Editorial

In the previous issue of Nordic Social Work Research, the former editors Tarja Pösö and Monica Kjørstad used the metaphor of a journey to describe the five years of working with and setting a path for a new academic journal. As the future editors, we could not help feeling the kind of butterflies in the stomach that comes from knowing that soon we would be setting out on this journey too! What is comforting is that we are not stepping into a completely uncharted land. The former editors have provided us with maps, guides and insiders tips, and as such the preconditions for a safe and rewarding journey are laid out. The thorough explorations and the building up of experience and knowledge about the life of the journal will definitely be invaluable on the way, and as the new editors we will seek to do our best to cultivate all what have been accomplished so far. While doing that, we should also seek to discover new sources of inspiration that can nourish the journal, helping it to continue to develop for scholarly inspiration and enjoyment of authors, reviewers and readers. We are looking forward to take on that responsibility and will put in all our efforts to live up to the expectations and trust we have been given by the Nordic social work research associations.

Nordic Social Work Research is a young but already important journal for promoting and disseminating social work research. Our expectation is that in the coming years the journal will consolidate its position as a unique platform for publishing a broad spectrum of articles and likewise attract a variation of authors, readers and subscribers with different theoretical, methodological, empirical, educational and practical aspirations regarding social work research. This is not the least possible due to the recent expansion of the journal into three issues per year. Yet another, and maybe even more important resource, might come from the scholarly awareness of how social work research and social work has always been and will continue to be embedded in an international context. Nordic Social Work Research is and may become an even more important forum for exploring, learning and developing knowledge about social work and social work research across different contexts.

The aim of Nordic Social Work Research is to promote and disseminate high quality research on social work in the Nordic countries; however, the experience is that the origins, scope and relevance of this knowledge might easily transcend the Nordic context. As reflected in a previous editorial (vol. 4, issue 2), the ‘Nordicness’ of Nordic Social Work Research is based on the assumption that there are strong similarities across the Nordic societies pertaining to e.g. traditions of politics, welfare policies, forms of legislation, the institutionalisation of welfare. At the same time it is recognised that there are also significant differences in the distribution of welfare not seldom related to changing inspirations deriving from an international context. For example, it has been noted how Denmark constitutes a special case in terms of how Neoliberal economic ideas resembling developments in the United Kingdom have influenced hitherto ‘sacred’ Scandinavian Social democratic policies in relation to e.g. unemployment insurance (Larsen and Andersen 2009), just as it has been noted how global trends in economy and governance in the shape of workfare and ‘activation’ may be related to processes of othering in the practices of social work with unemployed (Julkunen and Rauhala 2013). Another example stemming from a different important area of social work relates to the notion that the welfare states of Sweden and Denmark uphold a broad approach to child welfare based on a family service orientation combined with tendencies of a child-centred orientation (Gilbert, Parton, and Skivenes 2011). However, recent developments in Nordic social work practice show clear signs of the integration of evidence based methods in social work practice (Hanssen et al. 2015) as well as the translation of technologies of child welfare assessment, often stemming from an anglophone context. Although based on the acknowledgement of criticisms previously voiced in the UK (Munro 2011), this translation of methods and technologies may also challenge practices of a family and child centred orientation (Matscheck and Eklundh 2015). What those examples indicate is that Nordic social work research is deeply embedded in, and can be highly relevant to, a wider international community of social work research and practice. When reviewing the issues of the first five years of the journal’s life, we argue that Nordic Social Work Research has already published a rich sample of research transcending the Nordic context by intersecting local social work research with global aspects of politics, policy, social problems and social work practices – and conceptual, methodological, empirical and practical reflections that offer possibilities for comparison. This is done with a high level of sensitivity to social work practice and the consequences for citizens, as indicated in the special issues of Practice Research (Julkunen and Karvinen-Niinikoski 2014) and Understanding the Other (Chambon and Matthies 2013). Therefore, as the new editors, we want to highlight the value of the journal as a source for comparative reflection and research in the broadest sense, based in the recognition of the complex practices and international dimensions of Nordic social work research.

Comparative reflection and research involves challenges of making analytical generalisations. As is well known, analytical generalisation does not imply simple generalisation, but impel in-depth reflections on, and sensitivity towards, the different contexts of social work research as well as substantial explorations of the theories and concepts in use and rigorous methodological reflections on how and why research is conducted in a certain way. It encompasses complex and creative ways of enhancing the analytical accomplishments in a way which goes beyond description by offering new grounds for understanding and explaining. We believe that by enabling such points for analytical generalisation Nordic Social Work Research can continue to be an important forum for exploring, learning and developing knowledge about social work and social work research in the Nordic societies as well as in the wider international community. Therefore we highly welcome suggestions for special issues addressing theoretical, methodological, empirical/analytical and practical issues enabling comparative and analytical reflections on the complex practices and international dimensions in social work in general and in the Nordic countries in particular. In relation to this, we are deeply aware of the potentials in cultivating the relation to the International advisory board of the journal.

Comparative reflections on social work research can be approached and underpinned in many ways. We are looking forward to discussing and elaborating possible ways of approaching and promoting this broad, open initial theme with the Editorial board. The editorial board constitutes a very important forum for setting the path for, and reflecting on, the journal, and we attempt to use the board actively for exploration and guidance in the development and promotion of the journal. In addition, the Editorial board constitutes an important link to the Nordic FORSA associations gathering and creating networks among social work researchers, teachers and practitioner. As communities of social work research vital for the journal, we will seek to sustain a dialogue with not only the Chairs and Boards of the associations but with the community as such. We will continue to be present at and initiate workshops at the Nordic FORSA conferences – next time in Copenhagen 2016 – as a source for dialogue on the journal. We would like to cultivate the sense of Nordic Social Work Research as an available and open forum.

Nordic Social Work Research is nothing without the sense of openness that can contribute to high quality research and scholarly debate, learning and inspiration. Already during the short time of our editorship, we have been impressed and delighted by the ambitions of authors, the dedication and hard work of the reviewers, and engaged responses and reflections from readers. As an example of how a young journal can develop in joint engagement is the new initiative included in this issue. An article in the special issue on Social Work and Sociology: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (Levin, Haldar and Picot 2015) raised a question from a reader on whether the journal would find it interesting to publish a Commentary – a kind of contribution that has not been published in the journal before. The idea was discussed in the editorial board and among the editors, and it was agreed that commentaries could be a valuable contribution to scholarly debate. We hope that both authors and readers like this new initiative and will consider writing substantial commentaries to enhance critical and constructive dialogue on social work research.

The current issue contributes to comparative reflections directly or indirectly in several ways. Comparison is the core issue of Paolo Guidi, Anna Meeuwisse and Roberto Scaramuzzino exploration of two different child welfare models and social workers’ assessments of families with children at risk. The authors argue that that there is a common professional base of values and knowledge among social workers working with families in these contexts, and they show how social worker’s approaches converge in a number of ways, not least when it comes to single mothers with babies at risk or cases of battered children with clear physical evidence. At the same time, the differences that emerge in relation to possible responses and interventions as well as approaches to gender and parenthood and the behaviour of young people, raise questions not just about the ways in which social work in Italy and the Nordic countries are contextualised by the legal framework and local organisation of welfare, but also by diverse social orders more broadly.

In the second contribution, Sofia Enell approaches the issue of assessments of young people – in secure accommodation – through questions relating to the possible impacts on young people’s perceptions of themselves. The article shows how the fragmented processes and paradoxical practices produced by the system may result in contradictory and problematized selves. In Enell’s case, it is an institutional context shaped by ambiguity that creates challenges for social work practice. In the following article, it is rather the home that warrant critical reflection. In their discussion of the situation of parents working as personal assistants for their adult disabled children, Elisabet Olin and Anna Dunér point to the structurally created ambivalence among the parents at the intersection of formal and informal support. They also highlight how perceptions of the private sphere as representing femininity, care, intimacy and emotion, play a part in the gendered patterns of caring in this context.

Crime victims constitute one of the newer user groups in social work. In the fourth article in this issue, Sara Thunberg, Lia Ahonen and Jürgen Degner offer a detailed contextual analysis of a special and new kind of service. Their contribution to the understanding of patterns of, and difficulties in, collaboration between municipalities and victim support organisations on services less covered by the municipalities, constitutes important knowledge in a time where this collaboration is viewed as a solution to increasing pressures on the welfare state. Such pressures are important issues to explore in Nordic social work research to highlight and critically reflect upon the relations between a Nordic and international context. The current issue is a contribution to this and it also gives a sense of complex and perhaps less noticed practices of social work and the consequences for citizens.

Maria Appel Nissen and Maria Eriksson
Editors