Cohen offers a new framework for analyzing social projects and local social activism. Rather than look at how single projects are designed and managed to evaluate their impact, the approach calls for analyzing fields of social action: policy and politics, institutional behavior, social networks among policymakers and practitioners, and availability of funding and other resources. Combined, they affect the conceptualization of a social problem and the design and practice of social intervention. More broadly, through circumscribing the range of thinking about social problems, they delimit possibilities to generate social change. Analyzing fields also allows for linking macro-level trends in areas like policy to decision-making within individual organizations and the effectiveness of projects at instigating the desired transformation in individual and collective behavior. Working together, policymakers, individual activists, nonprofit organizations, and staff in public institutions like schools and hospitals can critique and alter fields to challenge more effectively social problems. This collaboration, in turn, affects how social policies are designed and, ultimately, the politics of social change.

John F. Kerry United States Senator If we are to reinvigorate and reinforce civic participation in this country at a time when our society is increasingly fragmented and highly technologically based, we must find a way to unite distinct communities, such as universities, regional and non-profit organizations, and families. We must find ways to link academicians, students, teachers, and professionals with the reality of events and circumstances so that theories and ideas mightily pursued within the "ivory tower" are connected to social reality and useful. As the editors and contributors in this volume point out, the way to bridge theory/practice divide is not merely to interpret and report on circumstances of the real-world; but rather, to deconstruct the separate and distinct communities that exist within our society and actively engage other communities to realize a continuum of mutual understanding, collaboration, and action. It is crucial to include our nation's public schools in this new approach of social inquiry and social action. Improving and creating educational opportunity for all children in the United States has been an ongoing critical federal issue. We know that when children achieve in school they have a much greater chance of living healthy, productive adult lives that will benefit themselves and society, and we know that increasing the base of stakeholders in children's education yields those positive results.

Global social transformation calls for global social action. 2010 saw the launch of The Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development, which detailed how social workers can strive to bring about increased social justice. The time is right to start to address and demonstrate the actions that might be required to develop and accomplish the Agenda - with regard to methods in practice and research, in social policy and social work education, and in a broader discourse of global commitment and cooperation. This informative and incisively written edited collection brings together experts from around the world to discuss issues which the social work and social welfare sectors face every day and to ensure a closer link between evidence-based practice, policy objectives and social development goals. Furthermore, this book reveals how these may affect the conditions of people and demonstrate how the social work and social development community can contribute to sustainable development.

How can social workers integrate expressive arts methods as a complement to their work to better support individual, group, and community growth? Expressive Arts for Social Work and Social Change explores the values and benefits of expressive arts (i.e., visual arts, movement and dance, expressive forms of writing and narrative, music, and performance) and the role they can play in social work practice and inquiry. Although previous research has illustrated the efficacy of expressive arts to individual therapeutic goals, this is the first work that looks at the use of these approaches to fulfill the values, ethics, and principles of the social work profession. The authors draw from current and emerging concepts related to green social work, including individual and collective well-being, Indigenous perspectives and practices, social justice and social action, and individual as well as collective creative expression. This book provides insight and advice that will benefit all human service professionals interested in expressive arts.

Socialization is predominately an unconscious process by which a new born child learns the values, beliefs, rules and regulations of society or internalizes the culture in which it born. Social control is described in detail at the end of the book. It is intended as a book for undergraduate and postgraduate students of sociology and a reference tool to the researchers and academic professionals this comprehensive and well-structured book presents in a systematic way the Social Control and Social Change. The book is undoubtedly a valuable asset for the students, researchers as well as teachers of sociology. In addition, general readers concerned with social aspects and social progress will find it extremely informative.

Following the positive impact of microfinance on poverty reduction, women empowerment, and microenterprise development in some countries in Asia and Africa, a huge amount of time has been devoted by researchers to understanding how this concept can be used as a catalyst for transforming and sustaining the economies of developing and emerging countries. Though there are a few books on the role of microfinance in reducing poverty in developing countries across world, there is no specific book that explores the role of microfinance in transforming and sustaining economies of developing and emerging countries. Transforming Economies Through Microfinance in Developing Nations seeks to explore how the provision of microfinance to individuals and groups can contribute to the economic transformation and sustainability of the economies of developing and emerging countries. Covering key topics such as climate change, entrepreneurship, and rural development, this reference work is ideal for government officials, entrepreneurs, policymakers, researchers, academicians, practitioners, scholars, instructors, and students.

Social Change and Social Work discusses and examines how social work is challenged by social, political and economic tendencies going on in current societies. The authors ask how social work as a discipline and practice is encountering global and local transformations. Divided into three parts, topics covered include the changing social work mandate throughout history; social work paradigms and theoretical considerations; phenomenological social work; practice research; and gender and generational research. Taken together, the chapters in this anthology provide an authoritative and up-to-date overview of current discussions within the European social work research community.

Advancing Social Justice Through Clinical Practice is a comprehensive volume that bridges the gap between the psychosocial realities of clients and the dominant clinical practices. The book's contributors include social workers, family therapists, clinical psychologists, community psychologists, and counseling psychologists. Its accessible writing style makes it valuable to students studying the field.

Organizational Transformation for Sustainability: An Integral Metatheory offers some innovative answers to the big questions involved in organizational sustainability and the radical changes that organizations will need to undergo as we move into the third millennium. This new approach comes from the new field of integral metatheory.

Throughout history, social and intellectual crises have given rise to compelling suggestions for reform steeped in various progressive sensibilities. For example, within the discipline of criminology -- particularly during the 1980’s and 1990’s -- a number of unconventional theoretical perspectives emerged that sought to challenge many of the assumptions embedded within its own mainstream discourse, and to propose alternative solutions for meaningful, sustainable change. Conceived of as "critical" in overarching orientation, these efforts to rethink the foundations of criminological verstehen can be traced to several specific theoretical and methodological strands of inquiry (e.g., anarchism, peacemaking, chaos theory, postmodernism). Though distinct in some respects, these emerging models are linked paradigmatically by their shared discontent with conventional criminological thought and by their radicalized posture toward existing and previously unexamined epistemic crises. Collectively, this is an agenda for reform that seeks to establish a more humane and just social order, particularly as citizens and society confront the institutional and communal problems posed by crime, delinquency, and deviance. Theory, Justice, and Social Change: Theoretical Integrations and Critical Applications represents a provocative series of essays that systematically reviews or extends the role of critical social theory in fostering justice and change in several relevant, though problematic, social contexts. Mindful of the need to address both conceptual exegeses and pragmatic concerns, the articles contained in this volume grapple with the ongoing "double crisis" that confronts theory and practice in the construction of knowledge. By appropriating and integrating various insights from several heterodox and critically animated lines of inquiry, each chapter deftly exposes where and how conventional sociological and criminological thought has failed to effectively address such human social issues as homelessness, mental illness, minority rights, juvenile justice, global violence, and criminal punishment. In doing so, Theory, Justice, and Social Change provides new and much needed direction regarding theory development in the social sciences, and indicates why charting such a course of theory/action yields more enlightened prospects for justice and change in society and in our lives.