Asian Social Work and Policy Review最新文献

Poor are vulnerable, frail, battered, marginalized, voiceless, and victim of multiple social circumstances. The complex vulnerable existence always made them suffer and become double victims of any disaster, be it natural, human-made, or biological like pandemic COVID-19. Poverty in India is an outfall of a number of complex social realities, historical past, and present doldrums. Restrictions due to lockdown and a shrinking economy, the job market as the immediate impact caused a number of survival crises for the rural families. The situation of rural poor becomes even more aggravated, as the reverse migration and influx of population increased the consumption and demand for jobs that actually the rural livelihood sector can provide. While the pre-existing vulnerabilities of the poor are exposed in the pandemic, the government's response toward them showed its restricted efficiency. The pandemic COVID-19 has taken human-life hostage and effective sustainable strategies to manage the crisis of the poor vulnerable section were essential for long-term resolution. Thus, the professional challenge ahead is designing a sustainable strategy of working in such pandemic situations that social workers are professionally skilled to handle similar challenges.

This study explores the formation of social entrepreneurship from an ecological perspective as developing personal attributes taking into account the dynamic context of external factors. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with 22 social entrepreneur trainees are conducted based on the grounded theory. The main finding is that the paradigm of the social entrepreneurship formation is described through close interactions between the purposeful actors and the decisive environments. Especially, the interdisciplinary social-economic educational program in which individual attributes are developed—that is, social welfare, business administration, and health studies programs—are part of an important process through which social entrepreneurship is formed. Thus, the study suggests that systematically organized social-economic education programs should serve as intermediaries in connecting individuals and the environment around them.

This succinct review returns to the debate on political-culture and Singaporean social policy nexus that has been abandoned since 2000. They put the spotlight on the social policy through the Confucian lens, examining to what extent Confucianism teaching was conditioned in formal welfare provisions. Yet, they are too focused on the common idea of Confucianism while overlooking the original idea of Singaporean value promoted by Lee Kuan Yew. Hence, this article raises the discussion of the links of Singaporean values and the Central Provident Found (CPF) which have barely been highlighted in the literature. Singaporean values are hybrid between Confucianism and Western values. This article argues that although the CPF has expanded in terms of features and benefits, it has not crossed the line that separates Singapore from Western models. Because of its Singaporean values, the country does not follow the typical European model, which is being adopted by other East Asian countries. This article concludes the CPF not only reflects its centrality to Singaporean values but also as a value stabilizer that has long history in contributing to Singaporean nation-building.

This study aimed to verify whether deprivation is experienced differently across different age groups and whether these differences change the effect of deprivation on depression. In this study, the CES-D 11 scale was used to measure depression. Additionally, to verify the relationship between deprivation and depression by age group, logistics analysis was conducted. This study analyzed the survey data of 4,000 individuals from Korea; respondents were classified into four age groups: ≤34, 35–49, 50–64, and ≥65 years old. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between deprivation and depression and that specific areas of deprivation affected depression differently for each age group. The deprivation ratios of older individuals were higher in all areas. Further, the deprivation ratio of the ≤34 group in housing and living conditions was higher than that of the other groups. Additionally, respondents in the 50–64 and the ≥65 groups were alienated from the social security network, which poses an increased risk for chronic deprivation or poverty. The results of this study suggest that policies and practical interventions are needed, taking into account that the effects of absolute and relative deprivation on depression vary by age group.

Marginalization of poor and uneducated residents has led to fundamental social damage in Iran's large cities, which is manifest in a persistent culture of poverty and lack of access to opportunities and services. Empowering these people is not possible with government resources, and it requires the use of empowerment methods, such as social innovation-based solutions. The purpose of the present study was to propose a social innovation cycle for the marginalized individuals in parts of Tehran, Iran (Farahzad and Khavarshahr) as a sustainable solution to empower them by creating jobs for them. The present study was conducted using the participatory action research methodology to analyze key activities undertaken during the “poultry self-sufficiency” social innovation cycles in four phases: 1. generating ideas by understanding the needs and identifying potential solutions; 2. developing, prototyping, and piloting the ideas; 3. assessing, scaling up, and diffusing the good ideas; and 4. learning and evolving. The results showed that social innovation has the most significant effect when actors in different parts of society contribute and cooperate. According to the results obtained in this study, “poultry self-sufficiency” social innovation lifts the marginalized out of poverty, and the empowerment process helps them to participate in the community.

The COVID-19 outbreak has become a global health crisis affecting both the physical and mental health of people across the world. Likewise, the people of Bangladesh are going through a menacing mental health catastrophe with the outbreak of coronavirus that resulting in stress and trauma. Hence, this situation is altering people's lifestyles and generating complexities in psychological well-being. The study was based on the review of published articles and media reports related to stress and trauma during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. A total of 10 peer-reviewed articles and 45 newspaper reports were included following an extensive literature search. The contents were searched on Google, Google Scholar, PubMed, local online newspapers, social networking sites, and different webpages and published articles in different journals on COVID-19 from March 5 to October 25, 2020. The review study finds that the mental health of people in Bangladesh has severely been affected by the outbreak of coronavirus. All of the government, voluntary, and civil organizations need to give further emphasis on psychosocial and bereavement counseling in order to support those experiencing mental shocks resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. There is the need to strengthen more consultative and collaborative efforts from all public health experts, social workers, psychologists, and policymakers in doing so. Social workers in this context will be able to make meaningful contributions in supporting those affected people to better adjust to the challenging situation.

The aim of this study is to explore the subjective and practical experiences of international social workers, focusing on the content, outcomes, impact, and related factors of their activities in Asia. Individual reports of social workers dispatched from Japan to 11 Asian countries during the period of 2003–2018 were collected (n = 59). A mixed quantitative and qualitative content analysis was used to examine their experiences and perceptions in the field. Parts of their reports were categorized mainly into the relationship between requested activities and perceived needs, the type of social work activities conducted, experiences of success and failure in activities, and perceived outcomes and impact of the activities. The quantitative analysis showed that approximately 48.9% of the social workers described positive outcomes of their activities and 43.9% described positive impacts of their activities on the placement or communities. The qualitative analysis revealed that they experienced a variety of difficulties, together with sociocultural and religious differences. Many of their experiences of success or failure appeared to be associated with their interactions with local stakeholders. The findings suggest the importance of the reflective and contextualized practice of international developmental social workers with local stakeholders.

Because of experiencing discrimination, denial, stress, and rejection from prospective employers, disabled university graduates struggle to find jobs. By interviewing eight participants and conducting a focus group discussion with them at Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University Yogyakarta, the findings revealed that the teaching procedures in larger inclusive classrooms seemed to be a barrier for most disabled university students. Consequently, the students needed vocational training in addition to their courses before integrating into the workforce. Recalling when being students, these disabled university graduates found it difficult to prepare for jobs that required math or science because their university courses had not included assistance with different kinds of media. Additionally, they did not feel prepared for writing curriculum vitae and preparing job applications. They indicated that the university setting did not prepare them to deal with the typically fierce competition in job markets. They also found getting a job in the labor market to be difficult because a scarcity of formal employment opportunities suitable to their fields, and employers do not provide feedback or even any reply at all, to their job applications. In summary, academic, social, cultural, economic, psychological barriers, and discriminatory practices were encountered for disabled university graduates seeking employment.