BOOK
Innovations in Social Work Research
Louise Hardwick | Roger Smith | Aidan Worsley | Jennifer Taylor | Peter Beresford | Cherilyn Dance | Simon Hackett | Harry Ferguson | Sarah Banks | Tricia Jessiman | John Carpenter | Trish O'Donnell | David Westlake | Pat Starkey | Myles Balfe | Helen Masson | Josie Phillips | Nicolette Wade | Mike Fisher | Alastair Roy | Jenny Hughes | Lynn Froggett | Jennifer Christensen | Jadwiga Leigh | Julian Manley | Sue Thompson | Bogusia Temple | Jackie Robinson | Martin Elliott | Lena Dominelli | Gina Barrett | Natalie Robinson | Vic Forrest | Becki Meakin
(2015)
Additional Information
Book Details
Abstract
A valuable reference to help practising researchers not only to understand but also to apply innovative approaches to social work research.
Featuring extended case studies of actual research projects, the book provides an overview of a number of central features and qualities of social work research. It incorporates both distinctive methodological features, such as approaches to participatory inquiry, and provides accounts of researcher strategies to address particular challenges, such as carrying out studies with hard to reach populations. This book combines important methodological insights with pragmatic guidance on commonly experienced problems and how these challenges can be overcome.
This is a key resource for social work and social care students, social work practitioners and academics engaged in research.
The book achieves what I am sure was the main goal of the editors and contributors. It is very pleasing to see a publication that specifically tries to encourage the social work research community to think more widely about methods rather than unreflectively remain tied to trusted research methodologies and methods. The book is thus a welcome addition to the processes of helping to extend the methodological and methods repertoires in social work, and social care, research.
Michael Clark, Associate Professional Research Fellow
Research, Policy and Planning
This is a rich and stimulating compendium of innovative social work research. Combining many contemporary big names with innovative early career research, this volume illustrates the open-minded, methodological pluralism social work really needs as an academic discipline.
Sue White, Professor of Social Work (Children and Families), Institute of Applied Social Studies, University of Birmingham
This excellent book offers ample evidence that social work researchers are doing research in imaginative and productive ways across a variety of social work settings. It contains a wealth of insights into the 'doing' of research using a wide variety of methods and showcases the commitment of an impressive cast of authors to using such research to support excellent social work practice.
Brid Featherstone, Professor of Social Work, Faculty of Health & Social Care, The Open University