Where is Workingsocially?

After spending much time behind the camera these days, it has become a special emissary of the photographer looking to nab some snippets of spontaneous life. It operates with complex algorithmic structures that capture light in a certain way.  Although the camera has an application or program to pre-select settings for an optimal picture, the eye still must adjust its pliant lens and the photographer must seek out poignant and provocative subjects. Check out photoshare and how it promotes photography for international education aid and relief.

Shinealight.com

After watching several commercials about small business success stories, I’ve been pretty impressed with the efforts of NBC/American Express’s Shinealight.   By featuring small business elements such as “community”, “enterpreunerial spirit” and “innovation”, Shinealight helps to re-evaluate our current paradigm of small business operations.

The Social Work Widget

With their small bits of reusable code, widgets can be installed in web documents to help deliver small yet dynamic messages.  Widgets are adaptable and can be easily distributable on the web, offering quick dissemination of information.  Can workingsocially use widgets to create a socially-conscious web audience?  Make your own socially-conscious widget at widgetbox .

Pop Culture and Narrative Therapy-Resurrected

Narrative therapy allows a personal story or legacy to serve as the intervention in the resolution of a problem. It requires that the social worker act as an “autobiographer” to assist with the client’s personal narrative. The client is encouraged to externalize or view a problem outside of oneself. As a result, the problem can be viewed more objectively and the struggle can be re-labeled within the context of the environment.

With the post-industrialization and post-modernist movements of the last centuries, pop culture has made its way into even the most daily minutia of our lives. It is inevitable that pop culture would collide with our collective attempts at making sense and meaning of our problems. Even though we insist on striving towards the individuality and independence that is so much a hallmark of American civilization, it is ironic that the pop culture is one and the same catalyst for this trend.

Technology is also a catalyst for the proliferation of pop culture and its influence in the construction of our personal stories, which have been shaped by mass endorsement of beliefs, values and ideas. The speed and clarity of information acquisition is unprecedented, creating a dynamic perception of the self and the world that is subject to constant revision and reinvention. Therefore, within the framework of narrative therapy, the social worker must recognize how the client recounts his or her story in the process of constructing a self-concept and ultimate place in the world.

A New Theme!

Workingsocially.com has a new look thanks to much chipping away at technical difficulties and Wordpress’s great technical support team.  This site will be completely restored within the next couple weeks.  Check back for more information about the synergy between social work and technology.  Thanks for your patience.