The SAGE Handbook of Social Work Research

"This is an ambitious book. It aims at nothing less than a comprehensive account of the state of the art of social work research internationally and an intellectually original statement that will help to define and shape social work research. Those with a serious interest in social work research will agree that this is a major undertaking and one that should put social work research 'on the map'." - Ian Sinclair, University of York, UK "This terrific Handbook provides an essential map for navigating the complex currents of social work research today. It resists polemical and simplistic binaries to chart a course that emphasizes diversity, pluralism and sensitivity to political contexts in many featured exemplars. As key chapters note, inherent tensions at the heart of social work itself are mirrored in current debates about the purposes and methods of social work research. Rather than patch over differences, the volume invites us to understand historical roots of unresolvable tensions, and live with them. The international scope of the volume is unique--scholars from more than a dozen different countries were involved --and its broad scope counters the tendency toward parochialism of much North American literature. The Handbook should be essential reading for students and academics." - Catherine Riessman, Boston University, USA The SAGE Handbook of Social Work Research provides a comprehensive, internationally-focused account of leading social work research, offering an original and defining statement on contemporary theory and practice within the field. The groundbreaking Handbook engages critically with the nature and role of social work research and evaluation in contemporary societies around the globe, and asks four key questions: - What is the role and purpose of social work research? - What contexts shape the practice and purpose of social work research? - How can we maximise the quality of the practice of social work research? - How can the aims of social work in its varied domains be met through social work research? Ranging over local, national and international issues, and exploring questions of theory and practice, this is a diverse and constructively organized overview of the field. It will quickly be recognized as a benchmark in the expanding field of social work research, setting the agenda for future work in the arena.

Table of Contents:
Mapping Social Work Research: Pasts, Presents and Futures - Ian Shaw, Katharine Briar-Lawson, Joan Orme, Roy Ruckdeschel PART ONE: PURPOSES OF SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH The Nature and Purposes of Social Work - f004 Nigel Parton and Stuart Kirk Providing Objective, Impartial Evidence for Decision Making and Public Accountability - Annette Boaz and James Blewett Theory and Knowledge about Social Problems to Enhance Policy Development - Joan Orme and Katharine Briar-Lawson Improving Intervention and Practice - f004 Daniel Gredig and Jeanne C Marsh Researching Our Own Domains: Research as Practice in ‘Learning Organizations’ - Susan White and Gerhard Riemann Challenging the Dominant Paradigm: Social Work Research, Social Justice and Social Change - f004 Bob Pease PART TWO: CONTEXTS FOR SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH Research and Government - f004 Ian Shaw and Joan Zlotnik Politics and Values in Social Work Research - Haluk Soydan Social Work Research and Ethics - f004 Richard Hugman From Social Work Practice to Social Work Research: An Emergent Approach to a Basic Problem - Steve Trevillion Theory and Theorizing: Intellectual Contexts of Social Work Research - Mikko Mantysaari and Richard Weatherley The Uses of Social Work Research - Roy Ruckdeschel and Adrienne Chambon Places in Time: Contextualizing Social Work Research - f004 Ian Shaw PART THREE: THE PRACTICE OF SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH The Practice of Social Work Research - Jackie Powell and Blanca Ramos Logics, Qualities and Quality of Social Work Research - Ian Shaw Evidence and Practice: The Knowledge Challenge for Social Work - Geraldine Macdonald and Jennie Popay Methods for Enhancing Theory and Knowledge About Problems, Policies, and Practice - Jane F Gilgun Methods for Understanding, Learning and Social Justice - Carmen Lavoie, Judy MacDonald and Elizabeth Whitmore Mixing Methods in Social Work Research - Jennifer C Greene, Peter Sommerfeld, and Wendy L Haight Challenges and Directions in the Practice of Social Work Research - f004 Katharine Briar-Lawson, Robyn Munford and Jackie Sanders PART FOUR: DOMAINS OF SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH Nation - f004 Linda Briskman Community - Karen Staller and Tracie Mafile′o Children, Young People and Families - Mary Ruffalo, June Thoburn and Paula Allen-Meares Health and Well-being - f004 Paul Bywaters and Michael Ungar Disability - Sally French and John Swain Mental Health - f004 Peter Huxley, Michael Sheppard and Martin Webber Social Work Research and Aging - f004 Philip McCallion Social Work in Criminal Justice - Fergus McNeill, Dennis Bracken and Alan Clarke Challenges and Directions in Social Work Research and Social Work Practice - Joan Orme, Roy Ruckdeschel and Katharine Briar-Lawson

About the Author :
Ian Shaw took an undergraduate degree in sociology at the time when the discipline was expanding rapidly in Western countries. He worked as a Probation Officer for a few years before moving to Cardiff University and much later to the University of York. He has - happily for him - never lost the nagging challenges that a social science agenda brings. He has had published perhaps seventy papers in peer reviewed journals, written or edited about twenty books, and completed about fifty chapters for collections. He led the development of the European Conference for Social Work Research and was the first chair of the European Social Work Research Association until 2015. He initiated the international journal Qualitative Social Work. The rather mis-titled Evaluating in Practice (Ashgate) is, he suspects, the most original argument he has accomplished. 2014 saw the publication of his first extended research methods text, Doing Qualitative Research in Social Work (Sage. With Sally Holland). His Social Work Science (2016. Columbia University Press) is perhaps the most demanding manuscript he has tackled thus far. A four-volume 'Major Work' on Social Work Research (Sage 2015. With Jeanne Marsh and Mark Hardy) consists of 67 papers that they think are in the first rank of importance from any period in social work. Much of his recent work builds on a sabbatical to undertake a historical study of the relationship of social work and sociology, which took him to the University of Chicago in 2011. His garden, cooking, Dylan and a very good church take as much time as he can give. Katharine Briar-Lawson is an experienced academic administrator and national expert on family focused practice and child and family policy. Among her books (co-authored) are Family-Centered Policies & Practices: International Implications (2001) and (co-edited) Innovative Practices with Vulnerable Children and Families (2001). She has recently co-edited two volumes on Evaluation Research in Child Welfare, (2002) and Charting the Impacts of University-Child Welfare Collaboration, (2003). She is a member of the Council on Social Work Education Practice Commission; she also serves as associate editor for the New Global Development: Journal of International and Comparative Social Welfare, and is consulting editor for Social Work, as well as Family Preservation. She Co-Chairs the Gerontological Task Force for the National Association for Deans and Directors. Joan Orme began her social work career as a probationofficer working first in Sheffield and then Southampton. Her first academic post at the University of Southampton was specifically for training probation officers. She continued in generic social work education, with a specific interest in probation education and training, at Southampton until she took up her post at Glasgow . Joan was appointed the first Professor of Social Work at the University of Glasgow in October 2000 and helped to establish the Glasgow School of Social Work, a joint Schoolof Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities. She was appointed the founding Head of the School in 2003. Joan is active in a number of Scottish and UK organisations. In 2001-2004 she was Chair of the Joint University Council Social Work Education Committee (JUC SWEC) that represents universities with social work courses. In that role she represented social work academics on the Department of Health Project Board for the Social Work degree in England . She was appointed a lifelong fellow of the JUC in 2005. In 2000-2004 she was a member of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Training Board and was Vice Chair from 2003-2005. She currently holds a Researcher Development Initiative (RDI) grant from the ESRC for Increasing the confidence and competence of Social Work researchers: building research capacity in social work. Details of the RDI are available at www.rdi.ac.uk. She is a member of the steering group that developed the JUC SWEC Research Strategy http://www.swap.ac.uk/research/strategy.asp and a member of the Steering Group for the Research and Development Strategy for Social Services in Scotland Professor Ruckdeschel is Co-Editor and Co-Founding Editor, along with Ian Shaw of the UK, of the Sage journal Qualitative Social Work: Research and Practice. He is a current member and past chair of the University-wide Qualitative Research Committee. He has also recently chaired the School of Social Work Rank & Tenure Committee (1998-2002) and the Family Concentration (1999-2002) and has served on and/or chaired numerous School committees. Professor Ruckdeschel currently serves on the Advisory Committee of Ethics Across the Curriculum (1998-present) and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Center for Health Care Ethics (1997-present).

Review :
′Overall, then, the Handbook is undoubtedly a great success. It represents a state-of-the-art mapping of the parameters of social work research. Both structure and content lend themselves to what will certainly come to be regarded as a benchmark statement within the field... the editors of the Handbook have undoubtedly fulfilled their ambitions by producing what by any standards is a benchmark text which is well worth the investment - time, effort, money (!) - entailed in getting to grips with the stimulating and rewarding debates within. It is hard to envisage how this undertaking could have been more impressive...′ Qualitative Social Work Journal This is a highly ambitious, well thought out, carefully constructed, and thought-provoking volume that ′maps′ social work research past and present. It differs markedly from most edited texts in its combination of diversity, coherence, and comprehensiveness... an original, stimulating and readable book in which not a single chapter is a rehash of the writer′s previously published papers, as happens all too often in edited volumes. The modest term ′handbook′ in its title hardly does justice to the book′s depth, scope, and quality. While it can certainly serve as a ready reference guide, its thoughtfulness and questioning make it much more than a compendium of information, however rich. It is highly recommended for social work professionals throughout the Western world. International Social Work Journal ′This is an internationally relevant handbook in the real sense of the word, as it provides a holistic and thorough overview of social work research in its current state... I have had the book for some months now and it fills me with optimism every time I pick it up. It has had a similar effect on nervous final-year social work students studying research, as they have expressed a huge sigh of relief after examining this text because it offers so much knowledge and expertise in one place. It is clearly a must-have textbook for all final-year undergraduates, postgraduates, post-qualifying and research students because there is something for all inside. I would even go as far as to say it is an unrivalled international text that practitioners should also have if they feel serious about transforming the profession that they are part of.′ British Journal of Social Work