Jackie Rafferty

Transport and social exclusion: investigating the possibility of promoting inclusion through virtual mobility

This paper introduces a mobility dimension to social exclusion, suggesting a strong correlation between a lack of access to adequate mobility and lack of access to opportunities, social networks, goods and services. This correlation exists as both a cause and consequence of social exclusion. The authors question the likelihood that increased physical mobility, by car or public transport, can, by itself, provide a fully viable or sustainable solution to mobility-related aspects of social exclusion. This paper cautiously suggests that the use of information and communications technologies could enable a new, virtual mobility, enabling an Internet-based increase in accessibility as an alternative to an increase in physical mobility. Finally, consideration is given to the possibility of a virtual mobility-related dimension of exclusion and to the possible social implications of inclusion of virtual mobility in an integrated transport strategy.

Social Exclusion and Transport in the UK: A Role for Virtual Accessibility in the Alleviation of Mobility-Related Social Exclusion?

This paper reports findings from research into the possibility that mobility-related social exclusion could be affected by an increase in access to virtual mobility – access to opportunities, services and social networks, via the Internet – amongst populations that experience exclusion. Transport is starting to be recognised as a key component of social policy, particularly in light of a number of recent studies, which have highlighted the link between transport and social exclusion, suggesting that low access to mobility can reduce the opportunity to participate in society – a finding with which this research concurs. Following the identification of this causal link, the majority of studies suggest that an increase in access to adequate physical mobility can provide a viable solution to mobility-related aspects of social exclusion. This paper questions the likelihood that increased physical mobility can, by itself, provide a fully viable or sustainable solution to mobility-related aspects of social exclusion. Findings from both a desk study and public consultation suggest that virtual mobility is already fulfilling an accessibility role, both substituting for and supplementing physical mobility, working to alleviate some aspects of mobility-related social exclusion in some sectors of society. The paper incorporates an analysis of the barriers to and problems with an increase in virtual mobility in society, and concludes that virtual mobility could be a valuable tool in both social and transport policy.

Integrating research and teaching in social work: building a strong partnership

In recent years in social work we have increasingly come to address the issue of how to integrate research into practice. Implicit in the research and practice discourse is an assumption that there is an active and reciprocal relationship between research and teaching. In this paper, we question this assumption and after setting the political context, we review research into the relationship between discipline-based research and teaching. We then explore a proposal to redefine knowledge, research and teaching and examine the concept of scholarship. We go on to review some strategies we will be promoting in the UK Higher Education Funding Councils Learning and Teaching Network Support (ltsn) Social Policy and Social Work Subject Centre (SWAP) to support the development of positive linkages between teaching and discipline-based research, specifically on-line possibilities for supporting research mindedness among academics (and students and practitioners). Finally, we end by briefly discussing the equally important integration of pedagogic research into the practice of teaching.

Fit for virtual social work practice

ABSTRACT The paper considers the levels of coherence and dissonance between the education and training needs of social work practitioners working in a virtual environment and the focus of the requirements and learning and teaching approaches currently in use on social work programmes within education settings in England. The paper argues a gap exists in the way information and communication skills are currently conceptualised to support the education and training of social workers. It appears that e-learning is often considered in relation to its functional advantages and that similarly ICT skills are considered in terms of computer program literacy. The much wider question of the development of competence for virtual practice and how e-learning may support this development require much greater consideration and application.

Evidence from virtual social work practice: implications for education

Abstract The emergence of e-society impacts in sophisticated ways our day-to-day lives. In turn, this affects the provision of social work and social support to communities, including young people. The development and subsequent evaluation in the United Kingdom (UK) of a virtual or on-line social work service for young people provides an opportunity to reflect on how e-provision may require fieldwork and academic staff to re-think the way communication skills are taught to students.

Evidence from virtual social work: implications for education

Abstract The emergence of e-society impacts in sophisticated ways our day-to-day lives. In turn, this affects the provision of social work and social support to communities, including young people. The development and subsequent evaluation in the United Kingdom (UK) of a virtual or on-line social work service for young people provides an opportunity to reflect on how e-provision may require fieldwork and academic staff to re-think the way communication skills are taught to students.

Learning social work with a “well-tempered personal computer”

Abstract Social work education is primarily concerned with training professional social workers through a course which combines academic study and supervised field work. The agencies in which students undertake field training and subsequently take up employment make an increasing use of IT. Hence there is a need to employ curriculum material about the uses of IT in social work, as is specified by the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work in its national curriculum. Social work education has widely varied components, some of which are directed towards the professional development of individual students, and must, therefore, be handled in a direct relationship with teachers. Other elements have considerable potential for CAL, and some developments are underway. Social work is not a high priority area for IT provision in higher education, and as a result most CAL initiatives must work within a relatively low-tech framework. Nevertheless, there is scope to make an impact on the quality of education, and develop materials which are transferrable across the higher education sector (because of the existence of a required national syllabus), and more widely across other human services subjects which need skills in such areas as counselling, communications and anti-discriminatory practice.