In search for a model for knowledge production and practice research in Swedish social work

Abstract

In recent years, a number of studies have shown that the scientific base for Swedish social work is weak and that methods for evaluation of practice are poorly developed. As a response to this, the government has made significant efforts to develop evidence-based practice (EBP) within social services. However, these efforts have so far been characterised as a top-down project, and as several authors have concluded, they have not proved productive. Therefore, they must, it is argued, give way to EBP where the role of the profession is central. This article should be seen as a contribution to the discussion of this alternative route. We try to tackle the crucial question about how the knowledge base for social work practice can be strengthened, and we discuss a model for developing education and research in collaboration with social work practice. In this, the tradition of Practice research has offered important points of departure.

Keywords:

• collaboration
• Swedish social work
• knowledge
• evidence-based practice
• practice research

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Graham Owen for reading an earlier draft and providing us with important comments. Our acknowledgement also goes to the anonymous reviewers for helping us develop our arguments.

Notes

1. During the 1990s, Sweden witnessed an increasing number of local R&D units in the health and social welfare sectors, and by 2000, more than 80 such units were in place. Some have their main focus on social services for children and families, others on caring for older or disabled people, while some are engaged in all these areas. Some are active in both the social welfare and health sectors. They are mostly small units with limited resources, working close to practice and more or less closely linked to universities (Alexandersson et al. 2009).

2. In 2002–2004, the National Board of Health and Welfare carried out a project where eight million Swedish kronor were allocated to ‘create possibilities for combining education/ research and social work practice’ by funding a new kind of lectorship that were placed at the university and the local municipality – so-called ‘combination positions’ (kombinationstjänster). However, in an evaluation of this project (Socialstyrelsen 2005, 10), it was concluded that this model, in many cases, had been difficult to realise and that one often had chosen to work with other kinds of organisational solutions.