The Purposes and Values of Research

Abstract

Social work practice is, at any one time, a reflection of a particular set of assumptions about the causation of personal and social problems and the most effective responses to these. It relates to theories of the way society operates and tests those theories by acting on them (Kingsley, 1985). In Chapter 2, we explored theoretical perspectives on the ways in which subjective understandings of the world are shaped through experience and social context. Research has often felt irrelevant to the social work world because it has not allowed for subjectivity.