Elizabeth A. Mulroy

University Civic Engagement with Community-Based Organizations

Abstract This article compares and contrasts two case studies of large research universities involved in civic engagement projects with urban nonprofit community-based organizations and neighborhood associations. The article uses a community building framework in which organizational, interorganizational, and community-level features are examined. The study found that each university used a different approach through which to achieve a university-community partnership. A dispersed model favored an entrepreneurial approach for individual faculty and student involvement, while the coordinated model requested faculty and students from different departments to work together toward a community-driven goal. The extent to which these different models of civic engagement delivered what community organizations wanted was based on five factors: (1) the universitys geographic proximity to a tar get low-income neighborhood, (2) leadership for institutional social commitment, (3) use of community-based research, (4) funding as a social strategy, and (5) a flexible curriculum. Challenges faced by faculty, students, and practitioners are addressed, and directions for future research are suggested.

Theoretical Perspectives on the Social Environment to Guide Management and Community Practice

Abstract This paper introduces a conceptual framework called Or-ganization-in-Environment that is intended to help social work students, particularly those preparing for careers in management and community practice, understand the complexity of the social environment in the context of a global economy. This model is based on two assumptions. First, organizations and communities are embedded in large, complex macro systems that helped to create institutional barriers of the past. Second, organizations are civic actors with the potential to strengthen communities and change institutional inequities set in larger societal systems. Theories of social justice, the political economy, vertical and horizontal linkages, organization/environment dimensions, and interorganizational collaboration are presented and used to help analyze the model. Case examples of privatization, gentrification, and homelessness are used to illustrate theory for practice. Finally, implications are drawn for a future-oriented practice that emphasizes external relations and their political dimensions: strategic management, interorganizational collaboration, community building, regional action, and a commitment to social justice.

Social work textbooks on human behavior and the social environment : An analysis of the social environment component

SUMMARY This analysis of fourteen foundation frequently used Human Behavior and Social Environment (HB&SE) textbooks is based on the Council on Social Work Educations (2001) guidelines for HB&SE and a framework for integrating content related to the social environment. Specific criteria for assessment included how well the textbook reflected the reciprocal nature of human behavior and the social environment, presented a strengths perspective, incorporated diversity content, and covered material related to families, groups, organizations, communities and political economy. Three types of HB&SE textbooks were identified (life cycle, systems, and theory), and results are presented by textbook type. The findings suggest that increased attention to content related to the macro social environment and to the inter-relationships of macro, meso, and micro forces would strengthen HB&SE texts.

Towards a Comprehensive Framework for Understanding the Social Environment: In Search of Theory for Practice

SUMMARY This paper presents a conceptual framework for selecting and organizing concepts of the social environment. It expands upon the traditional Human Behavior and the Social Environment perspectives used in social work curricula in the United States by identifying how a macro-systemconsisting of the intersection of four societal forces (social justice, social problems, social policy, and the political economy) works to influence a micro-systemof community, organizational, and group dynamics. In this framework, the impact of the macrosystem is mediated by collective responses of partnerships, alliances, and networks convened to address these forces. The framework is useful for understanding the complexity and uncertainty of the social environment in modern society with specific reference to: (1) how macro-system forces work to shape a constellation of community and organizational concerns, (2) how collective responses that seek solutions can be understood as instruments for achieving meaningful social change, and (3) how micro-systems concepts of structure (stages of development, systems of exchange, and diversity) and process (power and leadership, conflict and change, and integrating mechanisms) can inform practice.

Evaluating the Social Environment Component of Social Work Courses on Human Behavior and the Social Environment

SUMMARY This analysis of 117 foundation of Human Behavior and Social Environment (HB&SE) course outlines gathered from 60 graduate schools of social work is based on the HB&SE standards of the Council on Social Work Education (2001). It draws upon an analytic framework for integrating content related to the social environment. Specific criteria for assessment included how well the course outline reflected the reciprocal nature of human behavior and the social environment, presented a strengths perspective, incorporated diversity content, and covered material related to families, groups, organizations, communities, and political economy. Four types of HB&SE course outlines were identified (lifespan-oriented, systems-oriented, theory-oriented, and combination), and results are presented by course outline type. The findings suggest that increased attention to content related to the macro social environment, human diversity, well-being, and theory for practice is needed to strengthen HB&SE foundation courses.

Starting Small: Strategy and the Evolution of Structure in a Community-Based Collaboration

ABSTRACT Comprehensive multi-sector community initiatives are currently regarded as the preferred strategy to use when trying to address social problems at the local level. However, this article suggests that faced with political uncertainty, low-income communities may derive benefits from the strategy of starting small. Findings are presented from an organizational analysis of a seven-member community-based collaboration formed to reduce child abuse and neglect. They suggest that starting small allowed the interorganizational structure to evolve over time in three phases of access, differentiation, and connectiveness. The characteristics and impacts of each phase will be described and analyzed. The article draws four lessons for community-based organizations interested in collaborating: flexible structure matters; neighborhoods differ; a strong nonprofit sector is needed; and collaborating is a learned behavior. Finally, implications are drawn for human services management and community practice.

Voice and Community in the Corporate Academy: A Collective Biography

This article is the story of the simultaneous feminization and corporatization of universities, themes that emerged in a test of a collective biography, a qualitative research method. Organizers brought together 12 macro social work academic women across generations and, through sampling, attempted to avoid the intergenerational splitting that seems to be leaving junior faculty to be socialized by administrators while simultaneously isolating senior faculty from their generative role. Our analysis identified several trends developed from our collective experiences including changes in faculty governance, formalized mentoring, intergenerational faculty relationships, and shifting expectations. With these changes, we sense a reduction in what we used to think of as a collegium, now in danger of becoming an historical artifact.

Nonprofit Organizations and Welfare-to-Work

Summary This article analyzes recent empirical studies of welfare-to-work programs implemented by nonprofit organizations as a first step in understanding potential shifts in the political, social, and economic environments of nonprofit organizations in a post-welfare era. Using the political economy as a conceptual framework, the literature review suggests that nonprofits are experiencing organizational change- and frequent turbulence-on four key dimensions: interorganizational relationships, mission and philosophy, resource dependencies, and target populations. The article first analyzes each dimension, then draws implications of the changes for social work managers, practitioners, educators, and researchers. Findings suggest that emergence of new organizational and interorganizational forms may require nonprofit managers to focus increased attention on external relations in order to build new collaborations and partnerships, and to develop innovative outcome measures as tools to capture program success in complex organizational arrangements.

University Community Partnerships that Promote Evidence-Based Macro Practice

ABSTRACT This article articulates three dimensions of EBP grounded in theory for macro practice: intention toward social change, planning and decision-making, and civic participation. These dimensions are then applied to university community partnerships that are complex community interventions. The goals of these partnerships are to improve the social environment in low-income neighborhoods through community development and reform the university as a social institution from neighborhood bystander to responsible, engaged citizen. Finally, the article introduces the concept of a planning triangle, a framework linking evidence derived from community assessments and practice-relevant research to decisive and timely action in the field.

Reclaiming and Reimagining Macro Social Work Education: A Collective Biography

ABSTRACT The authors focus on a collective biography of 12 women social work educators, all either tenured or in tenure lines, from five different universities at the time of the study. The participants represent several aspects of macro practice including administration, planning, community practice, and policy. Beginning with reflections about coming into macro practice, we highlight memories about first teaching experiences and examine cultural shifts discovered in our academic journeys. We feature students who inspired us and perceptions of challenges in curricular development affecting the preparation of students. This article includes comments that emphasize the themes and focus of our collective reflections. Finally, we place what we learned in the context of a report from the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration calling for the visibility of and advocacy for macro social work education.