24-09-2009

The challenges however are manifold. Social Work research is confronted with important transitions both in society and in the practice of social intervention. Nowadays social work in urban contexts is a particular subject of debate. It has to deal with sometimes conflicting definitions and with difficulties of positioning.

The development of different methods of social work research, several experiences of connecting this research with social work practice, of training research methods, of conflict between researchers and the authority who commissioned the study … resulted in the definition of social work research as a specific issue for reflection and debate.

The partners cooperating in the Master Social Work of the University of Antwerp organised a preliminary seminar in 2007 exploring this area of questions and opinions. A brief report of this seminar is accessible here.

In September 2009 the organising committee is proud to present a conference on the cooperation between research and practice. This conference presents the results of an intensive reflection process of eight teams with experience in cooperating in research.

The ‘cooperative knowledge production’ is the subject of a common reflection exercise and the subsequent conference, called ‘Research and Social Work in Urban Areas: two birds of a feather”. With these processes we aim to explore the world of social work research where scientists and work field agents cooperate in view of getting to both relevant and scientifically sound knowledge. What may be said about the cooperation between research workers, customers who commissioned the social work research and the social work practitioners? What are the conditions required in order to yield a surplus value for all participants?

The research tradition of the University of Antwerp’s Department of Sociology has been making use of this ‘pragmatic’ vision of scientific research for decades. In association with the Artesis Hogeschool and the Karel de Grote-Hogeschool the “Master Sociaal Werk” aims to build on this experience and that is another reason why the conference is viewed in this context.

It should be noted that we confine ourselves to experiences acquired within a European context and to research within urban areas. We started from a substantive common denominator: research with respect to young people and to an urban development. Therefore we have called on researchers to introduce a description of a completed (recent) research project in dialogue with the customer who commissioned the study and/or agents of the investigated practice. The focus is on reflection regarding the cooperation and its impact on the nature of the acquired knowledge and on the opportunities for implementation. We aim to draw up an inventory of the key factors and weak factors as well as of the reasons for success and failure in this cooperation process. Moreover we try to emphasise the substantive surplus value of this kind of research with respect to the integration opportunities for this (jointly acquired) knowledge in the social work practice.