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Social enterprises are embedded in the local context, their organizational characteristics and operational strategies being influenced by the institutional settings, political culture and historical traditions and events. Similar to other European countries, Romania has included the modernization of the welfare systems in the development agenda of the last decade. One of the areas of interest was to better understand and promote the dynamics of the social enterprises as economic, social development actors and facilitators. From a neo-institutionalist perspective, this paper aims to explore the role of social enterprises as a component of Romanian welfare system. It starts with an overview of the history of the Romanian social enterprise, its roots and drivers; it continues with the identification of the roles, challenges and development processes of the social enterprises as welfare services.
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Social workers promote justice and social change, work to optimize access and promote citizens' rights, among which is the access of all students to education. In Portugal, social workers presence in schools fluctuated throughout times, as a consequence of the variable appreciation the profession deserved in the successive public policies regulating the educational sector. Thus, two purposes guide this paper review: (i) to unfold the main legislative initiatives in the field of public education to reflect upon social workers participation in Portuguese schools, over time; (ii) emphasize the multidimensionality of the work accomplished by social workers in schools, conceptualized the open systems permeable to the diversity and complexity of the problems (failure, abandonment, indiscipline, violence, bullying, discrimination, …, consumption) that encompass students' social origins and their needs. Resting on exploratory-descriptive research, this paper is based on the selective literature review from school social work's and educational policies scientific fields, subsequently subjected to content and argumentative analysis procedures. Main results emphasize the central role fulfilled by social workers in Portuguese schools, stressing out the ways by which political theoretical-methodological, ethical and technical-operational dimensions permeating social work practices, are mobilized to build critical professional projects capable of responding the challenges school social workers face nowadays.
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The charity activity in warring Ukrainian society stipulated the interest to the social work volunteer’s problem. Substantial changes also happened in the world psychology and social work: positive health psychology and positive approach to social work appeared; “emotional revolution” proceeds in the field of professional labor, the positive functioning of personality and to his/her well-being. Such initiatives and orientation were the methodological basis of the conducted research.The sample of the research included 100 Ukrainian paramilitary volunteers. The interconnections between, the one side, the level of the emotional burnout, “the Dark triad” personality traits and, the another side, subjective and psychological well-being have been examined. It turned out that the greater part of the tested persons is “within the limits of the norm” of burnout, but only in the first and second phases of emotional burnout – “tension” and “exhaustion”. However the number of volunteers with high positive personality traits and low negative ones as “the Dark Triad” and vice versa low positive and high negative – in the third phase of emotional burnout – “resistance” in 1,5 times higher (64 / 42%) accordingly. Paradoxical reverse interconnection was also found out high indexes of “the Dark Triad” and low – emotional burnout, positive connection of narcissism with the level of subjective well-being. The only fact that distinguishes two groups of volunteers is the best indexes of psychological well-being and conscientious as personality trait (Big-Five).These data testify to the greater vulnerability for the negative consequences of burnout of high moral, “good” volunteers (low “Dark Triad”). The received results compel researchers to think: Does it really mean that “to be a best” paramilitary volunteer is not to have strong health but have significant level of emotional and occupational burnout in the conditions of war?
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Kötarö Suzumura jest wybitnym japońskim teoretykiem wyboru społecznego i ekonomii dobrobytu. Urodził się 7 stycznia 1944 r. Przez całe życie był związany z Hitotsubashi University. Tam odbył studia licencjackie i magisterskie (1962-68), studia doktoranckie (1968-71), uzyskał stopień doktora (1980) na podstawie pracy Rational Choice, Collective Decisions and Social Welfare (opublikowanej później przez Cambridge University Press, 1983). Tam wykładał od 1971 r. do czasu przejścia na emeryturę, z przerwami na wykłady w Kyoto University (1973-82) oraz w London School of Economics (1974-76), a także na liczne roczne lub półroczne pobyty na innych uniwersytetach, np. Cambridge University (1973-74); Stanford University (1979-80); Australian National University (1986); University of Pennsylvania (1987); All Souls College, Oxford University (1988); University of Essex 1990; Harvard University (1993); University of British Columbia (1994); St. Antony’s College, Oxford University (1996); Trinity College, Cambridge University (2001).
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The article discuss the consequences of demographic changes which have an influence on housing needs of elderly people. Population forecasts predict that in the nearest decades the number of senior citizens will rise, particularly in the category of those aged 85+. Due to the limited number of places in sheltered flats, residential homes or old people’s homes, new solutions must be found to provide new housing unit for seniors. The needs of elderly people in the housing industry are diversified and depend on their social, psychological, biological or economic situation, and in particular on the degree of their independence or possibility of self-reliance. The importance of the place of living in the life of every man requires solving the problem. Social housing being a specific section of the housing market may have a great potential in solving housing problems for the elderly, especially when the lower costs of investments in the construction and maintenance of flats from this sector is taken into account.
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Poland, following the example of other European countries, has made significant changes to the system of child and family care. New solutions in the foster care system were introduced in the form of assistance families in order to support and temporarily replace foster carers. Information on the assistance family was collected by means of internet research, mainly through thematic forums, chat rooms and social networking sites. However, it was extended during surveys in selected districts of the Lubelskie and Świętokrzyskie Voivodships. The respondents’ opinions on the support families were not unequivocal, there were supporters and opponents of this idea, both among employees of social welfare institutions and interested substitute caregivers.
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People leaving penitentiary institutions, being at particular risk of social marginalization, are one of the target groups of social policy in the countries of the European Union. Social work with this social category, however, runs at the intersection of social policy and criminal policy, between which a distinct “fracture” has been observed in Poland for years. Collaboration of penitentiary units with social assistance institutions is usually of a small range, and the support offered to former prisoners in the return to society is “blurred” between systems (justice, penitentiary, social welfare) and their institutions. As one of the consequences, the social rehabilitation system does not benefit from social work’s achievements. The aim of the article is to outline the systemic context of Polish social work with people leaving penitentiary institutions and to draw attention to the possibility of using social work more widely than presently, in order to limit social marginalization of this social category and – from the point of view of criminal and penal policy – to reduce criminal recidivism.
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Social workers today have at their disposal modern tools (computer programs, computer equipment, smartphones), they have much faster access to information, document patterns, and good practices. Social work is changing, the competences of social workers are changing. The social work itself as a practical activity is developed thanks to the development of social work as a scientific field. The educational process, currently at the academic level, places emphasis on building relationships between science and practice. The knowledge, skills and competences of graduates are to be the answer of the didactic process to the needs of the social welfare system. The ubiquitous standards are designed to unify both systems, to objectify their principles. In its essence, social work escapes the standards, empowering clients and social workers themselves, incorporating elements that escape standardization and objectification. About these three elements is this article – the intuition of a social worker, empathy and mentalization.
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The content of the article focuses on the issues of the elderly and the role of a social worker in the local environment. The aim of the article is to show the initiatives taken by social workers taking into account the problems and needs of older people. The source material has become social projects implemented by social workers who raise their qualifications and apply for second degree specialization. The research method is the analysis of existing data, in this case social projects. Social projects were implemented in 2017–2018. The article presents only selected projects, and thus also the problems of seniors. Social workers through projects prove how much can be done for older people thanks to the ingenuity, willingness and integration of social service forces in a given local community. At the same time, they show what problems elderly people are facing and what challenges they face in society.
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The article aims to characterize the multidimensional social exclusion of social assistance female clients in Poland. The author identifies reasons for a greater risk of social exclusion of women taking into consideration issues associated with experiencing many social problems connected to labour market, domestic violence, single parenthood and intra-family situation. The paper was based on statistical data and empirical research which had a qualitative (90 individual in-depth interviews with social workers) and quantitative nature (500 Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews with social workers). The study was conducted with social workers from Poland who provide professional support to people and families experiencing social exclusion on a daily basis.
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The article has a descriptive character, and the object of the discussion is the idea of creating intergenerational homes, enabling establishing relationships between the younger and the older generation. Both in Poland and in the world there is a trend of population aging. In the near future, Poland will be at the forefront of the countries with the largest number of older people in the population. The changing social structure brings with it many changes visible in every area of human life. The main purpose of the articles was to show the specificity of old age in terms of social relations. On the basis of the literature analysis of the subject, available data and reports, an attempt was made to determine the importance of institutionalization of generational relations by combining care facilities for seniors and children.
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The paper covers the issue of social workers’ social identity taken in theoretical framework of symbolic boundaries by Michèle Lamont and internal‑external dialectics of identity by Richard Jenkins. The discussed research concentrated on symbolic practices of social workers in relation towards clients and office workers. Both identified categories sustain the distinction between pure/impure, however differences can be noticed in case of boundary settings and boundary work. Analysis of external image experienced by social workers and the contrasted self‑image connected with social workers/office workers boundary allows for cautious conclusions about prospects of social work professionalization.
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Video Home Training (or Video Interaction Guidance, or Video Enhanced Reflective Practice) has a twenty five years of tradition in Western social services (especially the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Germany). In this article I want to present the development of this method in the last decades. It found application in the area of work with children and families, disabled people, peer groups, education al psychology and supervision of students and professionals. In the past, Polish social workers also benefited from VHT, which is why it is worth recalling his method and making it more popular and applied again.
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Contemporary trends in the creation of state social policy focus on the concept of multisectorality, which provides theoretical analyses and practical solutions. The model of multisectorality most often points to the model of the triangle of society’s welfare. It assumes the coexistence of three components of the state, market and households (the concept of welfare mix). The model of the society’s welfare triangle has been modified over time. The category of civil society and the various sub‑sectors were replaced by households. The new concept of multisectorality consists in the equality of all sectors and the transfer of tasks from the state sector to other sectors. In the adopted assumptions, none of the sectors should dominate, and the state’s task should be to organise optimal conditions for successful development, including providing the necessary legal, financial and organisational resources, while maintaining the state’s regulatory and control functions. The aim of the article is to present selected innovative solutions present in the area of social work, which are consistent with the modern approach to multisectoriality.
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In recent years, China's private health insurance has achieved rapid development. The determinants of the development of private health insurance in China are still uncertain. This study investigated the impact of private medical care on the development of private health insurance, and particularly focused on its spillover effect. Based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2007 to 2017, a Spatial Durbin Model was performed to explore the relationship between private medical care and private health insurance development. The results show that: the development of private health insurance has the spillover effects and it promotes the development of private health insurance in adjacent areas; private medical care is associates with the development of private health insurance, and it impacts both density and depth of private health insurance; at the same time, private medical care has a significant spatial spillover effect on the density of private health insurance in neighboring regions.
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This article explores the role of partners and parents of young adult repeat offenders in the process of desistance from crime. First, we conducted in-depth interviews with 22 young adults who had been involved in persistent criminal activity since adolescence but had since stopped. Some, but by no means all of them, stated that their partner had played an important role in this. In contrast, hardly any of them had any doubt about the importance of their parents’ role. We then investigated whether the same views were also found among young adult offenders where it was unclear whether or not they had desisted from crime. Based on in-depth interviews with 21 young adults, we conclude that this was indeed the case except for a minority who continued to offend. This article throws new light on the role of both partners and parents in the process of desisting from crime.
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Life after prison can pose challenges for the formerly incarcerated, their families, and wider communities. This research studies Austria where probation services are either mandated by the court or sought voluntarily after prison. Through semi-structured interviews with formerly incarcerated individuals, reintegration experiences from their perspectives are examined. The narratives emphasized social factors that either assuage or complicate life after prison. The main factors addressed were stable housing, the maintaining and (re)building of relationships, and employment. Overall, a lack of stable housing appeared to complicate life after prison the most and also negatively affected relationships and employment. For some, life after prison was further exacerbated by immigration status and a perceived stigma related to the nature of one’s convictions. This study shows the importance of working towards a better understanding of the social context individuals are released into after prison to better meet their individual needs and to counteract recidivism.
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This article draws on analysis of interview data from an exploratory case study at an independent ‘offender’ resettlement scheme in England, investigating the benefits or otherwise of commensality for criminalised individuals and the wider community who share a communal lunchtime meal. For prisoners released on temporary licence and others referred through probation, caught in the liminal space between criminal and civilian life, commensality enables social interaction with non-criminalised individuals in a social environment outside of the prison estate. It becomes an arena for the display of non-criminalised identities in preparation for release into the community after punishment. It is a useful tool for social integration that challenges stereotypical beliefs about criminalised individuals amongst the wider community. Moreover, commensality works as a theatre for the performance of non-criminalised identities, by promoting social inclusion and generativity, it is part of a process of desistance geared towards improving self-worth.
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Many activities are carried out for people with disabilities to participate effectively in all areas of life. In this context, many studies are carried out in the accommodation establishments in order to enable the disabled people to participate in the tourism mobility without any problems. Accommodation establishments are the places used by people with no disabilities, but they are the places used by people with disabilities who live in the social environment in a way that is not to be underestimated. However, these places used in most accommodation establishments do not have structurally appropriate properties for individuals with disabilities and behavioral limitations. For this reason, people with disabilities face many difficulties in these places. In order to solve the difficulties faced by people with disabilities, the spaces should be designed for the use of people with disabilities and the features should be constantly improved. The purpose of the research is to investigate the level of information on the needs and expectations of potential tourists with disabilities on the official websites of 3-star, 4-star and 5-star accommodation establishments in Baku. As a result of the research, it has been determined that the websites of 4 and 5 star hotels in three provinces have very limited sharing regarding the information needs of individuals with disabilities and as a legal necessity, even if there is a disabled room in the hotels, this information is not available in an electronic environment.
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