The Formation of Social Work ― Social Science, Agency and Change

This important book by a respected scholar provides a far-reaching historical analysis of how theory and practice have together shaped the identity of present-day social work. Including a close analysis of two well-known practitioner exemplars – Jane Addams and Mary Richmond – this ambitious survey carefully weaves together a situationally contextualised exploration of actual social work practice with an analysis of the key conceptual and research preoccupations that have characterised social work’s academic development. The theoretical and research themes include:

- early positivism

- Marxism

- psychology

- evidence-based practice

- globalisation

- debates about the science of social work.

This is a detailed, scholarly analysis of social work’s roots, development and boundaries at practice, research and theoretical levels, informed by a wide social science framework. Now truly international in perspective, this new edition of a classic text will be of high value to advanced level students, researchers and professionals who are interested in where social work has come from and what promises and challenges it faces.

Dr Haluk Soydan joined the USC School of Social Work in 2004, where he is Associate Dean of Research and Director of the Hamovitch Center for Science in the Human Services. He has been professor of social work at the University of Gothenburg and Stockholm University, Dean of Social Work at Orebro University and Visiting Professor at Columbia University and University of Pennsylvania. Soydan was the research director of the Institute for Evidence-Based Social Work Practice in Sweden for ten years and remains a senior advisor. His publications include close to 40 books and book chapters and more than 100 journal articles, and he is the recipient of over ten prestigious awards, including three from The Swedish Association of Textbook Writers.