Editorial

2000/2001 ISSUE 3

In 1997, we returned to Dubrovnik. Only two years later, in 1999, we staged our 10th Anniversary celebration, and the school's regular program in Dubrovnik in spite of the fact that NATO forces planned and carried out their intervention in Kosovo. This fact has helped us to develop the "Towards a Peaceable Community" Document, which may be visited at www.spirituality-and-social-work.net.

The first draft was prepared by four participants: two faculty, one well established practitioner and one student (alphabetically: Dada M. Maglajlic', Regine Mueller, Craig Rennebohm, Silvija Visinski). It was shared with all participants of the 1999 IUC School, and sent by e-mail to all long-term associates prevented from traveling to Dubrovnik. Over 100 people helped us to prepare a document, which was presented by Dr. Enver Sehovic', long-term IUC associate from the University of Zagreb, at the International Association of the University Presidents and the UN Commission on Disarmament Education, Conflict Resolution and Peace Conference staged at the University of Aalborg, Denmark from June 29 to July 3, 1999.

The 10th Anniversary Conference enabled us to reflect on what was accomplished. As we looked back and reviewed many excellent lectures prepared for the academic program of the IUC Dubrovnik School of S.W. Theory and Practice, we realized that through books we can reach many colleagues and students. We also realized that new technology provides an excellent "quick" mode of sharing our program with more people and expanding our network. Having that in mind, in 1996/7 Dada M. Maglajlic' wrote the first version of so called electronic academy project, and envisioned three sub-projects:

E-courses as an additional program, to be offered by the IUC School associates, thus utilizing part of their primary specialization,
electronic journal, and
video-conferencing, chat-box and other modes of interactive delivery of the June in Dubrovnik symposia.
In 1997/98 eleven colleagues signed a formal invitation expressing interest to develop special e-courses as an extension of the IUC School and part of this BSU project (stated alphabetically):

Dr. Kwame Owusu-Bempah, University of Leicester, England,
Dr. Edward Canda, University of Kansas Lawrence, US,
Dr. Burt Galaway, Unversity of Manitoba, Canada,
Dr. Jean Gervais, Universite du Quebec a Hull, Canada,
Dr. Juha Hamalainen, University of Kuopio, Finland,
Dr. Helmut Janssen, University of Applied Sciences
Erfurt, Germany,
Dr. Stefan Matula, Research Institute for Child Psychology
Slovakia,
Dr. Ksenija Napan, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences Auckland, N.Z.
Dr. Lee Norman, SHMC Seattle, US,
Dr. Enver Sehovic, University of Zagreb, Croatia,
Dr. Brian Williams, De Montfort University, UK and
Dr. Ben Yanoov, Bar Ilan University Israel.

Professor Burt Galaway developed the first course description of the "Social Work Processes" course to be taught electronically, and related to the book with the same title edited by Dr. Galaway and Dr. Beulah Compton.

An additional group of 15 associates did not provide a formal, signed agreement in1997, mostly for some technical reasons, but did express strong interest to be part of the e-project. Our interest remains unchanged. Time was, and continues to be, a primary obstacle in further pursuit of the her two components.

So this journal represents the first, and for the time being only realised, of the three original components of the project envisioned by Dr. Maglajlic' in order to speed up the process and make lectures more available. Every year we learn about social work students, social workers
(and other helping professionals) and social work faculty who are not able to attend our school in Dubrovnik, Croatia because of distance and cost. Nothing can replace direct participation, but the electronic journal offers a solid option since it can easily become interactive. It would be
fair to say that it is more than a "double peer" review journal: lectures are first accepted for the presentation at one of the five symposia, then presented and evaluated by all participants, and finally reviewed by the members of editorial board.

At some point in the future, we would like to be "ahead of the game," that is use the journal as a "first publication" or -if you will- as a prepublication of all major lectures. This would enable participants to review the lectures on the web and come to Dubrovnik well prepared for a
very participatory, egalitarian exploration of the key facets of social work theory and practice.

The third issue has three different documents: project proposal, special lecture prepared by Professor David Macarov Ph.D. for our 10th Anniversary Conference, and what we call orientation for the future document "Towards a Peaceable Community."

The IUC Dubrovnik is a truly unique program; a service to the profession and humanity. We are all volunteers. For program like ours, including the journal, genuine support is needed at many levels. If we are indeed to walk the talk, to implement the principles that should guide our theory
and practice, then we should join our efforts and make it happen. This is an open invitation to all! Please share the vision and help us make a humble contribution toward peace and a more just society.

Copyright for the I.U.C. Journal of Social Work Theory and Practice is owned by the Social Work Program, Department of Social Relations and Services, Bemidji State University, Bemidji, Minnesota, USA. One copy may be made (printed) for personal use; teachers may make multiple copies for student use if the copies are made available to students without charge. Permission must be secured from the editors for sale of any copies of articles or for any commercial use of the material published in the Journal.