Narratives of Spatial Division: The Role of Social Memory in Shaping Urban Space in Belfast

The paper examines the role of shared spaces in divided cities in promoting future sustainable communities and spaces described as inclusive to all. It addresses the current challenges that prevent such inclusiveness and suggests future trends of its development to be of benefit to the wider city community. It explains how spaces in divided cities are carved up into perceived ownerships and territorialized areas, which increases tension on the shared space between territories; the control of which can often lead to inter-community disputes. The paper reports that common shared space in-between conflicting communities takes on increased importance since the nature of the conflict places emphasis on communities’ confidence, politically and socially, while also highlighting the necessity for confidence in inclusion and feeling secure in the public domain. In order to achieve sustainable environments, strategies to promote shared spaces require further focus on the significance of everyday dynamics as essential aspects for future integration and conflict resolution.

The executive committee of the Greek Professional Association of Social Work in an age of austerity: examining its response

This paper explores the response by the Greek Association of Social Workers (SKLE) to Greece's current economic crisis. Socioeconomic conditions in Greece have deteriorated rapidly since the imposition of a Structural Adjustment Programme as a condition of the loan Troika provided to Greece to address its class-based public debt crisis. Interviews were conducted with SKLE Executive Committee members to examine SKLE's response in the context of newly raised inequalities. Research results show that SKLE recognised the negative consequences to both service users and its members. However, SKLE continues to reformulate its strategy mostly as a social partner. SKLE's previous strategy entailed amongst other things the analysis of policy proposals and participation in welfare related government committees. This strategy is no longer relevant because decision-making powers have been transferred to transnational bodies. This paper elaborates on these findings and discusses the barriers that prohibit SKLE from differentiation of its strategy. Although the research is country specific, it has implications for the broader global debate because professional associations must reformulate their strategies for better serving of both their constituents and the collective good based on the social justice mandate of the profession.

Computational studies to understand the role of social learning in team familiarity and its effects on team performance

This paper concerns social learning modes and their effects on team performance. Social learning, such as by observing others' actions and their outcomes, allows members of a team to learn what other members know. Knowing what other members know can reduce task communication and co-ordination overhead, which helps the team to perform faster since members can devote their attention to their tasks. This paper describes agent-based simulation studies using a computational model that implements different social learning modes as parameters that can be controlled in the simulations. The results show that social learning from both direct and indirect observations positively contributes to learning about what others know, but the value of social learning is sensitive to prior familiarity such that minimum thresholds of team familiarity are needed to realise the benefits of social learning. This threshold increases with task complexity. These findings clarify the level of influence that sociality has on social learning and sets up a formal framework by which to conduct studies on how social context influences learning and group performance.

The role of social support in families coping with childhood brain tumor

Previous studies suggest that support from social networks is a protective factor buffering the negative effects of stressful events, such as having a child with a chronic illness. The literature highlights the need for more systematic examination of parents’ social support networks across the disease trajectory, to obtain a more complete understanding of how a family's support system affects adjustment over time. This was attempted in this study of 88 parents of children with brain tumors, recruited from hospitals in Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand. It employed a longitudinal design, tracking families for 2 years postdiagnosis to examine the relationship between social support and coping. As in previous research this study showed that different types of support are needed at different stages in the illness trajectory. The study also identified the use of various coping strategies by families, directed at the maintenance and enhancement of existing supports and the securing of new supports. The study failed to establish a statistically significant relationship between level of coping and social support, however, suggesting that parents were using primarily “internal” familial modes of coping, including preexisting patterns of coping, with external social support being an adjunct to their coping rather than being a major contributor.

Understanding the role of social media in incident crisis communication

How organisations communicate with their audience during an incident or crisis is important because it can adversely affect corporate reputation if mishandled. With the advent of social media, organisations have only a few "golden minutes" rather than "golden hours" to communicate with their audience as an incident/crisis unfolds. However, while social media usage by the general population is increasing rapidly, most organisations are not ready to manage incidents or crises via the use of social media. Theoretical knowledge is still lacking in this regard This study provides a conceptual fl·mnework for investigating how organisations communicate with their audience via social media during an incident or crisis and aims to identifY the  important factors relating to the use of social media in a negative situation.

Professional development of social work in Russia

The aim of the paper was to get an understanding about how the profession of social work explains its relevance and legitimacy in today's Russia, to enlighten the importance of socio-political, professional and educational contexts in explaining the societal position of the social work profession in Russia. This paper begins with the analysis of the processes of legitimization, professionalization and constitution of social work in today's Russia. In addition to functionalist and critical perspectives on these three processes, in its second part the paper employs phenomenological approach looking into everyday life theory of social work that is constructed in routine work at the social service agencies. The third part of this paper talks about the issues of social services and social work with family and children in contemporary Russia.

Structural Problems in the Development of Social Work in Central Europe under Transformation. The Case of Poland

Socio-economic transformation the countries of Central Europe are undergoing since 1989 has brought new developments in social welfare systems of this region. Social work, which was in the countries of the region during its communist past either non-existent or superficial activity, has become treated as an instrument of social welfare systems there. The collapse of authoritarian regimes in the region clearly inducted political leaderships there to opt for transition to Western style civil society. Hence an adoption of social work seemed to be natural choice for the countries in the region.

Implementing Swedish Models of Social Work in a Russian Context

The economic and social changes taking place in Russia in recent decades have implied a restructuring of the Russian society. Among other things, Russian leaders have expressed a need for the reorientation of social development. In the 1990’s, cooperation was initiated on a number of social work and social welfare projects with international support, a process further speeded up during President Jeltsin’s state visit to Sweden in 1997. Discussions between the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Russian authorities dealing with welfare issues started from the assumption that Russian professional social work was weak and needed to be strengthened. In the 1990's Sida was also given a stronger general mandate to work with other former Soviet countries in Eastern Europe, for example the Baltic States. The Russian-Swedish discussions resulted in projects aiming to raise social work competencies in public authorities, managements and among social workers in Russia. One of the areas chosen for these projects was Saint Petersburg, where several projects aiming to develop new models for social work were launched. The point of departure has been to transfer and adjust Swedish models of social work to the Russian context. The Stockholm University Department of Social Work became responsible for a number of such projects and besides using academic teachers also involved a number of practitioners, such as social workers in disablement services and reformatory staff who could meet and match Russian authorities and partners.