Community organizing as an area of social work practice has historic roots in challenging inequality, building capacity, and meeting the needs of local peoples through taking collective action. While the literature of community organizing is rich in conceptual frameworks, practice approaches, and case studies, it lacks the level of formal theory that exists in clinical social work. Formal practice theories provide social workers with evidence informed guidance about “what to do”, “how to do it”, and “what to expect”; however, social workers engaging in community organizing have little formal practice theory. The results of this study build the beginning foundation for a direct practice theory of community organizing that can be utilized by social workers engaged in community organizing to better inform practice. In this study, I used Delphi methodology to build formal practice theory by exploring the perspectives of nine community-organizing experts with an average of nearly 30 years of experience from the union organizing and civil rights organizing traditions. Through three waves of data collection, I learned that community organizing is a dialectical process that includes three distinct stages: community building, plan, and mobilize. These distinct stages do not operate solely in a linear or cyclical fashion, but work dynamically with the ever changing social environment to achieve social change. My findings support the idea that community organizing is dependent upon the participation and inclusion of local peoples. While practitioners have distinct roles in organizing efforts, community members determine many aspects of what and how the organizing process unfolds. My findings provide the beginning foundation for a direct social work practice theory of community organizing that can be utilized to guide professional practice as well as provide a basis for further research. It is through further research that community organizing can be better understood and utilized to create evidence informed interventions that are both respectful and inclusive of community members as well as empirical and evidence informed.

This PhD study explored the day to day lives of young people living in foster care in the United Kingdom. This study utilises Bourdieu’s (1986) conceptualisation of social capital, which has been described as a useful heuristic as it focuses on practices and processes (Morrow 1999) within networks. One of the original contributions of this thesis is its application of Bourdieu’s theory as an analytical framework to explore young people’s experiences of foster care. The study employed qualitative methods to gather rich, contextualised data. Ten young people, aged between twelve to fourteen years old, participated in the research and each of the participants were interviewed on two occasions. Findings are presented across three chapters and they highlight the ways young people in foster care both preserve and build their access to social capital. Firstly, this includes the ways in which the young people are actively engaged in practices to manage and preserve their relationships and as a result their access to social capital. Secondly, findings show that young people in foster care experience stigma by virtue of having the status of being ‘in- care’, and in order to minimise this, the young people actively managed their spoiled identity (Goffman 1968), which allowed them to maintain access to social capital. Thirdly, the findings show that despite the experience of disrupted networks and multiple placement moves, given the opportunity, the participants demonstrated their ability to persevere in their attempts to start again, which built their access to social capital. This thesis offers a particular utility for the discipline of social work, by providing a way of understanding and theorising how young people continually work, in both prosaic and at times heroic ways, to minimise the disruption to their relationships, networks and their subsequent access to social capital.

The purpose of this study was to enter the world of the parents living with a child with autism, wondering what quality of life means for them and whether their engagement with social work services makes any difference to their quality of lives. Understanding the quality of life experiences of the parents of children with autism is relevant for policy making and social work practice. Based in a Scottish context, the objectives for this research were as follows: To explore the parent carers' description of the term quality of life To describe the parent carers' views on their quality of life in the context of the services provided by social services within (departments of) local authorities. To understand the systems, processes and procedures put in place by the local authorities to support parent carers To explore the scope for changes, if any, in the present social work approach in order to enhance the quality of life of parent carers. The study adopted a grounded theory methodology informed by a symbolic interactionist theoretical framework. Data were gathered from three study local authorities in Scotland. The participants include an almost equal number of male and female parents (total parent participants = 23); and social workers and operational managers from three study local authorities (total number of social workers =12, total number of operational managers =3). This study utilised focus groups and semi structured interviews to gather data. Using the constant comparison method, three main categories emerged; namely 'new normal', 'on-going burden' and 'limited help' which contextualised the quality of life experiences of parent participants in the study. Oppression emerged as the overarching theory. Drawing on the parental perspectives on quality of life distilled in this study, the implications for further research, professional practice and education are explored.

ABSTRACT The integration of spirituality in Social Work is on the rise, but due to the lack of literature on spiritually-involved interventions and applicable integration of spirituality into ones practice, literature suggests social workers do not feel competent or confident in this area of practice. This study explores the attitudes and beliefs of social workers in San Bernardino County towards spirituality in their own practice and social work overall. The data is collected through audio recording individual interviews with each participant, which are then transcribed into transcripts. The transcripts are coded for themes and commonalities among the participants. Results lay the foundation for further research and conversation regarding spirituality and how to further integrate or continue integrating it into social work practice in San Bernardino County.

This thesis examines the construction of healing from childhood sexual assault from the perspective of adult women who had been sexually abused in their childhood years. The purpose of the study is to provide a space to hear the stories of rural women, and a forum to allow those stories to be shared with a wider audience. Its focus is on the women’s accounts of how their lives have been shaped by those experiences, what transformation has occurred, what people and processes have helped or hindered their journey and how they construct healing. It aims to develop an understanding of the notion of healing as reported by survivors themselves and does this though an emancipatory methodology underpinned by a critical post-modern framework. This study differs from previous studies in that its focus is specifically on the construction of healing and its participants are all rural women. The qualitative research methodology demonstrated in this thesis maintained a focus on the women’s narratives. It employed a unique method – a ten week discussion group in which the women chose the issues to be examined. The presentation of the data, maintains the commitment to the primacy of the women’s accounts. It utilises the themes they decided upon as well as those which emerged from the literature. The constructions of healing, which emerged from the sharing of stories, include healing as a non-linear process where individual strengths and transformation is acknowledged. The thesis argues that healing includes all aspects of survivors’ lives such as their relationships, parenting and engagement with their community. The implication for social work practice is that service provision to assist healing must focus on more than psychological and behavioural effects of childhood sexual assault. The method of collecting the women’s stories also has great potential for social work research because as the thesis argues, while generalisations cannot be made from the findings, the actual method has great value in giving voice to marginalised groups.

This thesis explores the personal and social challenges of teaching yoga in addiction recovery from a social work perspective. It is informed by an action research perspective using interviews and focus groups with yoga teachers and allied health professionals and the personal experiences of the researcher teaching yoga in an addiction recovery centre as well as a literature search on existing yoga and meditation programs used in addiction recovery and corrections. The research explores whether yoga could be applied as a complementary therapy in social work and how yoga assists in addiction recovery. Further it explores what programmatic requirements are needed for a constructive yoga program that addresses the needs of yoga teachers in this field and the participants who are very marginalised. The emerging themes and issues from the data and literature were explored and triangulation was used to draw one conclusion that was found consistently across all research methodologies. This was the importance of Kriya yoga. or the yoga of action, to achieve results with yoga as a complementary therapy. Kriya yoga has three elements: a commitment to regular practice, allowing time to reflect on how this practice is affecting your life and having faith in the yoga process. Undelying this notion of kriya yoga is the importance of the yoga teacher-student relationship and the value of a yoga community that supports the student in their commitment to practice. Recovery from addiction is viewed as a journey involving many stages in which the yoga student deals with relapses. The exemplary yoga programs are forms of karma yoga or the yoga of selfless action. The development of a karma yoga network that forms an on-line bridge between the yoga communities and addiction recovery services is suggested by the research as one way forward in promoting yoga as a complementary therapy in addiction recovery.

The aim of this study is to examine if and how the diagnosis of ADHD is important for the social practice delimitation to obtain an understanding of how the sorting and categorization of clients affects the distribution of resources. In a qualitative approach, the study is based on eight semi-structured interviews in five different social practices. Young adults diagnosed with ADHD who need society's help and support, constituted our focus in the study. The selection is based on gaining an understanding of how the client process proceeds. The interviews were supplemented with documents, such as legal and internal methodological support. The empirical results relate to Hasenfeld´s discussion on "raw material" and "transforming process", Lindqvist´s "organizational fields", Johansson's "freedom of action" and Stone´s “dilemma of distribution". The results indicate that the diagnosis of ADHD represents the basis for the target group, young adults, to gain entry into the community social practices in order to obtain access to resources. The results also show that several factors determine the design of interventions: the needs of the individual and the ability to express their needs, the relationship between the professional and the individual, but also the professional´s freedom of action. Furthermore, the results show that the diagnosis of ADHD affects the possibility of collaboration between organizations.

Little is known about social work at psychiatric institutions in Canada. This research looks at patient records at Selkirk Mental Health Centre (SMHC) from 1947-1979 at Selkirk, Manitoba. Qualitative descriptive methods are employed to examine patient records (N=132) for the function and form of social work. A random selection of patient records at SMHC was performed where qualitative themes of social work related activities were identified and collected. Additional data included archival records of provincial and federal reports to provide context for the findings. Social work emerged from practice, becoming increasingly sophisticated as SMHC evolved and degreed social workers entered the field. Findings show that social work was an essential profession for SMHC to address a rising patient census as well as manage the transition to community located mental health care. While some social work related activities are performed by other staff, there is a qualitative difference when a social worker performs these. Findings also showed that social work has a relationship with severe and persistent mental illness as a population served at SMHC. Future historical research can benefit from this study as it includes a developed method for future patient record research. Future research could be in various professional disciplines as well as contribute to the growing knowledge around social work practice in Canada. Findings show that social work is a relevant and important role that has a historic connection in the field of mental health. This study contributes to the growing literature on the history of social work in Canada. / October 2015

This study explores Tongan social work practice and examines how social and community work is constructed from a Tongan worldview. Tongan social workers in Aotearoa New Zealand participated in individual interviews and focus group meetings which explored the Tongan values, knowledge, skills and processes foundational to their practice. The participants' narratives contribute to an understanding of Tongan conceptions of wellbeing, personal and social change and to an identification of key components of a Tongan theoretical framework for social and community work practice. This exploratory study contributes to the growing literature articulating indigenous and non-western frameworks for social and community work practice. Seeking to draw on a Tongan interpretive framework, the thesis employs metaphors, in particular two fishing practices (pola and uku), to draw the findings together. Pola, a community fishing practice, illustrates a Tongan social welfare system comprised of core values, namely: fetokoni'aki (mutual helpfulness), tauhi vā (looking after relationships), faka'apa'apa (respect) and 'ofa (love). Maintaining this Tongan system in the diaspora is central to the purpose of Tongan social and community work and the values themselves are a basis for practice. Other key concepts are shown to define a Tongan practice framework and these are identified as: fakafekau'aki (connecting), a'u tonu (going in person), lotu (spirituality/prayer/religion), fakatōkilalo (humility), fie'aonga (wanting to be useful), matakāinga (behaving like family) and 'osikiavelenga (doing utmost). The uku metaphor draws parallels to specialised practices of fishing or diving under the reef, around pupu'a puhi (blowholes). Similarly, Tongan social and community work involves specific processes which draw on a constellation of skills and values. Fakatoukatea (skills in opposite directions) is important for bridging Tongan and pālangi contexts, for working across various fields of practice and for adopting family-like roles as a social worker. Lea fakatonga (Tongan language), hua (humour)and feongo'i'aki (intuitive use of feelings) are important aspects of a Tongan social work approach. Tongan social and community work is located primarily within kāinga (extended family) and community. This location of social work reconstructs conventional conceptions of professionalism and relationships become a key force for change within a Tongan framework. A balance between a directive and empowerment approach needs to be achieved and an advocacy emphasis is required given the position of Tongans in the diaspora. This thesis demonstrates that a framework for social and community work derived from a Tongan worldview: provides new discourses and thinking within the critical postmodern tradition; is negotiated alongside other discourses thus creating spaces of possibility; is characterised by layers of ethnic specific, indigenous and humanity level differences and commonalities; emphasises the moral-artistic nature of social and community work; and challenges social work to be more diverse in terms of practice competencies, supervision, cross-cultural practice, education and community development. The thesis argues that if social and community work is to be transformative, it must itself be transformed and its very foundations reshaped by Tongan and other indigenous, non-western voices.

This thesis deals with critical social work and its potential use in social work, which is aimed at people with disabilities. This thesis has a theoretical character. The first two parts describe the issue of disability and current social work focused on individuals with disabilities in the Czech Republic. The third part is devoted to the development, methods and techniques of critical social work with a focus on the practical application of social work with people with disabilities. It concludes with recommendations on how to incorporate elements of critical social work in the training of social workers and subsequently to the practical social work with individuals with disabilities.