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Whilst 50% of child protection workers across much of Europe and the affluent ‘West’ leave after two years, many stay and develop substantial professional careers. This paper discusses research in Italy, Sweden and England examining what factors explain ‘remaining’ for more than three years in this stressful job. Underpinned by a hermeneutic epistemology, qualitative interviews were undertaken and subject to an interpretative thematic analysis. The findings proved to be complex and multi-layered and this paper presents an overview of these. The theoretical framework for the project mainly drew on organisations and resilience, and the initial sections of the paper consider how formulations of resilience as contextual and relational can elucidate professional sustainability. Organisational issues are considered, including the impact of work management, of supervision and of allocation in different national contexts. The paper also focuses on the role of friendships and informal support at work. Threaded through these established themes are more, perhaps surprising, concepts: for example, creativity, power, reflexive spaces and interpersonal relations as explanatory of remaining in child protection work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9566.2008.01145_6.x Byline: Liz Frost (1) Author Affiliation: (1)University of the West of England

Recognition and shame are both concepts that potentially offer social workers a structure to build practice on; two states experienced by both social workers and service users. ‘Recognition’, within social, political and economic thought, has been established as a field in which inequality and exclusion can be analysed. Social work theorists have also made inroads into exploring its reach. ‘Shame’ in twentieth century and contemporary sociological and psychoanalytical accounts, is understood as a force in limiting human agency, well-being and capacity This paper briefly outlines some of the defining ideas in circulation in relation to recognition and shame, and then briefly considers how psychoanalytical and contemporary social structural analysis builds on this, making links to contemporary social work thinking throughout. The paper also specifically considers some of the uses of recognition and shame for thinking about social worker and service user ‘well-being’, and the connections, through both the relational and the socio-political, which inflect social work practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article sets out to consider the tentative findings that have emerged from a comparative pilot study of the value given to their social work education by newly qualified social workers in England, Sweden and Italy. The overall aim of the research was to examine the subjective views of students from three contrasting welfare systems and three different degree programmes as to their preparedness for practice. The specific aim of this paper is to describe and analyse if and how a sense of professional identity is being developed and if perceptions of this differ between students coming from different welfare regimes. The project recorded and analysed the students' views on the cusp of starting their professional lives, and after one year of undertaking social work occupations. Further aims were to examine the role of theory teaching, placement opportunities, personal/professional "growth" and evaluative capacity in making these students "fit for practice" in specific welfare systems. The paper contextualises the research with discussion of the contemporary literature of professional identity in social work in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the authors are primarily exploring the notion of social suffering within a psychosocial paradigm. A brief outline of Bourdieu's concept of social suffering, and a similarly concise explication of the psychosocial subject as contemporarily theorized are given. The central section of the paper looks at some understandings of social suffering that are experienced internally as well as within structural inequalities and power relations. The concept of hurt is considered, offering the internalized injuries of class as an example. Loss is then examined in relation to the severing of, for example, communities and the losses of social recognition and internal esteem. The complex concept of double suffering, in which hurt accrues more hurt and is re-experienced, is then discussed. The welfare subject of contemporary policy and practice is, finally, briefly revisited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is primarily concerned with examining how the current re-emergence of psychosocial theory, mainly emanating from sociology, is useful for informing social work theory. Firstly it considers two extended examples of the limitations and/or contradictions in current theory for social work (that of linguistic determinism and postmodern versions of identity), and suggests how psychosocial theory offers ways forward for understanding and practice. The paper then considers two particular strengths in psychosocial theory: the ability to offer a 'rich' conceptualisation of the subject, and the equalising of worker and service user implicit in the theory. A further section looks briefly at the recent application of psychodynamic principles in social work practice, as 'relationship-based practice'. It then briefly considers some further implications for research and 'evidence' for social work. The paper's final section offers a discussion of two potential limitations in applying psychosocial theory in practice, before concluding that overall psychosocial theory is both productive, useful and appropriate for social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young Femininity. Girlhood, Power and Social Change, Sinikka Aapola, Marnina Gonick and Anita Harris, (2005) Basingstoke: Palgrave/Macmillan, 264 pp., ISBN 0-333-96511-6 (hbk), £55; ISBN 0-333-96512-4 (pbk), £18.99 Enhancing Teaching in Higher Education – New Approaches for Improving Student Learning, Peter Hartley, Amanda Woods and Martin Pill (eds.), (2005) London: Routledge, 216 pp., ISBN 9780415341363 (hbk), £80; ISBN 9780415335294 (pbk), £25.99 e-Learning Skills, Alan Clarke, (2004) Basingstoke: Palgrave/Macmillan, 258 pp., ISBN 1-4039-1755-8 (pbk), £11-99 IT Skills for Successful Study, Alan Clarke, (2005) Basingstoke: Palgrave/Macmillan, 205 pp., ISBN 1-4039-9271-1 (pbk), £11.99 Reshaping Teaching in Higher Education: Linking Teaching with Research, Alan Jenkins, Rosanna Breen and Roger Lindsay, with Angela Brew, (2003) London: Staff and Educational Development Association and Kogan Page, xi + 210 pp., ISBN: 0 7494 3903 3 (pbk), £25 The University in the Global Age, Roger King (ed.), (2004) Basingstoke: Palgrave/Macmillan, 224 pp., ISBN 1 4039 3467 3 (hbk), £55; ISBN 1 4039 1130 4 (pbk), £18.99 SCRAN Website [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proposes a theoretical framework within which the contemporary concerns about young women's unhappy and unhealthy relationships with their bodies can be elucidated. Consideration of symbolic interactionist theories to explicate the imperative of producing visual identity, and modern interactionist work to consider the consumer capitalist context of this imperative; Structural tradition and the social position of young people who seek identification through appearance; Intersubjective production and subjective experience of body-hatred.

Feminist writers have identified young women's engagement with their appearances as a source of alienation from their bodies. There are now concerns that 'feminization' of youth behaviour will lead to similar difficulties for young men, and this papers sets out to examine whether they too are experiencing levels of identity damage from this. The contemporary context of identity construction will be briefly considered. That for boys and girls practices of consumption can offer group affiliations but can lead also to exclusion and isolation is discussed. That boys are under pressure to produce bodies that are sporty, strong and 'hard' is then argued. The paper concludes that there are similarities in the pressures on boys and girls to 'do looks', but that the failure to do this and the experience of being excluded and/or devalued that this may produce may have more to do with class, 'race' and poverty than with gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]