published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences

'Biographical references': leaf 384-409. / Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, School of History, Philosophy and Politics, 1983. / Bibliography: leaf 418-434. / Introduction -- PART I: The 1870s -- Philanthropy for children: the Royal Commission and women philanthropists' "Natural rights" -- Philanthropic care for adults within the woman's sphere: diversity and limits -- Nuns and evangelicals: ladies and females: a case study of two refuges for prostitutes -- PART II: The 1880s -- Women's philanthropic care of the young: influence and expansion within the woman's sphere -- Women's philanthropy for adults: confidence within the woman's sphere -- A lady and a philanthropist: Helen Fell, 1882-92 -- PART III: The 1890s -- Philanthropic care of the young: from the lady and towards the mother -- Philanthropy for adults: the declining role of the lady within the woman's sphere -- Conclusion. / This thesis investigates the impact of an ideological construct - the woman's sphere - on philanthropy in Sydney during 1870-1900. The woman's sphere was a hegemonic concept which denoted the activities and functions deemed appropriate for women. Women were encouraged to work within their sphere in philanthropy and restricted from working in areas or ways outside their sphere. Within these limits, women had a distinct and important impact on philanthropy. -- Part I examines women's philanthropy in the 870s. The first two chapters deal with the major areas of women's philanthropy; the care of girls, mixed-sex groups of children, the sick and working class women. It is argued that women's involvement in these areas was increasingly justified as being within the woman's sphere. Chapter 3 analyses two Refuges for ex-prostitutes, the essential agreement on philanthropic aims between sectarian organisations and the relationship between the lady and the female within the woman's sphere. -- The 1880s, it is argued in Part II, was a decade when the lady became increasingly confident of her right to solve social problems considered to be within the philanthropic woman's sphere. In successive chapters, the impact of the woman's sphere concept on the philanthropic care of children and adults is analysed. The impact on the individual of the woman's sphere concept and the meaning of being a lady within that sphere is examined in Chapter 6. -- Part III discusses the changes in, and the expansion of, woman's sphere philanthropy during the 1890s. Although a select group of ladies still dominated women's philanthropy, much of their power and prestige was eroded. The woman's sphere concept remained but it was much less a means by which women philanthropists could justify independent action. -- In conclusion, it is argued that the woman's sphere concept is essential to an understanding of nineteenth-century life. Whilst this thesis demonstrates its impact on philanthropy, the concept was also a key determinant of women's activities in other areas. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / xxiii, 434 leaves ill

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 210-223).

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1990.

Social Work / (M.A.(Social Work)

Theoretical part of the thesis consists of chapters which deal with values and motivation that influence people in their lifestyle. Next part focuses on men working in helping professions and their reasons for choosing this profession. Last but not least, the thesis defines the issues of gender. The aim of this thesis is to ascertain men's motivation for university studies of social work at Faculty of Health and Social Sciences at University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice (ZSF JCU). The attitude of these men to the studies is pointed out as well. The thesis aims to find out whether men studying this field of study want to be employed in this field. The research question set for this aim is: What are the men's main reasons for choosing the study of social work? The qualitative strategy of research was used to process the theoretical part of thesis. It was implemented by means of methods of questioning by semi-structured interview. Analysis of data was evaluated by means of grounded theory method. The sample consisted of 8 communication partners, who study or studied Social work in public administration at ZSF JCU. The research shows that men are motivated to the studies by desire to help and contact with other people. Equally, achievement of university education played an important role for their decision. They consider the degree to be a useful tool for finding employment. Men evaluated the study of social work, which resulted in a decision whether they would like to work in social service after their studies. The findings can be useful for management and teachers of the field of study of social work since the results can provide an overview of students' motives for studying social work. Teachers can use these findings for reflection on new ways how to motivate potential students of social work. The thesis can be a benefit of field of social work, which gets an overview of students' point of view on finding employment within social services.

The aim of a research in this graduation work was to find out how the clients of the Home for Seniors in Humpolec are satisfied with providing this social service. The target was mainly to map areas which are considered problematic by the social service users themselves. The Home for Seniors has resides in a building not originally determined for these purposes since 1962. The Home is currently trying, as many other institutions of social services, to comply with social services quality standards in unsuitable architectural conditions. Despite the users themselves gave their satisfaction with providing the social service, the research also resulted in listing a few problem areas. It was mainly the area of public services availability. Major reasons of respondents dissatisfaction in this area were architectural barriers that make their full participation in everyday life impossible. Another problem areas were keeping privacy on users rooms, mainly at moments of carrying on personal hygiene, approachability of sanitary facilities from users rooms, and to a less extent an area of meals or coexistence. I expected areas of meals and accomodations to be the most urgent of the services provided. Although my assumption was wrong, according to the results of the performed research, certain problems in this area may be taken into account. The results of the research also indicate that improvement in the users satisfaction with the services provided would require bigger system changes, that are nowadays unfortunately impossible from many obvious reasons. However, in the future is possible to expect the area of residential social services to undergo transformation in harmony with social services quality standards towards the services of better quality and higher evaluation.

This thesis examines the processes of policymaking in South Africa, as expressed through the shifts in income maintenance policy. The thesis focuses on the processes leading to the establishment of the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), as its case study. SASSA is the institutional framework for the delivery of social grants. Our intention is to test the efficacy of what we have called ‘state learning’ in the South African context. Therefore, the overall aim of the study is to assess the capacity of the ‘state to learn’ in the process of policymaking as expressed through the shifts in social grant administration and the institutional framework of social welfare in South Africa. The subsidiary goals of the research includes mapping changes in the system of social grants administration since 1994 in order to assess the sources of the shifts in its institutional framework; to assess processes and responses within the state that result in policy shifts and the extent to which these can be considered dimensions of state learning; to assess the power of ideas in the policymaking process and to assess the influence of non-state agencies/actors in policy contestation and learning processes. This is essential, because social policy, especially welfare policy research in post-apartheid South Africa, has focused on the economic value of policies and not the political processes in policymaking. For the framework of analysis the study draws on theories of learning, especially at the organizational or institutional level. We start from the perspective that policymaking and implementation cannot be reduced to a neatly ordered schema (Lamb: 1987:6). Further, that policy change and policymaking are “iterative, haphazard, and highly political processes, in which the apparently logical sequences of decision-making, may turn out to be the reverse” (Lamb, 1987:6). This is mainly because state building is a complex affair and a contested terrain; policy learning and making are neither benign nor do they involve the state working in isolation (Sabatier, 1998). To understand processes of policymaking in South Africa, we rely on content analysis of primary and secondary materials or documents and in-depth interviews with key informants involved in the policy process. The documentary sources include records of parliamentary debates, green and white papers on social welfare, ANC party documents, presidential task force reports, newspapers, magazines and court judgments. The study reveals that the establishment of SASSA lends itself to the idea of ‘state learning’. Learning is indicated in South Africa by the capacity and ability of the state to stimulate ideas, debate ideas to establish ideational matrixes as well as paradigms that have informed the development of policy, take ideas and implement them to try and solve mismatches between the intention of the state and the outcomes and the ability of the state to produce policy.

This research may facilitate a discussion concerning the most efficient way of instilling social work values and ethics into the personal value systems of graduate social work students.