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This article summarizes and analyzes the outcomes of the recommendations extracted from the Plan for Research Development, produced in 1991 by a Task Force on Social Work Research created by the National Institute of Mental Health. The Plan responded to the claim of the profession identifying a crisis in social work research, due to the fact that very little time was spent on research to improve social work services and that less than ½ of 1% of members of the National Association of Social Workers – the largest professional social work organization - identified themselves as researchers. Almost 20 years later, it is today considered that the crisis has abated, but has not been eliminated. There is a continuing need for capacity building as well as dissemination research activities.

The aim of this paper is to give an overall description of the Social Work research trends in Finland and other Nordic countries, departing from the hypothesis that the education system in the field of Social Work in the Nordic countries is a key to understand those research tendencies. This description puts an emphasis on the situation in Finland and Sweden, given that these two countries have the longest research traditions in social work. One of the most critical debates concerning Social Work research is the one of the relationship between theory and practice. It is argued that this duality can be overcome through a new research approach which embodies one of the strongest research trends in Finland: the practice research. Along with that model, evaluation research and “what works” focused research can be pointed out as the main current research tendencies on Social Work in Finland.

The paper is centred in three intertwined issues concerning Social Work research: the research-minded practitioner; evaluating for good practice; researching as a practitioner. In the attempt to shape the development of social work research, relations between theory and practice were analyzed, taking the experience of practitioners in education as influential for Social Work. The processes advocated here are complex and not likely to have easy answers or procedural manuals. Reflective critical questioning, tentativeness and uncertainty are critical features for a Social Work researcher

Aborda-se a investigação em Serviço Social no Portugal contemporâneo, após o processo de qualificação e atribuição do grau de licenciatura (1989). Resgatam-se as implicações deste processo, analisando a investigação como componente integrante da formação em Serviço Social, das competências profissionais, cujos resultados se traduzem na produção do conhecimento e na criação de novas organizações da categoria, nomeadamente a primeira unidade de I &± D desta área – o CPIHTS. Situa-se a expansão da formação a partir dos anos 90, no ensino privado e público; sinaliza-se a componente da investigação nos actuais planos curriculares de 1º e 2º ciclos em Serviço Social; aponta-se nesta conjuntura um processo de desregulamentação da formação e uma tendência para a desqualificação com o processo de Bolonha. Por último, analisam-se paradoxos e desafios à investigação em Serviço Social fazendo-se um balanço da última década.

This paper presents an overview of the social work research in Portugal in the last two decades, focusing on the main features, challenges and perspectives in this domain. The analysis considers the perspectives of the research in social work education, the features and issues concerning the scientific production in the social work post-graduation courses in the period 1990-2003 and institutionalisation process and challenges of the social work research within the scientific policy framework.

This article aims at understanding and gathering information of what is meant by “theories of Social Work”. To this purpose four paradigmatic fields are proposed: functionalism, interpretativism, structuralism and humanism. Under this framework the theories of Social Work are analyzed and categorized with emphasis on structural and critical Social Work. The theory of strengths correlation is put forward as an approach to Social Work which aims to surpass the action/ structure and order/conflict dichotomies.

The work developed constitutes an exploratory study concerning the historical speech about Social Work in Portugal, departing from the national scientific production between 1987 and 2007. The referred speech (ways of writing and reflect about history) is not the result of the work produced by historians in general, but of studies developed by social workers who had historically inquired its profession. The study findings allows to point out the need to stabilize a theoretical framework for the nature of Social Work, questioning if the history of Social Work itself wouldn’t be able to add elements for deepening this reflection.

This paper aims at to identify some of the central aspects underlying the ongoing social policies after the period of the welfare public systems. Some dimensions are singled out as to correct and to create alternative answers vis a vis the insufficiency and the need for improving now-a-days social policies. Along the analysis some potential restrictions are also pointed out mainly due to the basic very modest logics and also due to the shyness and restricted nature of the implemented measures.

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This article has two main aims. The first one is to essay to realise an explanatory analysis on the state of the jurisdiction of the Social Work as profession in Portugal in an analytical itinerary guided by the sociology of the professions. The second one is to present, in introductory terms, the analytical perspective that comes being supported, in a different way that the American tradition of the sociology of the professions, of the necessity of a new perspective on the professions of the social field as requisite for apprehending the dynamic and mutations that in this scope they come occurring in the context of the transformations of the Welfare State and the public policies facing the «new social question».

This communication presents, in an exploratory approach, some of the most suggestive theoretical perspectives for the analysis of Social Work profession as a female profession. Essentially the paper explores some theoretical thoughts that suggest gender stereotypes are relevant to analyse Social Work, as a profession strongly marked by gender differentiation in its history and status. Issues that present themselves relevant to understanding the profession its self, and in the context of social professions reconfiguration that are occurring nowadays.

This article discusses the professional identity of social workers. Departing from the point of view that there is an identity crisis in the profession, it is reckoned the heuristic difficulty (not specific, but sounder in Social Work) of the theme, underlining the impossibility of being approached in its singularity: it is actually about identities, and not identity, that it is intended to reflect upon. It is particularly relevant the scarce debate among the professional community on this theme. To conclude, a set of tasks for Social Work in the 21st century is pointed out.

Professional identity formation is inevitably correlated with the social actor’s actions, implying such a process a constant relationship with multiple conditions, namely historical, political, cultural, social and organizational ones. It is assumed that we have to refer to identities and not to the identity when dealing with occupational groups, as there is no homogeneity in the composition, functions, perspectives, values and attitudes of all members related to the same area. The case in point refers to a group of childhood educators, trained in different schools, included or left out of professional associations, carrying out their professional roles in different organizational contexts with varied purposes (day-care children centers, recreational activities, long-scheduled services, toy libraries, pediatric hospital and others) with diverse life histories, presenting distinct ways of behaving, thinking and acting. This diversity, comprehending its advantages and disadvantages, make us reflect on the meaning of identity as far as childhood educators are concerned. According to Dubar “identity is the result of both stable and temporary, individual and collective, subjective and objective, biographical and structural, of the different socialization processes that, together, build individuals and institutions” (1991, 105). An attempt will be made to the premises of this assertion throughout the communication, aiming at analyzing childhood educators’ identities. A cross analysis of all of these conditions requires us to feature different areas of knowledge and allows us to gauge the growing complexity of identity shaping. However, the centrality of the same nucleus will be kept in order to develop work as a service relationship i.e. the pedagogical relationship with children.

This article intends to analyze the politics of cares (either as a risk and as a challenge) when it’s an answer to the matter of dependence. It also wants to reflect on how, in Portugal, this politics (specially the ones of domiciliary care given in institutions of social solidarity), promote the participation, the protection and the health of the most elderly people. In this general idea, we consider the notion of dependence as a multidimensional process taken into account in the construction of the politics of cares. Through the data gathered in an institution of social solidarity specialized in the installment of cares in the residence, we reflect on how this politic area responds to the multiple dimensions of the dependence situations. To do this, we identify of the characteristics of the users, of the family cares and of the formal services available.

This research consists of an exploratory study that intends to instigate and constitute a reflection on the promotional factors of inclusion trajectories next to youngsters with risk paths and, by this means, to understand which capitals are brought by social interventions throughout young people pathways. It aims at the constitution of an analysis base for professional practices. Thus, this work intends to bring a concrete contribution in the scope of Social Work intervention.

This communication essays a critical reflection on Social Work research in Portugal, reporting the status and scope of the knowledge produced in this field. It is based on the master’s dissertations and doctoral theses produced in the post-graduate qualification in Social Work developed in Portuguese universities and some foreigners from 1990 to 2003. Among the possible lines of analysis on the existing production, the paper aims to reflect on the implicit agenda of Social Work research in Portugal and its relevance to the production of a disciplinary knowledge. Will be explored lines of analysis in a comparative perspective with European and international contexts. Complementary to the realized retrospective, will be essay to contribute to build a significant research agenda for the academic and scientific development of Social Work in the context of Portuguese society. This communication takes up and develops a preliminary work of 2003.

In this paper various attempts of studying and comparing social work in different countries are discussed and evaluated. Three main ways of making comparisons are identified: comparisons based on models of social policy, profession-oriented comparisons, and practice-oriented comparisons. Each of the three approaches captures essential aspects of similarities and differences in social work, but they all have obvious limitations as well.

Social work has undergone rapid development over the fifty years since Greenwood classified it as a semi-profession. In this article, social work’s claim to be a profession is examined. It is examined in the light of ideas about what it means to be a profession; the development of theory and internationally recognised ethical principles; and reflection on the complexity of the social work role in both national and global contexts.

The article will present the state of social work in Italy, considering both the education and the profession. The aim is to describe the Italian situation by discussing some peculiar aspects and some criticisms

This text approaches the evolution and development of the Social Work as discipline and profession in Spain. After a brief historical review that frames the current situation we approach the professional group, demographic characteristics and professional activities. The knowledge of the Spanish social workers training and their scientific production completes the X-ray photography of the current situation of the profession.