UiS Open Journals (Univ. of Stavanger)
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‘I hope the doctor will send something black-or-white’. : Reflective practice at the frontline in the Danish public employment service.
Get PDFThe provision of public employment services to people in vulnerable life circumstances is notoriously filled with complexity and dilemmas. Not only are there multiple potential solutions to a given problem, but the very definition of the problem itself, ‘what it is all about’, is subject to interpretation and discretion. Faced with such intricacies, employment service professionals need to engage in critical reflections. Despite this recognised need, little is known about the actual processes involved in professional reflections. The aim of this article is to contribute empirically to our understanding of how professionals engage in collective reflections, specifically zooming in on the logics and reasonings behind these reflections. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Danish employment service organisations, the research shows that professional reflections tend to be more instrumental than critical, and more focused on certainty and what to do, than on understanding dilemmas and bringing in new perspectives on problems. Following the perspective of reparative critique, the analysis explores avenues for fostering more critical reflections within the context of public employment service. The findings bear implications for understanding the institutional and organisational embeddedness of professional reflective practices within welfare work, particularly in the realm of public work inclusion services
Political Contestations, Human Rights Violations and the Human Victims in Uganda: A Call for Social Work Actions through Indigenous Pathways
Get PDFIn Uganda, the social work profession was introduced by the British colonial government, and therefore activated as a tool of colonial state control. Consequently, the profession adopted Western philosophies with a disregard for indigenous social support philosophies. It used a non-political stance to counter political dissent, resistance and activism against the colonial administration. In the decades that have followed, the profession’s invisibility in politics and activism has undermined its critical contribution to challenging injustice in social policy and society. In this article, we challenge this apolitical epistemology of social work in Uganda rooted in the profession’s colonial past, the country’s violent political history and contemporary neoliberal economic choices. We use a case analysis of the political contestations, human rights violations and human victims in the 2021 presidential elections in Uganda. We conducted a thematic analysis of data sourced from both print and electronic media, election observer reports and human rights reports. From this analysis, we argue that Uganda’s political contestations produce widespread state- and non-state-driven human rights violations. We articulate that the resultant countless human victims can no longer be ignored, and should compel social work as a profession that seeks to promote social justice into action. From a decolonial standpoint, we stress that social work’s continued inaction cannot safeguard the profession’s social justice mission amidst Uganda’s political contestations. Since the outcomes of these political contestations profoundly impact social justice, human rights and the well-being of the majority of the communities, we argue that the social work profession in Uganda must galvanise the commitment to engage in the politics of the day vigorously and publicly. We conclude by making calls for social work actions that utilise indigenous pathways in building a credible political leadership that safeguards the rights and wellness of society
Ubuntu: A resource for help groups for older people living with HIV in Korogwe District, Tanzania
Get PDFUbuntu is an indigenous African philosophy that promotes collectivism, solidarity and mutual interdependence as being vital for the majority welfare. In this paper, it is used to discuss the findings from a qualitative study of how older people living with HIV (OPLHIV) in Korogwe, Tanzania use help groups for informal social support, to battle their daily challenges as a result of HIV and ageing in a rural context. Interviews with 13 OPLHIV showed that there are voluntarily formed groups and arranged groups. We find that voluntarily organised groups seem to build on, and benefit from Ubuntu values. The study further showed that Ubuntu values in group organisation are currently challenged by donor dependency, heterogeneity and poverty in local communities. Social work practice is recommended to acknowledge the strength of Ubuntu to support already existing initiatives in the field, but also to recognise the factors that challenge it
The Role of Social Work in Empowering People Living with HIV (PLHIV) for Poverty Alleviation in the Huye District in Rwanda: Indigenisation and the Role of Intermediary Social Work Actors
Get PDFPeople in need (PIN), such as people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV), are often discriminated against, isolated and disempowered. Consequently, it is not always easy for them to fight for their survival. However, the literature has shown that once empowered, PLHIV manage to cope with social problems, particularly poverty and its ramifications. This study aimed to examine and show how social work, as an empowering profession, has the potential to contribute to the mitigation of adversities, particularly poverty, that hinder the betterment of the lives of PIN. In particular, this study examined the phenomenon of social work indigenisation as a means of re-invigorating practice approaches by drawing on the case of Rwanda. This study is based on data collected in the Huye District for my PhD research project, which was completed in January 2023. The research adopted an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design, with great privilege given to the participatory action research (PAR) methodology. The research results showed that social workers are key catalysts, and are well positioned to empower PIN. For effective success, it is essential that they work with intermediary social work actors (ISWAs), and use mostly developmental approaches that should integrate indigenous practices. Ultimately, the findings of this study provide evidence that PAR is beneficial to the bridging role of ISWAs in the problem-solving process, and thus may be recommended to be adopted for adequately mitigating poverty
Between governance and local knowledge: Social workers’ engagement with employment support for young people in the Faroe Islands and Greenland
Get PDFUnemployment among young people is a large and multifaceted theme in contemporary social work research in the Nordic countries, with investing in youth being a top political priority. Social work has a pivotal role in the provision of employment services, particularly for young people in disadvantageous situations. We argue that the political understanding of unemployment as a social problem, and work inclusion as the solution effectuated through universalised employment support for young people, do not always correspond to social workers’ experiences and understandings of work and inclusion. This is particularly evident in postcolonial contexts, where identity politics interfere with policies of employment support, and power asymmetries between Nordic countries become visible. We suggest that culture as complex forms of local knowledge continuously negotiated and transformed by multiple actors, is a key factor for the constitution and resolution of unemployment as a social problem. Drawing on two ethnographic cases from Greenland and the Faroe Islands, we investigate how tensions between local knowledge and governance is played out in social work on young unemployment. We show how social workers insist on unemployment as social problems that need to be solved in tensions between belonging and uprooting, traditional and modern forms of life, and through postcolonial conflicts. Addressing challenges of employment support and work inclusion in areas in the Nordic region, which have been paid less attention to in research, is of crucial importance to make improvement
Anthroposophy and Racism:
Get PDFThis article provides a detailed exposition of Rudolf Steiner’s racial teachings, followed by an overview of how his racial ideas have influenced the Anthroposophical movement in five European countries: Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Italy. There is substantial evidence that Steiner and many of his leading followers persistently promoted ideas about race that align closely with those espoused by white supremacists. The article also summarises and analyses the main lines of defence put forward within the Anthroposophical movement in response to critiques of Steiner’s racial teachings
Koda and Hayward: Background of Female Musicians in the Early 20th Century in Japan and in the UK - Comparing Concert Reviews
Get PDFThroughout history, female musicians have often been expected to be charming, young, and look attractive, but not to demonstrate mastery greater than their male counterparts. This social expectation has existed since female musicians appeared. One outcome of this emphasis on appearance rather than musical involvement is that after the death of female musicians, their impact is not nearly as documented as is the case for male musicians. ‘She’ is not recognised not only during her lifetime, but also posthumously.
This paper introduces two musicians from Japan and the UK who lived at the same time - Nobu Koda (1870-1946) and Marjorie Hayward (1885-1953). I use concert reviews to demonstrate their backgrounds, as case studies of female violinists of the time.
The first person in a community often receives an especially intense backlash - this was the case for Nobu Koda, the first composer of western classical music in Japan. Koda was a violinist, pianist, a teacher, and a composer, and was the first person who studied abroad as a Japanese musician. Although her outstanding talent and career, she was forced to quit her job in the music institute because of the negative campaign by competitors for her position of head of the department.
Despite her 30-year contribution as an educator at the Royal Academy of Music, it is very hard to find the information about Marjorie Hayward the violinist today. There are many recordings of the broadcasts she made, however, further stories about her are not yet available. She started her professional career as a child prodigy, and many concert reviews in her childhood can be found, but the number of reviews decreased year by year.
Comparing these two, we can see what kind of situations women have faced, and the detail of differences in the philosophies towards music in those two countries, at the dawn of western classical music in Japan, and at the same time in the UK
