The aim of this book is to exemplify the ways in which social work and research develop in 'advanced' welfare states - countries where public spending is relatively high as a proportion of GNP. While such countries have traditionally been associated with Scandinavian countries in particular, and North-Western Europe more generally, there are other countries where the public spend on welfare is relatively high.

Introduction. Understanding Social Work in Advanced Welfare States

Section 1: Advanced welfare states: European patterns and trends

1. Diversities and Patterns in Social Work and Research in Advanced Welfare States

2. Social work and research in a Europe of Superdiversity

3. Beyond Flexicurity: The Shift towards Work-First and its Implications for Street-Level Work in the Danish Employment System

4 The impact of Neoliberalism through ideas of productivity - The Case of Child Welfare in Denmark

Section 2: Directions in social work research in advanced welfare states

5. Controversies in social work research - A critical hermeneutic perspective

6. Driving forces in practice research

7. The materiality and materials of social work: on socio-material theories and social work research

8. Institutional Ethnography for people in a vulnerable and oppressed situation.

9. Disagreement as Reparative Critique in the Development of Social Work Practice

Section 3: Directions in social work practice in advanced welfare states

10. Local Community Work as an Incubator - The Role of Governance Technologies in Local Community Work Approaches to Inclusion

11. Proactive, Ambivalent and Defensive Relations between Social Work and Social Policy: The Shaping of Productivity

12. Vulnerable children and young people: An enduring challenge in the Danish welfare state

13. The conception of disability and mental illness in advanced welfare states - A review and a proposal.

14. The body in social pedagogical work

Conclusion

References

Kjeld Høgsbro is Professor of Social Work at the Department of Sociology and Social Work, Aalborg University, Denmark

Ian Shaw is S R Nathan Professor of Social Work at the National University of Singapore, and Emeritus Professor of Social Work at the University of York.