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Social Construction and Social Work Practice
by Stanley L WitkinSocial Construction and Social Work Practice
Social Construction and Social Work Practice: Interpretations and Innovations
by Stanley L WitkinSocial construction addresses the cultural factors and social dynamics that give rise to and maintain values and beliefs. Drawing on postmodern philosophies and critical, social, and literary theories, social construction has become an important and influential framework for practice and research within social work and related fields. Embracing inclusivity and multiplicity, social construction provides a framework for knowledge and practice that is particularly congruent with social work values and aims. In this accessible collection, Stanley L Witkin showcases the innovative ways in which social construction may be understood and expressed in practice. He calls on experienced practitioner-scholars to share their personal accounts of interpreting and applying social constructionist ideas in different settings (such as child welfare agencies, schools, and the courts) and with diverse clientele (such as "resistant" adolescents, disadvantaged families, indigenous populations, teachers, children in protective custody, refugee youth, and adult perpetrators of sexual crimes against children). Eschewing the prescriptive stance of most theoretical frameworks, social construction can seem challenging for students and practitioners. This book responds with rich, illustrative descriptions of how social constructionist thinking has inspired practice approaches, illuminating the diversity and creative potential of practices that draw on social constructionist ideas. Writing in a direct, accessible style, contributors translate complex concepts into the language of daily encounter and care, and through a committed transnational focus they demonstrate the global reach and utility of their work. Chapters are provocative and thoughtful, reveal great suffering and courage, share inspiring stories of strength and renewal, and acknowledge the challenges of an approach that complicates evidence-based evaluations and requirements.
Social Construction in Context
by Kenneth J. GergenThis latest book by one the world's leading protagonists in the field will be welcomed not just by psychologists but by students, academics and professionals interested in social constructionism across a wide range of subjects. Social Construction in Context explores the potentials of social constructionist theory when placed in diverse intellectual and practical contexts. It demonstrates the achievements of social constructionism, and what it can now offer various fields of inquiry, both academic, professional and applied, given the proliferation of the theory across the social sciences and humanities. First order issues of concern within the academic world, objectivity, truth, power and ideology, are now being augmented by widespread developments in practice - therapeutic, pedagogical, organizational and political. This book looks closely at these developments and examines both the positive potentials and limitations of social constructionist theory when applied to a variety of domains. It has been written in an accessible and scholarly manner making it suitable for a wide-ranging readership.
Social Construction of Gender Inequality in the Housing System: Housing Experience of Women in Hong Kong (Routledge Revivals)
by Kam Wah ChanFirst published in 1997, this volume recognises the issue of gender inequality in Hong Kong housing. The invisibility of the housing problem is compounded by the dominant patriarchal Chinese culture in Hong Kong. The issue remains marginal in Western countries as well, despite increasing concern. Kam Wah Chan makes meaningful, insightful progress on the housing issue in Hong Kong by focusing on the crucial issues of housing for lone mothers and for women in new towns.
Social Construction of Sexuality
by Steven SeidmanIn The Social Construction of Sexuality , Steven Seidman investigates the political and social consequences of privileging certain sexual practices and identities while stigmatizing others. Addressing a range of topics from gay and lesbian identities to sex work, he delves into issues of social control that inform popular beliefs and moral standards. The Second Edition of The Social Construction of Sexuality features a new part that focuses on sexuality and social institutions.
Social Construction of the Past: Representation as Power (One World Archaeology)
by George Clement Bond Angela GilliamFirst published in 1994. Anthropological and archaeological enquiry are shaped by the historical times in which they are formulated. This collection of essays examines how mainstream scholarship constructs the past - in the case of anthropologists, usually the past of other peoples. By creating another people's cultural history, scholars appropriate it and turn it into a form of domination by one group over another. Mainstream scholarship has often failed to recognize the intellectual and scholarly contribution of subjugated peoples . This volume looks at the way 'postcolonial' scholars are redefining the nature of scholarship, and themselves, in order to develop a more egalitarian discourse. Social Constructions of the Past examines labour, race and gender and its relationship to power and class. It includes essays on a broad range of topics, from the role of intellectuals in restructuring a non-apartheid South Africa, to Haitian working-class women using sexuality to resist domination.
Social Constructionism
by Vivien BurrNow in its third edition, this successful book introduces students to the area of social science theory and research known as social constructionism. Using a variety of examples from everyday experience and from existing research in areas such as personality, sexuality and health, it clearly explains the basic theoretical assumptions of social constructionism. Key debates, such as the nature and status of knowledge, truth, reality and the self are given in-depth analysis in an accessible style. Drawing on a range of empirical studies, the book clearly defines the various different approaches to social constructionist research and explores the theoretical and practical issues involved. While the text is broadly sympathetic to social constructionism, it also adopts a critical perspective to the material, addressing its weaknesses and, in the final chapter, subjecting the theory itself to a more extensive critique. New to this edition: Extended coverage of the relationship between 'mainstream' psychology and social constructionism and how the two fields can engage with each other. An exploration of the rise and popularity of neuroscience and the challenge it poses to social constructionism. New material on the field of psychosocial studies. Updated coverage of existing key issues such as age and sexuality, and inclusion of more recently emerging issues (e.g. status and role of affect). Updated discussion of key social constructionist contributors, with revised references. Updated chapter on research methods, including more on narrative and critical narrative analysis, and personal construct methods. The third edition of Social Constructionism extends and updates the material covered in previous editions and will be an invaluable and informative resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students across the social and behavioural sciences.
Social Constructionism
by Vivien BurrThe fourth edition of this seminal work introduces students to social constructionism. Using a variety of examples from everyday experience and from existing research in areas such as personality, sexuality and health, it clearly explains the basic theoretical assumptions of social constructionism.Drawing on a range of empirical studies, the book clearly defines the various approaches to social constructionist theory and research and explores the theoretical and practical issues they raise. It presents and analyses key debates, such as the nature and status of knowledge, truth, reality, and the self, in an accessible style. The new edition has been updated with relevant and contemporary references to aid understanding of key theoretical and methodological issues. The author additionally utilises new illustrative examples from research and contemporary life, such as the #MeToo movement, BlackLivesMatter, and Post-Truth politics. The updated work has also been expanded to include an extended discussion of affect and embodiment and a number of exercises to help illustrate important concepts.Social Constructionism extends and updates the material covered in previous editions and will be an invaluable and informative resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Psychology, Sociology, Education, and other related disciplines.
Social Constructionism in Housing Research
by Jim KemenyBy stressing the importance of subjectivity and interpretation, social constructionism offers a different conception of reality from the traditional approach to housing policy analysis. This book provides an up-to-date review of the social constructionist perspective and considers its philosophical basis. It discusses how social problems are constructed and, in turn, how this informs policy-making. It is divided into two parts. The first section is theoretical and discusses the variety of conceptual approaches utilised within the constructionist paradigm. The second part provides a number of empirically based case studies from the UK and Australia to illustrate the different methodologies that form the social constructionist corpus. The book also evaluates both the criticisms that have been made against the social constructionist perspective and the strengths and weaknesses of constructionist methods. It therefore contributes to the development of a future research agenda for social constructionist research in housing and urban policy.
Social Constructions of Water Quality in South Africa: A case study of the Blesbokspruit River in the Context of Acid Mine Drainage Treatment
by Suvania NaidooThis book details how the water quality of the Blesbokspruit River in Gauteng, South Africa was socially constructed by stakeholders and key individuals in the context of acid mine drainage (AMD) and its treatment. Social constructionism is used as the framing for this research to explain how water is intrinsically social. Findings presented here show that stakeholders are aware that the changes in the physicality of the Blesbokspruit resulted from human interventions and varied uses of the water over the years. Such knowledge, among factors such as the historical context of mining, current coal mining, flows and volumes of water, technology used and processes followed, information and communication, and vested interests influence social constructions of the water quality. What counts as the truth about water varies depending on the individual’s perspective, their purpose, and their individual interests. Further, how one defines water quality influences what treatment processes are preferred in order to improve water quality. The book explains why, for example, a treatment process meant to improve water quality gained a bad reputation by the public because of the South African government’s silo approach. The book explains how these social constructions are entrenched in power relations between stakeholders regarding AMD treatment and illustrates how power was used to influence decisions to improve the water quality of the Blesbokspruit. The case presented in this book offers insights and recommendations for policymakers working in water governance, including means to influence social constructions of water quality and ways to clarify roles and responsibilities in pursuit of improved cooperative government.
Social Constructivism as Paradigm?: The Legacy of The Social Construction of Reality (Knowledge, Communication and Society)
by Hubert Knoblauch Michaela PfadenhauerSocial constructivism is one of the most prominent theoretical approaches in the social sciences. This volume celebrates the 50th anniversary of its first formulation in Peter Berger and Luckmann’s classic foundational text, The Social Construction of Reality. Addressing the work’s contribution to establishing social constructivism as a paradigm and discussing its potential for current questions in social theory, the contributing authors indicate the various cultural understandings and theoretical formulations that exist of social construction, its different fields of research and the promising new directions for future research that it presents in its most recent developments. A study of the importance of a work that established a paradigm in the international sociology of knowledge, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology with interests in social theory, the history of the social sciences and the significance of social constructivism.
Social Continuity and Rupture in Rural China I: The Internal Dynamics of the Huizhou Hyper-stability Structure (China Perspectives)
by Tang LixingAs the first of a two-volume set examining the distinctive social structure and governance of Huizhou, China, this book focuses on the internal elements of this social functioning.From the sixteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century, Huizhou, a historic region in what is now Anhui Province in China, was characterized by long-term social stability and prosperity. Even during times of war and unrest, Huizhou was able to quickly restore order. This two-volume study explores the reasons for this stability and its relevance and implications for contemporary society. In this first volume, the author provides an insider’s view of the factors that contributed to this remarkable social stability. It begins with an account of the historical context of the region, including clans, businessmen, and non-state institutions. The book then examines the internal drivers of this stable society, including autonomous local governance based on Confucian culture, merchant culture, and clan culture, which together ensured effective leadership of various non-governmental organizations.The title will appeal to scholars and students of Chinese history, social and economic history in modern China, as well as readers interested in China’s transition to modernity.
Social Continuity and Rupture in Rural China II: The External Dynamics of the Huizhou Hyper-stability Structure (China Perspectives)
by Tang LixingAs the second volume of a two-volume set that examines the distinctive social structure and governance of Huizhou, China, this book focuses on the external factors that influence and renew social functioning.From the sixteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century, Huizhou, a historic region in what is now Anhui Province in China, was characterized by longterm social stability and prosperity. Even during times of war and unrest, Huizhou was able to quickly restore order. This two-volume study explores the reasons for this stability and its relevance and implications for contemporary society. In this second volume, the author examines a group of ‘outsiders’ to Huizhou society, who conducted business outside the region while maintaining their hometown and linking their social networks from both urban and rural Huizhou. The book discusses how local tradition and rural governance were sustained through wars and social unrest. It also illustrates how a new, modernized order was re-established after the devastation of war and communist reform in the twentieth century.The title will appeal to scholars and students of Chinese history, the social and economic history of modern China, and readers interested in China’s transition to modernity.
Social Control and Self-Control Theories of Crime and Deviance (The\library Of Essays In Theoretical Criminology Ser.)
by L.Edward WellsControl theories have dominated criminological theory and research since the 1969 publication of Hirschi's seminal work on the social bond. Social control and self-control theorists are unique in suggesting that patterns in criminal behaviors are better explained by variations in social constraints rather than by individual motivational impulses, thus indicating that their main concerns are the explication and clarification of the techniques, processes, and institutions of informal social control. The four major sections of this volume focus on: the similarities and differences among the major contributors to the early developmental stage of social control theory; the central importance of parents, peers, and schools in the creation of informal control mechanisms and their link to crime and delinquency; the theoretical underpinnings of self-control theory, including empirical tests and criticisms; and theoretical integrations of social control and self-control theories with various motivational theories of crime and delinquency.
Social Control and Socialization: A Study of Class Differences in the Language of Maternal Control (Primary Socialization, Language and Education)
by Jenny Cook-GumperzBasil Bernstein’s theory of social control was the foundation for this pioneer study of the language mothers use to socialize their children, and how it affects their understanding of social values and social attitudes as they grow older.Originally published in 1973, Dr Cook-Gumperz’s research was particularly important in that it made use of analytical methods which could measure numerically the manifestations of the three kinds of control – imperative, positional, personal – that Bernstein distinguished. Using the coding grid developed by Professor Bernstein and herself, Jenny Cook-Gumperz demonstrates clearly the relations between maternal class, maternal approach to discipline and the child’s progress. By showing that the effects of early upbringing on the educational potential of children were measurable, this significant work in the comparatively new field of sociolinguistics would form a basis for the methodological approach to further practical investigations of a similar nature at the time. Today it can be read in its historical context.
Social Control of Sex Offenders
by D. Richard LawsThis book surveys the history, current status, and critical issues regarding the various mechanisms designed to control sex offenders. It shows that the social problem of sex offending is not apparently resolvable by any of the means currently employed. A large array of procedures are used in the attempt to control the difficult population of sex offenders, including: imprisonment, institutional and community treatment, community monitoring by probation and parole, electronic monitoring, registration as a sex offender, community notification of an offender's status, strict limits on behavioral movement in the community, and residence restrictions. However, these constraints on behavior are almost completely the result of public outrage regarding sensational sex crimes, overreaction of media coverage that produce inaccurate statements of potential community risk, and the efforts of the legal profession and politicians to quell this anger and foreboding by enacting legislation that supposedly confronts the risk. This book demonstrates that we have constructed a massive edifice of community control that is socially and politically driven and which has largely failed to contain sex crime.
Social Control under Stalin and Khrushchev: The Phantom of a Well-Ordered State
by Immo Rebitschek Aaron B. RetishHow did the Soviet Union control the behaviour of its people? How did the people themselves engage with the official rules and the threat of violence in their lives? In this book, the contributors examine how social control developed under Stalin and Khrushchev. Drawing on deep archival research from across the former Soviet Union, they analyse the wide network of state institutions that were used for regulating individual behaviour and how Soviet citizens interacted with them. Together they show that social control in the Soviet Union was not entirely about the monolithic state imposing its vision with violent force. Instead, a wide range of institutions such as the police, the justice system, and party-sponsored structures in factories and farms tried to enforce control. The book highlights how the state leadership itself adjusted its policing strategies and moved away from mass repression towards legal pressure for policing society. Ultimately, Social Control under Stalin and Khrushchev explores how the Soviet state controlled the behaviour of its citizens and how the people relied on these structures.
Social Conventions: From Language to Law (Princeton Monographs in Philosophy #25)
by Andrei MarmorSocial conventions are those arbitrary rules and norms governing the countless behaviors all of us engage in every day without necessarily thinking about them, from shaking hands when greeting someone to driving on the right side of the road. In this book, Andrei Marmor offers a pathbreaking and comprehensive philosophical analysis of conventions and the roles they play in social life and practical reason, and in doing so challenges the dominant view of social conventions first laid out by David Lewis. Marmor begins by giving a general account of the nature of conventions, explaining the differences between coordinative and constitutive conventions and between deep and surface conventions. He then applies this analysis to explain how conventions work in language, morality, and law. Marmor clearly demonstrates that many important semantic and pragmatic aspects of language assumed by many theorists to be conventional are in fact not, and that the role of conventions in the moral domain is surprisingly complex, playing mostly an auxiliary and supportive role. Importantly, he casts new light on the conventional foundations of law, arguing that the distinction between deep and surface conventions can be used to answer the prevalent objections to legal conventionalism. Social Conventions is a much-needed reappraisal of the nature of the rules that regulate virtually every aspect of human conduct.
Social Coordination Frameworks for Social Technical Systems
by Huib Aldewereld Olivier Boissier Virginia Dignum Pablo Noriega Julian PadgetThis book addresses the question of how to achieve social coordination in Socio-Cognitive Technical Systems (SCTS). SCTS are a class of Socio-Technical Systems that are complex, open, systems where several humans and digital entities interact in order to achieve some collective endeavour. The book approaches the question from the conceptual background of regulated open multiagent systems, with the question being motivated by their design and construction requirements. The book captures the collective effort of eight groups from leading research centres and universities, each of which has developed a conceptual framework for the design of regulated multiagent systems and most have also developed technological artefacts that support the processes from specification to implementation of that type of systems. The first, introductory part of the book describes the challenge of developing frameworks for SCTS and articulates the premises and the main concepts involved in those frameworks. The second part discusses the eight frameworks and contrasts their main components. The final part maps the new field by discussing the types of activities in which SCTS are likely to be used, the features that such uses will exhibit, and the challenges that will drive the evolution of this field.
Social Credit: The Warring States of China’s Emerging Data Empire
by Vincent BrusseeChina’s Social Credit System has fundamentally re-shaped of surveillance worldwide, with discussions of it making it into hundreds of media headlines and all the way into European Union legislation and the United Nations. Social Credit offers one of the first comprehensive assessments of this infamous system. It is aimed at the many experts and professionals – both scholarly and more broadly – that have to deal with its fallout on a regular basis. In a concise format, it covers the questions that have garnered the most attention worldwide: from social credit scoring and blacklists to its history and theoretical foundation. Throughout, its core thesis is that more often than not, even China’s government is at a loss what to do with this messy and complex initiative. This has caused fragmented and low-tech implementation, but where insufficient legal safeguards can have far-reaching implications for the normal market order and for human rights.
Social Crime Prevention in the Developing World
by Heath GrantThis Brief explores the role of social crime prevention as a crime reduction strategy in the developing world. "Social crime prevention" focuses on the social and economic factors that may contribute to violence and criminal behavior in a community. Particularly in the developing world, an understanding of the socioeconomic and political context holds long-term potential for crime reduction (rather than crime displacement); however, the strategies are complex and the results may be slow. Generally, police and law enforcement are relied upon to present quick results, where social crime prevention strategies can be viewed as being "soft on crime" or too slow. This Brief discusses the tension between the traditional role of police and proactive social crime prevention strategies in an international context, through a variety of case studies. It also provides recommendations for balancing or reshaping this role. This work will be of interest to researchers and policy makers interested in crime prevention, particularly in the developing world, criminal theory, police studies and related disciplines such as demography, sociology and political science.
Social Crisis and Mental Health: Signs of Sanity
by Peter MorrallThis book focuses on the paradoxical effect of social crises on mental health. When crises occur, there's an upsurge of mental suffering due to an intensification of such social insanities as violence, inequality, and insecurity. Paradoxically, there are positive consequences due to acts of kindness, cooperation, and the ability to cope and hope. Two interconnected categories of social crises are covered in the book. These are as follows: contagions (for example, the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous outbreaks of plague and smallpox since medieval times, and the 1918 influenza pandemic); conflicts (including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and aspects of world war such as the Holocaust, the use of nuclear bombs in the Second World War, and the climate emergency). What is also explored in the book is whether there is an amplification of everyday difficulties whereby having a ‘mental health problem’ has become normalised. The idea of ‘mental-healthism’ is introduced to explain the cultural shift towards this apparent normalisation of ordinary psychological suffering. The book will be of interest to students, practitioners, and researchers from sociology, psychology, nursing, social work, and psychiatry, among others.
Social Criticism: The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice and Other Essays (The Royal Society of Canada Special Publications)
by Stephen Leacock Alan BowkerStephen Leacock, long celebrated as Canada's foremost humorist and social satirist, has received little recognition for his considerable accomplishments as a serious thinker and social critic. In fact, Leacock was a professor of political economy, and more than half of his writings addressed the pressing issues of his day. This volume represents the neglected aspect of Leacock's career, gathering together his writings on a range of subjects, including imperialism, education and culture, religion and morality, feminism, prohibition, and social justice.The collection begins with 'Greater Canada: an appeal,' which dates from 1907, when Leacock was a popular lecturer advancing the cause of imperialism. Bowker points out that, for Leacock, imperialism was more a spiritual mission than a political agenda, representing the opportunity to unite Canadians, to inspire allegiance to a lofty tradition, and thereby to combat the threat of materialism, urbanism, fragmentation, and continentalism. These themes resurface in subsequent essays, culminating in The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice, which was published in 1920. Carefully selected, and prefaced with an updated introduction to Leacock's life and work, these essays contribute to our understanding of Leacock and illuminate his role as a major figure in Canadian intellectual history.
Social Currents in Eastern Europe: The Sources and Consequences of the Great Transformation
by Sabrina P. RametSocial Currents in Eastern Europe traces the diverse social currents that have developed alongside and interacted with political and economic forces to bring about change in Eastern Europe. In this second edition--which significantly updates and expands the previous edition to include a new introduction, revisions throughout, as well as five new chapters, including timely material on ethnic war in the former Yugoslavia--Ramet extends and develops the theory of social change upon which the book is based.Ramet draws on interviews conducted over a ten-year period with individuals active in arenas for social change--intellectual dissent, feminism, religious activism, youth cultures and movements, and trade unionism--in eight East European countries: East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. She shows how the processes leading to the ultimate collapse of communism began more than a decade earlier and how they were necessarily manifested in spheres as diverse as religion and rock music.Ramet also examines the consequences of the "Great Transformation" and analyzes the numerous unresolved problems that these societies currently confront, whether it be in the arena of economics, political legitimation, or the challenges of establishing a civil society free of chauvinism.
Social DNA: Rethinking Our Evolutionary Past
by M. Kay MartinWhat set our ancestors off on a separate evolutionary trajectory was the ability to flex their reproductive and social strategies in response to changing environmental conditions. Exploring new cross-disciplinary research that links this capacity to critical changes in the organization of the primate brain, Social DNA presents a new synthesis of ideas on human social origins – challenging models that trace our beginnings to traits shaped by ancient hunting economies, or to genetic platforms shared with contemporary apes.