Week 1 Flashcards
(32 cards)
1
Q
Ontology
A
What is the nature of reality?
2
Q
Epistemology
A
How can we access reality?
3
Q
Positivism / Ontology
A
- The Universe is organized by a set of uniform consistent laws
- The Universe is complicated but can be explained by a few simple laws
- Like a mechanical clock
- Physics underpins everything
- Humans and society are just
complicated machines
4
Q
Positivism / Epistemology
A
- Empiricism – observation through the senses
- Mathematics (because the Universe is consistent)
- Explanations reduce the Universe to constituent parts
- To understand the clock, pull it apart and put it back together again
5
Q
Spirituality and religion
Ontology
A
- Many varied religious traditions with different understandings of reality
- May accept that the Universe is not
always consistent - Accept dimensions of reality beyond the physical – metaphysical, morality, afterlife etc.
6
Q
Spirituality and religion
Epistemology
A
- Many varied religious traditions with different ways to understand the world
- May include scripture, prophets, divine revelation, prayer, other manifestations through personal experience etc.
7
Q
Social constructionism
Ontology – Physical vs social reality
A
- Difference between physical reality
and social reality - ‘The Student Centre’ as a social
construct - Language – words mean whatever we want them to mean
- Physical and social reality are
conceptually different but interrelated
8
Q
Social constructionism
Ontology – reality is shared
A
- I can’t have a personal ‘reality’ about the location of the Student Centre
- The location changes based on a
social process that creates a shared
reality
9
Q
Social constructionism
Ontology – social reality is real
A
- The Student Centre is just a social
construct, that doesn’t mean we can
ignore it. - Our social lives matter – your
enrolment, your degree, your marks
etc. all matter to you. - Social reality can affect your physical reality, e.g. if you cannot complete
your degree, you may not get a job
10
Q
Social constructionism
Ontology – constructed not engineered
A
- E.g. the Streisand effect
- Barbra Streisand attempted to suppress an image published on a website documenting beach erosion
- The law suit drew attention (from 6 views to over 420,000 views)
- No one intended, planned, or
engineered this outcome – but it
happened and it’s real!
Social constructionism
11
Q
Social constructionism
Ontology – constructed through discourse
A
- “characteristic ways of describing and understanding the world”
- “actors within the historical framework have experience simply of describing how the world is. They are unable to recognize that the framework itself could be utterly
transformed” - Like a fish in water, they are hard to see
- E.g. September 11 attacks. A confusing time:
- Disaster? – more than this
- War? – but no state conflict
- Terrorism? – no specific political demands
- Crime? – too big to be just a crime
- Eventually led to a new discourse of the ‘War on Terror’, which shapes our thinking now.
- What if we used one of the other discourses?
12
Q
Social constructionism
Epistemology – scientific
A
- Empirical – through observation
- The different kind of reality requires different methods, including both quantitative and
qualitative methods - Personal experience and personal reflection cannot tell us about our shared reality
13
Q
Defining welfare
Our working definition
A
- For our purposes:
- Government expenditure for the benefit of individuals rather than
for public benefit of the common good - Centrelink payments are welfare
- Roads, parks, and defence are not welfare
14
Q
Defining welfare
Not clear cut
A
E.g. education spending
* Private benefit for individuals receiving education
* Public benefit of grounds and facilities
* Public benefit of enhanced labour force
E.g. parks and wildlife expenditure
* Public benefit of green spaces
* But what if the expenditure is really to create jobs for the
unemployed?
15
Q
Kinds of welfare
Richard Titmuss’ classification
Social Welfare
A
- Direct expenditure on people, e.g. unemployment payments, aged pensions, disability supports, homelessness services,
aged care.
16
Q
Richard Titmuss’ classification
Fiscal welfare
A
- Preferential tax treatment, e.g. capital gains tax concessions,
income splitting, superannuation tax concessions, tax-free threshold
17
Q
Richard Titmuss’ classification
Occupational welfare
A
- Benefits derived through employment like wages, maternity
leave, and superannuation
18
Q
Who delivers
welfare?
Federal government
A
Main level of government responsible
* Social welfare
* Centrelink
* NDIS
* Aged care
* Health (Medicare, PBS)
* Education
Fiscal welfare
* Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
Occupational welfare
* Superannuation
* Fair Work Commission
19
Q
State governments
A
Social welfare
* Health
* Education
* Housing
* Child protection
Fiscal welfare
* n/a
Occupational welfare
* State level industrial
relations laws
* Anti-discrimination laws
20
Q
Local governments
A
- “Rates, rubbish, and roads”
- Able to implement broad range
of policies for the local
community
21
Q
Who benefits?
Social welfare is targeted
A
- Overall, low spend but highly targeted
- Means testing increases efficiency
- Severe effective marginal tax rates
- Jobseeker = $778 per fortnight
- Earn $1479 per fortnight
- Pay only $148 tax…but lose $778 in benefits for a total of $926
lost - Effective marginal tax rate = $62.6%
- OR at minimum wage ($24.10/hr), 61 hours of work for $701 extra per fortnight = $11.49/hr effective wage
22
Q
Who benefits?
Complicated
A
Targeting results in many
payments, supplements, and
eligibility rules
Adjustments made for
* Income
* Assets
* Age
* Partnered vs single
* Children and dependents
* Remoteness
- Bureaucracy to support
- Fortnightly forms
- How does this compare to fiscal
and occupational welfare?
Complicated
23
Q
Who benefits?
Fiscal and occupational – for the wealthy
A
- Only available to people with jobs
- The more you earn, the more you
can receive - For example, superannuation
- Compulsory contribution as a
proportion of income - Flat tax rates – benefit those on
higher incomes
24
Q
Differential enforcement
A
- Compared to tax and occupational
fraud, welfare fraud is: - more likely to be investigated
- more likely to assume intent
- subject to harsher penalties
Welfare fraud is considered a bigger
moral and social problem compared to ‘white collar’ crimes like tax and
occupational fraud
25
The role of
human services
practitioners
You are tiny cog in the welfare machine
* To be an effective cog
in the machine, you
need to understand it.
* Sometimes the best
way to be effective, is
to change the machine.
26
The role of
human services
practitioners
Accreditation
Methods of social work intervention including: community work; counselling and interviewing; advocacy and direct action; policy development and implementation; and research. To include consideration of:
* the need for multilevel interventions, individually and collectively, to raise awareness, build resources and create change
* the relationship-based nature of social work, and the need to engage
and work collaboratively with clients and service users, and with other
stakeholders, to achieve positive outcomes
* the universal requirements for advanced communication skills across all arenas of practice.
27
The role of
human services
practitioners
Accreditation cont...
Understand higher level systemic influences on people with respect to area of practice
* Identify linkages between situation/problem and life conditions, with particular attention to issues of oppression and discrimination
* Identify the ways in which dominant norms and values may oppress, marginalise, alienate and impoverish some members of society
* Critique the potential discriminatory aspects of legislation, policy and practice in Australian institutions
28
The role of
human services
practitioners
Accreditation cont...
Understand higher level systemic influences on people with respect to area of practice
* Critically analyse the social context and barriers as foundational to
understanding individual/community issues and change efforts
* Understand the impact of bio-psychosocial history, including social
isolation and marginalisation
* Advocate for equitable access of all persons to resources, services
and opportunities
29
Types of practice
Ways of working
* community work
* counselling and interviewing
* advocacy and direct action
* policy development and implementation
* research
30
Types of practice
What do you do when the rules of the game are unfair?
Nancy Fraser identifies two broad approaches
* Affirmative – Ameliorate the effects of injustice
* E.g. support low-income families to find stable housing
* Transformative – Address the underlying structural causes
of injustice
* E.g. change the tax incentives and lending regulations that allow
property speculators to distort the housing market
Both affirmative and transformative intervention required
* Affirmative intervention is good for people now – but the
structural problem remains.
* Transformative intervention addresses the underlying problem –
but what does it mean for people in the mean time? And are
structural problems are not so easily solved.
* Affirmative and transformative intervention may be in tension.
31
Affirmative intervention example
* Government funded NGO
that provides small loans
(around $500) to low-
income families
* Immediate help
* Does not challenge the
structures and policies that
create poverty
* May reinforce problematic
discourses
* Constrained by rules set
down by funding body (i.e.
the government).
32
Transformative intervention example
change to policy. More welfare payments. Reduce working week etc.
Addresses the structural issues
But...
* Hard to get funding – certainly will not be funded by government grants
* Change is uncertain and slow
* Contradicts the message that money management, savings, micro-finance etc. can solve the problem
