Bogdan Lešnik

The present issue brings a selection of plenary and central contributions from the first congress of Slovenian social work last year in Portorose. The order and grouping of contributions (see Abstracts on next page and ff.) corresponds to their arrangement at the congress, which indicates that the sorting done before the congress on the basis of abstracts was quite successful. Only one paper had to be moved, for a more precise placement, under another heading.

Gabi Čačinovič Vogrinčič

'New words' in the developing language of social work support a paradigmatic shift in practice and substitute or complement traditional concepts. Diagnoses, treatment, assessment, decree are being replaced by discovery, co-creation, co-operation, change, empowerment, as well as working relation, care plan, team work, community, neighbourhood, ecology. Social work is an aim directed project of help, or co-creation of solutions, for complex social problems of individual people. The paradigmatic shifts that took place in social work and its language consist of three important chapters: the projects of help in the framework of social work; the participation of users; interdisciplinary links. The ethic of participation, reaching from unconditional respect for the singularity of a person to the weaving of social networks to community work and political action, is a particularly good foundation for a consistent social work framework.

Birgit Rommelspacher

Human rights should become a new ethical frame of reference for social work in the globalised world - numerous professionals and social work associations have put forward this demand in recent years. But has social work not been international since its very beginning? Has not the struggle for social rights been one of the first and main aims of social work? Do human rights really provide new standards or do they rather supply a new rhetoric to legitimate old practice? The discourse on human rights is inclusive as well as exclusive. It supports as well as fights hegemonic structures. Human rights are not just a fixed value system ready to be transferred to different fields of social theory and practice but rather the result and expression of an ongoing struggle for political, cultural and economic power. Social work should join this debate in order to enhance its potential of critical self-reflection and improve its ability to communicate its aims and values in a pluralistic world.

Shulamit Ramon

Deinstitutionalisation has dominated the 2nd half of the 20th century across the field of disability. Yet the mentality of institutionalisation can, and has been, easily transferred to the smaller establishments for disabled people, which have replaced the large institutions. Thus the issue of proper deinstitutionalisation is still with us, both in Eastern and Western Europe. It is of central importance in terms of social work values, as at its core are the values of respect for people, self-determination, anti-oppressive and anti-stigmatising approach to disabled people, as well as the need/wish to foster their right to equal opportunities. Deinstitutionalisation questions the taken for granted notion that it is the role of social workers first to protect people and to avoid risk at all cost; it favours risk taking. Living in the community is more risky than living in an institution because it confronts the disabled person with the world of those who do not see themselves as disabled, who continue to stigmatise disabled people, as well as with the irrevocable loss due to institutionalisation. Striking the right balance between risk taking (as the only way to break out of the institutionalised mould) and risk avoidance is a demanding task. The assessment for community living of people who have spent their lives in an institution is in itself an art, as is projecting where is the best place for them to live, the type of activities to introduce them to, the encouragement for them to develop intimate relationship and have a sexual life. Learning to rely on their judgement implies another type of risk taking and of accepting their right to fail. This does pose a further dilemma for the social worker. Examples of good practice in which the above has been applied at the levels of conceptual knowledge, practice skills, and research in social work will be provided and analysed in terms of the obstacles and opportunities that this type of work entails. Understanding the social context of deinstitutionalisation as a social innovation, its disadvantages and advantages, is a necessary part of our learning from success and failure.

Darja Zaviršek

A critical reflection of social work in postmodern societies is necessary, because global changes do not only take place on economic, political and cultural levels but also on the level of bio-politics and bio-power. One of the crucial internal contradictions of social work in Slovenia is its being grounded merely on universal human rights, without consideration of actual, concrete human rights. 'Professional help' means different things to different subjects; the very 'help' that should connect users to social networks and train them for ordinary, independent life, often excludes them instead. This is also one of the oldest internal ambivalences. As the profession typified help, it has also categorised conflicts and distress, giving people the status of exceptions, and has thus created new exclusions. Social work in Slovenia has only to a certain extent responded to the developing social heterogeneity; problem-oriented, particular social services have only emerged in the last decade. Amongst other concepts significant for postmodern societies the author analyses the processes of deterritorialisation, decentralisation and creation of horizontal links and networks, the principles of immediate transaction and mobility, and the economisation of the processes of help.

Tanja Lamovec

In Slovenia, the exclusion of psychiatry users is sanctioned in two ways: by early and extensive retiring and by the legislation that only allows minimal work for retired persons. Exclusion has a negative impact upon various aspects of mental functioning; resulting in poverty, it also prevents users from participation in leisure time activities accessible to most people. The paper describes the process experienced by the majority of users after retirement, which in many cases ends with a wish for paid work. This area has been all but neglected until now. A number of cases is presented that show how users were granted paid work elsewhere, concluded by the author's proposals to solve the problem in Slovenia.

Vito Flaker

The paper is based on the work on the Task Catalogue of Centres of Social Work, intended to systematise not only the tasks but also the basic skills needed to perform them, and the basic procedures. By drawing a general map of social work it is possible to extract a cross-section of basic and necessary skills for social work and their relations with theoretical knowledge, methodical principles, social work values, and with social work contexts and tasks. The skills of interviewing, negotiating, enabling access to resources, recording and reporting, organisational skills, professional discipline, avoiding the traps of professionalism, and humour are considered. On the basis of interaction between social work theory, context, tasks and values seven major organising methodical principles have been pinpointed: dialogue, power, probability, proactive stance, reflexivity, the ordinariness of the uncommon and the right to make mistakes. Impressions from the trainings designed to equip social workers with skills to carry out catalogue tasks are reflected, and skill hierarchy is examined in relation to the theory and context, revealing social work as a diffuse, reflexive and pragmatic profession and science based on dialogue.

Blaž Mesec

Social work has traditionally been understood as a unified work with individuals, groups or communities, with the unification supposedly based on theoretical or methodological principles, which should make possible a specific definition of social work and its differentiation from related disciplines and professions. Those principles have been described and elaborated by Lüssi who conceives social work as work on an individual problem case, i. e., as 'social counselling'. But according to Lüssi even community work is marginal to social work, if not outside its scope altogether. In the last decades social work has extended precisely to these 'peripheral' areas; along community work developed work with organisations, and today we have social work on societal and global levels. At the same time, the gap between so-called clinical social work, which remains in the framework of traditionally conceived social work as social counselling or is even understood as 'psychosocial therapy', and social work on the organisational, societal and global levels, which is grounded on other theoretical sources as well (sociology, organisational science). The boundaries of social work as a special profession are increasingly extended to the field of non-specific social action and charity, thus blurring the distinction between social work and professions such as social planning, social policy or social pedagogy. Such development seriously challenges the integrity of social work and its specificity and autonomy as science and profession. In the author's view, the unity of social work's three levels has always been rather illusionary (or held true only for social counselling) and it will not be maintained conceptually, on the level of a unified and congruent theory, but by power struggle in academic, administrative and other social structures. That struggle is already taking place, and if social work expands and wins new positions on this basis, it is no longer social work but an arbitrary social action, which has succeeded to pronounce itself 'social work'.

Alenka Šelih

The history of social work, in Slovenia just as elsewhere, shows that lawyers have been instrumental to its emergence and development, and that they marked it with their stamp. Social work meets in particular the deprivileged, the excluded, the ousted - a group of people, therefore, who are highly likely to come into conflict with the law. This results in interactions between social work and law, as well as between the actors of both professions. Their interrelations become the more numerous and complex, the more a society is developed and consequently 'jurisprudential'. Social workers need to be acquainted with basic legal regulations on the juridical field that regulates their specific field of work (with families, with victims of family violence and sexual abuse, with underage delinquents, with released convicts, etc.), but they shouldn't be made responsible for decisions in individual cases. When the young profession of social work meets the old and elaborated profession of law, it meets a variety of problems on both theoretical and practical levels and consequently also on the level of individual relations between representatives of the two professions. The relation between social work and criminal law, however, is marked with confliction, because of the contradictory tendencies that meet here (help and state constraint), and it has often been addressed in criminological research projects in Slovenia. Ranged by frequency, the majority of them have dealt with diverse problems of juvenile delinquency, secondly, with problems related to execution of prison sentences, thirdly, with problems related to victims and the development of help for them. The experiences of developed European countries suggest that the relations between social work and criminal law will in the future be established with regard to providing security of the people in their surroundings and in work with the most excluded social groups.

Jolanta Pivorienë

Social work in Lithuania began ten years ago. Its development is linked with new ideas about democracy, market economy and human rights. Its roots are a mixture of foreign traditions and native understanding, which derived social work from voluntary work and charity. Social work as a new profession had to overcome many difficulties. It had to gain recognition as a discipline in the university. It had to establish itself as a profession. It had to search for professional identity and create professional standards of competence. Included in its professional identity are political aspects, extremely important in building civil society. Social work cannot be apolitical, first of all because of its social nature. Educational programmes of social work, besides providing knowledge and skill training, also have to encourage thinking about important aspects of human beings. These include values and ethics as well as citizenship. Social work and social work education have challenged old traditions in Lithuania. They passed through three stages of development: from individualist-reformist to socialist-collectivist to reflexive-therapeutic. As a discipline and as a profession, connecting private, public and political domains of society, social work has a strong impact on building civil society.

Srečo Dragoš

Normative and practical ethics are not the same. We use the former when the latter becomes insufficient at solving moral dilemmas. Frequently, however, the dilemmas are of more general nature, so that even the reflection of the problem situation on the normative ethical level does not suffice. In such cases we are on the third, metaethical level. The author presents the distinctions between the three levels of ethical reflection and points to the complexity of morally connoted situations. They may consist of five distinct normative systems and 23 cross-sections between them. It is demonstrated on concrete cases that these are questions of vital importance. A table is proposed with six steps of solving moral dilemmas. To distinguish ethical levels, normative systems and their cross-sections is essential. The more complex the situations that demand moral judgment, the more useful metaethical reflection. Even though such problems are not always wholly soluble, it is important to realise their existence.

Gorana Flaker, Paul Stubbs

The paper seeks to address the ways in which globalisation impacts on aspects of social work practice in South Eastern Europe, with particular reference to the role of International NGO's and their relationships with national NGO's and regional networks and coalitions. Defining globalisation in terms of fundamental changes in 'time-space distanciation' so that the constraints of geography on social and cultural arrangements are rapidly receding, the authors chart the impact on social work of global forces, global connections and global imaginings. The discussion of globalisation suggests the complexity of changes in social, cultural, political and economic relations and, in addition, notes how the effects of globalisation are mediated through regional, national and local forces. Defining social policy and social work in terms of regulation/advice and practice/provision allows the authors to discuss the implications of external advice and practice regimes on South Eastern Europe. In particular, the role of the World Bank, of accession arrangements for the European Union, and the diversity of International NGO's and private consultancy companies are addressed. The dangers of producing parallel social work services, and of an importation of external understandings not always in line with local memories, are also noted. The importance of certain principles governing external interventions in addressed. The paper concludes with two case studies: of INGO intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina and of INGO support for the development of a regional child rights action network. The paper argues that discussion of cases, combined with a renewed rights-based political commitment, can replace colonialist globalisation with genuine internationalism in social work.

Elena Pečarič

Personal assistance is crucial for independent lives of the disabled. It may be defined as physical help for the actions that the disabled person could no do her- or himself but are needed for her or his independence and autonomy. On the basis of new legislation a new standardisation of tasks is in preparation, which will formalise the profession. The author participates at the formation of these standards, which will also be the basis of education for personal assistance. Two advantages are expected from such education: the assistant will gain certain skills and a certificate, while the user will be able to select a skilled assistant. However, there are traps inherent in any standardisation and formalisation, such as a decrease of flexibility (different users have dfeerent needs) and an increase of the possibility to transfer outlived and stereotypical practices. Particularly dangerous are medicalisation of the profession and introduction of the caring relationship. Persons who do not come from medical and caring professions and who have not worked in institutions are more suitable as assistants. They are more open to new experiences, and because they do not possess previous 'knowledge', they better and with more ease comply with the user's demands. They are not burdened with the rules of profession, or with medical diagnosis, or certain 'methods of work'. Part of their basic education has to be carried out with the users. This maintains an individualised approach, which is a crucial element for the quality of their service. The user has a great responsibility, for he or she must train his or her assistant well to get a good assistant. The opinion that certain categories of people cannot become good personal assistants, especially 'risk groups' such as older people, former addicts, physically disabled, single mothers, etc., is a prejudice. The experience has proven that such people, based on their own social position and stigmatisation, are often more susceptible to this kind of work and do not behave as the 'normal' towards the 'different'.

Jelka Zorn

In Slovenia, racism affects persons of non-Slovenian origin regardless of citizenship. It manifests itself as denial or reduction of rights and as oppression. It is reproduced on personal, institutional, and cultural levels. There is no question that our society is multi-cultural, the question is rather, how does social work protect the rights of the members of minority ethnic groups, including those that are not entitled to special laws (such as those about aliens, temporary refuge, asylum). Multiculturalism and tolerance by themselves do not warrant that social services actually defend excluded groups and respond to their needs. The most important themes of antiracist social work are: sensitivity and respect for cultural differences and value systems (which does not include tolerance for family violence and for neglect of education), understanding of the ways racism (denial of rights and oppression) affects minority communities and persons without citizenship, recognition of everyday racism in the functioning of institutions and on the personal level, defence of excluded groups' rights, and access to social services. Antiracist social work opposes the commonsense distinction and valuation of 'us' against 'them' and consequently opposes the established segregation and assimilation models that allot access to and quality of services with regard to ethnic membership or the civil status of (potential) users.

Tom Schmid

Our society needs the definition and exclusion of 'deviant behaviour' as the crucial mark of its cohesion. Yet one cannot drop out from society: even the excluded live in society, in niches, in internal detachment, in striking difference, or, not so seldom, in institutions. Exclusion is therefore an exile within society. There are strategies of social policies and social work designed to overcome exclusion, even though it is clear that no society can be conceived without it. Social policy is politically and economically determined, conforming to all sorts of demands, and its methods and instruments are limited. It develops in a field which is full of contradictions and follows various social (actors') interests. The main task of social policy is the stabilisation of a 'normal' course of life with regard to 'safe' risks (old age, need of care) as well as unsafe ones (illness, unemployment, poverty). Fighting poverty is a social policy field, but (at least in developed countries) an insignificant one, and its requests may easily be threatened by neoliberalism within socio-political and social work discourse. The extent to which the notion of indivisible, unified discussion and client directed integration, which accepts the clients' expertise and includes the 'right to be different', may be developed as a general social policy and social work strategy to overcome exclusion remains to be examined.

Blaž Mesec

In the framework of a broader review of social work theories, which in perspective should fill the gap in Slovenian professional literature in social work, the theory of Pincus and Minahan has been presented as an historically important attempt to overcome the traditional division of social work methods into case work, group work and community work. The theory is conceived by the reviewer as a quasi systemic organizational-sociological theory. It's main characteristic is a contradiction: on the one hand it rejects the traditional division of methods and pleads for the equalization of the client-worker/service relationships, for the participation of users, and for advocacy, while on the other hand it uses the "systemic" terminology. At the same time its authors do not consider the basic and essential concepts of the systemic theory. Nevertheless, the authors succeeded in demonstrating the connectedness of different levels of work on a case and thus the connectedness of the three methods.

Darja Kuzmanič Korva

Work in the field of social care is intended for the community, that is, for the local level on which special social-care services are provided. It is of little importance whether the services are carried out by public offices, non-profit voluntary organisations, private agencies or informal networks. The problems occupying the various providers in the field of social care are so vast that no single provider can achieve a universal response to the demands and problems of local community. It is still worse if, because of isolation and the lack of professional co-operation, even a group of different providers cannot satisfy community needs but only pass it on. Help in the field of social care is only efficient if it is provided at once. In practice, the providers who deal with a certain problem are often uncoordinated, so they solve it less adequately and later. It is urgent to make available the information on all providers who carry out the needed service. Work in the field of social care will only be efficient if providers are linked into a unified system and the information on programmes and services offered on the local and state levels are made available.

Kristina Urbanc, Marjana Kletečki

The tendencies to bureaucratise social work practice as well as increasingly restrictive and residual legislation in the field of social policy are becoming a rich source of ethical dilemmas, and hence of professional stress for social workers. By help of case analyses from the existing practice, legal directions and recent literature from the field the authors distinguish several levels of ethical dilemmas, which most often contain the conflict between values and ethical principles. There are no single or universal responses to such problems, and the authors generally emphasise the importance of the elevation of professional competence of social workers and of the reflection of personal systems of values and beliefs. Undoubtedly in these processes, both in social work practice and education in Croatia, supervision plays an increasingly important role as the specific form of support and assistance to social workers.

Andreja Črnko

Urša Rozman

Bogdan Lešnik

This issue brings the first selection of contributions to the 1st Slovenian congress of social work that took place in Portorose last October. Selected contributions will continue to be published in future issues. An event that occurred between the previous and this issue of the journal Socialno delo demands to be marked here: our publisher has been promoted from a Technical College to a Faculty. (However, its English name - School of Social Work - shall be retained.) We are doubly pleased: beside being in the position henceforward to publish papers on the basis of master's and doctoral theses in social work, we proudly assume that our journal has contributed to the promotion.

Dragan Petrovec

The contribution summarises the findings of a research on 'Violence in the Media'. It has two parts. The first is theoretical and discusses the phenomenon in general, as well as responses to it. The second is empirical, providing data on the amount of violence in some public media. The main news of the national television and a commercial one were compared on the same day for the period of two months. The results show that the commercial television differs considerably from the national one, as it contains almost three times more violent contents. But the national broadcaster catches up in some other programmes. Further, the daily with the highest circulation in Slovenia is analysed from the standpoint of the amount of violence, the manner of reporting, and graphic material, taking random 100 issues from the last two years. The analysis of front pages, graphic material and the amount of violence on the whole shows that violence is a highly marketed commodity. Nearly 80 percent of titles evoke bloody stories, which then actually follow. The author does not think that classical censorship could be argued for, because the culture of passing information and the culture of reading are formed in a continuing process. It is characteristic for the present editorial policies to design news to the tastes of their audiences. As a rule, editors decline the role of designers of general culture and only accept the role of those who 'serve the audience'.

Marko Milosavljevič

All power and all freedom based on social consensus (as opposed to totalitarian power in a non-democratic system) presupposes rights and obligations. The rights of mass media as often clear and determined by the Constitution; the case of the American First Amendment warranting the freedom of the press and of speech is only the most famous one. However, the obligations of the mass media are unclear. The journalistic and editorial policies are often non-transparent and undisclosed. What can the audience and the whole society expect from the media, what can they demand, and what can they actually do? Such questions usually arise with respect to mistaken, misleading, and ethically dubious information and content. The paper deals with the relationship between journalistic and media freedom and responsibilities, between rights and obligations, between regulation and self-regulation, that is, with the mechanisms and procedures designed to ensure clear, public and transparent functioning of the mass media, particularly in relation to 'ordinary people', without access to the media, the weak, the grieving, the minorities, and other specially vulnerable parts of society.

Mojca Pajnik

As one of the ideological apparatuses of the state (Althusser), the media reproduce the state of society. So-called 'public affairs' are given this status by legitimising selected policies and fixing social norms. The media determine the framework of thinking and interpreting, which works also as a means of legitimising prejudices towards and discrimination of members of marginalised groups such as drug users, prostitutes, refugees. The use of critical discourse analysis makes it possible to focus on selected textual segments, to understand them in a wider context, and to carry out denaturalisation and deconstruction of commonly accepted representations. It turns out that when the media report on members of various marginalised groups, they often use the same or at least similar strategies of argumentation. Their objects are often marked as 'problem persons' who first of all differ from the 'normal' majority. The denominations are stereotypical, denying the objects' subjectivity and presenting them as ones whose very difference endangers the majority. Their actions, in extreme cases even their very existence, are presented as a threat to the social order. Journalists in their argumentation establish and maintain the boundary between admissible and inadmissible; they act as arbiters who 'sacrifice' individuals in the name of the protection of the public and the public interest.

Janez Mekinc, Marija Ovsenik, Rok Ovsenik

The continuing dilemma of democratic states is how to draw the boundary between the total freedom of speech on the one hand and the securing of minorities' rights, which could be infringed by that very freedom. The dilemma is met while attempting to criminalise the acts related to the creation of racist and xenophobic web sites. An even greater dilemma arises with the attempt to define individual acts to be criminalised. Equally important is the question whether designing, producing, publishing, supplying or allowing web pages with racist and xenophobic contents can be deemed a criminal act. A comparison with web pages containing child pornography imposes itself. Both are problematic on account of their contents, but a close analysis shows that the limitation of freedom of speech in cases of racism and xenophobia is a far greater problem.

Tomo Dadič

Today, sport is a complex social phenomenon. Not at all immune to weaknesses (commercialisation, doping, scandals), it also contains many advantages. Sport (or kinesiology as the science of sport) has a place in social work, as well as vice versa. Especially in that part of kinesiology for which achievement is not the prime (or not at all) aim. G judo (gan: inclusive, ju: soft, do: path) has been practiced on the Coast since 1994 and has developed into a movement involving four judo clubs in Slovenia and 60 people with special needs. On the basis of the criteria of normalisation the participants of G judo on the Coast have proved that sport (judo) gives persons with special needs opportunities to become more included in everyday environment. It gives them more choices, more influence, and offers more opportunities for personal growth and for establishing more contacts and making friends. The involvement in sport should by no means be regarded as a therapeutic activity, offered by one party and received by another. All participants are equal. This is particularly so in judo which contains a component of equality and respect and rests on strict ethical principles. Sport (judo) offers many opportunities for surpassing the 'self-image of users' imposed by society. It is an excellent means of destigmatisation, integration and normalisation of persons with special needs.

Vera Grebenc

The heroin crisis as a phenomenon of drug use has an important place in the language of drugs - right next to the speech on pleasure. Whereas in conversations with drug users more or less dramatic narratives are found on the experiences of crises and experiences in crises, the expert literature focuses on medical notions related to the syndrome of abstinence. Everyday ideas of the crisis are caught in stereotypes: the crisis becomes a motive for sudden, uncontrolled actions of the individual 'ready to do anything'. The crisis is understood as a lever for violent behaviour of the people who take drugs. Less is known about how the crisis relates to everyday life of drug users, how the awareness of the crisis influences the organisation of the day of the people from the scene, the practices of enjoyment, and the tactics of controlling one's addiction. On the basis of a qualitative analysis of the parts of interviews and personal narratives that speak about it, the author shaped a map of the heroin crisis. It is analysed in relation to the social context (employment, schooling, leisure time, social networks) and with regard to everyday situations important to the users (purchasing, consumption). The results showed that the crisis does not occupy a central position in the lives of the people who take heroin, yet it is in a special way permanently present - as a possibility, threat or actual experience. To understand the crises two contexts need to be distinguished: the 'regular' crisis is the consequence of the shortage of the drug and is related to the need for solace; or it may be related to the wish to stop, a way of giving up the drug. These are two distinct processes; the people's conduct is different in each case. The possibility of a good outcome of the crisis depends on the social status of the concerned individual and to the present circumstances, whether it is about control over risks related to the practices of drug taking or about maintaining and re-establishing important social roles in the lives of addicts. The preferred course in planning social work interventions is community social work, which provides context-bound acting in everyday environment.

Dušica Grgič, Mirjam Bartol-Polončič, Gordana Čižman

The professional aid for a family encompasses counselling directed at settling the relations among family members, caring for children, and training the family for its role in everyday life. The service is conducted in three phases. In the phase of preparation, the problem is defined together with the family, an agreement on co-operation is made, and the plan of aid is elaborated. The continuous work with the family marks the phase of execution, in which the progress is evaluated with the family on periodical conferences. In the termination phase the effects of aid are assessed and the decision is made whether to continue or finish. Many pre-printed forms facilitate the carrying out of the programme. The presented case confirms that success is not achieved merely by attaining planned aims; the work is successful when the worker's entry helps the family to better recognise the most suitable solutions. Such work is a challenge engaging the worker not only professionally but also personally and emotionally. The future development of the programme should include permanent education of workers and the assurance of better stability in recruiting persons who are to work with the family at their home.

Maja Klančnik Gruden

The paper is an analysis of the position of nurses (health technicians) and their experience of caring work in a hospital ward. The findings are based on a qualitative research - a case study, carried out in the Angiology Department of the Ljubljana Medical Centre. In-depth interviews and fieldwork confirmed that the caring work performed by nurses is similar to the work done by women in traditional families. The ward may be compared to the traditional family residence, the patient taking the role of the child, the nurse the role of the housewife who brings things to order, and the doctor the role of the master, the father who supervises the working process. The interviews show that the passive caring role attributed to women by socially constructed sexual ideologies has not satisfied the nurses. An additional factor that contributes to the lack of job satisfaction in the nurses is the nature of the ward, which has certain resemblances to the 'total' institution. Working with seriously affected patients causes anxiety. Nurses do not have enough knowledge and support to deal with such feelings, as the organisation of health-care service promotes the development of their defence mechanisms, based mainly on evasion, rather than a constructive confrontation with problems or personal and professional growth.

Liljana Rihter

Qualitative methodology in evaluation research has long been, and still are, the object of positivist researchers' criticism. Yet the need for qualitative research has stimulated a pragmatic approach that does not insist upon the presupposition that there is only one regular research method, but calls for the choice of method with regard to the researched problem. On the basis of voluntary project evaluation at Velenje Educational Centre, the author finds qualitative methodology particularly suitable for work process evaluation, for the evaluation of (un)intentional consequences, and for the evaluation of achievement from the point of view of volunteers. Finally, several suggestions are given for the increase of qualitative evaluation reliability. The author concludes that the stimulation of qualitative strategies of evaluation is needed in order to get a more complete picture of a project.

Žarko Tepavčević

Leisure time is a common interest of the family, the focus of interaction and an opportunity for the testing and development of new family relationships. The leisure time activities that include the whole family improve inter-personal relations to a higher degree than the activities that only include part of the family. Changes in the structure of the family and in the definition of individual roles are reflected in changes in how they spend their leisure time. The living conditions have a major impact upon its active spending, amongst them in particular the socio-economical position of the family. If the living conditions improve, so does the quality of spending leisure time, which is extremely important for the health and the quality of life of individuals, families and societies.

Danica Matjanec

Barbara Kresal

Špela Urh

Barbara Kresal