessness. This study explored the role of social workers in promoting social justice through a collaborative purpose amongst the homeless people in addressing street homelessness. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive, and contextual study was undertaken with 14 homeless participants aged 21 to 63, and eight social work participants aged 25 to 38. This study was informed by an amalgamation of two theories, indicating the collaboration theory and the structural theory. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, analysed by following Tesch’s eight steps (Creswell, 2009:186). The data was collected and verified, employing the Lincoln and Guba’s model of trustworthiness. The ethical considerations adhered throughout this study are informed consent, confidentiality and anonymity, management of information and debriefing. The major findings identified first, poverty and unemployment as major homelessness causes. Second, deprived, or non-existing family support, family or marital breakdown, substance use, migration of individuals from rural or foreign countries to city centres, as major contributing factors towards homelessness. Third, homeless people are more vulnerable to personal harm than the housed population. Fourth, the society and derogatory labels, such as crazy, nyaopes, and criminals are often used to describe these individuals. Finally, homelessness places homeless people at substantial risk of elevated mental health conditions. Implications for social work and recommendations for future research are presented.
Key concepts
Collaborative, role, social workers, homeless people, homeless, homelessness, poor, underprivileged, street homelessness.

Course Description: This course discusses the development and structure of the welfare state from a comparative historical and political sociological perspective. Locating the welfare state within the broader context of the development of capitalism as a world systemic phenomenon, the course traces the scholarly discussions on the causes of the welfare state development and the functions of the welfare state. The course discusses the structural (economic or demographic) and political determinants of welfare state development, putting greater emphasis on the latter. As such, political legitimacy, electoral competition, political containment of unrest and political mobilization of popular support will be considered as critical factors shaping welfare policies. In a sense, the course is on the politics of welfare state. It will analyze the development of modern welfare states in the west and in developing countries, with a specific emphasis on so-called emerging markets. Welfare states in China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Indonesia and Turkey will be analyzed. In addition, the course will also pose more technical questions including the policy specific characteristics of existing welfare regimes.

South Africa’s official ‘developmental social welfare’ policy was originally based on the Reconstruction and Development Plan (RDP).  This basis has now been irrevocably replaced by the National Development Plan (NDP): the country’s new ‘roadmap’ toward the elimination of poverty and reduction of inequality.  A study indicated that the NDP’s policy dictates differ markedly from those on which the White Paper on Social Welfare was based.  This will have a significant impact on the way in which local social welfare and social work policy are conceptualised in future.  The new policy trends and their implications are explored in the article.

This article reports on the findings of a study which tested the feasibility of using respite care in a local authority social services department, firstly to see whether this type of provision might be incorporated into existing, more conventional forms of preventive child care policy and practice, and secondly, how authorities might prepare for changes in practice in anticipation of the Children Act 1989.

This paper will argue that wealth and income inequality are among the most pressing issues for contemporary social work. Despite this, social work as a discipline and profession has, in the main, been slow to respond to this growing problem. Critical approaches to social work, however, have always included a commitment to eliminating poverty, promoting equity and addressing both the causes and consequences of socio-economic disadvantage as a core priority. This paper will discuss the contributions critical social work can make to socially informed and ethical responses, particularly through its critical pedagogic, reflective and activist practices in contesting wealth and income inequality.

""Published by Sage this Handbook is the world's first generic major reference work to provide an authoritative guide to the theory, method, and values of social work in one volume.

Drawn from an international field of excellence, the contributors each offer a critical analysis of their individual area of expertise. The result is this invaluable resource collection that not only reflects upon the condition of social work today but also looks to future developments.

Split into seven parts, with 48 chapters the Handbook investigates:

- Policy dimensions

- Practice

- Perspectives

- Values and ethics

- The context of social work

- Research

- Future challenges

It is essential reading for all students, practitioners, researchers, and academics engaged in social w""

"The process of making knowledge such that it is translated into practice remains central to thinking about doing social work. The actual making of worlds as it is enacted through social science knowledge production is at the forefront of considerations about what constitutes best practice. Indeed, it is likely that the relevance of social work lies precisely in this world-making activity of service users. In social science methodology this is understood by Law and Urry (2004) in terms of enactment or performance. Social work interventions are temporary (epistemological) solutions (ontological) to service user problems. It's important to recognize there is no intervention in social work  that is not an expression of ontology, of presumptions concerning the fundamental nature of human change. What constitutes useful and relevant ontological effects of knowledge is therefore key to defining the field of social work.

Today social workers are mainly positivists, but under cover, the cover is the sort of reclaimed social constructivism which accompanies the sentiment of the evidence-based practice agenda. Qualitative methodologies privilege empiricism in the same way that methodological positivism does. The worrying part of this is that it leads social workers becoming little more than governmental regulators, as formulators modulating the affect of populations. The "crisis of the empirical", the calamity over and questions about the value of measure so keenly debated in contemporary social sciences has yet to register with the social work research community. If anything with the inception of evidence-based practice agenda in the late 1990s this took social work in a different direction. However, the failure of evidence-based practice has significant implications for changing the relationship between the empirical and the discipline of social work. What has been described by some sociologists as the 'mindless empiricism' of evidence-based practice has led to fresh innovations in thinking about empirical methodology. This has opened the social sciences up to what Thrift (2005) calls the possibilities of a ‘roving empiricism’ (Thrift, 2005: 223) which explores the multiple dimensions, rhythms, affect and senses of signification. Patricia Clough, one of the leading methodological innovators, states that "Subjecting cultural criticism to a transcendental empiricism has led cultural critics to address the movement, potentiality or virtuality immanent to matter. In doing so, they have developed what can be called an ‘infra-empiricism’ that allows a rethinking of bodies, matter and life through new encounters with visceral perception and preconscious affect. This paper explores the likely consequences of this new way of connecting epistemology (knowledge) to ontology (solutions) through a radical reworking of the empirical for social work. This reading of what Clough calls the new empiricism lends itself to developing a pluralist ontology for social work- recognising the existence of a plurality of entities and of types of entities which have varying degrees of constitutive force.
"

The paper reports on both methodological and substantive findings. It presents a method for generating simplified representations for regional urban populations, their geographical sub-populations and communities. the method generates greatly simplified high-resolution socio-economic profiles of populated geographical areas from complex large census data sets.

This paper argues that adherence to an ethical stance in is one of the defining strengths of social work and something that makes it both distinctive and progressive. Social work refuses to drop the notion that society can be a vehicle for the translation of private troubles into public concerns and the democratically generated search for community, solidarity and the good life. Against the tide of neoliberal political rule with its pursuit of self-interested individualism it is argued that social work retains a strong conception of an ethical good life. It is against this drift of hardening neo liberal politics that this paper situates the significance of social work in terms of the “practice of value”. To pose questions of ethical practice for social work is the first step towards reawakening them. This can contribute to the enrichment of ethical social work by activating moral sources. The starting point for this analysis derives from the writings of the Canadian communitarian philosopher Charles Taylor, and especially his idea that human beings lead their lives and assess themselves in light of broad ethical standards. The paper asks why social workers are committed to ethical practice through an examination of Taylor’s conception of “strong” versus “weak” evaluators. It looks at the way we can bring theory and practice together in accounting for an ethical social work and how this provides a basis for resisting the malaise of neoliberal capitalism. Starting from an actor oriented perspective, which holds to the view that human beings are essentially embodied agents who actively encounter things that concern them, the paper broadens this framework to examine the moral sources of social work.

Key-words: social work values; ethical judgement; neoliberalism; strong evaluators.

Based on the event FASD at the Frontline - held at the University of Regina in April 2014 - this policy document presents four Key Findings and nine recommendations. These findings and recommendations are taken from comments and discussion with over 200 participants that attended the one-day workshop that focused on the perspectives of frontline workers from the fields of health, social work, justice and community organizations that work with clients that have FASD.

Multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) are conventionally recommended in mental health
care literature as an important way to offer holistic treatment provision to patients. This
study aims to explore multidisciplinary teamwork in contemporary mental health
settings, particularly what aids and hinders the process of multidisciplinary teamworking,
and the social work contribution in such teams. In order to attain an in-depth
exploration of these phenomena, a single case study design was employed. Within this
design, data were generated through semi-structured interviews and structured
observation of a mental health MDT in Ireland. These data were analysed using
interpretative phenomenological analysis. The research highlights how the concept of
mental illness is contested within this MDT, with the medical model dominant within
an environment of fluid working arrangements. Professional role blurring and
stereotyping were found to impact the division of labour on this team, with role
negotiation found to be an integral part of retaining a professional’s practice identity.
This research raises concerns for social work’s capacity to function within mental
health MDTs in Ireland, and highlights ways in which social work educators might
respond in order to empower Irish social workers to meet the challenges of mental
health multidisciplinary teamworking.

There is a significant blind spot in social work ethics and values which requires our attention. In previous articles (Webb & McBeath, 1989, 1990) it has been observed that mainstream ethics in social work, and particularly the British Association of Social Workers 'Code of Ethics', is dominated by a Kantian duty-bound ethics with its emphasis on "respect for persons", "people as ends in themselves" and the notion of "self determination". The blind spot we are thinking of is in giving over proper attention to a civic humanist tradition with its concentration on the common good. The fact that social work has failed to articulate an ethical tract in terms of the common good is not only suprising given its long and sustained history but also worrying because its absence leaves social work open to the criticism that the liberal Kantian preoccupations rest on a perverse mode of individualism which cannot be reconciled with the more sociologically and progressively oriented values of empowerment and anti discrimination. From a Scottish perspective we show how considerations of the common good not only better serve the principled purpose of a social work ethics but of equal importance that there is a persuasive lineage in the history of Scottish Enlightenment ideas which has a necessary and contingent relation to the social work context. These ideas rest on the eighteenth century civic humanist thought of Scottish writers such as Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, John Millar and William Robertson. In conclusion we suggest that attempts to reconstruct the significance of the common good is a difficult task but the greater emphasis now given to the concept of virtue ethics in social work (McBeath & Webb, 2002; Banks, 2008) has the potential to assist this process. Such a communitarian perspective contends that there is an essential correspondence between the character of the citizen and the common good of the community. A social work for citizenship, in promoting the common good, needs, therefore, to encourage practices of cooperation, friendship, openness, reciprocity and a parity of participation in society (Fraser, 2000; Davies, Gray & Webb, 2014).

""In this article we argue that current reform proposals coming from Robert Pinker and others are challenging the universalist premises of generic social work. Pinker et al. argue that social work should, for the sake of efficiency and performance, be a connected set of specialist activities. This 'determinate dispersal' which we recognise as falling within the remit of postmodern strategies, we contrast with the far more libertarian
ideas of the noted post-modern theorist J.F Lyotard. Thus we side the political and cultural meanings of Pinker s ideas between generic social work which upholds ideas of universal ethical values and universal provision, and those of Lyotard whose anti-foundationalism proposes a radically heterogeneous society with no central value-structure.

We express our concern that the 'new specialist' remit may allow too much power to the social worker. Thus we have considerable sympathy for Lyotard's call for a radical agonistics - a field wherein the inequalities of power between say, a worker and her client, to some extent can be redressed.""

International Social Work covers a broad scope and range of international social work knowledge and research and contains seminal and landmark publications in social work with a particular emphasis on contemporary key publications to compliment earlier classic works. The readings combine empirical with conceptual articles that not only cover significant knowledge and key debates in the field but also show how international social work has developed through research.

Volume One: Welfare Theory and Approaches provides an overview of the development of welfare policy as a backdrop to the evolution of social work.

Volume Two: International Social Work Practice explores the development of contemporary social work practice approaches and examines social work's psychosocial foundations in the psychodynamic and functional schools.

Volume Three: Social Work Research chronicles the debate on what counts as evidence on which to base social work practice and, therefore, on what kind of research methods best provide valid and reliable evidence.

Volume Four: Future Challenges overviews the enduring and contemporary issues and debates surrounding social development and global social work, generalist versus specialist practice, choice, service user participation, partnerships and social networks where we have seen a move from recipients to citizens to clients to consumers.