In the period of the first Czechoslovak Republic social work was the important part of social politic and it worked as a repressive assistance, nowadays we consider social work as an activated and motivational help for clients. The then social work, which is the synonym for the social care, was provided in collaboration with public and private entities. The health, social and educational elements of provincial and district care were sucessfully united mainly in the Czech. These steps went to the comprehensive conception of social work. The Czechoslovak Republic relied on the work of volunteers and the state also supported them with finances and delegated many tasks on them. The multilateralism and jaggedness of extensive voluntary social work brought many advantanges for the state and many poor people were helped. The lack of authority and the ambivalence of voluntary social workers were the darker side of voluntary entities. The absence of the legal regulations was the main cause of these problems. Social workers in the first Czechoslovakia Republic made very important steps to establish social work as the fully-fledged work profession. These steps made by social workers included creation of a valuable and ethical frame work of social work. They have also created an international collaboration which has become standard of these days.

This thesis is on the Turkish-speaking community, comprising Turkish-Cypriots, Turks from Turkey, and Kurds from Turkey, and ethnic community football in London, which has been conceptualised as a transnational social field. It is intended as a contribution in the debates on the growing importance of issues of diasporic communities, their identity politics, and cultural integration in a context of ‘super-diversity’. There are three major analytical themes. The first is transnational diaspora politics, which is redefined to comprise any relationship of power or interest by mobilising diasporic connections. I argue that the Turkish-speaking community uses ethnic football as a means for communal mobilisation around and representation of their ethnic identity in the public space of London, a city of unique political-economic and symbolic significance for the Cyprus Conflict which helped create the Turkish and Greek Cypriot football leagues in London. I show that the Turkish-speaking community has ever since used football to create and maintain a bridge between London and all the different locations of the community including Cyprus, Turkey, Germany, and beyond. The second major theme is collective identities and how they are (re)produced, represented, and manifested in the diaspora. I argue that the nature of the field of ethnic football as a familiar, open, and welcoming space conveniently positioned between the Turkish-speaking private sphere and the British/Londoner public space has been a major factor accounting for the effectiveness of various identity projects to be pursued within this field. Lastly, after presenting the historical link between modern competitive sports and masculinity, I claim that the one defining aspect of all the ethnic identities reproduced within the field is their masculine character. The last analytical theme is the cultural integration of immigrant communities. Without adopting a normative definition of cultural integration, I have considered the implications of involvement in ethnic community football in terms of belonging, social inclusion, marginalisation, and the psychological development and well-being of the individuals involved. The presented and analysed discussion rejects any automatic causal link between involvement in sports and integration or that involvement in mono-ethnic sporting organisations and segregation. Having reviewed a few exemplary organisations, which used football for integration purposes, and the nature of the ethnic community leagues, I have also argued in this thesis that the field of ethnic community football, again due to its specific nature, structure, and position between the private and public spaces, offers a great potential to be engaged by local and national governments in the service of integration policies.

This thesis focuses on issues of multi-layered identities within a social space. It analyzes ritual (or ceremony) as one of the codified displays of culture within which collective ideas and attitudes regarding identity are manifested, shared, and strengthened. Bosnian Serbs - due to political and social change - were forced to redefine their position in society, as well as their (collective) identities and social ties. Slava is a fundamental ritual seen as an attribute of "Serbianness", and in the context of this study, manifests itself as an indicator of establishment and validity of collective identities. Slava is a traditional celebration practiced by Orthodox believers in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Bulgary, Albania, and Macedonia. It is a festivity of either a family, village, or local church patron. At the center of this research will be an individual slava of a family patron saint, krsna slava, or krsno ime. For Bosnian Serbs, krsna slava is currently a revitalized ritual concurring with local tradition and convening with social ambitions of current inhabitants in the region (otherwise it would not be revitalized). The pertinence of this research subject is given by the nature of ritual itself as it is founded on collective sharing and the manifestation of common ideas1 ....

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study is a hermeneutic phenomenology of transgenderism as it is valued and appreciated by adults who self-identify along the transgender spectrum. As a population-at-risk due to a social environment reliant on a dualistic notion of gender, transgender people are of particular concern to social workers, who are charged with identifying and building on client strengths. Yet the preponderance of the academic literature has reinforced a negative, problematic, or even pathological view of transgenderism. The literature also has tended to focus narrowly on transsexualism, leaving a gap in our knowledge of other forms of transgenderism. The present study—grounded primarily in the philosophy and methodology of Heideggerian phenomenology, but also drawing on Gadamerian hermeneutics—sought to understand the lived experience of transgenderism as it is appreciated by a range of transgender adults. A purposive sample of fifteen self-identified transgender adults who reported appreciating being transgender was recruited using snowball sampling across three Midwestern states. Each participated in an individual, open-ended interview designed to tap their lived experience with transgenderism as a valued aspect of life. Transcribed interview data were analyzed using Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenological processes as suggested by various researchers in nursing, social work, and other disciplines. The results of this study suggest that intimate connections (with one’s self, with others, and with a larger purpose) constitute the essence of the lived experience of appreciating one’s transgenderism. These findings help prepare social workers to recognize the strengths of the transgender population and to engage in culturally competent practice. In addition, this research offers new knowledge for improving social work curricular content on transgenderism and for justifying trans-inclusive social policies. The study also contributes to the overall research literature on transgenderism and qualitative methods.

Castration has a long temporal and geographical span. Its origins are unclear, but likely lie in the Ancient Near East around the time of the Secondary Products Revolution and the increase in social complexity of proto-urban societies. Due to the unique social and gender roles created by castrates’ ambiguous sexual state, human castrates were used heavily in strongly hierarchical social structures such as imperial and religious institutions, and were often close to the ruler of an imperial society. This privileged position, though often occupied by slaves, gave castrates enormous power to affect governmental decisions. This often aroused the jealousy and hatred of intact elite males, who were not afforded as open access to the ruler and virulently condemned castrates in historical documents. These attitudes were passed down to the scholars and doctors who began to study castration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, affecting the manner in which castration was studied. Osteometric and anthropometric examinations of castrates were carried out during this period, but the two World Wars and a shift in focus meant that castrate bodies were not studied for nearly eighty years. Recent interest in gender and sexuality in the past has revived interest in castration as a topic, but few studies of castrate remains have occurred. As large numbers of castrates are referenced in historical documents, the lack of castrate skeletons may be due to a lack of recognition of the physical effects of castration on the skeleton. The synthesis and generation of methods for more accurate identification of castrate skeletons was undertaken and the results are presented here to improve the ability to identify castrate skeletons within the archaeological record.