Authors:Aleksandar Bozic Pages: 4 - 28 Abstract: Nonstate service providers in the form of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play an important role in the delivery of social services and the development of social work practice, in particular in fragile and conflict-affected countries. In such challenging settings, NGOs also mobilize various resources, implement novel activities or service delivery models that may induce the development of social innovation; however, such perspectives have been overlooked in the social work literature. This study outlines a framework for understanding how social innovation generates by nonstate service providers in a challenging social work context. By analyzing 15 interviews from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the study identified three interrelated key mechanisms that drive social innovation by local NGO service providers: a) transcopy, b) coactive novelty and c) knowledge construction. The processes underlying these mechanisms include transnational networking, copying and adapting, contextual modification, relationship-building, pioneering novel solutions, knowledge production and transfer. This study offers new insights into the role of nonstate service providers in the development of social innovation in a challenging social work context and has several implications for practice. PubDate: 2022-11-23 DOI: 10.31265/jcsw.v17i2.416 Issue No:Vol. 17, No. 2 (2022)
Authors:Lydia Mehrara Pages: 29 - 52 Abstract: The Norwegian community health centres are one of the main providers of maternal and child health care services. They are often the primary, as well as a regular point of contact, for women during pregnancy and after childbirth. As such, they are a place where encounters between primary health care providers like public health nurses, midwives and immigrant women, are frequent. Midwives and public health nurses play an important role as state employees in the distribution of universal health provisions at the local level. This is especially important in meeting the diverse needs of service users in a universal health care system. This study investigates the implications of cultural diversity for health care practice in a universal system. It employs a qualitative approach, using data from nine semi-structured interviews with midwives and public health nurses across three Norwegian municipalities. It analyses their experiences in working with immigrant women during pregnancy, and after childbirth, through thematic analysis. The findings illustrate the practitioners’ different approaches to meeting with culturally diverse patients, the challenges they face in their work, and how they overcome them. The discussions address the practice of cross-cultural health care in the absence of national guidelines or formal training using street-level bureaucracy as an analytical concept. This article contributes to knowledge on the practice of cross-cultural health care at Norwegian community health centres in the absence of a culturally cognizant health policy. On a broader scale, this study illustrates the implications of diversity for policy and practice in a universal welfare state. PubDate: 2022-11-23 DOI: 10.31265/jcsw.v17i2.461 Issue No:Vol. 17, No. 2 (2022)
Authors:Eric Kimathi Pages: 53 - 78 Abstract: This paper explores how kindergarten teachers relate to the concept of safety in the integration of refugee children. My research findings reveal that the concept of safety, or trygghet in Norwegian, is understood as emotional support and comfort accorded to children. The notion of trygghet emerges as an important value-laden concept that shapes and largely influences teachers’ everyday work, and how they relate to children and their parents. The idea of safety is traceable within an institutional discourse mediated by social technology, such as the International Child Development Programme and the Resource Centre for Violence and Trauma programmes, which have their roots in psy-discourses. My findings indicate that the construction of a potentially ‘traumatized’ refugee child is interconnected with the assumed need for safety. When using this discourse in their daily work, the kindergarten staff contribute to constructing and reproducing a specific category that I refer to as the ‘traumatized’ refugee child in need of safety. This standardized understanding risks categorizing refugee children, and highlights how professionals can get caught up in dominant discourses that universalize their routine practices. PubDate: 2022-11-23 DOI: 10.31265/jcsw.v17i2.386 Issue No:Vol. 17, No. 2 (2022)
Authors:Mascha Wiechmann Pages: 79 - 86 Abstract: Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is a long-standing and global phenomenon, that is considered, both public health and social problem which seems difficult to tackle (Gracia et al., 2019; Wemrell et al., 2021). Although some research suggests that gender equality plays an important role in reducing IPVAW (Gracia et al., 2019; Wemrell et al., 2021), the so-called Nordic Paradox – a situation where seemingly the most gender equal states, i.e., Nordic countries (including, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland) report the highest numbers of IPVAW – appears to contradict this supposition (Gracia & Merlo, 2016). To date, there is no agreement as to why, and whether, this is the case. In this short paper, I shall review three academic articles that aim to address this contradiction, focusing on their methodologies and limitations. In this essay, firstly, I will discuss how I approached the literature search. Secondly, I will present an overview of IPVAW and the Nordic paradox. Thirdly, I will discuss Gracia and colleagues (2019) and Permanyer and Gomez-Casillas's (2020) analysis, which are based on the same survey (FRA, 2014). Fourthly, I will examine the chosen literature and lastly, I will consider whether, and if so to what extent, high gender equality score and violence against women go hand in hand. PubDate: 2022-11-23 DOI: 10.31265/jcsw.v17i2.572 Issue No:Vol. 17, No. 2 (2022)
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