Practice research: a “virtue friendship” with ever-changing definitions

ABSTRACT

Inspired by the writings of Aristotle as interpreted by the living philosopher Alexander Nehamas on the nature of friendship, this paper conceptualises practice research in social work as a “virtue friendship”. In so doing, it considers the fate of Clinical Data-Mining as a practice research methodology. It concludes with a recommendation that we ask Cicero’s ever-relevant question “Cui Bono?” in assessing practice research’s contribution to social work practice and policy.

受亚里士多德关于友谊本质的论述以及哲学家内哈马斯相关阐释的启发, 本文将社会工作中的实践研究概念化为“德性友谊”, 并视资料探勘作为一种实践研究方法。本文最后建议以哲学家西塞罗一直提出的问题 - 何人得益 (Cui Bono?) 评估实践研究对社会工作实践和政策的贡献。

KEYWORDS:

• Practice research
• virtue friendship
• Clinical Data-Mining
• Cui Bono?

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).