Journal of Progressive Human Services
Datos de la Revista
| Tipo | JOURNAL |
|---|---|
| Editorial | Informa (GB) |
| ISSN | 1042-8232 / 1540-7616 |
| Scopus | 3300147702 |
| Wikidata | Q15767658 |
| OpenAlex | S71663709 |
| MAG | 71663709 |
| Sitio web | https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/wphs20/current |
| Total de publicaciones | 549 |
| Periodo de cobertura | 1990 - 2026 |
| País | US |
| Idioma | EN |
| Indexación | Indexada en Scopus |
| Citada por | 1.041 |
| Factor de impacto | 0.865 |
| SJR | 0.31 (Q2) |
| SNIP | 0.879 |
| CiteScore | 1.5 |
| Índice h | 14 |
| Índice i10 | 29 |
| Media de citas en 2 años | 0.0263 |
| Participación femenina en la autoría | 63.9% |
This journal focuses on social work and human services, addressing policy, practice, and advocacy. While it may occasionally feature qualitative research or discussions relevant to social issues, its primary scope is applied social science rather than anthropological theory or ethnography. Therefore, it has only a loose intersection with social anthropology
Social Sciences (miscellaneous) · Sociology and Political Science · Art, Technology, and Culture · Child Abuse and Trauma · Child Welfare and Adoption · Community Health and Development · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Critical Race Theory in Education · Diverse Scientific and Economic Studies · Earthquake and Disaster Impact Studies
Let’s Get Serious About Social Class
Circle, Screen, and Scar
Circle, Screen, and Scar: Radical Casework in a Spectacle Society is a long-form poem about bullying, digital spectacle, and the unfinished labor of care in school life. Moving through circle, screen, scar, and aftercare, it follows a child’s hurt as it becomes hallway laughter, online content, official report, and lingering wound. The poem sets institutional language beside lyric grief, showing how forms, policies, and platforms often fail to ho…
Built on Hidden Human Backs
This prose reflects on the long history of human exploitation in monoculture industries, from sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean and cotton fields in the American continent to today’s oil palm plantations in Southeast Asia. Although crops and labor systems have changed over time, the exploitation of workers has remained a recurring reality. Plantation workers have long supported industries and national economies, yet their labor, sacrifices, …
A Gazan Boy Yearns to Dream
This poem explores the lived realities of a Gazan child whose experiences of war, displacement, disability, and bereavement redefine the meaning of childhood. Through the recurring motifs of hunger, humanitarian aid, and interrupted dreams, the poem foregrounds the emotional and material consequences of armed conflict on children forced into premature caregiving roles. By juxtaposing the innocence of childhood with the daily struggle for survival…
Black Social Workers in the Ontario Child Welfare System
Educators’ Perspectives on the Ecological Determinants of Well-Being Among Iranian Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing University Students
In today’s evolving educational landscape, student well-being is increasingly recognized as a cornerstone of academic success. This study examines educators’ perspectives on the ecological determinants of well-being among Iranian Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) university students using an interpretive qualitative multiple-case design and inductive thematic analysis. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model, the research explores the dynamic in…
Reimagining Social Work’s Priorities in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Libya
This article explores the alignment between Libya’s post-2014 sustainable development agenda and social work’s priorities in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Using a qualitative approach, the article combines a review/analysis of national policy documents, global SDG frameworks, and narratives from fourteen Libyan social workers. The findings reveal a significant discrepancy: the government prioritizes prosperity…
Gaza Tears
The poem portrays the struggle and suffering caused by war in Gaza through the symbolism of nature and living beings. The Moon, as a silent witness, weeps and communicates with the Palestinian Sunbird, delivering a message of peace signed by thousands of flamingos at the Gaza border. Symbols such as cacti, tulips, and olives represent hope amid despair, while war devastation is depicted through wreckage of fighter planes and bombs that destroy ev…
Beyond the Micro Myopia
Prostitution Diversion Programs (PDPs) attempt to address underlying circumstances that lead people to sell sex, using court-monitored rehabilitation in lieu of prosecution or incarceration. Based on interviews with 26 current and former professional court stakeholders and participants, conducted in 2021, this study examines Philadelphia’s PDP, “Dawn Court,” through a social work micro – macro lens that calls for combined individual and social in…
Media Impacts on Social Justice
Increasing scholarship focuses on mobilizing media - including those generated by artificial intelligence - to address social, health, or educational inequalities. Expanding upon Freirean theory, efficacy of media intended for social justice may be impacted by various inequitable social structures. At base level, societies may inspire, diversify, complicate, or impose a multitude of tasks upon individuals, effectively backgrounding social justice…
It All Depends on You, Hormuz
Your name was unknown to me when I was a child. Back when I spent my time studying at school, your name never appeared in my lessons. I never knew that strait at all. Neither did my friends at the
Strengthening Social Structures to Improve Informal Care for Older People with Chronic Life-Limiting Illnesses in Rural Ghana
Traditional family-based care for older people in Ghana is declining as globalization and social change weaken historical support systems. This analysis is informed by a review of scholarly literature concerning the implications of globalization for the provision of caregiving for older people managing chronic life-limiting illnesses. We aimed to explore ways of strengthening social structures to enhancing the quality of lives of older people wit…
Indonesia
Indonesia—a country said to be free,yet freedom now is measured out by permits,bounded by fear,and strained through vested interests.Democracy stands at the lectern,smiling for the cameras,speaking
The Necessity of Donald Trump
Reconciliation of Natural Resources in Indonesia
Not All Vulnerability Is Created Equal Within Groups
Aid Forms on Excavated Ground
The Right to Respect
A Case for Critical Social Work Theory During Covid-19
Unsettling Taken for Granted Knowledge with a Group of Professionals who Support Families
Parents as Leaders in Their Children’s Anti-Racist Education
The Institutional Trust Restoration Model
She Teaches at the Edge of the Map
Brilliant Policies and Smart Moves
Empty Promises, Endless Memories
Cultural Competency as New Racism
This article argues that cultural competency promotes an obsolete view of culture and is a form of new racism. Cultural competency resembles new racism both by otherizing non-whites and by deploying modernist and absolutist views of culture while not using racialist language. Drawing on child welfare, cultural competence is shown to repeat what Lowe (1993) calls an ontology of forgetting Canada's history of colonialism and racism. A recommendatio…
Defund the Police
This article addresses social work’s place in the movement to “defund the police.” We argue that social work’s collaboration with police and use of policing constitutes carceral social work. In defining carceral social work, we specify the ways in which coercive and punitive practices are used to manage Black, Indigenous, other people of color, and poor communities across four social work arenas – gender-based violence, child welfare, schools, an…
The Environmental Crisis
The environmental crisis has remained largely outside of social work discourse. The profession in North America has not been part of the discussion to identify new social structures and economic relationships that are being developed in response to environmental destruction. This article highlights some impacts of the environmental crisis and discusses beliefs and values seen as the root causes of ecological destruction and the social injustice c…
On the Front Lines
Drawing on focus group data highlighting the perceptions and experiences of racialized child protection workers in the Greater Toronto Area, this article explores the ways in which race operates in the Ontario child welfare system. Most study participants experienced the agencies in which they worked as White-normed environments characterized by systemic racial discrimination in promotion and advancement as well as ongoing instances of racial mic…
Conceptions of Immigrant Integration and Racism Among Social Workers in Sweden
Drawing on 22 qualitative interviews with social workers in Sweden, this article analyzes how social workers conceive immigrant integration and racism and tackle racism within their institutions and the wider Swedish society. The majority of the white social workers framed integration in relation to cultural differences and denied or minimized the role of racism in structuring their services and the ethnic relations in Sweden. In contrast, social…
A Critical Understanding of Social Work
No abstract available for this article
Critical Multiculturalism, Whiteness, and Social Work
In this paper, I suggest that most cultural diversity classes in social work are taught from a liberal or conservative multicultural perspective that precludes a power analysis and a critical discussion of whiteness. In order to undo this status quo, social educators and practitioners need to incorporate critical multiculturalismas a tool in subverting racism. A critical multicultural practice includes an analysis of whiteness and a commitment on…
Coloniality and Intersectionality in Social Work Education and Practice
The history of social work education is deeply entangled with the structures of White supremacy and coloniality. Through an analysis of coloniality, the system from which social work operates, this article outlines an alternative framework of intersectionality, which decodes the dominant discourse in relation to power, privilege, White supremacy, and gender oppression. The framework of intersectionality moves professional social work pedagogy and…
The Social Construction of Social Work Ethics
Structural barriers and the intrinsic paradoxes of practice often lead to a discrepancy between what a social worker would like to do and what that individual actually implements, resulting in ethical tensions. However, the canonical approach to ethics has had a narrow perspective on what constitutes ethics and has tended to treat these issues as peripheral rather than central to the social construction of ethics. This essay provides an explanati…
Afrocentricity as an Alternative World View for Equality
An official goal of the social work profession is that of equality for all. However, social work's ability to achieve this goal is hampered by the Eurocentric world view, wherein reality is structured to emphasize fragmentation, conflict, and domination, which foster inequality. A better philosophical ''fit'' for social work is the Afrocentric world view. Its view of reality that underscores interdependency, collectivity, and spirituality places …
Rethinking Empowerment
Empowerment is one of the most frequently invoked concepts in social work theory and practice of the 1980s. In the United States, social workers representing diverse practice methods and working with highly varied populations articulate a commitment to empowerment, one that they have inherited from both the political movements of the 1960s and the much older mutual aid tradition. Though the concept of empowerment succeeds in constituting a missio…
What About the Rest of Us?” An Overview of LGBT Poverty Issues and a Call to Action
In this article, I argue that, despite the myth of gay affluence, existing research is conclusive enough to claim that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) adults are overall less financially secure than their heterosexual, cisgendered counterparts. I demonstrate that LGBT poverty is a broad social issue that can no longer be viewed as affecting only specific subpopulations of LGBT communities. I argue that the social work profession an…
Towards Critical Social Work Practice in Mental Health
Progressive social work perspectives that draw on both critical theories and postmodern thought, provide highly relevant and appropriate frameworks to inform social work practice in the mental health field. Despite this, the literature overviewed indicates that the majority of social work practice conducted in mental health settings reflects an uncritical embrace of the medical model of psychiatric illness, and therefore largely neglects social w…
Radical Environmentalism and the Ecological Self
This analysis explores current, Western conceptualizations of self-identity, contrasts these with ideas of self from earlier epochs and suggests that an emerging cultural transition is leading to a new sense of self-an ecological self. The new self does not ignore identification with nonhuman beings and nature, as conventional conceptualizations have so often done. Rather, it suggests that nature constitutes both the beginning and the ongoing ess…
Social Work's Professional and Social Justice Projects
This article argues that social work has two distinct and very different projects that are so conflated that they are indistinguishable from one another; the social justice project and the professional project. The social justice project seeks to transform the conditions that permit the existence of preventable human suffering. The professional project positions social work as a profession in a system of professions in competition with one anothe…
Beyond Child Protection
The literature on the overrepresentation of Black children in the child welfare system is well established, yet little is known about the experiences of Afro-Caribbean families as service users. This article draws on qualitative data from in-depth interviews with Afro-Caribbean mothers and youths to understand how they perceive and experience the child welfare system. The analyses were informed by the theoretical frameworks of critical race theor…
Photovoice as a Tool for Social Justice Workers
This article considers the use of Photovoice as a tool for social justice workers. Photovoice is a technique that affords diverse populations of oppressed individuals the opportunity to take social action by raising awareness in the community and with policy-makers through use of a photographic process. The theoretical underpinnings, goals, and uses of Photovoice are reviewed in relation to social work contexts and values. In addition, the inclus…
Silence and Surveillance
Evidence-based practice (EBP) has had a significant impact on aspects of social work practice in mental health. It is important for social work to consider EBPs and their implications, particularly around the dynamics of power and potential for coercion and oppression. This paper uses a post-modern lens to examine EBPs and explore the dominant discourses of science and mental illness that are its foundation. Specifically, it uses the work of Mich…
Social Work as a Product and Project of Whiteness, 1607–1900
Whiteness is a distinctive feature of historical and contemporary social work. Consequently, histories of social work do not reflect this fact; for a defining quality of whiteness is that it does not readily identify or critique itself. In keeping with its mission of social justice and obligation of critical self-reflection, however, social work faces the imperative of reckoning with its own whiteness. The present article begins with the settleme…
Structural Social Work
In rejecting a status quo orientation to social work, the late professor Maurice Moreau1 formulated a structural approach to practice which made a valuable contribution to progressive forms of social work in Canada. Drawing uoon Moreau's work, this article examines empowerment and progressive social work practice. More specifically, empowerment is examined with reference to the social worker's actions in: maximizing client resources; reducing pow…
Executive Leadership and Social Innovation in Direct-Service Nonprofits
Direct-service nonprofits have taken on increasing responsibility in creating social change (operationalized through the concept of social innovation) within local communities. Qualitative interviews were conducted with executive directors to determine the factors within the intra-organizational environment that support an orientation toward social innovation. Findings show that aspects related to staff engagement and development and direction by…
Critical Reflexivity and Moral Regulation
Critical reflexivity is a dominant practice framework in social work. It is designed to address the operation of power relations between social workers and their clients. However, I intend to shed light on a different set of concerns related to this practice. I examine the ways in which critical reflexivity can operate to re-inscribe colonial notions of moral superiority, and re-center whiteness within social work education and practice settings.…
We Put It in Terms of Not-Nice”
This qualitative study explored how White parents who identify as antiracist apply antiracism principles to parenting their White children. Participants discussed how they attempt to incorporate antiracism values into their parenting, their children’s racial awareness, and the impact of race and racism on their children. Our findings indicate significant inconsistencies between antiracist values and parenting practices. The main difference betwee…
Delivering Diversity and Social Justice in Social Work Education
In this qualitative study, critical race theory is used as a theoretical lens to analyze the perceptions of BSW/MSW faculty, students, and staff regarding the factors that contribute to the effective delivery of diversity and social justice content through a required course at a large public university in the Southwest. The findings of this research shed light on the crucial role of the implicit curriculum and curricular infusion in supporting, a…
You Can't Have it Both Ways”
In this article, I report on findings from a qualitative study with 68 formerly incarcerated women in Canada which examined their experiences of imprisonment and release to the community. Data from this study illustrate a disjuncture between women-centered correctional policy rhetoric and the lived experience of incarceration. Programming is greatly affected by the prison culture of punishment and control and thus is not generally experienced as …
Our Illusions Regarding Government
No abstract available for this article
Social Work and the Hidden Victims of Deindustrialization
As the American economy changes from manufacturing to service industries, millions of workers are suffering the effects of "deindustrialization." Based on a joint union/university project, this article explores the impact of a plant closing and subsequent transition to a service based economy for more than 450 predominantly female textile workers. It suggests that many workers will suffer severe economic and social problems even after re-employme…
Social Work and the Casualties of Capitalism
The greatest burdens of capitalism fall on the urban poor, as they attempt to integrate themselves into the economic mainstream. This article explores the forces that produce such casualties of capitalism and considers how empowerment-based policy can address the imbalance in resources and power that characterizes the U.S. economic system. It is suggested that empowerment is a process that can occur within a climate ol equity and justice to produ…
Re-Thinking Social Case Work
No abstract available for this article
Appalachian Culture and Resistance
David Cattell-Gordon's (1990) recent interpretation of Appalachian culture as culturally transmitted post-traumatic stress syndrome dramatizes the human costs associated with deindustrialization and unemployment. But it overlooks oppositional movements and actions in Appalachia and, consequently, the discussion minimizes the possibilities for agency and empowerment. Such an interpretation relies upon a one-sided reading of Appalachian history and…
The Verne Weed Living Archive for Progressive Social Work
No abstract available for this article
Firing Up Students for Social Change
A common problem faced by progressive human service educators is how to motivate students and encouraee their interest in social change strategies. This article explores-some of the fears and resistances that hold students back, and suggests several approaches for inspiring students' creative learning. The author proposes several teaching tactics based on her experiences in teaching an undergraduate community organizing course. Many of these tech…
Transforming a Charity Organization into a Social Justice Community Center
Recent budget cuts at the federal, state, and local levels of government are seriously affecting human service programs in America. Those most affected have the least political and economic power: the poor, homeless, and hungry. To respond to these cutbacks and their service implications, this paper describes an attempt to transform a traditional micro-oriented, casework agency, located in one of the poorest neighborhoods of a large Northeastern …
Structural Social Work
In rejecting a status quo orientation to social work, the late professor Maurice Moreau1 formulated a structural approach to practice which made a valuable contribution to progressive forms of social work in Canada. Drawing uoon Moreau's work, this article examines empowerment and progressive social work practice. More specifically, empowerment is examined with reference to the social worker's actions in: maximizing client resources; reducing pow…
From the Archives
No abstract available for this article
Some Thoughts on My Forty Years in Social Work Education
The author reviews some highlights of his forty years in social work education, as he is called upon to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of a School at which he served in its beginnings. A practice principle for managing change is identified, and then used as a framework for understanding developments in social work education during two score years. Looking ahead, developments that provide foresight and guidance for future planning are identified
Re-Thinking Social Case Work
No abstract available for this article
Ideology and Education for Social Work Practice
Three approaches to social work practice (Personal Deficiency, Ecological, and Political Economy) which emerge from different ideological positions (conservative, liberal and socialistlfeminist, respectively) are summarized. Utilizing a case example demonstrates how the assumptions inherent in each approach result in different problem detinitions and practice interventions. Only one of these approaches (Political Economy) supports methods of inte…
Consumers as Research Partners
Consumer empowerment, a current emphasis in social work, is also relevant to research. This review of a participatory research approach based upon an empowerment model, shows how empowerment principles can be implemented in social work research. It argues that a participatory approach can avoid some of the pitfalls of more traditional, positivist research models, and can produce more humane, rational and liberating knowledge
Values, Commitments, and Ethics of Social Work in the United States
Social workers in the U.S. practice at the margins of society where value conflicts in the larger culture are particularly acute. This paper reviews the value and ethical conflicts that social workers encounter daily and explores the impact of the continuing drive for professional recognition and status upon the profession's traditional commitment to the poor
Testimony of Lester D. Volk, Julia Lathrop , and Florence Kelley at Congressional Hearings, Sheppard-Towner Act, December 1920, November 1921
No abstract available for this article
Poetry
No abstract available for this article
Twilight's Children
The following article describes conditions in South Africa just as the "dismantling of apartheid" was beginning in earnest at the start of this decade. Thus it provides something of a baseline by which to compare changes which have taken place in that country since then. However, its greater contribution may be its evocation of the atmosphere of the time. As such it provides a unique perspective and a useful addition to the historical record of S…
The Verne Weed Living Archive for Progressive Social Work
No abstract available for this article
From the Archives
No abstract available for this article
Relating Competence
The competence-promoting and the empowermentoriented perspectives build on established social work knowledge and wisdom to bring new and positive outlooks on contemporary practice issues. However, there is still little consensus on the meaning of competence and empowerment, and their relationship has received scarce attention. This paper seeks to clarify the concepts, to explore their relationship and to identify the conditions which, in the prac…
Poetry
No abstract available for this article
Containment, Accommodation, and Participative Management in Agency Union Relations
Unionized social workers demonstrate interest in expanding the scope of bargaining to include professional and organizational issues. Joint labor-management programs can contribute to improving labor-management relations and opening up the decision- making process within the social service agency. This case study analyzes the experience of a labor-management committee and its role in promoting policy bargaining
Multiculturalism and Activism
No abstract available for this article
The Verne Weed Living Archive for Progressive Social Work
No abstract available for this article