The Production of Space in Children's Social Work: Insights from Henri Lefebvre's Spatial Dialectics

Jeyasingham, Dharman

doi:10.1093/bjsw/bct053

Cited by 37 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Over time I found more recently published literature on spatiality in related helping professions such as face-to-face counselling and social work, as well as qualitative sociological studies of the work environment. In particular, two studies (Jeyasingham, 2014;Petersen, 2011) that applied Lefebvre's theory of social space to qualitative explorations of social workers' and older people's experiences of space appeared to resonate with the data emerging from my study. It was at this point, informed by both the data and Lefebvre's theory of spatial dialectics, that my conceptualisation of the spatiality of telephone counselling began to emerge in earnest.…”

Section: Interest In the Topicmentioning

confidence: 60%

“…Although these two elements are absent from telephone counselling literature they are growing areas of interest in broader human service research (H. Jeyasingham, 2014;Stanley et al, 2015). In exploring this topic this study will help to broaden the limited and narrow focus on telephone counsellors' experiences present in empirical literature.…”

Section: Purpose and Significance Of The Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the spatiality of practice is a growing area of research interest in the broader field of social work and the human services (H. Ferguson, 2009a;2009b;Jeyasingham, 2014). Nonetheless, its influence on practice is still quite limited (Stanley et al, 2015).…”

Section: The Spatiality Of Telephone Counsellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2009a;2009b; focuses on the mobility of social work practice and argues that, in contrast to the inert and sedentary work evidenced in office bound employment, this work is characterised by mobility, flow and rhythm, as in the case of working in cars, walking with clients, or visiting clients' homes. Jeyasingham (2014) builds upon the work of to explore how social workers interact with and produce space in their practice with children. He applies Lefebvre's (1991) theory of spatial dialectics to analysis of existing ethnographic studies on children's social work.…”

Section: The Spatiality Of Telephone Counsellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lefebvre's theory proposes three interrelated aspects of social space: representations of space; spatial practice; and spaces of representation. Jeyasingham (2014) argues that the strength of applying Lefebvre's spatial theory to children's social work practice is its ability to capture the various ways in which space is constructed by its inhabitants, and enables exploration of its conceived (representations of space), perceived (spatial practice) and lived (spaces of representations) spaces. 4 This research illustrates how "social workers negotiate and articulate spaces in their work" (Jeyasingham, 2014(Jeyasingham, , p. 1892.…”

Section: The Spatiality Of Telephone Counsellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Youth counsellors' experiences of telephone counselling: a qualitative exploration

Davidson¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Telephone counselling is a well established medium of non-face-to-face mental health service delivery. Research to date has focussed on the delivery and effectiveness of therapy over the telephone. However, there has been little exploration of counsellor's experience of this work. The limited body of research about telephone counsellors' experiences portrays this work as challenging, exhausting and possibility traumatic for counsellors to perform. This is of significance considering the impact these factors can have on counsellors' subjective wellbeing, job satisfaction and turnover intentions.Research suggests that work related factors play a greater part than individual characteristics in shaping the experiences of telephone counsellors. However, there is limited understanding of the various types of work related factors that may shape these experiences.To address this gap in the extant literature this thesis explores youth counsellors' experiences of telephone counselling, and the range of work related factors that foster them. It examines telephone counsellors' general experiences of this work and those in relation to the work related factors of work environment, interpersonal relationships and specific aspects of the work. Unlike previous research, particular attention is paid to the spatial aspects of this work, such as the physical workplace environment and the mental space.To gain an in-depth understanding of telephone counsellors' experiences this research employed an instrumental case study approach and focused on youth counsellors in one telephone counselling service in New Zealand. Ten counsellors with 18 months to 9 years telephone counselling experience participated in this study, with the majority concurrently studying a human service related course at university. A multi-method design was adopted, including observations, in-depth interviews and reflective journals. To explore counsellors' experiences and how they are influenced by work related factors, both social constructionist and organisational theoretical lenses were adopted.The findings in this thesis indicate that overall counsellors enjoyed the work of telephone counselling despite its challenges. They experienced discrete aspects of their work as challenging, yet enjoyed their interactions with callers and the quality of relationships they had with colleagues and supervisors. Whilst counsellors experienced elements of the physical environment to be distracting and uncomfortable, they were able to exert some influence over the impact of these features by locating themselves in a preferred 3 counselling booth. Counsellors were found to enter into a distinct mental place when joining with their callers. Within this mental place they experienced a higher degree of proximity in counselling calls and greater distance in testing calls. The counsellors were able to manage the degree of closeness within their calls by their physical movement of leaning into counselling calls and leaning back from testing calls.This thesis makes a contribu...

show abstract

Section: Interest In the Topicmentioning

confidence: 60%

Section: Purpose and Significance Of The Studymentioning

confidence: 99%