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• Summary: A present trend in social work is the focus on evidence-based knowledge. This kind of knowledge does fill a purpose, but is not sufficient on its own. The article argues that social workers need a complement to knowing, and this approach could be conceptualized as un-knowing. In this article, a theory of un-knowing for social work practice is outlined. This implies a theoretical scrutiny of knowing and un-knowing and a discussion of how it can be used in practice. Moreover, the article presents findings from an empirical study of social work students who describe their usage of different forms of knowledge reflexively.• Findings: The article presents the results of a study in which social work students' usage of different forms of knowledge in their field studies was examined. The results demonstrate that social work students use different forms of knowledge in practice, and un-knowing is one of the actively used forms. Women tend to use un-knowing somewhat more than men.• Applications : The article is a contribution to the ongoing debate on evidence-based practice in social work. It is argued that it is important to teach social work students to understand un-knowing in theory and to use it in practice, and in combination with other forms of knowledge in social work.

English
Since the end of the 1980s, the introduction of quasi-markets in the public sector has been a dominant feature in Sweden. This article describes a study of quasi-markets in the personal social services. The study concludes that the personal social services are not fully able to achieve the aims of the quasimarket, and the conditions that must be satisfied to achieve the aims of the quasi-market are only being met to a certain extent. The personal social services partly function as a responsive quasi-market for strong, rational and well-informed clients; however, for the most vulnerable, it is failing in many respects.

• Summary: This article presents the CAIMeR theory, consisting of a conceptual framework and a theoretical model, which can help explain how results in social work practice arise from interventions and its contextual contingencies. The theory has been developed over several years in connection with empirical studies, and together with social workers.• Findings: The article starts from the meta-theoretical perspective critical realism and its notion of explanative knowledge as a stepping stone to open up the so-called black box. A fundamental concept in critical realism, generative mechanisms, is discussed and elaborated.• Applications : The CAIMeR theory can be used in several contexts: social work practice, and for evaluation of social work, and, moreover, for organization development in social work. We argue that social workers, evaluators and decision-makers need accurate theory about the core activity (work with clients) within its contextual conditions. The CAIMeR theory pays attention to generative mechanisms at different levels, which is necessary if one wants to understand what is going on in a certain agency, and explain the results in a more qualified way. The theory can also be useful for researchers and university students that need a comprehensive explanative framework when studying phenomena in social work practice.

In this appreciative comment on Michael Quinn Patton's article 'Two Decades of Developments in Qualitative Inquiry', two main issues are addressed. The first is whether the quantitative-qualitative conflict in social research really is over. There are signs that quantitative methods still are more accepted, especially in the intersection area between academic research and practice-based evaluations. The other issue is the risk, possibly attached to Patton's suggestions, of being too pragmatic in evaluation research. For the evaluator it is important to be able to account for the kind of knowledge that has been produced and on which grounds.

This article describes and discusses a method for analysing and working with short reflective narratives. The method is inspired by the interpretation theory of Paul Ricoeur, and applied to short written stories where social work students reflect on situations from their field studies - situations they experienced as critical or problematic. The article starts with a discussion about the need to develop complementary methods in narrative research. This is followed by an argument for written narratives as an alternative research approach. A pilot study of 14 narratives from social work students containing critical or problematic events is then presented with a focus on the analysing process. The analysis is evaluated as focused and manageable, easy to combine with quantitative analyses and it appears to generate findings in a form that is easy to publish. It provides a shortcut to a deeper understanding of both the narrative and the narrator. On the negative side, the method using written narratives has potential risks of 'over-interpretation', and the loss of the 'midwife' effect that can appear in an oral interview.

Focusing on research representing different types of European welfare states, including the Scandinavian and the Continental, this collection provides new insights about current welfare professions.