Call for Special Issue - Covid-19 pandemic (PDF)
Call for Special Issue (PDF)
Reviewer List 2023 (PDF)
„Drugs – Drug Use(r) – Drug Market(s). Reflections and Perspectives for Social Services”. A New SW&S Special Issue
SW&S Special Issue
To identify social work clients as “drug abusers” has traditionally been a typical behavioral pattern. The use of drugs has also been seen as a social problem in the traditional welfare state of the so called western world. This is right and wrong at the same time: On the one side the current (welfare) state has become a new agency of repression – not at least against public drug use, illegal as well as legalized drugs, in bigger cities; on the other side the neo-liberal agenda allows public debates about the liberalization of drug distribution by calling the individual subject a responsible customer.
On that background the question of drugs, drug use(rs) and drug markets can still be seen as a main issue of social work and social policy in welfare states. At the same time they represent a field of change, where the transformations of welfare can be witnessed.
Therefore Social Work & Society is very grateful to present our readers the new Special Issue on “Drugs – Drug Use(r)- Drug Market(s)”: Michelle Pelans paper on Re-visioning Drug Use is opening the SW&S Special Issue by discussing the question of its transformation Away From Criminal Justice and Abstinence-based Approaches. In its Cross-National Comparative Study Matteo Di Placido is Comparing Social Service’s Networks for Underage Drug Users, followed by Lis Bodil Karlssons, Ulla Rantakeisus and Kirsti Kuuselas paper using A Narrative Approach to reflect the Recovery Process from Addiction and Abuse. Wes Abercrombie and Mitchell Mackinem are concluding the SW&S Special Issue by reflecting the exploration of Community Based Responses and the Natural History of a Drug Market”.
SW&S Forum
Beside the Special Issue the new issue involves also fascinating papers in the SW&S Forum on Ageing and Care of Older Persons in Southern Africa by Jotham Dhemba & Bennadate Dhemba; on Acquiring Life Skills Whilst in Residential Care in Ghana by Esmeranda Manful, Harriet Takyi & Eunice Gambrah; on Axel Honneth’s Recognition Model for Social Work by Stanley Houston; and last, but not least on The Epistemological Difference between “Lifeworld” and “Life Conditions” by Björn Kraus.
Information from the Co-Ordinating Office
At the end of the 13th year of Social Work & Society our well known online journal has been restructured. From now on the publication policy of SW&S will be focused on the Special Issue section and a general article section, the SW&S Forum. The SW&S Special Issues will mostly be edited by guest editors (see the Call for Special Issues: http://www.socwork.net/sws). The former SW&S sections “Research & PhD Notes”, “Essays”, “Historical Portraits” and “Book Reviews” have been closed.
Another change concerns the double blind peer review process. This will be coordinated and controlled by the Co-Ordinating Office for all SW&S sections from now on.
Enjoy our new issue of Social Work & Society.
The SW&S Co-Ordinating Office