In the 1980s, although most social workers organised their time and described their work in terms of cases, research studies had cast serious doubts on the efficacy of working in this way. As a result, there had been growing anxiety about what social workers do, what they ought to do, and the training they needed. Task-centred casework was an approach to social work which proposed a solution to some aspects of this dilemma. Growing out of the surprising results of an American research study, it broke free from the traditional psycho-analytic approach to casework. It aimed at clarity of purpose, a concentration on the clients’ perceptions of the problems, openness about clients’ and helpers’ intentions and agreement about what is to be done and achieved within a specified time. Originally published in 1985, this book brings together three British studies that accompanied, and in some respects pioneered, the introduction of task-centred casework into the United Kingdom. The studies describe and evaluate task-centred casework with social services department clients, with young people on probation, and with men and women referred to hospital after poisoning themselves. The research suggests what task-centred casework can and cannot achieve, describes how clients experience it and seeks to define the skills it requires. The studies also provide some reasons why many previous studies of social work have failed to find evidence for social work effectiveness. The book uses much case material to illustrate methods of task-centred casework and its outcomes as seen by clients, social workers, and an independent outsider. It should still be of interest to social workers, teachers of social work, and social work students. More generally, it will be welcomed by all those who are interested in building social work on a surer basis than anecdote and fashion.

In the 1980s, although most social workers organised their time and described their work in terms of cases, research studies had cast serious doubts on the efficacy of working in this way. As a result, there had been growing anxiety about what social workers do, what they ought to do, and the training they needed. Task-centred casework was an approach to social work which proposed a solution to some aspects of this dilemma. Growing out of the surprising results of an American research study, it broke free from the traditional psycho-analytic approach to casework. It aimed at clarity of purpose, a concentration on the clients' perceptions of the problems, openness about clients' and helpers' intentions and agreement about what is to be done and achieved within a specified time. Originally published in 1985, this book brings together three British studies that accompanied, and in some respects pioneered, the introduction of task-centred casework into the United Kingdom. The studies describe and evaluate task-centred casework with social services department clients, with young people on probation, and with men and women referred to hospital after poisoning themselves. The research suggests what task-centred casework can and cannot achieve, describes how clients experience it and seeks to define the skills it requires. The studies also provide some reasons why many previous studies of social work have failed to find evidence for social work effectiveness. The book uses much case material to illustrate methods of task-centred casework and its outcomes as seen by clients, social workers, and an independent outsider. It should still be of interest to social workers, teachers of social work, and social work students. More generally, it will be welcomed by all those who are interested in building social work on a surer basis than anecdote and fashion.

The Third Sector is of increasing economic and political interest but has been relatively ignored by Critical Management Studies. The Sector includes charities and a range of organisations such as non-governmental, nonprofit, voluntary and community, but also those trading for a surplus but with prominent social commitments, such as housing associations, credit unions, worker or consumer co-operatives and social enterprises. This book presents cutting-edge international research from a variety of critical perspectives. The chapters include case studies from Japan, South Africa, Canada, Denmark, France, Wales and England, as well as a number of theoretically-based explorations of key issues in the analysis of the Third Sector. The chapters have been developed from presentations and lively discussion at the Critical Management Studies Workshop, Montreal, August 2010. "DCMS" is an innovative series applying Critical Management Studies to tightly specified topics. Each chapter is followed by a 1,000 word Commentary from a fellow contributor to the volume, and each volume is the product of a collaborative and developmental workshop.

This book is a study of communities that drew their identity and livelihood from their relationships with water during a pivotal time in the creation of the social, economic and political landscapes of northern Europe. It focuses on the Baltic, North and Irish Seas in the Viking Age (ad 1050-1200), with a few later examples (such as the Scottish Lordship of the Isles) included to help illuminate less well-documented earlier centuries. Individual chapters introduce maritime worlds ranging from the Isle of Man to Gotland - while also touching on the relationships between estate centres, towns, landing places and the sea in the more terrestrially oriented societies that surrounded northern Europe's main spheres of maritime interaction. It is predominately an archaeological project, but draws no arbitrary lines between the fields of historical archaeology, history and literature. The volume explores the complex relationships between long-range interconnections and distinctive regional identities that are characteristic of maritime societies, seeking to understand communities that were brought into being by their relationships with the sea and who set waves in motion that altered distant shores.