Questioning the merits and demerits of electronic communication in Social Work

This paper examines the social dynamics of electronic exchanges in the human services, particularly in social work. It focuses on the observable effects that email and texting have on the linguistic, relational and clinical rather than managerial aspects of the profession. It highlights how electronic communication is affecting professionals in their practice and learners as they become acculturated to social work. What are the gains and losses of the broad use of electronic devices in daily lay and professional, verbal and non-verbal communication? Will our current situation be seriously detrimental to the demeanor of future practitioners, their use of language, and their ability to establish close personal relationships? The paper analyzes social work linguistic and behavioral changes in light of the growth of electronic communication and offers a summary of merits and demerits viewed through a prism emerging from Baron’s (2000) analysis of human communication.

Good practices in the Enred@te Pilot Project: a digital social network for older adults and Spanish Red Cross volunteers

The Enred@te initiative, created by Red Cross, the Vodafone Foundation and the TECSOS Foundation, emerged as an evolution of a previous project that developed and piloted a video-communication solution with older adults, using a system installed in their own televisions. Following the success of this first initiative, it was decided to advance toward a more flexible, robust, easy-to-use and high-quality solution, producing a social network accessible through tablets. Older adults can use the network to video-communicate with other older adults and stay informed on various topics of interest. Additionally, a new innovation incorporates the participation of virtual volunteers, a part of the network that promotes its use in an inclusive and participative manner. This solution was also piloted in 2014 with positive results and work to turn it into a service that can reach older adults through the Red Cross is currently on-going.

Late-career international migration and reproductive work. A comparison between Peruvian and Ukrainian women in the Southern Europe

Research on the relationship between reproductive work and women´s life trajectories including the experience of labour migration has mainly focused on the case of relatively young mothers who leave behind, or later re-join, their children. While it is true that most women migrate at a younger age, there are a significant number of cases of men and women who move abroad for labour purposes at a more advanced stage, undertaking a late-career migration. This is still an under-estimated and under-researched sub-field that uncovers a varied range of issues, including the global organization of reproductive work and the employment of migrant women as domestic workers late in their lives. By pooling the findings of two qualitative studies, this article focuses on Peruvian and Ukrainian women who seek employment in Spain and Italy when they are well into their forties, or older. A commonality the two groups of women share is that, independently of their level of education and professional experience, more often than not they end up as domestic and care workers. The article initially discusses the reasons for late-career female migration, taking into consideration the structural and personal determinants that have affected Peruvian and Ukrainian women’s careers in their countries of origin and settlement. After this, the focus is set on the characteristics of domestic employment at later life, on the impact on their current lives, including the transnational family organization, and on future labour and retirement prospects. Apart from an evaluation of objective working and living conditions, we discuss women’s personal impressions of being domestic workers in the context of their occupational experiences and family commitments. In this regard, women report varying levels of personal and professional satisfaction, as well as different patterns of continuity-discontinuity in their work and family lives, and of optimism towards the future. Divergences could be, to some extent, explained by the effect of migrants´ transnational social practices and policies of states.

Valorization of cultural diversity throught Good Practices Dissemination on Art Mediation: sharing experiencies

In this article, as part of the Erasmus+ project “Divercity”, we focus on the collection and analysis of good practices in Spain and other countries in Europe. The project revolves around the development of methods that valorize cultural diversity and in this respect, identifying and sharing best practices on diversity and inclusion through artistic mediation inside museums, culture institutions, our urban walks, forms an mandatory stage of the research process.