Book chapter
Психосоциальная реабилитация психически больных в период принудительного лечения
In book
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.
Visual sources play a growing role in historical studies as well as in teaching as they offer new routes to understanding the past. The ways to construct and define social problems as well as approaches to solving them varied in different periods of history. To do so, it is important to challenge an ideological base of such concepts that often are taken-for-granted, to learn how to consider images as a means to conceive the world, as an important form of social knowledge. What are the differences on men’s and women’s labor in care work? How these distinctions were represented in certain sources and for which purposes? Photographs and episodes from the films, posters and cartoons depicting various images of men and women in the roles of parents, tutors, social care workers, nurses can be used not just as illustrations or representations but also as an important element of a studied context – as important as official documents or personal narratives. The aim of this lecture is to contribute to social work training by providing an overview of experiences, theories and methodologies on the visual, by collecting and building knowledge based on visual material and demonstrating its relevance to the study of human behavior, social networks and welfare policies.