Loss Of The Good Authority

Around the world, citizens have lost faith in their political and economic institutions—leading to unprecedented levels of political instability and economic volatility. From Moscow to Brussels, from Washington to Cairo, the failure of democracies and autocracies to manage the fiscal and political crises facing us has led to a profound disquiet, spawning protest movements of the left, right, and center. In The End of Authority, Douglas E. Schoen systematically analyzes the leadership crises facing democracies and autocratic governments alike. He presents a firsthand, detailed assessment for why this collapse in trust happened; and offers a comprehensive blueprint for how we can restore public trust in government and economic institutions in a world of division, dissension, and governments clearly lacking in responsiveness to citizen concerns. Schoen outlines bold and clear solutions and offers practical steps to fix our democracy and rebuild international institutions.

Society's current narrative of work/life balance is focusing on the wrong thing. It's not about benefit packages, flexible work hours or ping pong but rather changing the experience of work itself. As a leader, your number one priority should be to create a work environment where personal and professional growth are one in the same.

′Comprehensive and user-friendly. The book is helpfully constructed around a number of key themes, starting with a good attempt to define social work from historical and international perspectives and moving on to address key issues concerning the practice, knowledge, values and skills required from contemporary social work in the UK. I believe social work students, newly qualified and experienced social workers will find ths a valuable resource, especially when one is confronted by challenges in practice′ - Professional Social Work ′Social Work is a good overview that should refresh learner and tutor alike. Pratice assessors may find this book a useful update for their work with students and also a neat refresher. It is a well-written and up-to-date text, with a good sense of where future challenges lie for the social work profession in the UK. Higham is confident enough to voice the profession′s uncertainties as well as mapping the changing organisational landscape that social workers might populate. [This book] is likely to appear on many social work reading lists. [It has] the potential to provide good learning opportunities for post-qualifying as well as pre-qualifying training′ - Health and Social Care in the Community `The unique aspect of this book which distinguishes it from other competitors is that it is constructed explicitly around the key roles and benchmark statements... this book will offer something new and interesting to the growing field of social work education literature and is likely to be relevant to both students and practitioners in the UK and elsewhere′ - Dr Caroline Skehill, Queens University Belfast What is the role of social work? What does it mean to be a social worker? What are the changes affecting social work training? Social Work: Introducing Professional Practice addresses these questions and provides an understanding of the knowledge, values, and skills requirements of professional social work. The author has played a key role in constructing the subject benchmarks for the social work degree and offers a reflective and thoughtful commentary upon training, education and practice. Written in a lively and readable style, the book captures the essence of the changes sweeping through social work and engages the reader in these debates. Key features of this book include: - Comprehensive content structured around the guidelines for training and practice - Bridges the gap between theory and real-life practice - Student-friendly features such as case-studies, discussion questions, further reading and a glossary This exciting publication will be a core textbook for trainee social workers as they progress through the qualifying social work degree, or as they begin their practice as newly qualified workers seeking to consolidate their learning.

This book is a collection of papers on the effects of public violence on children in South Africa. Section 1 of this report is an overview of the findings of South Africa's Goldstone Commission of Inquiry into the Effects of Public Violence on Children. Section 2 concentrates on assessing problems and intervening to relieve them. The following essays are included: (1) "Introduction" (Brian Rock); (2) "Overview" (Norman Duncan and Brian Rock); (3) "Children and Violence: Quantifying the Damage" (Norman Duncan and Brian Rock); (4) "Going beyond the Statistics" (Norman Duncan and Brian Rock); (5) "Survey of Organizations Providing Services to Children" (Norman Duncan and Brian Rock); (6) "Inquiry Recommendations" (Norman Duncan and Brian Rock); (7) "Advisory Panel Recommendations"; (8) "Assessing the Impact of Violence on Children" (Peter Newell); (9) "Being Human vs. Having Human Rights" (Cosmas Desmond); (10) "Post-traumatic Stress in Children: Presentation and Intervention Guidelines" (Gill Eagle and Catherine Michelson); (11) "Working with Traumatized Children: A Community Project" (Sheila Miller); and (12) "The Survivors of Apartheid and Political Violence in KwaZulu-Natal" (Anne McKay). An appendix lists resource contacts. Each chapter contains references, and there is a reference list for each section. (Contains 28 tables.) (SLD)

This book examines American popular culture to demonstrate that celebrities have superseded religious figures as moral authorities. As trust in religious institutions has waned over recent decades, the once frivolous entertainment fringe has become the moral center. Young people and voters increasingly take cues from actors and athletes. The book begins by offering a definition of celebrity and showing that the profile of celebrities has changed dramatically, particularly since the 1960s. They can now chart their own careers, manage their own personal lives and weigh in on pressing moral issues in a manner that hasn't always been the case. This can be to the good, it is argued, for some counterintuitive reasons. Very few stars pretend to be moral exemplars, unlike the frequently hypocritical elites they have replaced. Others, however, are seemingly poorly qualified to speak on complex moral issues. In the end, it also turns out that who tells us how to feel about any moral issue counts at least as much as what they tell us. This is a fresh look at the impact of celebrity culture on contemporary morality and religious authority. As such, it will be of great use to academics working in religious studies and ethics, as well as popular culture and media studies.