Hong, Liu. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 232-244). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter Chapter One: --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Research background --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.1 --- Self-help as a social phenomenon in Western and Chinese societies --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.2 --- Impacts of self-help groups --- p.4 / Chapter 1.1.3 --- An issue demanding attention: maintenance and development of self-help groups --- p.7 / Chapter 1.2 --- Research objectives --- p.9 / Chapter 1.3 --- Initial guiding questions --- p.10 / Chapter Chapter Two: --- Sketching a Conceptual Framework --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1 --- Literature Review --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Group maintenance and development --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Dynamics of self-help groups --- p.27 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- External forces influencing self-help groups --- p.32 / Chapter 2.2 --- Conceptual framework --- p.40 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Theory-use in current study --- p.40 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Conceptual framework --- p.41 / Chapter 2.3 --- Refining the research questions --- p.42 / Chapter 2.4 --- Definitions of key terms in the research question --- p.45 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Self-help groups --- p.45 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Maintenance and development --- p.45 / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Social workers --- p.46 / Chapter Chapter Three: --- Research Design and Implementation --- p.48 / Chapter 3.1 --- Research design --- p.48 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Philosophical consideration --- p.48 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Methodological justification --- p.50 / Chapter 3.2 --- Case study design --- p.52 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Overall design: embedded contrasting multiple-case (two cases) study --- p.52 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- "Unit of analysis, subunit of analysis and context of case" --- p.54 / Chapter 3.3 --- Case selection --- p.55 / Chapter 3.4 --- Implementation --- p.57 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- General process of implementation --- p.57 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Data collection --- p.58 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Data analysis --- p.61 / Chapter 3.4.4 --- Quality of study --- p.65 / Chapter 3.5 --- Ethical consideration --- p.68 / Chapter Chapter Four: --- Case A: Within-Case Data Display and Analysis --- p.70 / Chapter 4.1 --- Chronicle of Case A --- p.70 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Pre-formalized stage: before SCMC Parents Group --- p.72 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Formalized stage: SCMC Parents Group --- p.74 / Chapter 4.2 --- Difficulties encountered by the group on the factors contributing to the maintenance and development in Case A --- p.81 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Leadership --- p.82 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Membership --- p.89 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Practical difficulties: logistics and finance --- p.96 / Chapter 4.2.4 --- Professional Involvement --- p.101 / Chapter 4.2.5 --- Affiliation --- p.105 / Chapter 4.2.6 --- Legitimacy --- p.115 / Chapter 4.3 --- Responding to research question 1: what are the difficulties? --- p.124 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Difficulty on leadership: indistinct leadership structure --- p.124 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Difficulty on membership: shortage of new core members --- p.125 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- Difficulty on practical issue: tight finance --- p.126 / Chapter 4.3.4 --- Difficulty on affiliation: reserved support from the hospital --- p.126 / Chapter 4.3.5 --- Difficulty on legitimacy: unachieved out-hospital legitimacy --- p.127 / Chapter 4.4 --- "Responding to research question 2 & 3: how are the difficulties mutually linked, and linked with the maintenance and development of the groups?" --- p.129 / Chapter 4.5 --- Role of social work profession --- p.134 / Chapter 4.5.1 --- Social work practice in SCMC --- p.134 / Chapter 4.5.2 --- Involvement of social workers in the parents group --- p.136 / Chapter 4.5.3 --- Expectations from the medical staff --- p.138 / Chapter 4.5.4 --- Social workers or administrators? --- p.139 / Chapter Chapter Five: --- Case B: Within-Case Data Display and Analysis --- p.142 / Chapter 5.1 --- Chronicle of case B --- p.142 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Before establishment --- p.143 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- After ICCCPO Shanghai conference --- p.144 / Chapter 5.2 --- Difficulties encountered by the group on the factors contributing to the maintenance and development in Case B --- p.150 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Leadership --- p.150 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Membership --- p.159 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Practical issues: logistics and finance --- p.165 / Chapter 5.2.4 --- Professional involvement --- p.172 / Chapter 5.2.5 --- Affiliation --- p.174 / Chapter 5.2.6 --- Legitimacy --- p.179 / Chapter 5.3 --- Responding to research question 1: what are the difficulties? --- p.187 / Chapter 5.4 --- "Responding to research question 2 & 3: how are the difficulties mutually linked, and linked with the maintenance and development of the groups?" --- p.191 / Chapter Chapter Six: --- Case Synthesis --- p.196 / Chapter 6.1 --- Comparing the two cases --- p.196 / Chapter 6.1.1 --- Commonalities --- p.196 / Chapter 6.1.2 --- Differences --- p.198 / Chapter 6.2 --- Controlled comparison --- p.198 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- Controlling the factors --- p.198 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- Making comparison --- p.199 / Chapter 6.2.3 --- Results of comparison --- p.203 / Chapter 6.3 --- Uncontrolled comparisons --- p.204 / Chapter 6.3.1 --- "Affiliation, host organizations, and Finance" --- p.205 / Chapter 6.3.2 --- Affiliation and Out-hospital Legitimacy --- p.209 / Chapter 6.3.3 --- Out-hospital Legitimacy and Finance --- p.210 / Chapter Chapter Seven: --- "Conclusions, Discussions，Implications，and Limitations" --- p.211 / Chapter 7.1 --- Conclusions --- p.211 / Chapter 7.2 --- Discussions --- p.213 / Chapter 7.2.1 --- Members and leader in the self-help groups: “free-riders´ح and “bum-out´ح --- p.213 / Chapter 7.2.2 --- Group legitimacy and affiliation in the Chinese context --- p.216 / Chapter 7.2.3 --- Professional involvement: medical staff and social workers --- p.219 / Chapter 7.3 --- Implications --- p.223 / Chapter 7.3.1 --- Implications for social work practice --- p.223 / Chapter 7.3.2 --- Implications for social work education --- p.225 / Chapter 7.3.3 --- Implications for social policy --- p.226 / Chapter 7.3.4 --- Implications for future research --- p.229 / Chapter 7.4 --- Limitations --- p.230 / Reference --- p.232

published_or_final_version / Social Service Management / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

Recurrent themes identified in the narratives of the research participants revealed their perceptions and experiences of the diverse forms of power in this setting, their understanding and interpretation of the meaning of empowerment, and the building of foundations for effective empowering practices. The research findings show how practitioners enhance their own reflexivity as well as those of service partners and users to create a favorable learning environment. They challenged the dominant discourses and produced alternative ones, thus enriching the meaning of education. They also engaged in different dimensions of empowerment, namely (1) the personal dimension as how service users recaptured a sense of competence to meet life challenges and fight for their own benefits; (2) the interpersonal dimension as how practitioners collaborated with school personnel to safeguard student rights and secure social justice; (3) the school and community dimensions as how practitioners initiated positive changes to school policies and mobilized community resources for student development; and (4) the institutional dimension as how practitioners played the advocacy role in the education sector. / The findings provide a knowledge base for an understanding of the significant aspects of power and empowerment in school social work service. The recommendations induced are put into policy, practice, and research categories. They serve as useful information for policy makers to revisit the existing school social work policy to improve the working conditions of practitioners. They give valuable reference materials for youth workers to apply the empowerment approach in actual practice. They also stimulate other intellectuals to explore future directions of social work research in general, as well as youth and school social work studies in particular. / The research findings suggest that empowerment can be generated through a number of ways and understood in terms of dialogical process, reflexive practice, discourse construction, localized actions, collective actions and multiple interventions. The synthesis of these domains opens up the possibility for developing a framework of empowerment-oriented school social work practice. This framework provides a "map" to guide practitioners to work with power in diverse, dynamic, creative, and contextual ways. / This thesis examines the field experiences of Hong Kong school social workers in encountering different forms of power and carrying out empowering practices. A critical social work perspective is adopted to theorize a conceptual framework to explicate the narratives collected through in-depth interviews with 15 frontline school social workers. These research participants were chosen with regard to their service experience, the agencies they belonged to, and the types of schools they served. Using discourse analysis as the research strategy adds a power and political dimension in analyzing their narratives in the Hong Kong context. It gives a comprehensive and detailed description of their reactions to the power relations, performances of flexible roles, generation of new discourses, and use of various strategies to initiate empowering practices. / To Su Ming. / "August 2006." / Adviser: Steven Sek-yum Ngai. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-03, Section: A, page: 1163. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 416-452). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences