UiS Open Journals (Univ. of Stavanger)
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Jærstrendene. Namn og stader
Get PDFThis monograph presents linguistic analysis of more than 3000 coastal toponyms from Jæren (southwestern Norway), from the sea and the seashores. The etymology of the names is discussed as well as the context and the historical background of the names. There are also chapters on the naming process and the use of names, on toponyms as linguistic and historical sources and on special linguistic and historical topics appearing in this corpus of names. The locations of the toponyms are marked on maps. The place-names presented have been coined from oral sources in the local dialect. A large part of the corpus was collected by the author in the 1970s, presented in his unpublished master’s thesis Stadnamn frå sjøen på Jæren (Coastal place-names from Jæren) from 1978 (University of Bergen). The use of toponyms makes it possible to localize activities and various phenomena in everyday conversation. The fishermen give names to fishing grounds in order to be able to talk about their work. The fact that toponyms contain linguistic material giving specific information about the locations, makes them valuable as sources. They provide information to researchers within linguistics, history and archaeology, as well as to ordinary folk. Place-names mention and localize former traditions and working processes. The semantic content of coastal microtoponyms from Jæren contains information about e.g. fishing and hunting, sailing, dangerous waters, shipwrecks, the use of seaweed, the use of sand from the beaches, defence systems, administration, rights, events, traditions and attitudes – and about the local language. Most toponyms contain a topographical appellative as the generic, describing the type of location represented. Ca. 200 words identifying different types of locations are found in this corpus of names, in addition to more than 100 examples of metaphorical naming. Most toponyms are compound, containing a generic and a specifier. The specifiers refer to e.g. geographical position, shape, colour, size, soil, vegetation, animals, persons, working processes, traditions and special events
Tribal and Non-tribal Agencies: A Comparison of how Social Work with Families is Conceptualized in the United States
Get PDFAs definitions of “family” have evolved in the US over the past several decades, so too has child welfare agencies’ need to provide appropriate and meaningful services. This article discusses the findings and conclusions drawn from a case study involving two different types of social work agencies: Native American child welfare and not- for-profit family services. Within this discussion, the authors use their findings from case study vignette focus groups to explore how the definitions of family impact the provision of services.At each agency, participants addressed issues surrounding domestic violence, teen pregnancy, child welfare involvement and the inclusion of extended families as part of client’s support network. By focusing on the changing social concept of “family,” the study’s respondents discussed the need for direct practice using broader, more inclusive approaches to family and child welfare. Through the comparison of two agencies which serve different demographics, the article makes clear that further study is needed, and a wider scope must be considered, in order to adequately serve America’s expanding population in need of family services, direct practice and extended support
Family as Raw Material: the Deconstructed Family in the Swedish Social Services
No full textThis article focuses on how families are defined and conceptualized by social workers in the Swedish social services. Using a qualitative study design, we carried out telephone interviews with 60 social workers in five major sectors of the social services in two smaller and two larger municipalities. These sectors included elderly care, disability, child welfare, addiction and economic support, with a qualitative content analysis approach used to analyze the data.The results showed that the practices in social service organizations are both individualized and specialized. Social workers primarily focus on the individual as the client when deciding upon interventions, and when asked about how they regard, define and delimit the family in their work, our analysis revealed that different mediating mechanisms were engaged in what can be seen as a deconstruction of the family. These mechanisms included legislation (as a control mechanism), household composition (boundary mechanism) and service needs (professional mechanism), which were used in various ways and to differing degrees within each sector. The resultant five unique and sector-specific conceptualizations of families are implicated in how interventions are constructed and work processes targeted at individuals and families
Questioning the Question: How can a husband rape his wife? A Discussion in an International Classroom
Get PDFThis essay discusses the question “How can a husband rape his wife?” I assume that upon reading this you already have some reaction or answer. I have one, too. The interesting part is that they can be very different. Some people think along the lines of “Yes, I can\u27t imagine how a husband can rape his wife because that is so cruel.” Other people may think something like “Yes, how is this even possible, that a husband having sex with his wife could be considered rape.” These views are quite different, and it is this difference that interests me.In this essay, I will reflect upon the question “How can a husband rape his wife?” I will discuss my personal background, and describe the situation and experience in which this question was brought up. Next, I will discuss various reflections I have had about this difference. I will then reflect on how this idea, or even the definitions of the terms, may be based on a person’s culture, gender, and/or opinions. After that, I will look at how this topic may affect social workers, service users and social work as a profession. Lastly, I will also explain how this has helped me gain a better understanding of this issue.
 
Life as Moving Towards the Other
Get PDFThe ethics of Knud Ejler Løgstrup (1905-1981) is relation ethics. It raises the question of how we can do justice to the life of the Other as it is laid in our hands. In this paper, I start out with an ethical dilemma, clarify the concepts of decision ethics and relation ethics, and I then present the ethics of Løgstrup understood as relation ethics. Lastly, I discuss the important question – within the fields of social work, health care, psychotherapy and pedagogical practices – of how we can meet people in need of our help in an ethical way
Service Users Facing Household Challenges: Their Experiences with Task-Centered Coping Approach
Get PDFThis article is based on a study of an educational and developmental programme, in which the task-centred coping approach (TCCA) was a central part. Twenty social worker practitioners from Norwegian municipal social services (MSS) participated in the programme, and practiced TCCA with 74 of their service users. The aim of the study was to develop knowledge about how service users evolve their housing competence by utilizing TCCA.The study was based on a way of participatory action research, in which the researcher was positioned as a partly participating researcher. The researcher tried to attain knowledge from the individualized activities of the service users and the practitioners, and use this knowledge as a contribution to developing their practice and the programme. User participation was one of the cornerstones of the study, and individualization meant matching the approaches of the practitioners to the experienced needs of the individual service user
Problems Facing Disabled People in Malawi: A Critical Reflection on My Encounter with a Disabled Woman in a Rural Area in Malawi
Get PDFThis critical reflection is based on my encounter with a disabled woman in a district in Malawi, and how I have reflected and analyzed the encounter using social work theories. The essay reflects on the story of the disabled woman and my own perception at that time, in addition to my analysis of these perceptions using different perspectives in social work based on my current understanding of these perspectives. In line with Fook’s (2002; 68) critical reflection techniques, social work theories will be applied to deconstruct and reconstruct the critical incident. The essay highlights the challenges and dilemmas I encountered in attempting to make meaning out of this encounter, which left me helpless and powerless, as I could not offer her any sustainable help at the time
Beyond the others’ world: An essay about the experience of social work with a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome
Get PDFThe essay presents a reflection on being a foreign and inexperienced social worker within a Norwegian social work context. I discuss challenges I have met in my work with when Asperger syndrome is diagnosed and reflect on power relations and the issue of self-determination within the field, in addition to analysing some critical incidents that made me rethink and reconstruct all of my experiences. I view my story from different angles and find different perspectives that show various ways of perceiving one thing. I discover the dangerousness of thinking in “black and white” and placing things in exclusive extremes, and lastly, I understand that I need to learn to solve problems by changing attitudes towards them