Speaker

Dr Chamalie Gunawardane
Lecturer, Department of Sociology.
University Colombo, Sri Lanka

Let’s have a cup of tea: Planning your time inside our home

Abstract Narrative

The main issue of being vulnerable is that the being excluded. Exclusion is a result of multidimensional factors including poverty as one of the main sources in a developing country. This study aims to understand how elders become vulnerable due to poverty and what can be the social and economic responses to promote inclusion. Three homes for elderly located in the city of Colombo, Sri Lanka were selected as the study sample. 74 elders residing in two non-fee levying and one fee-levying were interviewed to identify the forms of social exclusion and risks attached with it. The study proposes that the inclusive city planning can be employed to promote social inclusion for elderly residing in care homes if the identified risks were removed. Data gathered was thematically analyzed and first theme derived from the study was the link between poverty and the exclusion. Those who are poor and no one to care are most of time choose to stay in non-pay levying elderly homes during their old age in the Sri Lankan context. Study significantly showed that elders in non-fee levying institutions are powerless as they are economically poor. Those elders in fee- levying homes were economically strong though they are excluded from decision making due to the age and they have also become residence of care homes since they have no one to take care of them. Elders in both types of homes had the experience of exclusion in participation to the administration level as elders were considered as people without capacities. The second theme derived from the study was that the link between the community and the elderly homes. Study identified that though the institutions are located in the heart of the city, no community engagement is encouraged to promote social inclusion. Study highlights that both types of care homes are administratively represent the format of total institution in which inmates are routinized with a rational plan. Third theme identified the steps to be taken to address the care for increasing elderly population in the country. City planning that includes the elderly into the community is the main focus of the third theme. Study clearly showed that there is no active participation of people from community and elders in homes in their everyday life. The study suggests that the city could be planned with open access to elderly homes building community cafeterias, sports centers, religious shrines and libraries. Bringing the of community inside to the elderly homes create inclusive practices as elders themselves become a part of the society rather being inmates inside four walls. Taking the capacity of elders to monitor the community-based city panning can lead to make a living for elderly and it can reduce the multi-dimensional poverty of them. In conclusion, study proposed that the social services should carefully recognize the need of inclusive city planning which promote elders without hindering the life of person into a statistical category called ‘old age’.
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Key words: Elderly, exclusion, inclusion, poverty, city planning

Biography

I’m a Lecturer attached to the department of Sociology, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and a PhD student of Faculty of Social Work, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. My research interests are gender, social work with vulnerable populations.

Dr Raquel Marta
Senior Lecturer
University Of West London

Interaction, Simultaneity, Interplay, and Demeanor: Dynamics of Encounter in Social Work

Abstract Narrative

Despite the emphasis on the importance of human relationships in social work, the significance of the emotions in conceptualizing and responding to the relationship between professional and Subject seems to be downplayed. Discussions on emotion are blocked, caught by ethical boundaries oscillating between a rather formal interpretative lens and a close, almost fearful, observation of oneself and of the other. This paper addresses such gap in current thinking by developing a theoretical framework by which social workers can appreciate the constraints and possibilities of communication in which they are grounded. We decode particular facets of emotion and communication and analyze its traits, advancing understanding towards a strengthening relational dialogue where emotion-laden interactions are shared and the co-creation of shared meanings is developed. This prompt us to provide an archetypal of interpersonal coordination in social work where we incorporate improvisation, rhythm and style as fundamental and interconnected elements of professional interactional transactions. Since the relational essence of social work is not reduced to a set of individual notes temporally arranged, rhythm and style come from the dynamic and dialogically constituted movement of co- inquiring and co-building, we claim that it is necessary to take into account that interpersonal coordination in social work is neither stamped nor invoked randomly but is invoked by the social worker through his primary communication skills: on the one hand, the invocation of professional language to create relationships with subjects in which interpretation, meanings, and possibilities are co-created and the internal space of individuals is subsequently validated in the enjoyment of relational intersubjectivity and, on the other hand, the recognition of the power of words and signs in a catalyzing union of the co-creation of new meanings and narratives for the relation and the interactional process.

Biography

A Senior Lecturer at the University of West London (UK), Raquel holds a PhD in Social Work from ISCTE – Lisbon University Institute and has lectured widely on social work and related areas at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, in Europe and in the United States. She has worked in the private sector as a social worker, with a major focus on the implementation of Harm Reduction Policies and macro social work practice. Her research focused on creativity, complex thought and vulnerability with a particular focus on professional transformative abilities. Currently, her primary scholarly agenda unites human development and environmental sustainability and is largely concerned with understanding individual vulnerabilities and their linkages with structural environmental inequalities in informal human settlements. Raquel is a member of Children’s Environments Research Group (CERG), the Center for Human Environments (CHE), at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York and affiliated with several professional organizations.

Dr Lisa Dickens
Social Development Researcher

Theme 3E

Biography

Dr Lisa Dickens is a social development researcher with experience focusing primarily on youth, resilience and outcomes. Her PhD examined the contribution of resilience to the 12-month transitional outcomes of care-leavers in South Africa, which she obtained from the University of Johannesburg in 2016. She previously managed the Growth Beyond the Town longitudinal study on youth transitioning out of Girls and Boys Town in South Africa. She currently analyses and reports on the quantitative data from the study.