‘State governing of knowledge’ – constraining social work research and practice

Abstract

Evidence-based practice (EBP) has been launched, spread, and established in social work in Sweden in the last decade. Today, impact studies and 'what works' are the recommended approaches, and medical ways to understand and examine social problems thus are prioritised over the broad social science perspectives on which social work rests. This development has culminated in an institutionalised system called 'state governing of knowledge'. We analyse the Swedish EBP movement as an 'epistemic community', directing our attention to the ways in which evidence is constructed and proclaimed valid for policy and practice. Empirically, we build on documents from various actors involved in EBP in social work and on results from our ongoing research on documentary practices in the social services. We identify four strategies that key actors use within the Swedish EBP community to contest, redefine, and constrain the academic knowledge base of social work: efforts to (1) construct a (state) knowledge bureaucracy, (2) standardise social work research, (3) exclude important aspects of social work expertise, and (4) govern social work practice. All four strategies are supported by 'improvement rhetoric' that aims at justifying the project.

‘Easy ride or born to be wild'? The travelling of evidence-based social work to Sweden

“…Instead it offers finances for the transmission of knowledge or directives, for instance from NBHW, which are disseminated at conferences, courses, and support for organizational development, with regional leaders of development and R&D units as intermediaries. Moreover, the research community has no prominent position in this structure, its role being limited to a consultative one, which has been criticized by the research community (Denvall & Johansson, 2012;Jacobsson & Meeuwisse, 2020). Researchers have also long pointed out the urgent need for a municipal organization that supports EBP, for instance, with individuals specifically assigned to work with and be responsible for questions of evidence on a local level Ponnert & Svensson, 2011).…”

Doing Human Service Ethnography

“…Child welfare agencies make critical decisions regarding the futures of families, children and youth based on clear evaluations of family functioning and child well-being (Holland, 2011). Rational argumentation, legal support and systematic knowledge are paramount in this work; this is increasingly reflected in the use of manuals and control systems to ensure that social workers make ostensibly rational decisions based on the documented 'facts' of cases (Jacobsson and Meeuwisse, 2018). These are the resonances of one side of the paradox.…”

Socialt arbete och människor med psykiska problem – en introduktion

“…Det är intressant att se att den här praktiska kunskapen, metoderna och erfarenheterna inte satt några tydliga spår i Socialstyrelsens kunskapsredovisningar och nationella riktlinjer (Jacobsson & Meeuwisse, 2018). Eftersom sociala och socialpsykologiska insatser låter sig svårligen underkastas forskningsmetoder som randomiserade kontrollerade studier (Bergmark, Bergmark & Lundström, 2011), blir de därför kraftigt underrepresenterade i svenska statliga kunskapsgenomgångar som ligger till grund för nationella riktlinjer (Hydén, 2008;Topor, 2006).…”