Border and Bordering: Politics, Poetics, Precariousness focuses on the idea of border and its various geopolitical, sociocultural, and cognitive incarnations. In recent times, border has emerged as a common trope in contemporary language with phenomena such as ‘bordering’, ‘borderless’, ‘building borders’, ‘breaking borders’, ‘crossing borders’, ‘porous borders’, and ‘shifting borders’. Whether concrete or shadow, borders are omnipresent. The volume contains sixteen essays on various aspects of thinking border as well as border-thinking in literature, philosophy, historiography, strategic studies, films, and TV series. Such a collection is symptomatic of the very interdisciplinarity of border and the varied experiences of bordering as manifested in different modes of expression. This study of the multiplicity of experiences is intrinsic to our understanding of border, so much so that borders can only be read through an interdisciplinary approach. This interdisciplinarity is immanent to the concept of border and imminent (“to come”) to the phenomenon of bordering. Also, the volume quite explicitly deals with the metaphors of border(s): as border(s) may not necessarily be always visible and tangible but also cognitive and metaphysical. This volume intends to attract not only academics but all readers, and that is precisely the reason why it has been designed in such a way. This book, therefore, is not yet-another volume on critical border studies and area studies. In doing border, the book enables us to go beyond the boundaries of border studies and area studies—as its authors believe that ‘studies’ of border studies and area studies have become as regimented as the borders of the nation-state.
Families & Change: Coping With Stressful Events and Transitions presents current literature detailing families’ responses to varied transitions and stressful life events over the life span. Integrating research, theory, and application, this bestselling text implements interdisciplinary content to address a multitude of both predictable and unpredictable problems and stressors as they relate to family sciences. Editors Kevin R. Bush and Christine A. Price bring together cutting-edge research and scholarship to examine issues across the life span and how these factors can be applied across diverse family situations.
In austerity Britain, disabled people have become the favourite target. From social care to the benefits system, politicians and media alike have made the case Britain's 12 million disabled people are a drain on the public purse. In Crippled , leading commentator Frances Ryan exposes the disturbing reality, telling the story of those most affected by this devastating regime. This includes a paralyzed man forced to crawl down the stairs because the council wouldn't provide accessible housing; the malnourished woman sleeping in her wheelchair; and the young girl with bipolar forced to turn to sex work to survive. Through these personal stories, Ryan charts how in recent years the public attitude towards disabled people has transformed from compassion to contempt: from society's `most vulnerable' to benefit cheats. Crippled is a damning indictment of a safety net gone wrong, and a passionate demand for an end to austerity measures hitting those most in need.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shed fresh light on the ways that social media and digital technologies can be effectively harnessed to support relationship-based social work practice. However, it has also highlighted the complex risks, ethics and practical challenges that such technologies pose. This book helps practitioners and students navigate this complex terrain and explore and build upon its multiple opportunities. It uses real-life examples to examine how practitioners can assess the impact of new technologies on their professional conduct and use them in a way that enhance public confidence and relationship-based practice. The authors explore how digital technologies can support multiple areas of service including social work with children, families and adults, mental health social work, youth justice and working with online communities. They also consider regulatory questions and provide a roadmap for good practice.
One moment life was normal, the next, governments around the world were imposing radical lockdowns of their populations. But why were decision-makers so readily ignoring centuries of hard-won civil freedoms? Where was the discussion of ethics and human rights? Why were we so easily controlled and why were our controllers so willing to do it? In The Case for Democracy, David Seedhouse explores the psychological biases; distorted risk perceptions; frenetic journalism; the disputed science; the narrow focus of 'experts'; value judgements dressed up as truths; propaganda; the invisibility of ethics; and the alarming irrelevance of inclusive democracy that have been features of governmental responses to the covid-19 pandemic. Seedhouse argues that the chaotic governmental response to Coronavirus, with no attempt to include the public, is the perfect argument for an extensive, participatory democracy; a democracy that demonstrates practical decision making by listening to everyone’s knowledge and expertise. Now is the time for us to solve our problems together.