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Title of the SIG: Social work research on digitalisation and technology.

 Information about the upcoming webinars:

  •  October, 11:00–12:00 CET – AI in Mental Health Care: Do Trained Chatbots Have a Place in Social Work?
  • 1 December, 11:00–12:00 CET – Social Work in the Age of New Technologies
  • 23 February, 11:00–12:00 CET – Changing Information Practices in Social Work: AI, Data Infrastructures, and Knowledge Production
The Social work research on digitalization and technology Special Interest Group (SIG) of the European Social Work Research Association (ESWRA) warmly invites you to participate in our upcoming international webinar series on digitalization and social work.   
Through this webinar series, we aim to bring together researchers, educators, practitioners, and students to exchange knowledge, discuss emerging challenges, and explore opportunities for international collaboration. The series consists of three webinars, each focusing on a key theme at the intersection of social work and digitalization.  
Across three one-hour sessions in October, December, and February, this series brings together the latest research, practical insights, and collaborative discussion on the intersection of social work, digitalization, and artificial intelligence. As technology increasingly reshapes service systems and everyday practices, social work is entering a period of profound transformation. This series provides a space to analyze and make sense of these changes together, drawing on the latest research while bringing practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders into dialogue.  
  
Webinar 1: AI in Mental Health Care: Do Trained Chatbots Have a Place in Social Work?  
Tuesday 6 October 2026 - 11:00–12:00 CET  
The rapid emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI), particularly large language models such as ChatGPT, has sparked widespread interest across mental health care and social work. While chatbots are increasingly being explored in social services, important questions remain regarding their effectiveness, ethical implications, and suitability within relationship-based practice.  
This webinar will present recent findings from the Flemish AI-CARES project and experiences from Finland’s Sekasin chatbot initiative, which has already supported more than 40,000 conversations with young people and has scaled to other use cases as well. Participants will explore the opportunities and limitations of AI-supported services, ethical considerations, and implications for professional practice. The session will conclude with an open discussion on future research collaborations and funding opportunities.  
Presenters: Tim Vanhove (Artevelde University of Applied Sciences, Belgium) and Saara Huhanantti from Project 5/5 (Ilkka Paananen Foundation), the team behind Finland's Sekasin AI Helper chatbot.  
Registration for the October webinar is now open. Register using this link: https://link.webropolsurveys.com/S/C4FC885E79866D7C    
  
Webinar 2: Social Work in the Age of New Technologies  
Date: Tuesday 1. December 2026 - 11:00 –12:00 CET  
Digital competence has become a core requirement for contemporary social work. However, the rapid integration of artificial intelligence into professional practice is challenging traditional understandings of digital competence. Beyond the ability to use digital technologies, social workers increasingly need to critically understand, evaluate and responsibly engage with AI systems while safeguarding professional judgement, ethics and relationship-based practice.  
This webinar asks whether existing digital competence frameworks are still fit for purpose in the age of artificial intelligence. Drawing on emerging research and current debates, it explores how the concept of digital competence needs to evolve to incorporate AI literacy, critical evaluation, professional judgement and ethical decision-making.  
(Registration details will be announced later.) 
  
Webinar 3: Changing Information Practices in Social Work: AI, Data Infrastructures, and Knowledge Production    
Date: Tuesday 23. February 2027 - 11:00 –12:00 CET  
The ways in which information is produced, organized, and utilized in social work are constantly evolving with the adoption of digital technologies. This transformation has important implications for how social work is practiced, evaluated, and developed. Understanding the implications of these developments has become increasingly important as digital technologies play a growing role in shaping professional work. Such understanding is especially important as data infrastructures, digital platforms, and algorithmic systems increasingly shape professional judgment and decision making.  
In this webinar, we examine how social work information practices are changing in response to emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence. The discussion draws on a Finnish research project (ETSI) on AI and information practices in social work, in which we have collected data on a range of AI applications. At the same time, Finland has been a pioneer in implementing a national social welfare data archive and developing a nationally standardized information infrastructure for social services. Against this backdrop, we reflect on the findings of our project and invite participants to consider the combined effects of these concurrent transformations, as well as the opportunities and challenges they create for research in this field.  
(Registration details will be announced later.) 
  
We encourage you to save the date of the other webinars and share this invitation within your networks.  
We look forward to welcoming you to the series and continuing the conversation on the future of digital social work. 

Aims of the SIG:

This SIG aims to bring together researchers interested in the connections and impacts of digitalisation and technologies in social work. The group seeks to explore how technological changes are transforming social work practice, education, research, supervision and social policies, while also critically examining the risks, ethical implications, and inequalities that may arise from the use of technology in social work. 

The group is also particularly interested in understanding how technological transformations are reshaping society, generating new forms of inequality, exclusion, and vulnerability— and, consequently, leading to the emergence of new social needs. At the same time, the technological world offers countless possibilities—through innovation, connectivity, and data—to design new ways of supporting individuals and communities, a double-edged opportunity that social work must address.  

These new realities – such as the use of AI and chatbots, the role of social media, the rise of digital government services, online waiting lists, and digital registration systems – require creative, adaptable, and ethically grounded responses from the field of social work.  The SIG aims to foster critical and constructive research on digitalisation. It concerns the integration of digital tools, platforms, and infrastructures into social work practice, research, and policy. Also includes examining not only how digital technologies function and their application to social work according to its values, but also how they affect human relationships, identity, access to services, and professional roles in social work. The group also critically reflects on the societal pressure for everyone to keep up with digital trends and the risk of exclusion for those who are digitally less literate or lack access to technology, referred to as clients and professionals. In this light, the SIG also recognises the importance of offline methods and hybrid approaches, ensuring inclusivity and accessibility in social work. And at the same time values the systematisation of bureaucratic constraints to allow clinical social work to emerge to focus more directly on relational, therapeutic and person-centred interventions.

Objectives of the SIG

  • Foster a European research network on technology and social work that involves researchers with a diverse range of theoretical, methodological, and geographical backgrounds.
  • Advance interdisciplinary and critical research on the digital transformation of social services, the use of data and algorithms in decision-making, digital competencies for social work professions and the role of technology in social intervention.
  • Explore the ethical, political, and professional implications of using technology in social work.
  • Advances in research on how digital transformation is reshaping society and creating new needs and how social work can respond to these challenges with creativity, ethical awareness, and innovation.
  • Facilitate collaboration and knowledge exchange through joint research projects, publications, funding, and knowledge transfers.
  •  Encourage participatory and innovative approaches to studying and shaping technological practices in social work.
  •  Promote continuous analysis, dialogue, and visibility in this field within and beyond the ESWRA community.

2. Scope of the SIG:

The SIG will focus on the intersection between technology and social work research. It will explore how digital tools, platforms, artificial intelligence, data management, and emerging technologies are shaping social work practices, management, ethics, education, and policy across Europe. The field of interest encompasses a broad spectrum of theoretical and methodological approaches, aiming to generate multidisciplinary dialogue and critical reflection. Topics may include but are not limited to digital inclusion, algorithmic decision-making, digital competencies, online service delivery, surveillance, facilitated participatory methods, AI, and the ethical implications of data use in social work.

3. SIG Convenors

4. Founding SIG members

  • Dr Anne Wullum Aasback, Researcher, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Samfunnsforskning, Norway
  • Dr Johnson Chun-Sing Cheung, Senior Lecturer, Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong
  • Mrs E. Claassens, Lecturer in Social Work, Department of Social Work & Criminology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria, South Africa
  • Dr Sanna Hautala, Professor of Social Work, Department of Social Work, University of Lapland, Finland
  • Prof. Dr Melinda Madew, Professor of International Social Work, Protestant University of Applied Sciences Ludwigsburg, Germany
  • Dr Matilde Høybye Mortensen, Associate Professor in Social Work, VIA University College, Denmark
  • Dr Kettil Nordesjö, Associate Professor in social work, Department of Social Work, Malmö University, Sweden
  • Dr Lorena Valencia Gálvez, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, School of Social Work, University of Barcelona, Spain
  • Mrs Katri Ylönen, Principal Lecturer, Institute of Rehabilitation, School of Health and Social Studies, JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Finland