Milko Poštrak

The paper is conceived interdisciplinary. It is mainly based on anthropology, on the sociological studies of the micro-macro linkages, the studies of the socialization processes and phenomenological philosophy. The focus is on the question of construction of the term "person" and its relations to the constructions of the terms "society" and "culture". With the help of Mead's, Mauss', Merleau-Ponty's and other conceptions of the person and with the concept of socialization processes the author attempts to find out how a person constructs his world and the world he or she shares with others. The conclusion is that the self-aware person is always equipped with a stock of knowledge, internalised tradition, actual experiences, etc., that are loaded in (in Mead's words) "me" (the social ego), whereas "I" (the personal ego) through the process of thinking leans on "me" and in this way communicates with others. These conclusions are the starting point for further studies.

Matjaž Plotajs

The author initially discusses the phenomenon of creativity as the main element of social cultural work, elaborating on the notion through many authors and in several scientific perspectives. These theoretical considerations are followed by an analysis of more concrete situations and the experiences of the author in voluntary social cultural work with lightly and severely disabled people. Lastly, the author presents his vision with regard to the usefulness of creative techniques in social work, and to the future of social cultural work for the popularisation of the profession.

Gabi Bešlin, Nataša Šumak

In Slovenia, every sixth family is a single-parent one and many remain so. Te authors were interested how mothers see and feel about their families. They proceeded from interviews with eight women. Their codified their statements, determined their notions and linked them to categories, on the basis of which they wrote their tentative theory. They focused on the following bundles: the living conditions, the social network and relations within it, the mother's self-image and self-care. They found the quality of the mothers' lives depends on the socio-economic status (education, living standard), on the ramified and supportive social network, and on the extent in which they take care of their needs.

Vesna Šiplič in Darja Kadiš

The first part of the paper discusses the fast prolongation of life expectancy. The consequence is the aging of society. Thus in Slovenia there is lately more and more talk about aging and the related problems. In our situation, the attitude towards old age and the generation gap push old people to the margin, isolation and uselessness. But if society is to make progress, it must have systemic models for the coexistence of the old and the young. The paper also gives some observations of how the care for the aged is undertaken in Slovenia. Old people are and will increasingly be present at all levels of social life. It will be necessary to establish a communication, to illuminate needs, and in general to change our attitude towards them. They are a part of ourselves, of our culture, and we are therefore obliged to help them satisfy their needs.

Tea Smonker

The housing problem of women and children, the victims of violence, is a form of homelessness overlooked by the state. In Slovenia in the last decade the women's movement has helped establish a network of organisations designed for women and children who are in distress and often also victims of some kind of violence. When a women with children is dismissed from such an organisation, she steps on the difficult path of solving the housing problem, which may end in temporary solutions like placement in a centre for the homeless or an expensive privately rented apartment. Children may be separated from the mother and placed in foster case. And finally, they may return to the violent partner. When the loss of housing is accompanied by, for instance, psychosocial or physical distress, this considerably increases the risk of a mental crisis. Now, gradually, solutions are being shaped also on the level of the wider community. The void of the long-lasting wait for systemic solutions may be filled by a variety of social work approaches, which would make the life of this population bearable.

Milan Ambrož, Marija Ovsenik

In the increasingly complex and rapidly changing global surroundings, the authors argue, there are increasingly less possibilities for efficient individual managing of organizations. A post-industrial organization can survive under constant changes and adaptations to the surroundings and under permanent democratisation of decision-making processes. Rational approaches are substituted in the post-industrial organization by people-centred managing, emphasising the humane aspect. In management studies researchers focus very much on the charismatic leader believed to efficiently guide the organization through change. In the present study, the authors' assumption is that managing is the subordinate workers' social construct, underlying their judgements of the manager's actual conduct, and that this is the motivational context for the efficient managing of change. The results of the study show that the new paradigm of management is indirect and subtle and based on the role of manager-teacher who, in the process of change, entices quality communication, a dialogue with all participants, and permanent learning.

Bojan Regvar, Marija Ovsenik

The paper elaborates on some reasons for permanent growth of competitiveness that are related to the negative impacts of globalisation. Data indicate that these negative impacts extend to the field of social care; namely, social problems that cannot be kept back by social care programmes are increasing on the global scale. The fact that candidate states lag behind in economic development is underlined as the element that hinders their capacity to enter successfully into the common economic space represented by European Union, and the difficulties that may be foreseen in this connection are presented. These difficulties will reflect in changes in the field of social care, notably in the changing structure and extent of the social care users.

Marko Ferjan, Karmen Brumen

The objective of this paper is to present the integration of ethical values into management practices. In the first, theoretical part, some definitions of ethics and moral behaviour are presented, in an attempt to provide an understanding of some principles and theory of individual moral development and to present some extensive modern ethical dilemmas. The second part of the paper presents the results of a research on ethics in Slovenian companies.

Jože Florjančič, Marko Ferjan, Goran Vukovič

The essay deals with the organization of public relations departments in Slovenian companies. The results of two extensive researches are presented. Both were made in the second half of 2001. The authors investigated how public relations departments in Slovenian companies are organized. For this purpose a research was made with a sample of 272 Slovenian companies. At the same time, a questionnaire was distributed to 1,221 citizens of Slovenia. The authors found that only a small fraction of the surveyed companies contain organised public relations sectors. In many companies the marketing department takes care of public relations as well. Around three fourths of the surveyed companies have been using specialised agencies. Almost two thirds do not have a full communication plan. It was also found that the Slovenian media publish over one hundred reports about companies or economy topics yearly. Most executives at least occasionally follow such reports, but many do not have enough knowledge to make use of it.

Anka Čufer, Marija Ovsenik

The authors discuss a research on organization and management in invalid enterprises in Slovenia ('invalid enterprise' is a company that employs people with the status of 'invalids' and enjoys tax benefits on this account). Data on socio-demographic characteristics of Slovenian invalid enterprises' managers have been collected, beside an opinion poll on current problems of management, situation and development of invalid enterprises in Slovenia, encompassed the managers' assessments of managing and administering, personnel and their motivation, the importance they attach to market research, etc. Finally, some recommendations for the improvement of invalid enterprises' functioning are added on the basis of Urwick-Ovsenik's supplemented square and circle.

Marija Ovsenik, Janez Mekinc

The research that was the basis for this paper was designed to establish the degree of organization of marketing in Slovenian non-profit organizations. The material consists in 215 returned questionnaires. Results clearly show that the Slovenian non-profit sector is divided into public non-profit sector, which is in the stage of transition, and private non-profit sector, whose founding and development meets with considerable problems.

Bojana Mesec

Research in the field of emerging new communities (e.g., internet communities) has shown that one of the principal motives for their formation is a wish for connectedness. New ways and methods by which new communities are formed contribute new ideas and solutions, most often needed in local communities in which one is left to oneself. An individual may form and maintain his or her networks on the basis of single interests or activities; links between members in the social networks that are based on immediate physical contact and other forms of their communication must be ramified and need to expand from the primary tasks that brought them in contact. The individual's social relations, personal and intimate as well as impersonal and formal, can be viewed as threads of their nets. These networks spread outwards, from the individual to his/her closer associates to wider community. A community can be seen as a complex mixture of such personal social links that form an intricate network. Both formal and informal forms of voluntary work are found in it, connecting the community, strengthening it and giving it its own identity.

Robert Modrijan, Marija Ovsenik

The continuous technological progress and its increasing pace demand humanization of labour and new organizational approaches in handling human resources. Stress and burnout as the consequences of constantly increasing demands for both quality and quantity call for professional treatment. The paper presents two forms of professional help, supervision and facilitation, with which to confront and treat stress at a workplace, the former on the personal and the latter on the organizational level.

Jože Ramovš

The paper was written for the tenth anniversary of the Social Forum for Addictions and Intoxications (a Slovenian association of professionals). It presents the past work of the social profession in the field of addictions, self-organization of professionals ten years ago, the work of Social Forum so far and its tasks in the future. Amongst the latter the necessity is stressed for the introduction of a good first social aid for addictions, for specialization and peer supervision of professionals, as well as for the formation of a centre for social settlement of young alcoholics, which is a special challenge for the new generation of social workers who seek creative professional life and a workplace.

Simona Vrhunec

Social and economic geographies are the media through which the segregation of large numbers of women into poorly paid jobs is produced and reproduced. The enduring gender wage gap reflects not only different rates of career mobility within particular occupation but also the fact that women and men tend to work in different occupations. Biological, social and cognitive factors that create this segregation also foster different interactive styles for both genders.

Mojca Urek, Srečo Dragoš

Srečo Dragoš

Social capital is a precious good, since many changes in many fields and levels of social structure are related to its amount. With the growing research on social capital, however, the difficulties discussed in this paper grow as well. The concept presents problems in these areas in particular: understanding social capital (what it consists of and what it means at all), definitions of key concepts, distinctions of causes and effects (whether to give precedence to causal or hermeneutic approaches), location of its crucial moments (where and how it emerges), and evaluation of its use (when and for whom it is dis/functional). An additional difficulty is presented by its transparency, which may remain a serious methodological challenge even if the other problems are solved. Since social capital emerges and reproduces in social networks, which are complex interactional media, it is difficult to assess its quantity. Nevertheless, the author maintains that the presented problems cannot be the reason to reject the concept of social capital; they should rather lead to deal with its deficiencies.

Gabi Čačinovič Vogrinčič

The paper presents the concept of working relation in social work and within it explores the particularities of the process of help or of seeking solutions for complex social problems of individuals. It is only by establishing a working relation, transparent to both clients and professionals because it is agreed upon and explained, that social work practice is made possible, along with efficient dialogue and co-operation. Working relation is established by the social worker, when he or she makes an agreement, forms an instrumental definition of the problem and its solution (P. Lussi), and acts in accordance with the concept of personal guidance (de Vries). The concept is additionally elucidated by D. Saleebey's perspective on power, L. Hofmann's ethic of participation, T. Anderson's dealing with the present, and Lussi and Rosenfeld's 'knowledge for action'.

Miran Jurko, Mara Ovsenik

The paper is a report on an action research in a student hostel, where a moderated community - a work-group - on the basis of teamwork was formed. The moderator of the group was a social worker. Moderation encompassed guidance of group members and their own learning for creative work and representing the group. Moderation aimed mainly at offering new free time activities for a better atmosphere in the hostel. As part of the research a new room for socializing was created and furnished, a (non-alcoholic) hot drink machine was brought in as well as a table football, pictures were hung on the walls, etc. Before and after moderation an evaluation of inventory and the effectiveness of hostel community was carried out. The introduction of teamwork showed good results. Team-work skills help social workers lead smaller self-help groups and participate in professional teams.

Mojca Urek

The essay treats the relation between homosexuality and mental health. Even though homosexuality is no longer considered a mental illness, various services that offer professional help still nourish, in their practice, a conviction that it is a disorder that needs to be mended, cured or removed. This is evident from the presented experiences of lesbians and gays with social, counselling, and mental health services. On their basis she composed a short 'survival guide' through professional services for lesbians and gays who seek help, and a list of directions for professionals to get rid of their possibly homophobic attitude.

Maša Široka

Pavla Rapoša Tajnšek, Vida Miloševič Arnold, Gabi Čačinovič Vogrinčič, Vlasta Rozman, Nataša Radonjič, Metoda Bole, Anita Kovačec, Mojca Mikolič, Sabina Rajšel

Adoption as a measure of social welfare is focused on the child's benefit, but it takes into account the needs of other participants in the adoption triangle: of the child's biological parents and adopters. Due to a great disproportion between the number of adopted children and the number of couples wishing to adopt a child, adoption has for some time been attractive for the Slovenian media, public attention being at present directed mainly to distressed future adopters who have been longing for a child for years. In the shadow of that distress remains the fundamental question in adoption procedure: how to achieve that adoption will indeed be the best possible solution for a child and that it will be good or at least acceptable also for the other parties in the procedure - for biological, adoptive, and often also for foster parents. The research, conducted among professionals at social work centres that carry out the adoption process, has shown that even a part of professional public is more concerned with the problem of where to get children for adoption than with the problem of introducing up-to-date social work concepts and methods into adoption procedures. It is only exceptionally, in emergent interventions, the task of the profession to make decisions on others and for others, so that the adoption procedure remains the common project of all participants in the problem; it is the process of common search for possible solutions, which are discovered by users themselves, with the assistance of professionals. We cannot confirm that professional work in the field of adoption already takes place as a project of common search of solution in all cases. The research has shown that working concepts and methods of professional work with the participants in adoption are lacking; the needs of the child and its biological, adoptive and foster parents are often not considered enough or are even overlooked. The changes of legislation, organisation and professional standards in the field of adoption espoused by professional workers should support more open models of adoption that warrant greater transparency of the situation and empower all participants in the adoption triangle or quadrangle - the child and its biological, adoptive and foster parents. The surveyed professional workers seek solutions in the change of family legislation and of lengthy procedures of withdrawing parental rights, in better organisation and greater co-ordination of work in the field of adoption, in regulated international adoption, and they are also aware of the need for their supplementary education.

Viktorija Bevc

The author presents the experiences and the consequences of infertility, which, through years of endeavours to conceive a child, leads the couple to a crisis (social isolation, distress, despair, disappointment, mechanical sex, intolerance, neuroticism, dependence-based need for children, etc.). It intervenes in the whole life of the couple and substantially lowers the quality of their lives and actions. Upon inclusion into the programme they are offered means of incentive (mountaineering, reading, writing, meeting and establishing friendly relations with similar problems, etc.). They open up a possibility for the couple to unburden the load of infertility and to turn towards sound, contented partnership and later substitute parenthood. Those "means of incentive" are the very elements of improved quality of life.

Blaž Mesec