Creating and applying knowledge for critical social work practice: Reflections on epistemology, research, and evidence-based practice

McNeill, Ted; Nicholas, David

doi:10.1080/15313204.2017.1384945

Cited by 16 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 44 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Groupworkers may be positionally poised to address diversities (a) if indeed they feel structurally or organizationally enabled to do so (or not inhibited from doing so), (b) if they recognize the presence and layers of diversities, and (c) if they feel confident in using relevant skills to address potential or emergent conflict associated with such diversity (McNeill and Nicholas, 2019). This finding is consistent with Brown and Mistry (2006) results showing participants encountered skill deficits in responding to diversity in groups.…”

Section: Diversity As a Relational Processsupporting

confidence: 73%

Defining diversity in groupwork: A relational exploration

Popiel¹,

LaRoque²,

Nicholas

et al. 2021

GPWK

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

One of the basic assumptions underlying all traditional definitions is that diversity is a characteristic of an individual or a group, which is a problematic to groupwork. This paper explores Phases 1 and 2 of a multi-method research project exploring groupworkers’ understandings of diversity and how their perceptions impact their approach to group processes, with implications for group practice advancement. The project consists of sequential phases following a mixed-methods design. In the initial phase, in-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted individually with 24 groupworkers. While the second phase (phase two) consisted of 4 focus groups involving theoretical and criterion sampling strategies to interview experienced therapeutically-oriented groupworkers in Western and Eastern Canada. The analysis was guided by Glaser and Strauss’s (1967) constant comparative method involving open-coding, followed by axial coding, and concluded with selective coding. Groupworkers reported feeling overwhelmed and, in some cases, “paralyzed” by the complex diversity present in their groups. These findings suggest attention to group diversity renders it potentially more relevant and salient. We also found the levels and complexity of diversity increased as the reflection by groupworkers deepened. In keeping with the traditional aims of groupwork, attending to diversity goes beyond the group to include responses to diversity in the organizational and community contexts. Dialogue and change in organizational responses to diversity is important in the areas of organizational climate, allocation of resources, and agency policy and procedures. Accordingly, offering groupworkers and members tools to attend and navigate diversity in situ is a first step towards recognizing its presence and importance. A critical step in moving forward is to examine the nuances of diversity and move beyond thinking of diversity in terms of demographic variables.

show abstract

Section: Diversity As a Relational Processsupporting

confidence: 73%

Defining diversity in groupwork: A relational exploration

Popiel¹,

LaRoque²,

Nicholas

et al. 2021

GPWK

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The focus of critical realism on the role oppressive structures (e.g. poverty, discrimination, the political economy) on individuals' capacity for self-determination, autonomy and self-fulfilment has an inherent social justice intent (McNeill & Nicholas, 2017). The explanatory accounts that critical realists aim to develop, therefore, have the potential to instruct ameliorative change (Hammersley, 2002;Houston, 2010;McNeill & Nicholas, 2017).…”

Section: IVmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…poverty, discrimination, the political economy) on individuals' capacity for self-determination, autonomy and self-fulfilment has an inherent social justice intent (McNeill & Nicholas, 2017). The explanatory accounts that critical realists aim to develop, therefore, have the potential to instruct ameliorative change (Hammersley, 2002;Houston, 2010;McNeill & Nicholas, 2017). Mental health promotion policy and practice should combine endeavours to remove oppressive structural configurations with efforts to stimulate 'structurally transformative' individual agency (Abel & Frohlich, 2012;Rütten & Gelius, 2011).…”

Section: IVmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining mental health recovery in the context of structural disadvantage: the unrealised potential of critical realism

Karadzhov

2019

Soc Theory Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite the acknowledgement that mental health inequalities are shaped by the interaction of macro-level (structural) and micro-level (individual, agentic) powers, dominant paradigms in mental health research have been ill-equipped to integrate those different levels of influence theoretically and empirically. As a result, an 'explanatory deficit' persists as to the causal mechanisms underpinning the impact of social inequalities on mental well-being, particularly mental health recovery. To redress this gap, critical realism has been put forward as a useful metatheoretical alternative. This paper begins by offering a succinct critique of extant mental health recovery research. Mental health recovery is problematised in relation to its dynamic embeddedness in contextual, including macro-structural, conditions. The core tenets and principles of critical realism are then invoked to address the identified philosophical and theoretical inadequacies. This paper argues that critical realism offers promise for explaining how inequality-generating mechanisms, such as social exclusion, may impede recovery. The analytico-conceptual potential of critical realism has remained largely untapped by the extant mental health scholarship. Critical realism offers a holistic and inclusive set of conceptual tools to re-examine the structure-agency nexus in order to advance mental health recovery and inequalities research, and an equity-based policy agenda.

show abstract

“…Understanding how exclusionary social arrangements affect individuals’ recovery, and the coping strategies that individuals deploy to negotiate those, is likely to inform anti-oppressive interventions that could eventually remove the structural constraints to human emancipation and flourishing ( Houston, 2001 ; McNeill and Nicholas, 2019 ). Examining how various social structures, processes and pathways differentially affect individuals’ chances to achieve recovery is likely to advance an equity-based agenda in mental health and health inequalities research ( Östlin et al, 2011 ).…”

Section: Conclusion: Advancing the Recovery Research Agendamentioning

confidence: 99%

Personal recovery and socio-structural disadvantage: A critical conceptual review

Karadzhov

2021

Health (London)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite its seeming breadth and diversity, the bulk of the personal (mental health) recovery literature has remained strangely ‘silent’ about the impact of various socio-structural inequalities on the recovery process. Such an inadequacy of the empirical literature is not without consequences since the systematic omission or downplaying, at best, of the socio-structural conditions of living for persons with lived experience of mental health difficulties may inadvertently reinforce a reductionist view of recovery as an atomised, individualised phenomenon. Motivated by those limitations in extant scholarship, a critical literature review was conducted to identify and critique relevant research to problematise the notion of personal recovery in the context of socio-structural disadvantage such as poverty, homelessness, discrimination and inequalities. The review illuminates the scarcity of empirical research and the paucity of sociologically-informed theorisation regarding how recovery is shaped by the socio-structural conditions of living. Those inadequacies are especially pertinent to homelessness research, whereby empirical investigations of personal recovery have remained few and undertheorised. The gaps in the research and theorising about the relational, contextual and socio-structural embeddedness of recovery are distilled. The critical review concludes that personal recovery has remained underresearched, underproblematised and undertheorised, especially in the context of homelessness and other forms of socio-structural disadvantage. Understanding how exclusionary social arrangements affect individuals’ recovery, and the coping strategies that they deploy to negotiate those, is likely to inform anti-oppressive interventions that could eventually remove the structural constraints to human emancipation and flourishing.

show abstract

Creating and applying knowledge for critical social work practice: Reflections on epistemology, research, and evidence-based practice

Cited by 16 publications

References 44 publications

Defining diversity in groupwork: A relational exploration

Defining diversity in groupwork: A relational exploration

Explaining mental health recovery in the context of structural disadvantage: the unrealised potential of critical realism

Personal recovery and socio-structural disadvantage: A critical conceptual review

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About