
The European Conference of Social Work Research (ECSWR) is the major annual event of the European Social Work Research Association (ESWRA). The conference has taken place since 2011 and is highly regarded amongst social work researchers across Europe, as an important annual event for sharing research findings and debating ideas as well as networking. It has grown in size and reputation, and the ESWRA Board is keen that ECSWR continues to develop and strengthen its quality, reach and value for social work research in Europe.
12th ECSWR from 12th – 14th April 2023, hosted by the Università Cattolica, del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
13th ECSWR from 17 – 19th April 2024, hosted by the Vilnius University, Lithuania
The ESWRA Board is now calling for bids to host the 14th ECSWR in March-April 2025 and the 15th ECSWR in March-April 2026.
Prospective hosts should prepare and submit an application of no more than 2000 words in length (excluding budget) and should include contact details for the person with lead responsibility on behalf of the prospective host to discuss with ESWRA the bid details.
Applications should be submitted to the ESWRA Executive Administrator, Claire Prater, (info@eswra.org) by 3rd October 2022
The key criteria against which any bid will be assessed will be:
Planning, administration, leadership and liability:
- The prospective conference host must demonstrate that they have the capacity and experience for the planning and administration of organising such a large and high-profile international event.
- Joint bids between universities from a host country are welcome; however, a clear indication of the leading host university is expected in the bid. Bids will be assessed on the ability of the host university to provide academic leadership.
- The conference host needs to establish a Conference Organising Committee, to be jointly Chaired on behalf of the host and by ESWRA’S Vice-Chair. The Conference Organising Committee will provide the academic/research leadership for the conference and will be responsible for the conference planning and organisation.
- The conference host will make all necessary arrangements for hosting the conference, including hiring of rooms, conference advertising, abstract submission and review process, programme development, book of abstracts, social programme, room hire for the programme of Special Interest Groups, and catering. The host will also put in place management arrangements to cover contingencies.
- The ESWRA board will approve the conference budget as well as the conference theme and sub-themes, and keynote speakers.
Timing:
- The conference should be held in March-April 2025 and 2026 on dates which avoid local, national and European festivities and holidays.
Accessibility:
- The host city should be reachable by no more than two relatively inexpensive flights from any European city.
Locality and Representation:
- The Board will particularly take into consideration the full likely cost of conference attendance for participants from low income countries in Europe.
- ESWRA is committed to varying the geographical location of the conference.
- The host city should preferably be an appealing place to visit, providing added attraction to the conference itself.
Venue:
- The lecture halls and meeting rooms need to be of appropriate size and number. One main conference hall with capacity for 500+ people is essential, along with rooms to accommodate at least 10 parallel oral paper or symposium sessions for up to 50 people each.
- There also need to be approximately 12-15 rooms available for the SIG Events sessions earlier in the day that the conference begins. Some of these could be the same rooms as for parallel sessions during the conference proper, but they could also be slightly smaller (for up to 40 people).
Outline budget:
- The host should provide a comprehensive anticipated budget, covering all expected costs.
- The budget should include a contribution of at least 20,000 Euros to ESWRA.
Over and above this, any budget surplus generated by the conference should also be returned to ESWRA. In return ESWRA will bear all risks and upfront costs associated with the conference when these relate to the agreed budget.
Budget headings for the bid are expected to include:
- Venue hire for main conference and the programme for Special Interest Groups
- Estimates of catering costs
- Keynote speakers’ expenses
- Conference website and App development
- Local administration
- Contribution of at least 20,000 Euros to ESWRA, plus any surplus
Endorsement from host university
- Prospective hosts should demonstrate that the bid has the full backing and support of the host university (and partner universities in the case of a collaborative bid).
ESWRA will use the above criteria to inform the selection of ECSWR 2025 and 2026 conference hosts. The final decision will rest with the ESWRA Board.
Full guidance for prospective ECSWR hosts can be found here Conference Guidelines
Applications to host the 14th ECSWR in March-April 2025 and the 15th ECSWR in March-April 2026 should be submitted to the ESWRA Executive Administrator, Claire Prater (info@eswra.org) Date to be decided.
The ESWRA Board expects to select and announce the hosts for ECSWR 2025 and 2026 in December 2022 after the November Board meeting
Informal expressions of interest in advance of the application deadline are welcome. These should be made to the ESWRA Chair, Alessandro Sicora (alessandro.sicora@unitn.it) and/or Vice Chair, Ines Martinez inesmartinezh@outlook.com who will be pleased to discuss any questions from prospective hosts.
|2022-07-25|1|1|§296|ESWRA Seminar Series - Writing for publication|Writing for publication
This session is aimed particularly at those who are new to writing for journal publication, those who need some revision, and those who can share useful experiences of this.
Wednesday 22nd June 2022
14:00 - 16:00 BST / 15:00 - 17:00 CEST
Please note all times below are GMT+1 (BST)
14:00 - Hellos and Introduction: Marcin Boryczko, Chair, Member Services and Research Resources Committee,
14.10 - ‘General points for writing for publication’: Liz Frost, Chair, SIG Development Committee,
14.30 - Writing for publication in the new European Social Work Research Journal: Lars Uggerhøj Editor-in-chief
14.50 - Turning your doctorate into publications: Ozan Selçuk Convenor Doctoral & Early Career Researchers and Chair of Nomination and Election Committee
15.15 - Questions and answers and sharing experiences
16.00 - Finish
To register please floow the link and complete the google form: https://forms.gle/dEZMd5L1ieyBM3rj7
The seminar is free but places are limited, we look forward to seeing you.
|2022-06-08|3|1|§300|CALL FOR PAPERS Special issue|CALL FOR PAPERS Special issue on “Promoting human relationships in Gerontological Social Work
The Relational Social Work Journal (ISSN: 2532-3814) is an international open access peer-reviewed journal with no article processing charges. The journal analyses and promotes the relational approach in Social Work and in related areas (social policy, social welfare, social development and human services).
The next issue of the Journal will be a Special issue on “Promoting human relationships in Gerontological Social Work”.
Social work with older people is a complex field in which various subjects are involved, both at an individual and institutional level. During the pandemic and post-pandemic phase in particular, studies and research show that older people were not listened to, or involved in the decision-making processes that concern them, and their human rights were not respected (Cesari & Proietti, 2020; Anand et al., 2021). Promoting relationships in Gerontological Social Work means supporting communication between the different services required, promoting collaboration among those involved (practitioners, family members, volunteers), and ensuring the participation of older people and their families. Social workers can play a fundamental role in recognizing and promoting the human rights and the value of human relationships in defining effective and respectful intervention. Contributions from studies and research aimed at identifying issues in terms of human relationships in social work with older people are welcome, as well as any description of innovative projects aimed at promoting the participation of older people and their families in care planning, or at collaboration among people involved in planning and implementing social intervention.
We are writing to inform you that the Call for paper for SPECIAL ISSUE in Relational Social Work journal to be published in April 2023 is open now! The special section “Promoting human relationships in Gerontological Social Work” will be published in the VOL. 7, N. 1/2023.
The call for papers is addressed to academics, policy makers, managers, or social workers from various backgrounds. Contributors are welcome to submit:
- an article (theoretical contributions, empirical studies or research) on themes linked to human relationships in Gerontological Social Work
- a Voices from practice focused on innovative experiences on main topics in Gerontological Social Work field (i.e. care planning, discharge from hospital to home or residential settings, supporting informal caregivers, promoting home care, residential care home placement, inclusion of older subjects who are part of an ethnic minority or LGBTQ+,…)
The deadline for paper submissions is October 30, 2022. The manuscripts can be submitted through electronic submission at link https://rsw.erickson.international/submit/ or by e-mail as attachments (Word format) to relational.socialwork@unicatt.it .
All manuscripts submitted:
- must be in English - if English is not your native or first language, before submitting your manuscript to Relational Social Work Journal you may wish to have it professionally edited;
- must follow the Author guidelines: https://rsw.erickson.international/instructions-to-authors/ ;
- will be double-blind peer-reviewed;
- should be original, not under review by any other journal and not published elsewhere.
REFERENCES:
Anand, J. C., Donnelly, S., Milne, A., Nelson-Becker, H., Vingare, E. L., Deusdad, B., ... & Pregno, C. (2021). The covid-19 pandemic and care homes for older people in Europe-deaths, damage and violations of human rights. European Journal of Social Work, 1-12.
Cesari, M., & Proietti, M. (2020). COVID-19 in Italy: ageism and decision making in a pandemic. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 21(5), 576-577
Editorial Office
Relational Social Work journal
https://rsw.erickson.international
Social Work Professional Organizations in Europe and Beyond
An Opportunity for Social Work and Social Policy in Complex Societies?
International Blended Seminar
June, Monday 27th, 2022, 09:30-16:30 (Central European Summer Time)
Physical Venue: Pisa, Aula Magna – Department of Political Science, Via Serafini 3
Virtual Venue: https://sp.unipi.it/c/220627-social-work via MS Teams
Current social work practice is often fragmented, developed at micro-level, focused on case- management and embedded within multiple and specific organizations. Nevertheless, social work as a profession is something more than this.
In many countries of the world social work practice has been shaped by complex socio- institutional processes at national and international level. Social Work Professional Organizations (SWPOs) are a key-actor of these processes, and they sometimes emerge as one of the most relevant outcomes (and a resource for the further development) of the institutional recognition of social work.
SWPOs may play a relevant role in current societies. Beyond and differently from the work organizations, they may give social workers several opportunities in terms of collective identification, ethics, protection, coordination, training, networking. Their action could be relevant for the users (e.g. through the ethical statements) and the policy-making, especially in the critical junctures of our societies (e.g. democratic transition, austerity). SWPOs are probably highly dependent on the contexts where they act and they may push social work and social policy in different directions.
While this is clear enough in general terms, still very scarce is knowledge about SWPOs in a comparative perspective. This Seminar contributes to fill this gap by focusing on the continuities and changes of the basic characteristics, intra-organizational dynamics, and policy action of the European SWPOs, in relation to the evolutions of the context at national and international level.
A better understanding of the SWPOs is an opportunity for strengthening the debate between academics and practitioners on a neglected but crucial topic: the collective dimension of social work as a profession and the reconfigurations of the organizations which are expected to shape today and tomorrow social work.
For information: Riccardo Guidi, riccardo.guidi@unipi.it
***The International Seminar is part of the UniPi-PRA Project 2020_42 “Social Sciences and Public Engagement: Towards a New Alliance between Public Knowledge and Society” (Coord. Andrea Borghini).
Participation is free of charge and warmly encouraged. Registration welcome through urly.it/3ntph
PROGRAM
09:30 – 09:45 Welcome
09:45 – 11:15 Opening Session.
Approaching Social Work Professional Organizations in Contemporary Societies
Riccardo Guidi (Chair), University of Pisa
Introduction: Why Social Work Professional Organizations Deserve More Attention
Andrea Borghini, University of Pisa
State, Powers and Social Work through the Lens of Public Sociology
Annamaria Campanini, IASSW President
The Institutional Processes of Social Work and their Organizations: an International Look
Vasilios Ioakimidis, University of Essex
Social Work Professional Organizations in Critical Junctures
Coffee Break
11:30 – 13:30 Research Session.
Social Work Professional Organizations in Europe.
Chair: Andrea Salvini (University of Pisa)
Paper 1.
Social Work Professional Organizations in Southern Europe: Continuities and Changes, Convergences and Divergences
Riccardo Guidi, Maria Ines Amaro, Francisco Branco, Maribel Martín Estalayo, Vasilios Ioakimidis, Ana Belen Dominguez
Paper 2.
Social Work Professional Organizations in Germany
Benjamin Benz, Oscar Corman, Dieter Kulke
Paper 3.
Contemporary Social Work Professional Organisations in Britain: a Consideration of Strengths and Weaknesses of Social Work Representative Bodies
Michael Lavalette
Paper 4.
Social Work in Ukraine: Changing the Professional Landscape
Tetyana Semigina, Olena Chuiko, Valentyna Shkuro
Lunch Break
15:00 – 16:30 Final Roundtable.
Moving a Step Forward: Social Work Professional Organizations in Social Work and Social Policy Future Agenda
Chair: Riccardo Guidi, University of Pisa Contributions:
- Annamaria Campanini, International Association of the Schools of Social Work (IASSW)
- Gianmario Gazzi, National Council of Social Workers (CNOAS) – Italy (invited, to be confirmed)
- Sigrid Leitner, University of Applied Sciences Cologne
- Angelo McClain, National Association of Social Workers (NASW) – USA
- Idit Weiss-Gal, Tel Aviv University
Conclusion: John Gal, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
CONTRIBUTORS
Maria Ines Amaro, University Institute of Lisbon. Former Vice-president of the Portuguese Professional Association of Social Work and the EASSW.
Benjamin Benz, Protestant University of Applied Sciences Bochum.
Andrea Borghini, University of Pisa. Coordinator of the UniPi-PRA Project 2020_42 “Social Sciences and Public Engagement: Towards a New Alliance between Public Knowledge and Society”.
Francisco Branco, member of the Installing Committee of Portuguese College of Social Workers.
Annamaria Campanini, President of the International Association of the Schools of Social Work (IASSW).
Olena Chuiko, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
Oscar Corman, Member of the Expert Committee for Social Work Policy in the German Society for Social Work (DGSA)
Ana Belen Dominguez, General Council of Social Work (CGTS) – Spain.
Maribel Martín Estalayo, Complutense University of Madrid.
John Gal, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Co-editor of the Series Research in Social Work (Policy Press).
Gianmario Gazzi, President of the National Council of Social Workers (CNOAS) – Italy (to be confirmed).
Riccardo Guidi, University of Pisa.
Dieter Kulke, University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt.
Vasilios Ioakimidis, University of Essex. Chair of the Global Education Commission of the International Federation of Social Workers. Co-editor of the British Journal of Social Work.
Michael Lavalette, Liverpool Hope University. Convenor of the Social Work Action Network in the UK and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Critical and Radical Social Work.
Angelo McClain, CEO of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) – USA.
Sigrid Leitner, University of Applied Sciences Cologne. Coordinator of the Project "Welfare state reform from below: Democratization of social policy through social advocacy?”.
Andrea Salvini, University of Pisa.
Tetyana Semigina, Academy of Labour, Social Relations and Tourism, Kyiv.
Valentyna Shkuro, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
Idit Weiss-Gal, Tel Aviv University
|2022-06-15|5|0|§295|6th International Conference on Practice Research in Social Work |Aalborg University, Denmark is happy to announce the 6 th International Conference on Practice Research in Social Work 7th – 9th of June 2023
The participation of practitioners, service users, and researchers and the collaboration and co-creation between the different actors are the very DNA of Practice Research. Through such collaboration and negotiations between different partners, new ways of producing knowledge can be established: whether making it possible to transform the knowledge and finding into new and inspiring ways of doing social work, or to have a critical analysis of social work practice, theories, and methods. The conference will focus on Practice Research participation and co-creation in social work and specifically on service users' participation and the service users' positions in social work Practice Research.
Over the years, several initiatives have been taken to develop practice-near research. One of the central initiatives was taken in Salisbury, UK in 2008 when 25 international researchers met to discuss and develop Practice Research. The Aalborg conference is based on the initiative in 2008 and the following conferences in Helsinki, New York, Hong Kong, and Melbourne.
Call for papers – deadline 15 September 2022
Abstracts submission is now open. To submit an abstract the content must connect to the overall conference topic ‘Practice Research in Social Work – Participation, Co-creation, and Service Users’ Positions and between two and five of the following subthemes:
- Challenges and possibilities in collaborations between partners - service users, practitioners, researchers, etc.Aspects of power when different partners with different positions are to collaborate
- Potentials and barriers in participatory processes in Practice Research
- Philosophical, theoretical, and conceptual foundations and inspirations in participatory approaches in Practice Research
- Methodologies and service users' empirical participation in Practice Research
- Connections, diversities, and controversies between social work research and policymakers, practitioners, service users
- Practice Research collaboration and social work education/programs
- Ethical issues in collaborations between social work practitioners and/or service users and/or researchers
ORAL PAPER PRESENTATION
The oral paper presentation may be authored by an individual or by a group of maximum three persons. The abstract should be in line with the main theme of the conference and linked to a minimum of two and a maximum of five of the conference sub-themes. The oral presentations will be grouped in parallel sessions based on the sub-themes. The abstract submitted should be 250 words or less.
WORKSHOP
A self-organized seminar of 1-2 presentations is to be relevant to the overall conference theme to a minimum of two and a maximum of five of the conference sub-themes. Workshops are to be profoundly interactive with considerable participation and discussion from those attending and hence, few
presentations. Workshops may have an explicit agenda of expanding the participants’ knowledge on a given topic, or generating a collaborative group/network for future collaboration. If applying for a workshop, please submit an abstract of 250 words or less.
SYMPOSIUM
A self-organized seminar of three to five papers on a shared topic is presented in the same session with relevance to the overall conference theme and linked to a minimum of two and a maximum of five of the conference sub-themes. If applying for a symposium, please submit an overall abstract of 250 words or less. Preference will be given to symposia that demonstrate cohesiveness.
POSTER PRESENTATION
The poster presentation may be created by an individual or by a group of maximum three persons and is to be displayed on a portable wall. 10-15 posters will be presented each of the three days of the conference. The author(s) of the poster will accompany it, to answer questions that people have. To apply for a poster presentation, the author(s) must submit an abstract of a maximum of 250 words.
To know more about call for papers and the conference in general please visit our website: https://www.en.soc.aau.dk/research/conferences/practice-research-2023/
Looking forward to seeing you in Aalborg from June 7th to 9th 2023
Professor Dr. Lars Uggerhøj, Associate Professor Dr. Maja Lundemark Andersen, Assistance Professor Dr. Maja Müller, PhD. Student Pernille Wisti, Conference Secretary Julie Skibsted Larsen
Organizing Committee
|2022-05-26|1|0|§294|ECSWR 2022 Amsterdam Poster Competition|The winner of this year's poster competition is Andrea Nagy, PhD at the 11th European Conference for Social Work Research 6th – 8th April 2022 held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands For their poster entitled: ‘Career Aspirations of Care Leavers and their Pathways to Autonomy from a Retrospective Perspective. The OCAS –Research Project in the Autonomous Province of Bozen-Bolzano (Italy)
|2022-05-04|3|0|§293|The ESWRA Award for an Outstanding Publication in European Social Work Research based on a Doctoral Thesis/Dissertation, 2021|This years winner of the The ESWRA Award for an Outstanding Publication in European Social Work Research based on a Doctoral Thesis/Dissertation, is Merete Tunestveit in recognition of their paper: “The research circle as a strategy for developing knowledge about children’s participation in child welfare services”. Congratuations!
Abstract
In this article I explore how the research circle can work as a strategy for knowledge development. The article is based on empirical material from the action research project A research circle on children’s participation in child welfare services (CWS), the objective of which was to improve the participation of children and adolescents in CWS. The participants in the project included representatives of three CWS offices in Norway and researchers from Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL). This study provides a unique analysis of how the research circle model provides structure and strategies for combining critical reflection on practice with theoretical insight, promoting knowledge production and serving as basis for improving practice.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2020.1838449
|2022-05-04|6|0|§292|ESWRA Award for an Outstanding Publication in European Social Work Research|
Congratulations to Harry Ferguson, Laura Kelly and Sarah Pink on receipt of The ESWRA Award for an Outstanding Publication in European Social Work Research in recognition of their paper: “Social work and child protection for a post-pandemic world: the re-making of practice during COVID-19 and its renewal beyond it”
ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 pandemic presented social workers and managers in child protection with complex practical and moral dilemmas about how to respond to children and families while social distancing. This paper draws on our research into practice during the pandemic to show some of the ways social workers changed their practice and to provide theories and concepts that can help to account for how such change occurs. Drawing on anthropological uses of the concepts of ‘contingency’ and ‘improvisation’ and Hartmut Rosa’s sociological work on ‘adaptive transformation’ and ‘resonance’ we show how social workers creatively ‘re-made’ key aspects of their practice, by recognising inequalities and providing material help, through digital casework, movement and walking encounters, and by going into homes and taking risks by getting close to children and parents. It is vital that such improvisation and remaking are learned from and sustained post-pandemic as this can renew practice and enable social workers to better enhance the lives of service users.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02650533.2021.1922368
|2022-05-04|6|0|§290|European Social Work Research call for papers|Enhancing and sustaining social inclusion through social work research
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 23 May 2022
This special issue will showcase stimulating, quality papers from the European Conference on Social Work Research, April 2022 at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands. Manuscripts are invited from all who presented at the conference.
European Social Work Research (ESWR) provides an international forum for the publication of high quality contributions relating to all aspects of social work research and drawing on diverse research methods, ideas and knowledge. This peer-reviewed journal is published through a partnership between the European Social Work Research Association and Policy Press.
This special issue will focus on the main 2022 conference theme, ‘Enhancing and Sustaining Social Inclusion through Social Work Research,’ including the seven conference series themes (see the conference website: www.ecswr2022.org) and the interests of the ESWRA Special Interest Groups. For this special issue we welcome in particular innovative social work research, including innovative methods and applications of theory. Prospective authors may contact the special issue editors for advice. The journal also includes a ‘Research, Policy and Practice Exchange’ section for topical, shorter items relating to social work research. If you are interested in contributing to this section, please see details on the journal website.
Abstracts should be submitted by email to eswr-journal@bristol.ac.uk no later than 23 May 2022. Please note that papers must not be submitted to, or under consideration with, another journal. All research articles will undergo the journal’s standard double-anonymous peer review process, and accepted papers will be published in the journal, either in the special issue or in subsequent issues. Authors will be notified of acceptance of their abstract and invited to submit a full paper by 20 June 2022, and the deadline for submission of the full paper online via Editorial Manager is 26 August 2022.
For further information please contact one of the Special Issue Editors:
Brian Taylor, Emeritus Professor of Social Work, Ulster University, Northern Ireland bj.taylor@ulster.ac.ukLex
Veldboer, Professor of Urban Social Work, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands a.p.m.veldboer@hva.nl.
Stijn Sieckelinck, Professor of Youth Work, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands s.m.a.sieckelinck@vu.nl.
Procedure and timelines
23 May 2022: Abstracts submitted via email at: eswr-journal@bristol.ac.uk.
20 June 2022: Authors notified of acceptance of abstract and invitation to submit full paper.
26 August 2022: Deadline for submission of full papers online via Editorial Manager.
Further information about the journal's aims and scope and editorial board is available.
You might also be interested in the call for papers for our inaugural special issue: Challenges and Opportunities for European Social Work Research.
Abstract Submission deadline: 30 April 2022
Thanks to more than 30 wonderful participants, the PhD and Early Career Researcher SIG at the European Conference for Social Work Research 2022 in Amsterdam was a great success!
In fact, our networking event at the European Conference for Social Work Research was so well received and successful, that we took our session beyond the schedule and spontaneously organized an informal bar meeting, where ties initially established at the conference could be even intensified.
To quote one of our participants at the conference dinner which took place after our sessions: “This is amazing, I registered for this dinner even though I knew no one. I was quite uncertain about it. And now I am sitting here with 10 other people whom I all know!”
Beside our networking opportunities, we had also held a 3-minute thesis challenge with interesting, thought-provoking and entertaining presentations!
Vânia S. Pinto, a PhD student at the University of Oxford, won the 3MT PhD competition of the 11th European Conference for Social Work Research 2022 at Amsterdam. She presented the theoretical model on the role of foster carers developed based on the voices of young people in care, young adults with care experience, foster carers, and social workers in England and in Portugal. Congratulations Vânia!
A huge thanks to Prof. Dr. Vera Taube (University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt) and Fan “Sini” Quigyun, (PhD student at the University of Jyväskylä) who completed our judging panel and of course to all our presenters!

Policy Press and the European Social Work Research Association are pleased to announce an exciting new journal for 2023: European Social Work Research.
Aims and Scope
European Social Work Research (ESWR) is the flagship journal of the European Social Work Research Association (ESWRA) and is dedicated to the development, practice and utilization of social work research. It is the only Europe-wide journal to focus uniquely on social work research and its intended audience is scholars, students, practitioners, policymakers and other researchers who have an interest in social problems, social work and the contribution that social work makes to just and equitable societies.
ESWR seeks to advance scholarship and debate, connecting empirical research with theoretical understandings that may inform, and be informed by, social work. The journal particularly welcomes innovation in social work research, including the development and application of innovative research methods and theory. As a double anonymous peer-reviewed journal, it provides a forum for high-quality research that contributes to understanding and furthering all aspects of social work. Articles need not originate in Europe but must be relevant to contemporary European social work contexts and issues.
ESWR seeks to include high-quality research articles examining:
- All major social work practice areas, including (but not limited to): vulnerable children and families; mental health; addictions; disability; migrants, refugees, and immigrants; employment and unemployment; health care and hospital social work; criminal justice; and sustainable social development.
- Contemporary challenges facing social work and the communities it serves, among them: poverty; social exclusion; discrimination and oppression; inequalities, injustice and relationships of power; abuse, trauma, violence and conflict; cultural, political and environmental hazards.
- Developing and strengthening effective social work practices, organisations, programmes, policies or movements for achieving positive change and empowerment.
- Developing and strengthening the social work profession, including social work education and training; professional identity, ethics and values; and interprofessional practice.
The journal values innovation and diversity, and so embraces research that uses a wide range of methodological approaches and is informed by a wide range of theoretical and conceptual frameworks. Scholarly articles may be literature-based, conceptual or based on empirical research. They may use quantitative, qualitative or mixed empirical methodologies. Innovative methods and high-quality participative and practice research that engages with service users, carers and communities, are encouraged. ESWR also welcomes a variety of perspectives, such as psychological, philosophical, sociological, political, legal, ethical or related to human growth and development, whilst showing clear relevance to practice, management, regulation, policy, research, education or training in social work.
In addition to traditional research articles and book reviews, ESWR features a Research, Policy and Practice Exchange section for shorter articles, critical discussions and reflections. Within this section, short papers relevant to furthering social work research in Europe are welcomed. These may include:
- reflective, research-informed commentaries on topical issues
- reports of significant new research initiatives, conferences or meetings
- guidance about, and critical appraisal of research funding sources, research training and capacity development opportunities and resources.
For questions and pre-submission enquiries, please contact the editorial team at: eswr-journal@bristol.ac.uk.
Editorial team
The editorial team is led by Editor in Chief Lars Uggerhøj (Aalborg University, Denmark) and Co-Editors Ana M. Sobočan (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia), Elaine Sharland (University of Sussex, UK), and Brian Taylor (Ulster University, N Ireland). Find out more about the wider editorial team and board.
|2022-03-24|6|0|§260|European Social Services Conference |RETHINKING RECOVERY
Reshaping social services with new tools 8-10 June 2022 - Hamburg
Website: https://essc-eu.org/
Covid-19 has transformed the way we deliver social services. Throughout the pandemic, frontline social services professionals implemented new and innovative, digital, agile, and remote ways of working so that care could continue to be provided for vulnerable children and families, people with disabilities, the homeless and young and older people.
Based on your experiences, how can we take advantage of the new EU budget and national resilience and recovery funds to invest and build on this transformation to modernise and reform social services?
Join public authorities, professionals, and care providers
at the 30th European Social Services Conference in Hamburg between 8-10 June 2022 to discuss the innovations which have already taken place, and how we can use the new tools available to rethink the planning, implementation, and evaluation of community-based social services.