Karen Tanner and Pat Le Riche have brought together a range of contributions from practitioners and social work academics in order to discuss the application of ideas about observation to social work education and practice. The authors focus on how observation can be used to counteract oppressive and dehumanising practices.
Introducing the concept of observation to social work students can be a complex and challenging task. Assessing their observation skills and assignments can be even harder, especially if much of this work takes place implicitly, throughout their training and placements. This book will help students to grasp the fundamentals of social work observation, from the theories and methods to how these can be demonstrated in everyday practice. Skills are covered throughout, as well as effective observation work with different client groups and in different settings. The authors argue that an observant social worker is an effective and resilient one, and demonstrate this through case study material and research summaries.
Observation helps social workers and students to reflect upon situations before intervening. The Tavistock Model of Observation, which is informed by psychoanalytic ideas (especially those of Klein and Bion) is the starting point of this general book on the role of observation in social work. Karen Tanner and Pat Le Riche have brought together a range of contributions from practitioners and social work academics in order to discuss the application of ideas about observation to social work education and practice. While the Tavistock Model remains influential, the writers draw on material from a number of other disciplines, such as behavioural ethnography, psychology and critical social policy, on observation and social work. The central theme of the book is that of power relations. The authors focus on power in relation to the process of observation, and how observation can be used to counteract oppressive and dehumanising practices. Clearly and perceptively written, the book develops the debate on the purposes of observation and provides an overview of current practice. It will be of use to students and professionals alike.
Examining and exploring new approaches to therapeutic observation in health and social care, this multidisciplinary guide discusses and analyses its uses in a range of practical contexts with children, families and adults. Developing good observation skills is paramount to sustaining relationships in the challenging settings that health and social care professionals find themselves in. This guide shows how observation is taught, applied in practice, and how it will be returned to throughout professionals' careers. Drawing on psychoanalytic ideas and theories of human development as a base for professional learning, the experienced editors and authors offer theoretically informed models to teach observation skills in professional programmes, helping their readers prepare for successful intervention in any setting.
"In the field of social work, qualitative research is starting to gain more prominence as are mixed methods and various issues regarding race, ethnicity and gender. These changes in the field are reflected and updated in "The Handbook of Social Work Research Methods, Second Edition". This text contains meta analysis, designs to evaluate treatment and provides the support to help students harness the power of the Internet. This handbook brings together leading scholars in research methods in social work." --Book Jacket.
Introducing the concept of observation to social work students can be a complex and challenging task. Assessing their observation skills and assignments can be even harder, especially if much of this work takes place implicitly, throughout their training and placements. This book will help students to grasp the fundamentals of social work observation, from the theories and methods to how these can be demonstrated in everyday practice. Skills are covered throughout, as well as effective observation work with different client groups and in different settings. The authors argue that an observant social worker is an effective and resilient one, and demonstrate this through case study material and research summaries.
A range of contributions from practitioners are collected here in order to discuss the application of observation ideas to social work education and practice, and to draw attention to the place and value of observation within social work.
In the twenty-first century, more than ever, everything and everybody seems to be on the move. Global flows of people, goods, food, money, information, services and media images are forming an intensely mobile background to everyday life. Social scientists, too, are on the move, seeking new analytical purchase on these important aspects of the social world by trying to move with, and to be moved by, the fleeting, distributed, multiple, non-causal, sensory, emotional and kinaesthetic. Mobile Methods addresses the challenges and opportunities of researching mobile phenomena. Drawing on extensive interdisciplinary discussion, the book brings together a collection of cutting-edge methodological innovations and original research reports to examine some important implications of the mobilities turn for the processes of ‘research’, and the realm of the empirical. Through analysis that addresses questions such as ‘how are social relationships and social institutions made in and through mobility?’, and ‘how do people experience mobility in twenty-first century world cities?', the authors mobilize sociological analysis, bringing new insights and opening up new opportunities for engagement with contemporary challenges. This book is a key text for undergraduate and postgraduate students of disciplines including Human Geography, Social Policy, Sociology and Research Methods.
While providing an introduction to basic principles and strategies, Participant Observation also explores the philosophy and methodology underlying the actual practice of participant observation. Taking a thoroughly practical approach to the methods of participant observation, Danny L. Jorgensen illustrates these methods with both classic and current research studies. By using the materials in this book, the reader can begin conducting participant observation research on their own.
Notwithstanding the mythical demise of "introspection," self-observation has always been an integral aspect of the social sciences. In the century following the "behavioral revolution," psychology has seen a reduction not so much in the frequency as in the rigor with which self-observation is practiced. A great deal of self-observation has been renamed or obscured (as, for example, "self-report"), but this has served only to defer and impoverish important theoretical and technical work. This volume, which contributes to the development of a rigorous theory of self-observation, is organized around three general objectives: to re-animate a discourse on self-observation through a historical analysis of various self-observation traditions; to outline and begin to address some of the unique theoretical challenges of self-observation; and to elaborate some of the technical and practical details necessary for realizing a program of research dedicated to self-observation. In the first section of the book, three historians of psychology trace the evolution of self-observation. In the second, three scholars who are currently working in contemporary traditions of self-observation discuss the basic theoretical and practical challenges involved in conducting self-observation research. In the final two sections of the book, scholars from the phenomenological and narrative traditions trace the history, theory, and practice of self-observation in their respective traditions. Self-Observation in the Social Sciences continues the fine tradition set by Transaction’s History and Theory of Psychology series edited by Jaan Valsiner. It is of interest to psychologists and to those who study methodology within the social sciences.
