Domestic Violence calls for papers / publications

Call for Papers: Women’s Health & Urban Life

The WH & UL is a peer reviewed journal located at the Sociology Department, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. The journal addresses a wide range of topics that directly or indirectly affect both the physical and mental health of girls, teenage and adult women living in urban or urbanizing pockets of the world. The orientation of the journal is critical, feminist and social scientific. The journal accepts both quantitative and qualitative, and both theoretical and empirical articles on topics such as:

WOMEN'S HEALTH IN GENERAL

• Social and structural factors affecting women's health

• Factors in urban environments affecting women's health

• Women's use of alternate healing techniques in urban centres

• Smoking, substance abuse

• Social attitudes and women's experiences of menopause

• Beauty myths and elective surgeries in urban centres

• Eating disorders

• Sexually transmitted diseases and women's vulnerability in urban centres

• Women's mental health/stress in urban centres

• Efficacy of social support systems in women's health

• Rape trauma

• Aging and women's health

• Poverty and women's health in world cities

HEALTH RELATED TO REPRODUCTION

• New reproductive technologies and ethical considerations

• Teenage pregnancies and urban support systems

• Birth protection and abortion debates, efficacy of support systems

• Social constructions of childlessness and health implications

• Over-medicalization of women's health and the birthing process

• Cultural pressures on sex selection and women's health

HEALTH RELATED TO HOME-BASED TOPICS:

• Violence in the home such as child physical and sexual abuse, incest, intimate partner abuse and elder abuse- urban/rural differences

• Mothering related issues and women's health

• Housework safety

HEALTH RELATED TO WORK-BASED TOPICS:

• Sexual harassment and health implications

• Double shift/Second shift

• Job safety and security

• Sex workers and health in urban centres

• Women workers' health in a global market

GLOBAL ISSUES IN WOMEN'S HEALTH

• Women's health under the stress of social and environmental change

• Female child malnutrition in the developed/developing worlds

• Female child abandonment in the developed/developing worlds

• Female child labour and health in the developed/developing worlds

• Female child prostitution, sex trade and health in urban centres

• Forced marriages and women's health

• Female circumcision and genital mutilation

• Wife beating, kitchen fires, honour killings

• Rape and war and women's health

• Cultural differences in women's health

Call for Papers for a Special Edition of Child & Family Social Work: Rediscovering Family and Kinship: New Directions for Social Work Theory, Policy and Practice

Guest Co-Editors
Dr Janette Logan, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL
Tel: 0161 306 7748
Email: janette.logan@manchester.ac.uk

Dr Christine Jones, Lecturer in Social Work, School of Applied Social Sciences, University of Durham, Elvet Riverside 2, New Elvet, Durham, DH1 3JT
Tel: ++44 (0)191 334 1478
Email: christine.jones@durham.ac.uk

Target Publication date: Spring 2013
The concepts of family and kinship are central to social work research, policy and practice yet they are often treated unproblematically. The study of family relationships has undergone a renaissance in the last two decades within the disciplines of sociology and anthropology and this rediscovery is beginning to be felt within the discipline of social work. Empirical research within the field of adoption has opened up definitions of family and kinship. Also the move towards increased emphasis on kinship care has necessitated a re-examination of the meaning of family relationships and nature of family practices. In addition, there have been a number of studies that have challenged the orthodoxy embedded within heterosexist assumptions about what constitutes a ‘proper’ family. This special edition will be an opportunity to both review developments within the conceptualization of family and kinship in social work and begin to shape the agenda for future research, policy and practice.

The Aims of this Special Edition are:

1. To provide analyses of contemporary conceptualizations of family and kinship and their implications for child and family social work;
2. To showcase recent empirical research that relates to any aspect of kinship or family relationships;
3. To explore international/cross cultural issues in relation to kinship.
4. To encourage a cross-disciplinary debate (both academic and practice disciplines) regarding the application of these insights within future research, policy and practice.

Guidance for contributors
Potential contributors are invited to submit manuscripts that address the aims of the Special Edition. We seek to attract a diverse set of papers that have relevance across a number of child and family social work policy and practice areas such as adoption, fostering, and kinship care, the impact on family life of mental illness, substance misuse or domestic violence, multigenerational adversity and family separation and reunification. However, the key focus of this special edition is on exploring new developments of theory and concepts within these diverse contexts.

More specifically authors could include:

• Analyses that extend our understanding of the perspectives of those involved in child placement (e.g. children and their siblings, birth parents, grandparents, foster and adoptive parents, practitioners).
• Analyses that explore private and public daily practices related to family life and social work practice.
• Analyses of the influence of structural inequalities on family relationships.
• Analyses of the relationship between family ties (or family like ties) and outcomes for children.

Manuscripts should normally be a maximum of 7,000 words, including abstracts and references, although shorter papers will be welcomed.
Deadline of first submission of papers: 1 September 2012

If prospective authors would like to discuss possible papers, please email the guest editors in the first instance and include a short abstract.

Janette Logan: janette.logan@manchester.ac.uk
Chris Jones: christine.jones@durham.ac.uk