Michael A Dover

Biography

" Michael A. Dover is a social worker and sociologist. After earning an MSSW at Columbia in 1980, he worked for over 10 years as an advanced generalist practitioner of occupational social work, including directing union-based member assistance programs in New Orleans, New York and Philadelphia. Trained in sociology at Michigan (MA in Sociology, Ph.D. in Social Work and Sociology, 2003), he is an active social theorist. In October 2016, he published an article, ""The moment of microaggression: The experience of acts of oppression, dehumanization, and exploitation,"" in the peer-reviewed Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment. In April 2016, he published in the Encyclopedia of Social Work a 14,000 word comprehensive overview of theories of human need (available at the CSU library and an an Oxford open access link: http://tinyurl.com/zpuj4k9), as well as a 15,000 word annotated bibliography on human needs in Oxford Bibliographies Online: Social Work. He is preparing the manuscript a book based on his theoretical work: Theorizing Human Need and Social Injustice for Social Work and the Helping Professions. His dissertation in Social Work and Sociology at the University of Michigan was based on four years of research in Toledo and at the Ohio Historical Center in Columbus. It was titled ""The Social System of Real Property Ownership: Public and Nonprofit Property Tax Exemptions and Corporate Tax Abatements in City and Suburb, 1955-2000."" His book project, under contract with Johns Hopkins University Press, is to prepare a book based on the dissertation, tentatively titled ""American Commons: The Property Tax Exemption in Urban History."" The publication link below, informed by his dissertation, is one of four From the Community pieces published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Since 2007 has served on the full-time faculty at Cleveland State University. He was co-convener of the Bertha Capen Reynolds Society (now Social Welfare Action Alliance) in 1985, and co-founder of the Cuyahoga County Conference on Social Welfare in 2011. Long a contributor to Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping (www.rnoph.org), he has served as editor since 2012. He has recently become involved in membership and activity with international organizations, including the International Federation of Social Workers, the International Consortium on Social Development, and the International Society on Quality of Life Research. He presented at the 6th International Conference on Self-Determination Theory in 2016. He is an Ohio native, born in Alliance and partially raised in Maple Heights. His maternal family helped settle the Western Reserve in 1803 and his paternal family come to Cleveland in the early 1920s as part of the great migration from the cotton belt. Honors and Awards: Recipient of a Plaque in Honor of Michael A. Dover, David Crampton and Lovell Custard for their collective vision to assemble the local human service community to enlighten, discuss and act on social welfare issues, presented March 11, 20016 at the 6th Annual Conference of the Cuyahoga County Conference on Social Welfare. 2015 Cleveland State University Civic Engagement Grant for pro bono consultation with Garden Valley Neighborhood House leading to establishment of a CSU School of Social Work Field Unit at Garden Valley Neighborhood House, and support for 2nd Annual Hike for Hope 2014 Cleveland State University Civic Engagement Grant for Conference on Social Welfare work on behalf of Garden Valley Neighborhood House and the 1st Annual Hike for Hope in Garden Valley 2012 Social Worker of the Year, National Association of Social Workers Ohio Chapter, Region 3"

Research Interest

"My longstanding and ongoing project is to publish journal articles and a book concerning my original partial theory of social injustice, as integrated with the theory of human need of Len Doyal and Ian Gough. This work brings together two independent strands of work from 1991 to present, one of which concerns theories of human need and the other theories of oppression, dehumanization and exploitation, with works on both of these subjects published in 2008. The partial theory of injustice presented in 2013 and under review for publication brings together these two forms of theory. The theory contends that oppression, dehumanization and exploitation create systematic inequality in the opportunities people and communities have to address their human needs in a way that is consistent with their human rights and with their culturally valued way of life. Trained as a social worker, a sociologist and a gerontologist, I am particularly interested empirically in the manner in which older people address their human needs, something which I plan to study in senior centers, day treatment centers, assisted living residences and nursing homes. Cleveland State University is wonderful place to engage in research and creative activity within a rich urban environment. I strongly support the stated goal of President Ronald M. Berkman for Cleveland State University to emerge as a premier urban research university. To such a goal, I plan to devote the remainder of my career as a social work educator and social researcher. Among specific upcoming research projects: * Action research on lead poisoning among children in urban areas * Action research on suicide by cop and the need for improved de-escalation policies. * To publish peer-reviewed articles extending my previously published work on theories of human need * To establish an International Interdisciplinary Inter-University Consortium on Human Need Theory and Research, with an online journal, to be housed at CSU. * To publish several peer-reviewed articles, extending my dissertation. * To publish the first book on a key social institution, the property tax exemption, based on my dissertation and my previous prospectus. * To publish two peer-reviewed articles on a new typology of theories of social welfare and on the history of the relationship of the cold war and social welfare. * To commence research in the fields of aging, developmental disability, and social welfare organizations, and action research in the field of mental health. * Carry out historical research on the sociology of knowledge of social work and social work education, via a longitudinal study of the curriculum of a major school. * Carry out historical research on the sociology of knowledge of social work and social science research on the psychosocial consequences of unemployment and factors associated with older adult volunteer and voluntary association participation."