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The Swedish public sector has undergone major changes over the last decades, with increased demands to be effective and perform their tasks with high quality, but also with the demand to increase the influence of users and citizens over the support given. This development has influenced how social services organise and how their work is perform, and is one motive given as to why evidence-based practice was introduced. This development can also be traced back to the manager philosophy new public management and neo-liberalism. Evidence-based practice has its origin in evidence-based medicine, which had a large impact internationally from the 1990s.Although there are different opinions concerning how evidence-based practiceshould be understood is often described on the basis of Sackett et al.'s (2000) definition which regards evidence-based practice as an integration of different knowledge sources – the best evidence, clinical or professional expertise and the values and preferences of users. The professional have the responsibility to use all these knowledge sources in the daily work.The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse different processes of the introduction of evidence-based practice. One aspect is what these processes have contributed to in terms of organising ways of working and management within social services; another aspect concerns what this means for social work. With a combination of new institutional organisational theory and Berger and Luckmann's (1967) insights into the social construction of everyday life, it is possible to analyse the introduction of evidence-based practice as a process, moving between a macro, meso and micro perspective. The empirical base for this thesis is interviews with 33 personnel from different professions and organisations. Those interviewed from thesocial services include social workers within individual and family services and socialservices managers, as well as regional representatives from a Research and Development Unit. To understand the development of evidence-based practice and its proliferation into social services I also interviewed doctors from health care in a County Council.New institutional organisational theory is useful for understanding how differentways of organising activities are spread between and within organisations. With concepts used in new institutional theory, the focus is on how evidence-based practice travels from medicine to social work, and from a national level to the local social services level, via the regional level. Giddens (1990) terms 'disemedding' and 'reembedding' are used. Different isomorphic processes are recognised in these processes, as well as strategies to decouple or loosely couple evidence-based practice from social services ordinary activities as a way to gain legitimacy. The main findings in the thesis are that evidence-based practice has been introduced with evidence-based medicine as a role model, and that this has been done from different conditions. As is described in the interviews, the development of evidencebased practice has been controlled from national organisations such as the government, the National Board of Health and Welfare and in recent years also the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Region, while the development within the medical area was governed by national organisations but performed by the medical profession, which advocated the introduction of evidence-based practice within the profession. The regional representatives largely support the myth that is presented of evidence-based practice, and have a central responsibility in the national initiativesconducted; they are intermediary between the national initiatives on development work and the local practice. When evidence-based practice is introduced in social work this has entailed loosely coupling between the myth about evidence-based practice and the ordinary activities, this strategy is especially obvious among social services managers. Furthermore, when a medical model of evidence-based practice is used, although with a broader approach, the introduction of evidence-based practice does not reflect the social workers' education, profession and ways of working in the same way as evidence-based medicine reflects the doctors' education, profession andway of working. The intention to analyse the introduction of evidence-based practice from a micro perspective is about understanding how evidence-based practice is received by the social worker and their managers. When the interviews with the doctors, social workers and managers are analysed there is less coherence between evidence-based practice and social workers' work than between evidence-based medicine and doctors' work. This means that social workers have to shape and construct their daily work anew through internalising the new habits and routines into everyday work, something that takes energy and time, which most interviewees feel does not exist.This thesis also highlights the need for social work to approach evidence-based practice both at an organisational and a structural level, and from the level where the daily work is performed by social workers. Finally, there exists among almost all interviewees a great interest in introducing evidence-based practice, especially among the social workers, but at the moment it is not re-embedded in social work. ; Godkänd; 2014; 20140731 (beneli); Nedanstående person kommer att disputera för avläggande av filosofie doktorsexamen. Namn: Benitha Eliasson Ämne: Arbetsvetenskap/Human Work Science Avhandling: Social Work Approaching Evidence-Based Practice Rethinking Social Work Opponent: Professor of Health Care Organisation Mike Dent, Faculty of Health Sciences, Staffordshire University, Storbritannien Ordförande: Professor Elisabeth Berg, Avd för arbetsvetenskap, Institutionen för ekonomi, teknik och samhälle, Luleå tekniska universitet Tid: Måndag den 29 september 2014, kl 13.00 Plats: A109, Luleå tekniska universitet

With a foreword by First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, this book is the first to offer an in-depth look into what makes the Welsh Social Work context unique. It includes the move towards joint children, families and adult provision and the emphasis on early intervention, future generations and partnership considerations. Covering the subject knowledge required by the Welsh regulator, Social Care Wales, it provides essential reading for students and practising social workers in Wales, and rich contextual analysis for other international social work practitioners and writers. Each chapter includes: • dialogue on the distinctive 'Welsh Way' that underpins the nation's social work approach; • focus on application: responses and implications for professional practice; • the 'giving of voice' section: demonstrating the key emphasis in Welsh practice of ensuring that multiple stakeholder perspectives are actively heard; • key resources for further independent exploration of the topics

"Sociological social work is a lifelong social work practice which is animated by a sociological perspective. Social workers 'shorthand' orientations such as 'strengths perspective', 'task centred' or 'humanistic' (to name but a few), as a way to identify their philosophical and theoretical approaches in professional life. Whilst some texts have examined sociology for social work, this text instead proposes that sociological social work is a legitimate and theoretically rich orientation, and this book demonstrates what sociological social work looks like in our rapidly changing world. This text will equip students and practitioners with a way to think sociologically, not just while they are studying, but as an ever present reference for making sense of social work purpose and how this is realised in a transforming world. This follows an established tradition in social work literature, but this book elevates and names the importance of this approach, which we argue is critically needed if social work is to achieve its agenda in transformative social, political economic and environmental contexts. The current landscape in which we live is one that is characterised by rapid changes which have implications for the life experiences of those with whom social workers work, social justice advocacy agendas, and for fulfilling the purpose of social work more generally. This book is essential reading for those looking to keep up with these changes."--Publisher's website

The underlying frame of social work is the nation state, and it is from within the state that welfare strategies and social policies are devised and implemented. However, post-colonialism, globalisation, migration and the associated implications for human rights, social justice and social welfare policies contest the idea of a clearly defined space for social work and present new challenges for researchers and practitioners. Transnational Social Work and Social Welfare argues for the increased importance of the transnational perspective in social work theory and practice. The book challenges the idea of the nation state as a given entity and argues that globalization and an increasing number of people crossing borders must have an impact on the theories and strategies of social work. The international contributors are critical of a restricted focus on a geographically defined space and the impact on work with clients. With cases covering China, France, India, UK, Germany, Malaysia, Israel, Turkey, the book highlights the challenges as well as the opportunities this new perspective can open up for theories and strategies in social work. It will be of interest to students, researchers and social workers interested in migration, social care, poverty and cultural competency in health and social care.

Social interaction through technology, professional intervention through digital tools, and reorganization of public and private organizations to digitalize their procedures and work with reliable and robust data are three processes that coexist and feed off each other, giving rise to the development of what has been called digital social work. In this article, we briefly analyze some of the characteristics of digital social work, the challenges faced in digitalized societies, and the broadening of the debate on digital divide, which goes beyond access issues, and focuses on what is now considered a key challenge for social welfare: digital vulnerability.