Social work as an institutionalized profession aims to promote and defend human rights and social justice regardless of gender, sexual orientation and other grounds. Rooted in Christianity, it is partly performed by religious organizations and religious people. Consequently, conservative values may orient the profession, thus conflicting with the rights of lesbians and gays. The aim of the article is to present the risks of social worker’s oppressive action toward same--sex parents, and to suggest possibilities how to avoid such ethical misconduct. First, we present a dilemma of social work arising from the tension between ethical principles of equality and non -discrimination on the one hand and conservative norms on the other hand. Then, we introduce individual oppressive tendencies which are manifested in the discourse “on homosexuality” in Czech social work and how these may transform into social worker’s oppressive action. Finally, we propose practical suggestions that can support anti -oppressive social work in the Czech Republic.
This study examines how South Africans construct and negotiate racial identities in written commentaries via a forum of the Mail@Guardian website Thought Leader in response to a blog by Ndumiso Ngcobo entitled “I’m a coconut and I am proud of it – say it with me.” Ngcobo’s ironic opinion piece, written in 2008, which plays with the label “coconut” (frequently employed in South Africa among “black” people in reference to another “black” person who seemingly behaves “white”), triggered 163 responses from individual readers. An essential point made by Ngcobo is that perceptions and attitudes around “whiteness” and “blackness,” or what can be considered “white” or “black” in racial terms, vary greatly, depending on circumstances and perspective. However, the author’s irreverent and ironic style is misunderstood and misinterpreted by many of the comment writers. Relying partially on the methodological framework of Critical Discourse Analysis, I analyze the commentary texts and interpret the categories people use in their discursive constructions of race and identity by examining their stylistic choices and content markers and focusing on sociolinguistic and cultural issues. It is argued that the analyzed comments are representative not only of the pervasiveness of “rigid” race thinking but also of how intra-racial boundaries are constructed in the post-apartheid state.
The submitted article reconstructs the interactions between Richard
Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi as the originator of the Pan-Europe idea, and the Prague newspaper Prager Presse, during the time from August 1921 until autumn 1926. The account notes and comments not only upon Coudenhove-Kalergi writings published in the paper, but also the reviews of his books and reports on his public appearances. Thus the article traces, how the philosopher, who comes up with a particular interpretation of the situation in Europe after the World War I, becomes a leader of the international movement, a politician and a diplomat striving to gain support for a specific model of European organisation. The final section of this article deals with how the Czech translation of Coudenhove’s book Pan-Europa originated and the circumstances it was accompanied by. and Článek zahrnuje poznámkový aparát pod čarou