Stan Houston
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 3608052 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Stan Houston |
| NOMBRES | Stan |
| APELLIDO | Houston |
| FIRMA | HOUSTON S |
| AFILIACIONES | Queen's University Belfast |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4544-4425 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 57 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 219 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 57 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2000 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 6 |
Cholera vaccines for the rich, cholera for the poor
From human rights to transformative change
Scholarship on social work and human rights is increasingly steering the debate towards praxis and the development of action frameworks. However, these efforts have hitherto not explicitly inquired into how such approaches contribute to transformative change. Addressing this issue, we engage with dialectical critical realism to embed the ongoing discussions in broader theories of change and unravel the transformative potential of human rights dis…
Exploring the Evidence for the Paradigms of Recovery and Social Work Converging in Mental Health Service Delivery Worldwide
Recovery within mental health service delivery is no longer a new consideration in the Western world. However, it is well-documented how challenging its implementation and translation to practice and reality have been in contemporary mental health systems. In conjunction with this, mental health social work is continuously being challenged and debated in relation to its role, responsibilities, and identity in service delivery. This is largely the…
Critique and Critical Social Work
It is self-evident that critique lies at the heart of Critical Social Work. Even so, more attention should be given to clarifying the meaning of this form of evaluation, particularly when it is applied in the social sciences and social professions. More precisely, it is necessary to explain the meta-theoretical conceptualisation of critique and, crucially, note its different expressions. Through gaining such clarity, the contention is that Critic…
The ‘Powers of Horror’
Assessment is a pivotal part of social work process and is meant, amongst other things, to identify the deep-seated causes of human behaviour and well-being. This search for causation, it is argued, can be illuminated through a critical realist understanding of the person in society. In line with this philosophical stance, this article introduces a little considered causative mechanism pertinent to social work assessment: that of psychological ab…
Flawed reports can harm
Supervised consumption services have been scaled up within Canada and internationally as an ethical imperative in the context of a public health emergency. A large body of peer-reviewed evidence demonstrates that these services prevent poisoning deaths, reduce infectious disease transmission risk behaviour, and facilitate clients' connections to other health and social services. In 2019, the Alberta government commissioned a review of the socioec…
Critical realism, mimetic theory and social work
Scapegoating is a ubiquitous, yet pernicious, phenomenon in today’s world. It manifests in innumerable ways. Social work, in line with its emancipatory value-base, seeks to engage with various scapegoated groups to challenge the experience. In this article, the authors draw on critical realism and mimetic theory to elucidate the causative mechanisms fuelling scapegoating. This is done in order to heighten social workers’ insight into the process …
Dialectical critical realism, transformative change and social work
Critical realism, as expounded by Bhaskar, is a philosophy of social science that has been applied in social work scholarship addressing such areas as research methodology, practice interventions and programme evaluation. Most of these applications are based on the early rendition of the philosophy, with little attention given to Bhaskar’s later, more mature, development of dialectical critical realism. This article addresses this gap, describing…
A sociologist in the field of social work
The literature considering Bourdieu’s social theory and its relevance for social work is multifaceted and growing. An evaluation of this body of work is now pressing. This critical literature review explores 34 published works on this subject. Six themes emerged from a thematic analysis of the corpus: (1) the intersection between class and poverty; (2) power and symbolic domination; (3) neoliberalism and the state; (4) reflexivity; (5) relations …
Responding to the ‘Weight of the World’
The world continues to lurch from crisis to crisis. Amidst environmental decline, growing disparities in wealth and social dislocation, a minority of the world’s population ironically prosper while the silent majority struggle to maintain basic standards of economic and social well-being. Social workers are compelled to respond to societal issues such as these but need theories to make sense of disparities in lived experience and life outcomes. R…
‘Analysing a parent’s capacity to change
In cases where child protection concerns are evident, a central query within inter-professional, safeguarding assessments, centres on the parents’ capacity to change to enhance their child’s lived experience. Social workers, as key professionals co-ordinating such assessments, require analytical tools and models to enable them and others to reach a considered judgement on this pressing, complex aspect of case inquiry. This article describes one s…
Response to Commentary on ‘Attaining Theoretical Coherence within Relationship-Based Practice in Child and Family Social Work
We welcome the opportunity to respond this commentary on our article. As we read it, there seem to be three main points, and we will respond briefly to each in turn. 1. The ‘hybrid’ comment regarding the combined use of systemic and psychodynamic concepts is disputed. The bulk of the commentary seems to present a long argument to dispute our comment that Hingley-Jones and Ruch (2016) are adopting a ‘hybrid’ combination of systemic theory for unde…
It’s Almost Kafkaesque’
In many countries, the media portray the social work profession in a negative light. The impact of such coverage has been an enduring concern with many commentators signifying the profound consequences for practice and professional morale. However, more investigation is required into how social work has been represented in the Irish ‘print’ media in the wake of severe maltreatment to children, especially following claims of professional negligenc…
Reflecting critically on contemporary social pathologies
Oppression within society continues unabated, with novel forms of social pathology attenuating life opportunities, social freedoms and the attainment of the ‘good life’. Building on Honneth’s earlier ‘recognition thesis’, this article critically examines his later articulation of four such pathologies: invisibilisation, instrumental rationalisation, reification and organised self-realisation. The impact of these pathologies on social actors, thro…
Hearing the voices of kinship foster carers in Northern Ireland
This study describes an investigation into the characteristics, needs and experiences of kinship foster carers in Northern Ireland. By adopting a mixed-methods approach with 54 carers, a number of salient themes was captured. The respondents were predominantly grandparents who experienced a significant incidence of health-related issues. The cohort also endured high levels of stress, particularly at the beginning stage of the foster placement. Co…
Understanding informal kinship care
Many children are cared for on a full-time basis by relatives or adult friends, rather than their biological parents, and often in response to family crises. These kinship care arrangements have received increasing attention from the social sciences academy and social care professions. However, more information is needed on informal kinship care that is undertaken without official ratification by welfare agencies and often unsupported by the stat…
Beyond Individualism
Individualism continues to have a notable impact on social work. The personalisation of services and the individualisation of care are just two examples of this societal trend. While helping service users to articulate their aspirations for a better future, individualism, if taken too far, undermines the social aspects of life. In response to this concern, this paper argues that social work must appreciate the interplay between the individual and…
Enabling others in social work
This article describes a piece of social research commissioned by the Northern Ireland Social Care Council. It investigated the significance of a reflexive framework and linked, enabling process for social work practice. Both of these conceptual areas had been previously developed by the author and outlined in a prior submission to the journal. The methodological orientation was qualitative and idiographic so that the participants’ in-depth meani…
Enabling others in social work
This article sets out a framework to structure reflexivity in social work practice. It comprises five domains that impact on the individual and social life, namely (a) psychobiography – referring to a person’s unique experience throughout the lifecourse; (b) situated activity – highlighting the impact of everyday social interaction; (c) social settings – addressing the role of organisations in social life; (d) culture – covering the influence of …
Towards a critical ecology of child development in social work
Bronfenbrenner’s model of bio-ecological development has been utilised widely within the social sciences, in the field of human development, and in social work. Yet, while championing the rights of marginalised families and communities, Bronfenbrenner had under-theorised the role of power, agency and structure in shaping the ‘person–context’ interrelationship, life opportunities and social wellbeing. To respond to this deficit, this article first…
Empowering the 'shamed' self
This article provides a review of the contribution of Axel Honneth's model of recognition for critical social work. While Honneth's tripartite conceptualisation of optimal identity-formation is positively appraised, his analysis of the link between misrecognition, the experience of shame and eventual sense of moral outrage, is contested. Drawing on a range of sources, including the sociology of shame, Honneth's ideas about the emotional anteceden…
Assessing parenting capacity in child protection
The assessment of parenting capacity continues to engender public concern in cases of suspected harm to children. This paper outlines a model for approaching this task based on the application of three key domains of knowledge in social work relating to facts, theory and practice wisdom. The McM aster M odel of F amily A ssessment is identified out of this process and reworked to give it a sharper focus on parenting roles and responsibilities. Se…
Utilising a computer game as a therapeutic intervention for youth in residential care
Meta-theoretical paradigms underpinning risk in child welfare
Antiretroviral treatment outcomes among foreign-born and Aboriginal peoples living with HIV/Aids in northern Alberta
Prising Open the Black Box
There is a growing interest in critical realism and its application to social work. This article makes a case for adopting this philosophical position in qualitative social work research. More specifically, it suggests that there is a concordance between critical realist premises and action research with its cyclical inquiry and advancement of social change. This combination of philosophy and method, it is argued, promotes anti-oppressive social …
Empowering the 'shamed' self
This article provides a review of the contribution of Axel Honneth's model of recognition for critical social work. While Honneth's tripartite conceptualisation of optimal identity-formation is positively appraised, his analysis of the link between misrecognition, the experience of shame and eventual sense of moral outrage, is contested. Drawing on a range of sources, including the sociology of shame, Honneth's ideas about the emotional anteceden…
Beyond Social Constructionism
Journal Article Beyond Social Constructionism: Critical Realism and Social Work Get access Stan Houston Stan Houston Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Social Work, Volume 31, Issue 6, 1 December 2001, Pages 845–861, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/31.6.845 Published: 01 December 2001
Beyond Homo Economicus
This paper builds on Ferguson's important contribution to the debate on personalization in social work that appeared in the British Journal of Social Work in 2007. Whereas Ferguson approached the topic through the lens of political philosophy, the account below draws on critical social theory to examine not only the nature of personalization, but also its supportive pillar of individualization. In particular, Axel Honneth's critique of individual…
Lifeworld', 'System' and Family Group Conferences
Transcending the fissure in risk theory
Within risk theory a key fissure has emerged. On the one hand, objectivist theories continue to treat risk as a measurable entity, while on the other, subjectivist accounts approach risk as a socially constructed phenomenon. Arguably, we need to transcend this false opposition and harmonize important insights from both approaches. Building on an earlier paper in this journal, the author tries to achieve this synthesis by applying Bhaskar's critic…
Understanding informal kinship care
Many children are cared for on a full-time basis by relatives or adult friends, rather than their biological parents, and often in response to family crises. These kinship care arrangements have received increasing attention from the social sciences academy and social care professions. However, more information is needed on informal kinship care that is undertaken without official ratification by welfare agencies and often unsupported by the stat…
Towards a critical ecology of child development in social work
Bronfenbrenner’s model of bio-ecological development has been utilised widely within the social sciences, in the field of human development, and in social work. Yet, while championing the rights of marginalised families and communities, Bronfenbrenner had under-theorised the role of power, agency and structure in shaping the ‘person–context’ interrelationship, life opportunities and social wellbeing. To respond to this deficit, this article first…
All-cause and HIV-related Mortality Rates Among HIV-infected Patients After Initiating Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy
Further Reflections on Habermas's Contribution to Discourse in Child Protection
Hayes and Houston's positive review of Habermas's contribution to discourse in family group conferences (in this journal) has been challenged by Garrett. In this paper, one of the authors replies to Garrett but extends the analysis through a more considered, developed and detailed examination of Habermas's thoughts on power in social life. This leads to a conceptual framework that enables the participants in the conference to exercise power in a …
Communication, Recognition and Social Work
The modern world is replete with ethical challenges of Orwellian proportions. The violation of human rights and misrecognition of identities are two of the most pressing examples. In this paper, the ethical theories of Habermas and Honneth are aligned as a way of addressing these specific challenges within social work. It is suggested that these theories are complementary, mutually rectifying and concordant at the meta-ethical level of analysis. …
Transcending Ethnoreligious Identities in Northern Ireland
It is axiomatic that recognition of the different categories of identity lies at the heart of social and political transmutation. This truism applies to Northern Ireland, where a history of sectarianism has led to an abnormal State and fractured civil society. Yet, sociopolitical structures in this most troubled of regions are now perched on a climactic edge with the reestablishment of a new, devolved political Assembly. At this historic moment, …
Moral Consciousness and Decision-Making in Child and Family Social Work
Child and family social work is beset by value dilemmas. In this paper Stan Houston attempts to find a way out of these entanglements by delving into the moral philosophy of Jurgen Habermas. It is argued that Habermas's ideas on moral discourse enable social workers and others involved in a child's life to reach ethical decisions. Towards the end of the paper, the argument is grounded in two case examples centering on child placement decisions. A…
Beyond Individualism
Individualism continues to have a notable impact on social work. The personalisation of services and the individualisation of care are just two examples of this societal trend. While helping service users to articulate their aspirations for a better future, individualism, if taken too far, undermines the social aspects of life. In response to this concern, this paper argues that social work must appreciate the interplay between the individual and…
Assessing parenting capacity in child protection
The assessment of parenting capacity continues to engender public concern in cases of suspected harm to children. This paper outlines a model for approaching this task based on the application of three key domains of knowledge in social work relating to facts, theory and practice wisdom. The McM aster M odel of F amily A ssessment is identified out of this process and reworked to give it a sharper focus on parenting roles and responsibilities. Se…
Re-thinking a systemic approach to child welfare
(2002). Re-thinking a systemic approach to child welfare: A critical response to the framework for the assessment of children in need and their families. European Journal of Social Work: Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 301-312
Using critical social theory to develop a conceptual framework for comparative social work
This paper sets out a conceptual framework for comparing and contrasting social work within nation‐states and across international boundaries. The framework is “situated” theoretically within a (late)modernist understanding of events within advanced capitalism and draws primarily on Habermas' critical social theory. The authors apply this framework to explicate the development of social work in Northern Ireland, a region in which high levels of p…
Flawed reports can harm
Supervised consumption services have been scaled up within Canada and internationally as an ethical imperative in the context of a public health emergency. A large body of peer-reviewed evidence demonstrates that these services prevent poisoning deaths, reduce infectious disease transmission risk behaviour, and facilitate clients' connections to other health and social services. In 2019, the Alberta government commissioned a review of the socioec…
Responding to the ‘Weight of the World’
The world continues to lurch from crisis to crisis. Amidst environmental decline, growing disparities in wealth and social dislocation, a minority of the world’s population ironically prosper while the silent majority struggle to maintain basic standards of economic and social well-being. Social workers are compelled to respond to societal issues such as these but need theories to make sense of disparities in lived experience and life outcomes. R…
Enabling others in social work
This article sets out a framework to structure reflexivity in social work practice. It comprises five domains that impact on the individual and social life, namely (a) psychobiography – referring to a person’s unique experience throughout the lifecourse; (b) situated activity – highlighting the impact of everyday social interaction; (c) social settings – addressing the role of organisations in social life; (d) culture – covering the influence of …
Utilising a computer game as a therapeutic intervention for youth in residential care
Meta-theoretical paradigms underpinning risk in child welfare
Engaging with the Crooked Timber of Humanity
The field of social work ethics is changing. While more established positions, such as utilitarianism and deontology, continue to influence social work thinking and practice, emergent approaches are taking hold, leading to a radical examination of social work as an ethical discipline. To contribute to this unfolding debate, this article examines Isaiah Berlin's notion of value pluralism and its contribution to social work. The argument proceeds b…
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) in a Northern Alberta Population
Developing creative solutions to the problems of children and their families
The paper represents a further development of work previously reported in this journal by Spratt & Houston (1999) and Spratt et al. (2000) . The authors have sought to develop ways of understanding current social work with children and families in line with the critical theory of Jurgen Habermas. This analysis has been complemented by an adoption of the methodology of the radical dramatist, Augusto Boal. In synthesizing Habermas's analysis of com…
Group care in Northern Ireland
Despite its troubled history, residential care continues to play a much needed role in the child care continuum. A key issue, however, is the apparent lack of agreement over the practice knowledge required to guide practitioners in their day to day work with young people. This article begins to address this issue by outlining the findings of a small quantitative study of young people's presenting behaviours and problems in children's homes in the…
The task dilemma in human service organizations re-configured
Using critical social theory to develop a conceptual framework for comparative social work
This paper sets out a conceptual framework for comparing and contrasting social work within nation‐states and across international boundaries. The framework is “situated” theoretically within a (late)modernist understanding of events within advanced capitalism and draws primarily on Habermas' critical social theory. The authors apply this framework to explicate the development of social work in Northern Ireland, a region in which high levels of p…
Developing creative solutions to the problems of children and their families
The paper represents a further development of work previously reported in this journal by Spratt & Houston (1999) and Spratt et al. (2000) . The authors have sought to develop ways of understanding current social work with children and families in line with the critical theory of Jurgen Habermas. This analysis has been complemented by an adoption of the methodology of the radical dramatist, Augusto Boal. In synthesizing Habermas's analysis of com…
Beyond Social Constructionism
Journal Article Beyond Social Constructionism: Critical Realism and Social Work Get access Stan Houston Stan Houston Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Social Work, Volume 31, Issue 6, 1 December 2001, Pages 845–861, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/31.6.845 Published: 01 December 2001
Transcending the fissure in risk theory
Within risk theory a key fissure has emerged. On the one hand, objectivist theories continue to treat risk as a measurable entity, while on the other, subjectivist accounts approach risk as a socially constructed phenomenon. Arguably, we need to transcend this false opposition and harmonize important insights from both approaches. Building on an earlier paper in this journal, the author tries to achieve this synthesis by applying Bhaskar's critic…
Re-thinking a systemic approach to child welfare
(2002). Re-thinking a systemic approach to child welfare: A critical response to the framework for the assessment of children in need and their families. European Journal of Social Work: Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 301-312
A method from the ‘lifeworld’
This paper describes a method for working with children who are the subjects of care planning and review under the Children Act 1989. The person centred planning method, as it is termed, has been well established in working with adults with special needs but can be extrapolated to encounters with children. It focuses on three fundamental areas: relationship, meaning and narrative. In underscoring these areas, the method restrains the bureaucracy …
Establishing Virtue in Social Work
Journal Article Establishing Virtue in Social Work: A Response to McBeath and Webb Get access Stan Houston Stan Houston Stan Houston is a lecturer in the School of Social Work, Queen's University Belfast. Correspondence to Stan Houston, c/o School of Social Work, Queen's University Belfast, 7 Lennoxvale, Belfast. E‐mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Social Work…
Moral Consciousness and Decision-Making in Child and Family Social Work
Child and family social work is beset by value dilemmas. In this paper Stan Houston attempts to find a way out of these entanglements by delving into the moral philosophy of Jurgen Habermas. It is argued that Habermas's ideas on moral discourse enable social workers and others involved in a child's life to reach ethical decisions. Towards the end of the paper, the argument is grounded in two case examples centering on child placement decisions. A…
Garrett contra Ferguson
There are occasional moments of pure flippancy in academic life that detract from the often desultory and cerebral nature of the work. One such moment pervaded the author's consciousness after reading Ferguson's (2003) riposte to Garrett (2003) concerning the role of social work in a so-called post-traditional world. Flippancy, here, was captured in images generated by one of the most famous clashes in boxing history: the gladiatorial bout betwee…
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) in a Northern Alberta Population
Lifeworld', 'System' and Family Group Conferences
Conceptualising Child and Family Support
The role of social support in child welfare policy and practice continues to engender widespread debate. Yet the moral and philosophical underpinnings of this topical area have received less attention in the literature. This is of concern, not least because academic debates on the ‘politics of identity’ have a significant contribution to make to our understanding of self‐development and social justice. In this article the authors show how Axel Ho…
Transcending Ethnoreligious Identities in Northern Ireland
It is axiomatic that recognition of the different categories of identity lies at the heart of social and political transmutation. This truism applies to Northern Ireland, where a history of sectarianism has led to an abnormal State and fractured civil society. Yet, sociopolitical structures in this most troubled of regions are now perched on a climactic edge with the reestablishment of a new, devolved political Assembly. At this historic moment, …
Modifiable Risk Factors for Invasive Meningococcal Disease During an Edmonton, Alberta Outbreak, 1999–2002
"Must We All Die?"
Robert Fortuine (pronounced Four-TYNE) is Alaska's pre-eminent medical historian. As we expected, this factfilled book is thoroughly researched and meticulously documented. His preface begins with an account of an xray survey in a remote village early in 1946, when a distraught father pleaded, "Five of my children die this way -I don't want my other kids to go. Must we all die of the TB?"
Prenatal Screening and Perinatal HIV Transmission in Northern Alberta, 1999–2006
Objectives. We evaluated the effectiveness of a program that includes routine opt-out prenatal HIV screening, combination antiretroviral therapy (ART), and a multidisciplinary team in preventing perinatal HIV transmission. Methods. A retrospective analysis was performed on HIV-infected pregnant women in northern Alberta, Canada, who delivered between January 1, 1999, and February 28, 2006. Results. Ninety-eight women had 113 deliveries. Forty-thr…
Communication, Recognition and Social Work
The modern world is replete with ethical challenges of Orwellian proportions. The violation of human rights and misrecognition of identities are two of the most pressing examples. In this paper, the ethical theories of Habermas and Honneth are aligned as a way of addressing these specific challenges within social work. It is suggested that these theories are complementary, mutually rectifying and concordant at the meta-ethical level of analysis. …
The Feasibility of Using an ‘Opt-Out’ Approach to Achieve Universal HIV Testing of Tuberculosis Patients in Alberta
Building resilience in a children's home
This paper reports on the findings of an action research project aimed at building resilience in young people in a residential children's home. Daniel and Wassell's six domains for promoting resilience in young people were adopted as a conceptual framework to guide the residential social workers as they engaged in successive cycles of reflection and action. Two core areas were explored: (a) the approaches deemed to be helpful in building resilien…
Hughes Et Al. Respond
Siemieniuk et al. reported their experience with routine opt-out HIV screening in Southern Alberta, Canada, and the limitations of this approach. While we believe that routine opt-out testing has been a critical factor in reducing mother to child transmission (MTCT) of HIV in our region, we acknowledge that this approach does not eliminate the risk. Over the past 5 years (2004 to 2008 inclusive), approximately 3.5% of women have opted out of HIV …
Further Reflections on Habermas's Contribution to Discourse in Child Protection
Hayes and Houston's positive review of Habermas's contribution to discourse in family group conferences (in this journal) has been challenged by Garrett. In this paper, one of the authors replies to Garrett but extends the analysis through a more considered, developed and detailed examination of Habermas's thoughts on power in social life. This leads to a conceptual framework that enables the participants in the conference to exercise power in a …
Beyond Homo Economicus
This paper builds on Ferguson's important contribution to the debate on personalization in social work that appeared in the British Journal of Social Work in 2007. Whereas Ferguson approached the topic through the lens of political philosophy, the account below draws on critical social theory to examine not only the nature of personalization, but also its supportive pillar of individualization. In particular, Axel Honneth's critique of individual…
Prising Open the Black Box
There is a growing interest in critical realism and its application to social work. This article makes a case for adopting this philosophical position in qualitative social work research. More specifically, it suggests that there is a concordance between critical realist premises and action research with its cyclical inquiry and advancement of social change. This combination of philosophy and method, it is argued, promotes anti-oppressive social …
Sociology (40 obras) · Political science (35 obras) · Social Work Education and Practice (34 obras) · Medicine (27 obras) · Epistemology (24 obras) · Psychology (23 obras) · Law (21 obras) · Social science (19 obras) · Social Work (19 obras) · Social Psychology (15 obras)