Special Issue: A Psychodynamic Contribution to Understanding Diversity, Power, and Institutions in Social Work Practice
Guest Editors:
Eunjung Lee, PhD, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto
Brian Rasmussen, PhD, School of Social Work, University of British Columbia, Okanagan
This special issue invites a broad range of manuscripts that utilize psychodynamic approaches to expand our understanding of diversity, power and the working of institutions in social work practice. Papers should be submitted by December 15, 2017.
Psychodynamic approaches have contributed to our understanding of intrapsychic and interpersonal dynamics in clinical social work practice, mostly in the realms of “the person” and the “environment” of maternal functions and family and group dynamics. Several scholars apply psychodynamic and psychoanalytic approaches to expand a scope of “environment” into the social issues (e.g., racism) and conflicts (e.g., hate crime and after-war reconciliation) on community, national and international levels. In this special issue, we would like to further expand its scope to social service institutions, especially how psychodynamic approaches help social workers better understand diversity, power and the working of the institutions in serving clients.
Each organization has a policy, its protocol, and governing bodies, all of which are interpreted and enacted by various actors (e.g., frontline clinicians, supervisors, executive director, and board members) who directly and indirectly interact with clients and subsequently impact what treatments/services are (not) selected and in what ways they are delivered or terminated. In this institutional process, it is inevitable to observe power struggles—one group’s voice and knowledge dominate while others’ are silenced and marginalized. Therefore it is important to critically reflect on the ruling relations of the institutions as the governing “environment” for social workers in serving our clients.
Although most literatures in social service organizations and institutional practices are based on administration and management theories and “social” theories, there has been a steady effort to integrate psychoanalytic approaches into organization services. Founded in 1983, the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO) provides a vibrant forum for clinicians and researchers interested in working in and with organizations utilizing psychoanalytic concepts and insights (https://www.ispso.org/the-ispso:main). Recent works by the Tavistock clinic—System Psychodynamics Thinking Group—illustrate the incorporation of psychodynamic approaches to institutional studies in public health services (http://www.tavistockconsulting.co.uk/approach-systems-psychodinamic-thinking/). Aligning with these scholarly communities, we invite contributors to deepen our understanding of the “environment” of institutions where we practice and serve our clients using the extensive psychodynamic approaches.
The areas of interest for this special issues are, not limited to, the following:
How are institutional missions and values enacted in their everyday practice to serve or not to serve (or gatekeeping) clients who are in various social positions (i.e., race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientations, class, religion and spirituality, (dis)abilty, and ageism)?
How do institutional actors negotiate, resist, and/or comply between institutional and clients’ agendas if conflicted and what are their impacts on the clients and therapy process and outcomes?
How do institutional actors interpret and embody their institutional values and policies when critical incidents occur in practice?
What institutional approaches have been used to address organizational conflicts and innovations to address system issues and (in)justice? Any evaluation and reflection of them?
Smith College Studies in Social Work receives all manuscript submissions electronically via its ScholarOne Manuscripts portal located at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/scssw. ScholarOne Manuscripts allows for rapid submission of original and revised manuscripts, and facilitates the review process and internal communication between authors, editors, and reviewers via a web-based platform. Each manuscript must be accompanied by a statement that it has not been published elsewhere and that it has not been submitted simultaneously for publication elsewhere. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted material from other sources and are required to sign an agreement for the transfer of copyright to the publisher. As an author, you are required to secure permission if you want to reproduce any figure, table, or extract from the text of another source. This applies to direct reproduction as well as “derivative reproduction” (where you have created a new figure or table which derives substantially from a copyrighted source). All accepted manuscripts, artwork, and photographs become the property of the publisher.
All parts of the manuscript should be typewritten, double-spaced, with margins of at least one inch on all sides. Number manuscript pages consecutively throughout the paper. Authors should also supply a shortened version of the title suitable for the running head, not exceeding 50 character spaces. Each article should be summarized in an abstract of not more than 100 words. Avoid abbreviations, diagrams, and reference to the text in the abstract. References, citations, and general style of manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the APA Publication Manual, 6th ed. Cite in the text by author and date (for example, Smith, 1983) and include an alphabetical list of references at the end of the article.
For any questions and concerns please contact the guest editors:
Eunjung Lee, [email protected]
Brian Rasmussen, [email protected]