Group Styles

“As we know, well-led groups provide many member benefits: feelings of universality, a sense of hope, altruism, acquisition of knowledge and skills, and mutual support...This text is affordable, easy to use, and very suitable for providing group work material in BSW or MSW practice courses.”

— Greg Tully, West Chester University



AN EXPERIENTIAL APPROACH TO GROUP WORK
Second Edition

Rich Furman, University of Washington, Tacoma
Kimberly Bender, University of Denver
Diana Rowan, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

An Experiential Approach to Group Work is not your typical group work text! Using dozens of exercises that build practice-tested skills, the authors' approach is in perfect step with CSWE's competence-based education requirements. The book is organized into three sections—the first addresses stages of group practice, the second looks at major types of groups, and the final section looks at examples of group work practice with special populations.

Features of the Second Edition

    Expanded! Discussion of the theory of group process and dynamics
    New! Content regarding Canadian, British, and Australian group work practices
    New! Chapters on anti-oppressive practice, group work with immigrants, and macro-practice group work
    New! Content on the use and development of technology to aid group work
    Contains customized exercises for each group work topic, designed to build the student and practitioner’s skills for use in group work sessions
    Special emphasis on how to bring individual sessions or groups to closure
    Provides examples of group work in specialized settings: conflict resolution groups within elementary schools, pregnant teens, Latinos, and HIV/AIDS clients

This substantial introduction constitute the theoretical background of a thematic issue of Annales islamologiques dedicated to social groups and social categorization in the mediaeval Islamic world. The question of the relationship between collective entities and categories used by the actors is at the core of the reflexion. The production of collective identities is considered as a continuous, uninterrupted process, constantly renewed, produced by social interactions that shape these identities as well as they are shaped by them. Basic concepts such as “groups”, “categories” and “categorization” are first discussed. The historiography of social groups and categorization in the mediaeval Islamic world is then considered, with a review of the vocabulary of collective entities in Arabic sources. The article then focuses on the foundations of collective identities in the medieval dār al-islām: religion and belonging to a madhhab, ethnicity, occupation, status. Further research topics are finally suggested: looking for operating categories, internal study of groups, reconsidering inter-group relations.
Keywords: social history, social groups, social categories, social categorization, social sciences theory, medieval Islam, ethnicity, collective identities.
Cette substantielle introduction pose le cadre théorique du numéro thématique des Annales islamologiques portant sur les groupes sociaux et la catégorisation sociale dans le dār al-islām médiéval. L’interrogation sur le rapport entre les entités collectives et les catégories utilisées par les acteurs afin de répartir leurs contemporains dans différents ensembles est au cœur de la réflexion ; la production des identités collectives y est considérée comme un processus permanent, ininterrompu et sans cesse renouvelé, né des interactions sociales qui modèlent ces identités autant qu’elles sont modelées par elles. L’article s’intéresse tout d’abord aux concepts de base de « groupes », « catégories » et « catégorisation » avant de considérer l’historiographie de la catégorisation sociale dans le monde arabo-musulman médiéval et de poser la question du vocabulaire des entités collectives dans les sources arabes de l’époque. Il porte ensuite sur les fondements des identités collectives dans le dār al‑islām médiéval : religion et appartenance à un maḏhab, ethnicité, activité professionnelle et groupes de statuts. Des pistes de recherche sont enfin suggérées : recherche de catégories opérantes, étude interne des groupes et relations inter-groupes.
Mots-clés : histoire sociale, groupes sociaux, catégories sociales, catégorisation sociale, théorie des sciences sociales, Islam médiéval, ethnicité, identités collectives.

This paper concerns essentially how local policies deal with inclusion of immigrants in Italian cities, with a focus on housing issue.
Despite the nation state is considered the main integration policy subject by European institutions, the once taken for granted correspondence between citizenship and nationality has been called into question as new forms of transnational and sub-national belonging are shaping up within the city due to global migration. This disjuncture between the conventional forms and spaces of citizenship and being a citizen in daily life has led to a political devolution of citizenship claims-making from national to urban space. Perhaps the crucial challenge in order to address the social and spatial inclusion for immigrants is to reimagine citizenship in the context of the globalisation and denationalization of urban space.
Since the transnational character of global migration flows and cultural networks have dramatically changed the narratives and practices of citizenship, “inhabitance” has become a status allowing participation in policy-making.
Immigration impacts mainly on social, spatial and political structures in cities, thus the response to such a global issue is mainly local. The steps of the policy making are now going from global to local. And this is self-evident especially in Italy where the State structure is turning into a federalist form.
Local activities on integrating migrants and setting up dialogue structure at the subnational level, and collaboration between various government levels and between local bodies and non-governmental organizations are essential to spread inclusion-driven policies.
Despite the numerous changes in the Italian institutional and legislative framework, the role of local administration in supporting immigrants integration and access to urban advantage, based on principles of freedom, equity, and social justice, remains crucial. An increasing number of Municipalities have recently set up immigrant consultative committees or special councillors representing foreigners, drawing special attention to political participation and migrants involvement into the policy-making process. Despite the great relevance of political participation, housing issues are even more crucial for an effective inclusion policy. While the gap between demand and supply for public housing is wider, the opportunities of private rental for moderate or low-income people are decreasing.
While some cities are taking forward inclusion-driven policies, some municipalities reject the multicultural idea denying basic rights to foreign citizens and seeking spatial segregation.
Both groups point out that national policies are no longer adequate to cope with migration issue.

En las últimas décadas, si bien las ciencias sociales han producido un hiato metodológico en el campo analítico de las religiones y de la religiosidad en la vida social, recientes estudios migra- torios están tratando de rellenar de forma progresiva ese vacío al mostrar hasta qué punto las migraciones producen y potencian cambios culturales y religiosos por el hecho de posibilitar contactos con grupos exógenos a sus entornos sociales más comunes. El fenómeno religioso, en sus diversas manifestaciones, tanto subjetivas (personales) como objetivas (colectivas), siempre ha estado y sigue estando, en el punto de mira de diferentes disciplinas humanas y sociales, tales como la Filosofía, la Sociología y la Psicología, configurando ámbitos de investigación es - pecíficos. Desde múltiples perspectivas teóricas se han abordado una diversidad de temáticas: los aspectos psicosociales (Csíkszentmihályi, 1990) y sociológicos (Collins,2006) de los rituales, la religión en sus formas de expresión...

In the contemporary network society, attracting public attention has become more challenging as the supply of information increases. Events arguably play an essential role in synchronizing personal, social and political agendas, helping to focus attention and frame places, objects and people. The event audience justifies the event by paying attention to it, but the event also has to reciprocate by paying attention to the audience. This paper looks at how contemporary rituals that are designed to focus attention and generate ‘emotional energy’ through shared co-presence and a mutual focus of attention, as suggested by Collins in 2004.
The event itself, therefore, arguably mirrors practices in the
wider network society, where sociality increasingly depends on
generating and exchanging attention. The extent to which events
and event places successfully create the conditions for successful event rituals by developing the means of attention is examined through examples of cultural and sporting events, focusing on the creative interplay between consumers and producers and their cocreation of event experiences.

We are all part of a digitally rich community and probably need no persuasion that the benefits of the information and communication technologies for our work and leisure are all-pervasive, profound and most of the times welcome.  The digital technologies have resulted in a more widely connected, more cheaply connected, and more quickly connected society than ever before.  Our actions are no longer so firmly tied to place, especially local place.  We have access to the whole world – and clearly we do in ways which would have been unimaginable 20 years ago, let alone 40 years ago when Marshall McLuhan’s claimed “We now live in a global village...  a simultaneous happening” (McLuhan and Fiore, 1967: p.63).  Our reach is global and many have the potential and facility to walk on a global stage.  We can now almost wrap our arms around the world in which we live.  The growth in digital technologies, however, presents us with several paradoxes as well as issues in terms of social and political life. This paper discusses these are the following headings:
Communication technologies simultaneously enhance and alienate our communication; The New Technologies are as likely to Disrupt as Sustain Democracy; Social Interaction at the Agora; Social Cohesion, Community and the Neighbourhood; Personal Space and the Etiquette of Place

This essay examines the relationship between the changing organization of urban space and the evolving political culture of a Mumbai slum. Recent work emphasizes that the contemporary city is highly fragmented and poor people are incapable of realizing a fully civil society. The essay uses the case of struggles over the redevelopment of Golibar to critically interrogate these arguments. The essay finds that the city’s poor are the social location that continues to sustain the aspiration for an inclusive urbanism and a more civil society.

A very unusual thing happened on February 12th in Athens: the Greek capital city went up in flames. Now, even the casual follower of events in the country might spot something peculiar in this sentence — not with the event described, but with the statement. Is that any news? Haven’t smoke and flames risen enough times to question that “Athens is burning” is really that unusual? For the casual follower of Greek events the array of images of destruction have become a series of near-unimportant blips. Ever so often, “Athens is burning”. Somewhere. But on that night, Athens was burning. Everywhere.