Relational Social Work

Erickson

vol. 1, n. 2, October 2017

(pp. 3-4)

Editorial

Fabio Folgheraiter

Catholic University of Milan, Italy

I am glad to present the second number of the online international Relational Social Work Journal.

In this number we can read theoretical papers, articles from qualitative and quantitative researches and reflections based on some practice experiences.

In the theoretical papers, Pierpaolo Donati, professor at the University of Bologna and founder of the «Relational Sociology», proposes an interesting reflection on the way in which the hyper modernized societies change the concept and practices of the «good life» and he analyses it from a sociological perspective.

The participatory research method is presented and discussed with some examples in the article by Jo Aldridge, professor of Sociology and Criminology at the Loughborough University. Her paper considers the advantages and challenges in conducting participatory research with vulnerable or marginalised populations, and discusses the utility of this model.

Following, we can read some contributions from research conducted by members of the Relational Social Work Research Center of Catholic University of Milan (Italy).

Panciroli analyses a project of community work and underlines the way in which the professional, as a relational guide, is able to support the community in the different phases of the problem-solving process according to the RSW approach.

Biffi presents the results of a qualitative research that explores the role of managers who work in social services according to the perspective of the Relational Social Work Method.

Corradini, on the other hand, presents a quantitative research, taking into account four types of out-of-home placements of children and young people in a northern Italian region; each type of accomodation has been cross-checked with the variables relating to socio-demographic characteristics of children, prevailing problems of children and prevailing problems of the families, to identify significant correlations.

In the section «Voices from practice» we can read the experience of a group of students from the first year of a bachelor’s degree program in Social Work. They organized a non-conventional lesson themselves, going to the Central Railway Station of Milan in order to meet homeless peoples, bringing them food and blankets and trying to talk with them. As we can read in Cabiati and Tagliabue’s article, the opportunity to spend a day with the homeless people was an important educational activity for these students.

The last article, written by Calcaterra, presents an educational project set up by two social workers in India to support children from a Grave-Diggers community to develop their skills and improve their life.

We are grateful to all the authors that submitted their articles to our Journal.

We hope that this second number of the Journal will contribute to continue the in-depth analysis of the Relational Approach in Social Work.

Milan, October 2017

 

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