Article
Мир профессий – пересмотр аналитических перспектив
In this issue we present a range of papers about current issues and developments in social work and welfare in Russia. In the Soviet era official state policy did not recognise the existence of social problems so social work was ‘not needed’ in the USSR, a situation which existed to varying degrees in other countries under state socialism (Iarskaia-Smirnova, 2013). The disciplines of sociology and psychology (which could form a basis for critical thinking and professional interventions) were eliminated from university curricula, except in forms which accorded with the dominant political view, and dissent was repressed. There have been major changes in political thinking, societal attitudes and welfare developments since perestroika started in 1985, and particularly since 1991 when the Soviet Union was dissolved, Russia then became open to relationships with western powers and capitalist economic thinking. However, Russia remains a considerable independent power with a distinct history and culture. In this editorial we give a brief overview of the historical and other contextual factors which are informing the particular nature and direction of current developments, some aspects of which are described in the articles.
The article discusses the scholarship, methods, and theoretical approaches that have been involved in the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies from the early 1980s through the early 2000s. It traces the changes in methodological orientations and examines the specificities of ethnographic fieldwork in the STS area, as well as suggests the criteria for evaluating the outcome of research and offers ways of its advancement.
This chapter outlines a range of the general and the unique features of the social work’s development in the post-socialist countries of Europe and Eurasia after the dissolution of the socialist bloc. The author describes the general trends and varieties in the development of social work as a profession. Short historic background provides the reader with general picture and peculiarities of welfare policy and social work formations during socialism and under the transition. The short cases of each of the 27 countries present information concerning the role of the state and nongovernmental organizations in service provision, education and training possibilities, status of social workers. The chapter is concluded by the outline of some general trends and variations in social work development throughout the region. The chapter is based on the study of the available literature and personal communications with social work experts. Following abbreviations are used throughout the text: FSU – Former Soviet Union, CEE – Central and Eastern Europe, EU – European Union, CIS – Commonwealth of Independent States, OSI – Open Society Institute.
The article describes some crucial moments of flight attendant job routin. The auther describes his experience of being flight attendant of one of the biggest and multicultural airlines – Emirates Airlines. Мобильность, профессия бортпроводника, авиация, этнография Mobility, Flight-attendant, Aviation, Ethnography
The book describes field research (archaeological anthropological, etc.) conducted in different years with financial support of the Russian Humanitairan Foundation.
Ein Weltatlas Soziale Arbeit weckt Assoziationen und Erwartungen an kartografische Überblicke (Spillmann 2007, S. 155ff.). Wer 2013 auf den Internetseiten von tagesschau.de herumsurft, findet ebenfalls einen Link mit dem Titel ‚Weltatlas‘. Dahinter verbirgt sich eine Weltkarte, in der sich beim Anklicken differenzierte Informationen über die Länder sowie politischen Ereignisse in den ausgewählten Regionen finden lassen. Hätten wir diesen Anspruch an den vorliegenden ‚Weltatlas Sozialer Arbeit‘, so wäre es ein unverschämtes Projekt; denn insgesamt liegt kein ausreichendes Wissen zur Sozialen Arbeit in den unterschiedlichen Regionen dieser „Welt“ vor, damit ein Buch diesem Anspruch – wörtlich genommen – auch nur in Ansätzen gerecht werden könnte. Die internationale und transnationale Forschung zur Sozialen Arbeit lässt entsprechend gar keine lexikalische Vermessung Sozialer Arbeit zu. Es würde immer nur ein blasses Abbild dieser Welt bleiben. Dennoch haben wir uns für diesen Titel entschieden und dies aus zweierlei Gründen: Zunächst sehen wir den Titel als Aufruf, sich stärker auch in der hiesigen Forschung mit internationalen und transnationalen Zugängen in der Sozialen Arbeit auseinanderzusetzen. Darum haben wir uns nicht gescheut, in der Mehrzahl Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler anzusprechen, die in der deutschsprachigen Forschung in den vergangenen Jahren zu ausgewählten Zugängen Sozialer Arbeit zu unterschiedlichen Regionen oder in transnationalen sowie internationalen Perspektiven geforscht haben. Wir haben aber auch den Begriff ‚Weltatlas‘ gewählt, um den Leserinnen und Lesern zu zeigen, wie und dass gegenwärtig in „unseren“ sozialpädagogischen Welten Zugänge der Sozialen Arbeit diskursiv zusammen mit Verortungen in unterschiedliche Weltregionen hergestellt werden und in der Sozialen Arbeit vielfältige Grenzarbeit (Schröer/Schweppe 2013) geleistet wird.
At the Joint World Conference on Social Work and Social Development in Hong Kong in 2010 a set of values was formulated that defined the mission of social work and the development of social policy. It is assumed that these key values, and in particular the principles of social justice and empowerment, are shared by social work and social policy practitioners, educators and experts. In the history of the profession there are many examples in which social workers sought, and successfully achieved, politically significant changes in the social order. However, there were also periods of a decline in activism and a decrease in the role of structural or political social work. This chapter presents the results of a study of the participation of Russian social workers in processes of structural changes. Interviews with social workers were conducted in several Russian regions. Case studies present mechanisms of changes evoked through counter-actions and compromises, individual activity or collective action, consolidation with social movements and other agents, through the implementation of new methods and forms of casework in the system of social services, or through the lobbying of legislative changes and the practice of institutionalised forms of conflict resolution in courts. Strategies for promoting social change, agents of change and institutional barriers are discussed in the theoretical context of professionalism as a value system and ideology.
Several approaches to the concept of fatherhood present in Western sociological tradition are analyzed and compared: biological determinism, social constructivism and biosocial theory. The problematics of fatherhood and men’s parental practices is marginalized in modern Russian social research devoted to family and this fact makes the traditional inequality in family relations, when the father’s role is considered secondary compared to that of mother, even stronger. However, in Western critical men’s studies several stages can be outlined: the development of “sex roles” paradigm (biological determinism), the emergence of the hegemonic masculinity concept, inter-disciplinary stage (biosocial theory). According to the approach of biological determinism, the role of a father is that of the patriarch, he continues the family line and serves as a model for his ascendants. Social constructivism looks into man’s functions in the family from the point of view of masculine pressure and establishing hegemony over a woman and children. Biosocial theory aims to unite the biological determinacy of fatherhood with social, cultural and personal context. It is shown that these approaches are directly connected with the level of the society development, marriage and family perceptions, the level of egality of gender order.