Participatory Social Work

This collective monograph offers new cross-national insight into participatory social work as well as discussion of its barriers and side effects. Prepared by an international team of researchers, it seeks to help further reflection on the implications and consequences of conducting research and practice in participatory manners.

This thoroughly revised and updated second edition of Methods for Community-Based Participatory Research for Health provides a step-by-step approach to the application of participatory approaches to quantitative and qualitative data collection and data analysis. With contributions from a distinguished panel of experts, this important volume shows how researchers, practitioners, and community partners can work together to establish and maintain equitable partnerships using a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach to increase knowledge and improve the health and well-being of the communities involved. Written for students, practitioners, researchers, and community members, the book provides a comprehensive presentation of innovative partnership structures and processes, and covers the broad spectrum of methods needed to conduct CBPR in the widest range of research areas—including social determinants of health, health inequities, health promotion, community interventions, disease management, health services, and environmental health. The contributors examine effective methods used within the context of a CBPR approach including survey questionnaire, in-depth interview, focus group interview, ethnography, exposure assessment, and geographic information system mapping. In addition, each chapter describes a case study of the application of the method using a CBPR approach. The book also contains examples of concrete tools and measurement instruments that may be adapted by others involved in CBPR efforts.

From indigenous people's groups, classroom teachers, and local and international community workers comes the desire to build community. Participatory Development Practice provides a theoretical and applied base for rethinking development practice that is deeply influenced by a 'community' development tradition having its roots in participation and dialogue, yet is broader than that. The book makes the link from the intra-personal to the community and beyond, into the inter-organizational and international domains now required of twenty-first century development work. The book is framed conceptually as implicate method (starting with positioning self), micro (developing constructive relationships), mezzo (forming small participatory groups), macro (structuring participatory work within formal organizations) and meta (working with both local to global and global to local issues). Kelly and Westoby draw on diverse traditions of thought and practice, including the written works of author-activists such as Gandhi, Freire, Fanon, and the unwritten oral traditions of female workers in Asia, and First Peoples. The result is a true and tested methodology using frameworks of good ideas born from practice wisdom, that have come from research and reflection on 70 years of combined experience. Participatory Development Practice helps experienced practitioners, as well as scholars and students of international development, community development and social work, to reflect critically on the concepts and assumptions guiding their work. It is also aimed at corporate actors within community relations departments of major industry who increasingly interact with the public.

Written by distinguished experts in the field, this book shows how researchers, practitioners, and community partners can work together to establish and maintain equitable partnerships using a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach to increase knowledge and improve health and well-being of the communities involved. CBPR is a collaborative approach to research that draws on the full range of research designs, including case study, etiologic, longitudinal, experimental, and nonexperimental designs. CBPR data collection and analysis methods involve both quantitative and qualitative approaches. What distinguishes CBPR from other approaches to research is the active engagement of all partners in the process. This book provides a comprehensive and thorough presentation of CBPR study designs, specific data collection and analysis methods, and innovative partnership structures and process methods. This book informs students, practitioners, researchers, and community members about methods and applications needed to conduct CBPR in the widest range of research areas—including social determinants of health, health disparities, health promotion, community interventions, disease management, health services, and environmental health.

Community Based Participatory Research by Dr. Karen Hacker presents a practical approach to CBPR by describing how an individual researcher might understand and then actually conduct CBPR research. This how-to book provides a concise overview of CBPR theoretical underpinnings, methods considerations, and ethical issues in an accessible format interspersed with real life case examples that can accompany other methodologic texts in multiple disciplines.

Participatory research is well-established as an approach involving people with a direct interest in, or experience of, the issue being studied in carrying out research. However, it raises unique and challenging ethical issues. Traditional concerns with respect for the rights to confidentiality, consent, privacy and protection of ‘research informants’ do not translate easily into participatory research. Boundaries between researchers and those researched are often blurred; research trajectories may be emergent and unpredictable; and major ethical issues revolve around partnership, power, equality and respect for diverse knowledges. The book introduces the key ethical issues in participatory research, drawing on ethical theory and relevant literature before presenting seven substantive chapters, each on a different theme, such as power, ownership, confidentiality and boundaries. The chapters feature an introductory overview of the topic with reference to the literature, followed by four real-life case examples written by participatory researchers and short commentaries on each case. Drawn from around the world (from Denmark to Tanzania), the cases illustrate a range of ethical issues, outlining how they were handled and the reflections and feelings of the contributors. Focusing on developing ethical awareness, confidence and courage to act in ethically challenging situations in everyday research practice, this book is an invaluable resource for all participatory researchers.

new, completely updated, revised and expanded 20th edition of this essential work coming February 2008 -- Order now and take advantage of our special prepublication price Oxford University Press and The National Association of Social Workers are proud to announce that a new, completely updated, revised and expanded 20th edition of this essential work will publish in February 2008. The 400 articles this 4-volume set cover all aspects of social work from practice and interventions, social environments, social conditions and challenges, to social policy and history. This new edition of the Encylcopedia includes coverage of areas that have come to the fore since the 1995 publication of the 19th edition, including demographic changes from immigration, technology, the implications of managed care, faith-based assistance, evidence-based practice, gerontology, and trauma and disaster. Each thoughtful article is written and signed by a top academic or social work practitioner and includes a bibliography for further reading. For even further ease of use, all volumes are fully cross-referenced and includes a complete Index. This convenient and authoritative core reference work is an essential tool for fact-finding, studying for licensing exams, supplementing course work, initiating literature searches, and supporting practice decisions. The Encyclopedia presents an in-depth look at the ever-changing field of social work. The foundation of any social work collection, the Encyclopedia will be a treasured addition to the library of practitioner, scholar, and student alike.

This uniquely illustrated handbook will find a wide audience, ranging from social work and community development students to beginning social service practitioners and micro-level development professionals working with communities, especially in the Southern African context. An experienced team of authors unpacks the definition that people-centered community practice is a change and management process. This process is facilitated with a community of people to take action to increasingly actualize their fundamental human needs to enhance the quality of their own lives and those of the wider community that they are part of. The book's assets/strengths-based approach to community practice is consistent with fundamental social work values. This approach ensures that even beginners would work with communities in a respectful way so that communities would not be imposed upon or disempowered in the process. Since the approach is strongly grounded in theory, this equips facilitators with the basic knowledge to approach any community and facilitate any potential project. The authors - as tertiary educators, researchers, and facilitators - have richly harvested from their engagement with students, colleagues, and communities to write this user-friendly textbook.

In Indian context.