Socialno delo, Vol. 44 (2005), Part 3
ARTICLES
Social Policy in Slovenia until WW2 as a Source for a History of Social Work - 161, (Abstract)
Printed Media on the Violence against Women in the Family - 187, (Abstract)
Centres of Social Work - Stimulators of Synergy in the Field of Social Welfare - 195, (Abstract)
Preparation for the Evaluation of the Accomplishment of Social Care - 201, (Abstract)
Divorce and the Effects of Spousal Counselling at the Centre of Social Work Ljubljana - Šiška - 211, (Abstract)
Family Mediation: Successful Parenthood Despite Unsuccessful Partnership - 223, (Abstract)
Abstracts
France Kresal
Social Policy in Slovenia until WW2 as a Source for a History of Social Work
Social policy is placed in an historical and economical-political frame. The institutions that carried out social policies, social insurance, public health, social welfare, and labour protection are surveyed, and their basic activities and competences are described. In the period of liberal capitalism social conditions aggravated, and social problems increased to the point where the state and the society could no longer solve them merely with the methods of social welfare and charity. Through building social security and the institutions of labour protections the state developed a social policy, which not only solved problems related to poverty, aiding the affected and rectifying the greatest social injustices, but also preventively solved social problems, and social policy became parallel to economical policy. A methodology is presented to examine sources for the history of social policy until WW2 in institutions whose tasks included maintaining archives. Finally, the paper indicates where more important archives containing pertinent material are located.
Keywords: social security, public health, social welfare, labour.
Dr. France Kresal is a historian, a scientific consultant at the Institute for recent history, and an associate of University of Ljubljana Faculty of Arts' graduate studies in economic and social history.
Ana Kralj
Prisons for the Poor, Camps for Immigrants?
'Globalisation' is understood as the global spreading of neo-liberal capitalism. It is not only an economical but also a cultural-ideological process, which continually reproduces global poverty, in Western countries no less than others. One of the effects of the processes of globalisation is the criminalisation of poverty (in the central countries of the world system) and the confinement of 'illegal' immigrants (in its 'periphery'). The differentiation of the 'redundant population' is carried out by democratic Western states, which strengthen their controlling and penalising functions and weaken their redistributive social welfare interventions.
Keywords: globalisation, poverty, illegal migrations, penal state.
Ana Kralj is a doctoral candidate in sociology of everyday life at University of Ljubljana Faculty of Arts and a junior researcher at University of Primorska scientific research centre.
Irena Rožman, Duška Knežević Hočevar
Printed Media on the Violence against Women in the Family
Studies on family are scarce in Slovenia, and even those are usually random and unsystematic. Consequently, there is little research that deals with violence in the family. Only since 1999, the number of studies on violence has increased, particularly in the months when the campaign addressing violence against women took place. The printed media are not an exception. Press clippings on violence in the family emerged in a greater number in 1999, when Slovenian professional and lay public acknowledged the importance of that campaign. In their discussions of violence against women in the family in the years 1998-2003, journalists gave priority to themes like types of violence, risk factors in the victim and the perpetrator, and the consequences and dynamic of violence. They stressed that the public discourse on violence against women in the family is still a taboo. The journalists mainly attributed it to the absence of suitable educational programmes on violence in Slovenia, and to poor connections among the institutions that have jurisdiction over, or are dealing with, violence in the family. They pointed out that in Slovenia needs a comprehensive legislation on violence.
Keywords: media research, discrimination of women, dynamic of violence.
Dr. Irena Rožman is an ethnologist and cultural anthropologist, and researcher at the Institute of Medical Sciences of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts Scientific Research Centre. Dr. Duška Knežević Hočevar is an historical anthropologist and Research Fellow at the same Institute.
Darja Kuzmanič Korva
Centres of Social Work - Stimulators of Synergy in the Field of Social Welfare
An important task of centres of social work is the accomplishment of the National Programme of Social Welfare until 2005. On the basis of this document a platform for the development of the whole field (not only of the centres) was elaborated. The developmental strategy defined a new, contemporary image of the centres. Standards were designed for the achievement of individual tasks that are carried out by public mandate or by law, and social welfare services were defined, as was the role of local coordinator. The user has come become central and is granted access to the network of all providers. The task of the coordinator of social welfare in local community is defined as the completion of the system of services. With the platform, the centres entered a new period. The tasks specified by the law cannot be accomplished by procedures alone; hence, the development of methods and techniques is emphasised, without which the public mandate cannot be carried out. Furthermore, the idea of coordination of the network on the local level promotes community approach and the synergy of all providers of social welfare.
Keywords: national programme, centres of social work, standards of achievement, reform.
Darja Kuzmanič Korva, M. A., is Head of the technical service of Community of Centres of Social Work.
Barbara Kobal, Nino Rode, Liljana Rihter, Jelka Zorn
Preparation for the Evaluation of the Accomplishment of Social Care
What the task of evaluation in the field of social welfare calls for, beside a model, are suitable instruments of measurement, which should reveal whether the aims of individual social welfare programmes are achieved, and what is the quality of their work. The aims are of two kinds: on the one hand are those that are generally determined in the National Programme of Social Welfare, and on the other hand are the concrete aims of each organisation. The latter, supposed to differ from one group of programmes to another, may be recognised by the use of focus groups. The paper presents how focus groups were planned, and sums up the main points from the analysis of discussions in focus groups for the programmes of first social aid, crisis centres for interventions and short-term placing, and the service of institutional care of the aged.
Keywords: evaluation criteria, focus groups, instructions for evaluation.
Barbara Kobal, M. A., is a senior researcher at Republic of Slovenia Institute for Social Welfare. Nino Rode, M. A., Dr. Liljana Rihter and Dr. Jelka Zorn are assistant lecturers at University of Ljubljana Faculty of Social Work.
Žarko Tepavčević
Divorce and the Effects of Spousal Counselling at the Centre of Social Work Ljubljana - Šiška
The analysis of the population of all married couples in crisis that were counselled at the Centre of Social Work Ljubljana - Šiška shows that the relationship between the spouses (as well as between the spouses and the counsellor) is initially bad in 70 % of cases, but it improves in the later stages of counselling. Counsellors at the Centre have concluded the majority of cases with satisfactory (21 %), good (21 %) and very good (16%) solution of the marital crisis. From the variables related to the work of counsellors the author composes a synthetic variable, the index of the efficiency of counselling, which distributes the discussed population very well (the values of arithmetic mean, modus and median are very close together). It is used as a quantitative indicator of the effects of marital counselling in the process of divorce.
Keywords: initial contact, phases, index of efficiency.
Žarko Tepavčević, M. A., is a social worker and a senior family counsellor at the Centre of Social Work Ljubljana - Šiška.
Suzana Kraljić
Family Mediation: Successful Parenthood Despite Unsuccessful Partnership
Divorce has many legal consequences. Amongst them, regulation of the relationship between parents and children is especially important, because divorce also has psychosocial consequences for children. Family mediation can help normalise the relationship between parents, and particularly their relation to children. Children should be fully informed about the divorce, and they should have an opportunity to express their opinion. The mediator must pay attention to the child's best interests throughout the process. Contacts with children are often the central problem of divorcing parents. Instead of maintaining genuine relations with their children, they may abuse them for their own purposes. Mediation helps parents and children realise that parenthood does not end with divorce.
Keywords: divorce, children, personal contact.
Suzana Kraljić, M. A., is a junior researcher and an assistant lecturer in family law and international private law at University of Maribor Faculty of Law.