Die soziale Ökonomie des Gemeinwesens - Eine sozialpolitische Entwicklungsaufgabe

Community work and development - Now, that market economy is no longer faced with territorial boundaries, the spheres of life within the limits of local communities are gaining new importance in terms of sustained patterns of development. This extended meaning of local community as a place for mastering the challenges of life and as a framework for developing future-oriented solutions to social, ecological and economic problems, corresponds to the extended meaning of community-based social work as an effort to shape social life and generate social change. Community-economy follows the original sense of human economy, defined by Aristotle. It is the idea of the “oikos”, an economy for the satisfaction of needs of the “whole house” - of the young and the old, the healthy and sick, of the living and future generations and the not-human world. In this sense “oikonomia” means household management.

Soziale Dienste, Schule und zivilgesellschaftliches Klima

In an international perspective cooperation between social services and school has a long tradition. In the German speaking countries we can recognize a historical distance or gap between school and “social pedagogy”, but despite this tradition new forms of cooperation are arising since the last few years. This tendency is part of the development of European societies into “knowledge-based societies” where knowledge and cultural capital are becoming ever stricter criteria for participation in society. This puts particular pressure on those adolescents who threaten to fail in the positional competition for educational qualifications. And it tends to the reproduction and reinforcing of social inequalities due to inequalities in education. For that reason in the article the development of school related social services in different European countries is investigated and it is shown that the increasing pressure to qualification and selection in school creates various problems of integration. Social dimensions of education are pointed out delivering starting points for the cooperation of social services in school and opening opportunities for productive forms of coping with differences between family background, informal social environment and educational milieu in school. Particular attention is paid to differences in socio cultural habits, in socio economical opportunities and in collective practices of interaction. A central focus in the contribution is the orientation towards a participative civil society climate relevant for the interaction between teachers and pupils and between professionals and addressees of social services as well. It is a task of future research in school related social services to analyse their institutional structure and their practices of professional interaction and to find out by European and international comparison in which way social services can contribute to the establishing of a participative civil society climate in school.

Klimawandel als soziale Konstruktion?

Die Autoren gehen davon aus, dass es soziale und kulturräumliche Unterschiede in den Wahrnehmungsweisen von zukünftigen Klimarisiken gibt und begründen ihre Annahme in theoretischer Hinsicht unter Hinzuziehung der sozialen Konstruktion der Wirklichkeit. Berichtet wird aus einem Forschungsprojekt, das die gesellschaftliche Verarbeitung von Klimarisiken in Küstenstädten der südlichen Nord- und Ostsee im Hinblick darauf untersucht, welche Vorstellungen von einer Vulnerabilität und Resilienz vorliegen. Ausführlich wird das methodische Design der Studie dargestellt. Im Rahmen einer Methodentriangulation wird eine standardisierte Delphi-Expertenbefragung mit einer wissenssoziologischen Diskursanalyse verbunden, um sowohl bisherige als auch zukünftige Vorstellungen von Vulnerabilität und Resilienz zu erheben. Am Beispiel ausgewählter Ergebnisse wird empirisch nachgewiesen, dass Wahrnehmungsunterschiede von Klimarisiken größer sind als angenommen. Die Ergebnisse sind allein aus den Delphi-Daten nicht erklärbar. Ein möglicher Erklärungsansatz ergibt sich ergänzend aus den Erkenntnissen der wissenssoziologischen Diskursanalyse.

Coping resources in a sample of chronic low back pain patients: Evaluation of the questionnaire for back pain

BACKGROUND The coping resources questionnaire for back pain (FBR) uses 12 items to measure the perceived helpfulness of different coping resources (CRs, social emotional support, practical help, knowledge, movement and relaxation, leisure and pleasure, spirituality and cognitive strategies). The aim of the study was to evaluate the instrument in a clinical patient sample assessed in a primary care setting. SAMPLE AND METHODS The study was a secondary evaluation of empirical data from a large cohort study in general practices. The 58 participating primary care practices recruited patients who reported chronic back pain in the consultation. Besides the FBR and a pain sketch, the patients completed scales measuring depression, anxiety, resilience, sociodemographic factors and pain characteristics. To allow computing of retested parameters the FBR was sent to some of the original participants again after 6 months (90% response rate). We calculated consistency and retest reliability coefficients as well as correlations between the FBR subscales and depression, anxiety and resilience scores to account for validity. By means of a cluster analysis groups with different resource profiles were formed. Results. RESULTS For the study 609 complete FBR baseline data sets could be used for statistical analysis. The internal consistency scores ranged fromα=0.58 to α=0.78 and retest reliability scores were between rTT=0.41 and rTT=0.63. Correlation with depression, fear and resilience ranged from r=-0.38 to r=0.42. The cluster analysis resulted in four groups with relatively homogenous intragroup profiles (high CRs, low spirituality, medium CRs, low CRs). The four groups differed significantly in fear and depression (the more inefficient the resources the higher the difference) as well as in resilience (the more inefficient the lower the difference). The group with low CRs also reported permanent pain with no relief. The groups did not otherwise differ. CONCLUSIONS The FBR is an economic instrument that is suitable for practical use e.g. in primary care practices to identify strengths and deficits in the CRs of chronic pain patients that can then be specified in face to face consultation. However, due to the rather low reliability, the use of subscales for profile differentiation and follow-up measurement in individual diagnoses is limited.