Socialno delo on-line archive

Socialno delo, Volume 55 (2016), Issue 3

ARTICLES

Nina Mešl, Tadeja Kodele
Implementing contemporary social work doctrine: from treating costumers to collaborating with people - 109, (Abstract) (Full text)

Srečo Dragoš
Refugees and the Slovenes - 123, (Abstract) (Full text)

Liljana Rihter
Employment of disabled people: gaps between legislation and practice - 137, (Abstract) (Full text)

RESEARCH REPORT

Ana Curk
Language and communication in everyday situations: stories of the handicapped - 151, (Abstract) (Full text)

 
Nina Mešl, Tadeja Kodele
Implementing contemporary social work doctrine: from treating costumers to collaborating with people

(Full text)

Today's challenge for social work practice and science is to stimulate conditions for development and strengthening of new practices, based on a contemporary social work doctrine. Our experiences of collaboration with social workers in different contexts have confirmed that they recognize the importance of a shift towards collaborative processes of support and help and that they already espoused these theoretical starting points. Now we have a new task: to co-create practice where it will be evident that collaborative paradigm is also a paradigm-in-use. Understanding the starting points of collaborative social work, it is important to overcome division of working on micro, mezzo and macro levels and search for opportunities in collaborative dialogue of all participants in building a social work practice and science. Throughout the presentation of some results of the project Helping families in the community: co-creation of desired changes for reducing social exclusion and strengthening health, the authors discuss the opportunities for common shift in the field of social work from "what is missing and what should be" to "what is and what could be".

 
Srečo Dragoš
Refugees and the Slovenes

(Full text)

In the early 1990s, during the disintegration of our ex common state of Yugoslavia, when the new state of Slovenia was established, we received approximately 70,000 refugees (amounting to 3.5% of the population of Slovenia). Despite this massive intake of refugees, at that time Slovenia didn't disintegrate and no social stratum's living standard deteriorated, although at that time Slovenia was regarded as a rather uncertain project, was faced with a serious economic crisis and unemployment, and the outcome of war on the Balkans looked completely unpredictable. The situation today is the opposite: there are practically no refugees in Slovenia, and our country is the second most restrictive country in Europe (both in absolute and relative numbers), as far as getting protected against them is considered. The backdrop of this anti-refugee panic is related to a very negative structure and trends of public opinion in the key fields of societal and systemic integration. Regarding a pronounced tendency toward increased poverty and decomposition of basic mechanisms of the welfare state, the public opinion of the Slovenes is progressively moving in an authoritarian direction, is getting susceptible to patriotic sentiments and uncritical glorification of “Sloveneness”, but at the same time it is rejecting capitalism and (again) getting enthusiastic about socialism. Therefore all conditions are met for an evolution of events similar to those from the first half of the 20th century – in other words, for national socialism.

 
Liljana Rihter
Employment of disabled people: gaps between legislation and practice

(Full text)

The article focuses on results of an analysis examining measures to improve the employment situation of people with disabilities. Analysis of the Slovenian legislation on general (macro) level shows both positive aspects (general principles of non-discrimination, possibility of employment in an ordinary working environment, incentives for employers to employ disabled people) as well as shortcomings in the prevalence of measures that promote employment opportunities for people with disabilities in areas that are spatially segregated from the normal working environment. At the same time the lack of the themes of employment issues in the general law guaranteeing equal opportunities for people with disabilities might not devote enough attention to the prevention of discrimination. Analysis of implementation (mezzo) level shows that people with disabilities work mostly in work environments for which also (some) vocational rehabilitators argue that they do not imply real social inclusion. Some problems in the implementation of vocational rehabilitation services imply the absence of the concepts of social work. At the micro level, it is noted that in cases where people themselves have enough resources or support, integration into the normal working environment is easier. For people who are less successful or unsuccessful in integrating into normal working environment, the system of vocational rehabilitation presents opportunity to find the environments and possibilities for employment.

 
Ana Curk
Language and communication in everyday situations: stories of the handicapped

(Full text)

In the paper the main findings of the master's thesis Discourses – language, communication and other forms of interaction: stories of the handicapped are presented. The author is mainly interested in the communication strategies among persons with handicaps and those without them. In the context of the autobiographies of the disabled, she focuses on everyday interaction between people with handicaps and those without specific obstacles, so that she establishes a relation between intimate interpersonal relationships and social context.