The most familiar sociological image of the probation officer sees him firmly committed to some variant of a psycho-pathological view of deviancy in which both society and volition are disregarded. It was from this assumption that the research sprang, the purpose being to examine the treatment ideologies held by probation officers. But from focussed interviews, it was clear that explanations of deviancy offered by the probation officers were wider than anticipated, encompassing both determinist and voluntarist accounts of behaviour. It is suggested that the structural context of probation work - utilitarian justice and casework treatment notions - creates more 'space' for offering a greater variety of explanations than has often been appreciated. And, in offering these explanations probation officers do not necessarily reinterpret their clients' accounts which were somtimes accepted and at other times rejected. How the cases were explained appear to depend on the circumstances of the case. The more serious the offender's criminal history or his personal or social problems, the more likely it was that the probation officer thought in determinist terms offering an 'action' account. But equally, the respondents recognised the sometimes voluntary nature of delinquency, though this was generally in less serious cases.

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.

Yes / Summary: This article reviews the existing literature on power within a social work context and extends the analysis to broader sociological understandings through which to rethink the ways in which social work professionals understand and work with power within everyday practice. Findings: The review argues that prevailing dichotomies, which feature so centrally in theoretical conceptualisations of power, offering binary positions of power as ‘good or bad’, ‘positive or negative’ and ‘productive or limiting’ are limiting in themselves. It is argued that power must also be recognised as a construct which operates in a synchronous way; whereby it can impact in limiting and productive ways at the same time. Applications: To support this position, the Power-informed Practice (PiP) framework, which recognises power at the individual, professional and structural levels is offered. The utility of the framework in providing a clearer understanding of power is then presented in relation to working with children who have experienced abuse. As a tool, the framework enables social workers to structure their analysis of power within all areas of contemporary social work practice, in order to promote and support processes of empowerment.