Glossary R

R
Racism - Individual and institutionalized beliefs and practices which advocate that some races are inferior to others. The belief that one's racial group is somehow superior to other groups leads, with the aid of stereotypes, to discrimination and prejudice.

Random assignment - Placement of research participants into experimental conditions in a manner which guarantees that all have an equal chance of being exposed to each level of the independent variable.

Rank and file movement - arose and gathered strength in the 1930s; an organization which identified with the labour movement and exploitation of the people, while its members distinguished themselves from supervisors and executives.

Rape myth - The false belief that deep down, women enjoy forcible sex and find it sexually exciting.

Rational-emotive imagery - A form of intense mental practice for learning new emotional and physical habits clients imagine themselves thinking, feeling, and behaving in exactly the way they would like to in everyday situations.

Reality Therapy – believes all people have choices about what they are doing. Control theory provides a framework of why and how people behave. It is concerned with the phenomenological world of the client and stresses the subjective way in which clients perceive and react to their world from an internal locus of evaluation. Behaviour is viewed as our best attempt to get what we want. It is a short-term approach focusing on the present; it stresses a person's strengths. Clients learn more realistic behaviour and thus achieve success.

Recession - a period, often defined as two economic quarters or 6 months, shorter than a depression, during which there is a decline in economic trade and prosperity.

Recidivism - Repetition of a crime by someone who was previously incarcerated, and their possible rearrest and return to prison.

Recipients - Those who receive benefits from a human services agency.

Reclaiming Aboriginal culture - A principle of Aboriginal social work. It goes beyond regaining language, religion and folkways, and instead emphasises an awareness and reflection on common aspects of culture and identity. By examining Aboriginal history, culture and traditions and dispelling conventional views of Aboriginal reality flowing form colonialism, Aboriginal people can begin to see the structural causes of individual problems.

Reform Movement - The political party that opposed the political patronage system used by the people in power, the so-called Family Compact. They controlled the Assembly in 1828 and 1834. In the late 1830's it split into three factions - moderates, radicals, and extremists. The extremists were the cause of the Rebellion in 1837 in Upper Canada. All three were wiped out when the rebellion failed, but the moderates reappeared as a force in the United Province of Canada.

Refugee Claimant - A refugee claimant is a person who has arrived in Canada and who requests refugee status. If a refugee claimant receives a final determination that he or she has been determined to be a Convention refugee, he or she may then apply for permanent residence.

Refugees Landed in Canada - People who have been determined to be Convention refugees by the Immigration and Refugee Board in Canada, and who have been granted permanent residence as a result.

Rehabilitation - A goal-oriented and time-limited process aimed at providing an impaired person with the tools to change her or his own life, thus enabling him or her to reach optimal mental, physical, and/or social functioning. It can involve measures intended to compensate for a loss of function or a functional limitation (for example, technical aids) and other measures intended to facilitate social adjustment or readjustment.

Relations of production - The property relations within a society, in particular the existing social relations according to which the society organizes its production and distributes the product.

Relative poverty - a definition of poverty that looks at the standard of living compared to other Canadians. It includes social factors, such as space, transportation and comparison to other Canadians.

Relative values - Values that represent alternative ways of deciding what should be done. Different groups adopt their own preferred ways of acting as a result of their own cultural traditions and the life experiences of their members.

Reliable data - Data that consistently gives the same results when used in the same way.

Residential schools - were used in the 1950s to remove Native children from Native homes and communities and restrict their culture and language. The express purpose of the residential schools was to fulfill the assimilationist policies of the federal government

Residential schools -separated children from their families and communities for up to years at a time. The purpose was to fulfil assimilation policies of the federal government, were large numbers of children experienced emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

Residual view of social welfare - based on the idea that governments should play only a limited role in the distribution of social welfare. The assumption is that the majority of the population will be able to locate their own sources of assistance, whether through the market mechanism of work, or from family and perhaps church or charity. The state should only step in when the normal sources of support fail and the individual is unable to help themselves.

Restricted existence - A state of functioning with a limited degree of awareness of oneself and being vague about the nature of one's problems.

Results - Generally measured as outputs or outcomes (see above for the definition of each).

Retroflection - The act of turning back onto ourselves something we would like to do (or have done) to someone else.

Riel, Louis - The great Métis Leader, he led the Northwest Rebellion and the Red River Rebellions. He is credited with founding the Province of Manitoba. He was executed in 1885 for treason.

Role - A role is the expected behaviour associated with a particular status position - what the individual or group occupying a particular status position is supposed to do.

Rouges - This reform party of Canada East emerged in the late 1840s. The party grew to be major opposition to the conservative bloc seeking universal education for all and a democratic suffrage. They opposed Confederation but cooperated with the Liberal Party.

Ruling class - the higher circles of power in society. An economic class that rules politically. In Marxian analyses this ruling class is associated with the bourgeoisie and owns the means of production.

Rupert's Land - Land Given to the Hudson's Bay Company by the British when their company started up. It was given to the new Canadian government as part of the British North American Act in 1870. In return, The Hudson's Bay Company got £300,000 and 2.8 million hectares of land in what is now the Prairie Provinces. See Hudson's Bay Company.