Niels Rosendal Jensen

Physical violence against women in domestic situations: a pastoral theological approach of power and patriarchy

on the attitudes of the host population (including workers in the migration field). However, the challenge of providing a humane immigration régime within Greece while also recognising the country’s role in ‘protecting’ the security of ‘Fortress Europe’ is a major theme of this book. In conclusion, migration is a topic of major importance which touches the lives of most of us working in the social professional field to a greater or lesser degree; it is of direct concern to anyone working with refugees and minority ethnic user groups but is also of more general concern in relation to the laws and policies (European and national) which frame citizenship and entitlements (Segal & Heck, 2012). As such, this book provides a ‘good read’ for anyone interested in this topic but also for anyone interested in exploring further alternative approaches to research (as demonstrated through ethnography) and for those with a particular interest in modern Greek dilemmas and responses. Given the challenges and tensions of the Greek situation—and specifically the position of immigrants—Cabot manages to present a surprisingly upbeat conclusion when she suggests that relationships between ‘insiders and outsiders’ are being reconfigured in the context of a nation facing significant economic and social change.

Understanding family support: policy, practice and theory

not to reduce the ‘rich and multifaceted’ aspects (p. 8) of social pedagogy but to serve as an invitation to more exploration of its practice. A brief explanation of its purpose is followed by advice on how to use the publication. The author argues that social pedagogy is a holistic approach that is twofold: about thinking and viewing phenomena, and an amalgam of tools and concepts (p. 9). Nine brief chapters follow. Chapter One defines social pedagogy, Chapter Two discusses key values and core principles, whilst Chapter Three identifies key thinkers and pioneers of social pedagogy, including Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Barnardo, Montessori, and Korscak. Chapter Four traces social pedagogy developments in the UK and Ireland, Chapter Five discusses holistic practices, and Chapter Six considers critical reflection. Chapter Seven presents approaches to learning, Chapter Eight discusses communication, and finally, Chapter Nine poses the question, what next for social pedagogy? This small booklet succeeds in de-mystifying social pedagogy for the practitioner, and can provide a useful tool for British and Irish practitioners who wish to adopt this creative method of social work in their practice. I liked the inclusion of concise explanations of practical tools for practice – for example, the life-world orientation; the diamond model; empowerment; the head, heart, and hands approach; the 3 PS (professional, personal, and private) approach, the common third, the four Fs (facts, feelings, findings, and futures), peer group case reflection, and the Johari Window. Although social pedagogy traditionally has been linked with education, it is a powerful tool for social work, not limited to practice with children, but also for use across the lifespan with service users. This small publication succeeds in its purpose, and I welcome a publication that is designed as a practical tool for practitioners.

Youth working with girls and women in community settings: a feminist perspective

instance, they need to check what the official policy is on identifying injustice, researching the causes and producing change. They need to locate other people who are interested to do that, and find out what their experience has been and whether resources exist to provide support. They need to locate leaders in the community, who might provide the nucleus of action groups. They need to decide whether it is possible tomake time for community action within the constraints of the work prescribed by employers andmanagers, orwhether they have to create space for it in their personal time andwork out how publicly they can act. This should all be done openly, in the knowledge that there may be opposition or reluctance, and that progress may be very slow at first – pedestrian stuff compared with the higher flights of theory, but an essential bridge to effective practice. The authors might argue that they have provided enough examples of effective practice for workers to draw their own conclusions, and there is some truth in this. They bring evidence from Glasgow, Newcastle and Ireland, but also from Australia, Brazil, Mexico, New Orleans and New Zealand. These are not analyses of practice, however, but pointers to good practice. It always seems churlish to ask for more, but one has to ask ‘How did they do it ?’ This is not just an academic discussion, but a proposal to students and practitioners to act in a certain way. The theory is there; it is exciting; it opens horizons; it is a freshening breeze in the fug of day-to-day practice. But the path ahead is dangerous for the unwary. It requires mine-disposal training. This is my only criticism of the book, which is lively and interesting, and alert to the context of practice. It is well produced and free of typographic and referencing errors.

Child welfare systems and migrant children: a cross country study of policies and practices

comes up who gets to decide who is ‘at home’ in a certain society and, as a result, is entitled to use state-provided services and facilities. Highly mobile migrants, for example, who do not have the intention to become long-term residents in a certain location, may feel that their belonging is questioned and that, as a result, they have no access to certain rights. One may ask oneself whether longterm residency and integration are prerequisites for belonging. In several Western European countries, the metaphor of home as a public and ideological space is increasingly being used by policy-makers, as well as social workers to legitimize their political programmes, policies, and social interventions. Duyvendak, Reinders and Wekker (2016) (Homing the Dutch, Home Cultures, 13(2), 87–100) illustrate, for example, how in the Netherlands the normative conception of home, and the related institutionalized interventions, have changed over time. Nowadays, Dutch citizens are increasingly encouraged to participate affectively in their neighbourhoods, cities, and the nation, and thus to feel at home among a wider range of people. This discourse is related to the evolution of the Dutch social protection system towards a ‘participation society’, in which people decrease their dependency on state provision and instead become self-sufficient or dependent on family and community solidarity. It would be interesting to link this process of deinstitutionalization of care and welfare with homing, the meanings that different groups associate with home and their practices concerning care and wellbeing. Finally, migrants’ search for home calls for a transnational focus in social work. Problem definitions, categories of analysis and methods of social work are still mostly situated within the context of the nation-state and its organizations and institutions, falling short in examining transnational processes and actors. The explicit transnational and plural dimension of the home experience of mobile people and – more broadly – the growing number of people who lead ‘transnational lives’ question localized assumptions on identities and belonging and the local focus of social work. Reading Boccagni’s book makes it very clear that home matters, also to social workers, in many more ways than can be described in a book review. The book invites social workers to explore the variety of ways in which they can play a role in the process of homing on a structural and individual level, as they are active in a field where the discourse on home used by policy-makers and by citizens meet.

Conflict resolution for the helping professions (second edition)

Burnham, D. (2012). The social worker speaks: A history of social workers through the twentieth century. Farnham: Ashgate. Burt, M. (2008). Social work occupations in England, 1900–1939: Changing the focus. International Social Work, 51(6), 752– 000. Pierson, J. (2011). Understanding social work: History and context. Maidenhead: Open University Press, McGraw Hill. Rogowski, S. (2010). Social work: The rise and fall of a profession. Bristol: The Policy Press.

Strengthening the retention of child protection workers: career preferences, exchange relationships and employment mobility

something that might be very dear to him/her, or even simply the environment itself. For Elaine Arnold, these are of course the innermost suffering, the heartfelt misery of the immigrants: the painful but hidden or at most ignored/neglected aspects of immigration that only a close and intimate sharing with the immigrants or their relatives can reveal. From this point of view we no longer see immigration as a human movement/departure for a better place but rather as a rift or even a wreck of familial relationships. The experience of family members living together is common among people and is upheld in many societies. But some peoples may not attach to this mode of living a preferential importance and the well-known concept of the extended family is one of the concrete testimonies. To that effect, an act that tempers or an action that jeopardises this mode of life, even if for a better future of a given member, leaves some indelible marks both on the side of the initiator and on that of the rest of the family. It could be taken so seriously that even an eventual return of the other member may not easily clear off the presumed incurred harm. And that is exactly the head of nail on which Elaine aims at hammering in this book. Through a careful analysis of the social and religious life-background of Caribbean people of African origin, Elaine gives us in the first chapter of her work what I might call the ‘general world’s view’ of this set of people. Group immigration has historical connections or links; on that note, Elaine takes the reader to find in the second chapter of her work the particular features of the immigration of African Caribbean people to Britain. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth chapters of the work elaborate the notion of family attachment, the pains of separation, and all the other intricacies and the caprices that surround the phenomenon and also how it can affect a whole family/community, and lastly, the seventh chapter gives us a clue on what it takes to be involved in humanitarian/social work among immigrants, more specially those of African Caribbean origin. With the work of Elaine Arnold on immigrants of African Caribbean origin, social workers are led to understand the different expectations both presumed and hidden in order to render an effective and efficient help for the integral welfare of people in need.

Social work and social theory: making connections

It is often assumed by practitioners that doing social work is more important than thinking about it. Garrett makes this common sense viewpoint to his point of departure aiming at placing social th...

Qualitative research skills for social work: theory and practice/Quasi-experimental research designs

recognition of the injuries was realised only by the doctors—not by the social workers. Ferguson’s book inspires to deal authentically with the sensitive duties of risk clarification. In the triangle of state control, help for the family and own professional ethics, the book expresses the difficulty of this plan. Another basic tension moment of the book consists in the fact that social work is first very individually and casuistically constructed. Processes of negotiation are incumbent upon the relation of social workers and families. Also the language itself, for example, in the formulation of aims, is implicated in this individuality. However, at the same time—according to the objective of this book—a collective understanding and common standards should be developed. The book makes a concrete contribution to this standardisation of the knowledge. Interestingly, this does not happen via a compressed set of rules or a list of instruments, but the interpretative access always leaves a space for the cognitive variety of the individual social worker—from the strengthening of whose competences Ferguson seems to expect more than from a directive processing list. Interestingly, this is not achieved by using standardised methods but rather through an interpretative approach adopted by individual social workers in their professional practice.

Social Quality—Looking for a Global Social Policy: Attempting an Approximation to the Analysis of Distances of Social Systems (Studien zur vergleicender Sozialpädagogik und internationaler Sozialarbeit und Sozialpolitik, vol. II)

This book summarizes the results of more years of research at different institutions plus intense studies in Taiwan during July, August and September 2007, supplemented by a stay in Ankara and at the Max-Planck-Institute for Foreign and International Social Law. Peter Herrmann aims at presenting, discussing and developing a model of social quality on a global scale. Thereby, he attempts to avoid traps: either to emphasize a model of developed countries (say the so-called Nordic model) as an ideal without reflecting other models or to refer to abstract concepts of social justice, freedom, etc. as human moral, isolating the moral statements from socio-economic contexts. Herrmann avoids both traps by developing an understanding of public responsibility. For this purpose he draws upon political economy and social law. The book contains six parts. The first part discusses a social quality perspective, seen from the viewpoint of World Systems Theory, which raises methodological questions. This part is indeed interesting, since the aim is to avoid the traps mentioned. Instead the argumentation is pillared with a departure from social practice in order to grasp what the social is. Hermann develops a model (p. 17) consisting of three kinds of factors: conditional, constitutional and normative, and further emphasizes their interplay. On the way to developing that model the book discusses the distinctions of society, state and different institutions that some sociologists have left out. The social in his definition is, then, understood as matter of socialization. The distinctions of societal, social and individual dimensions are seen as a: