ABSTRACT
This chapter picks up on discussions related to how practice research was established, later unfolded and where it is now heading. The desire to combine practice and research knowledge when developing social work has been present for decades. The conference, or rather seminar, in Salisbury was the first practice research discussion between a broad, international group of social work researchers who had the same agenda: to learn from the other participants. Since the turn of the millennium, Helsinki has been hosting two practice research institutes: the Heikki Waris Institute, founded 2001, and the Mathilda Wrede Institute, founded in 2002, and hence Helsinki was one of the foremost practice research-focused locations internationally, years before the Salisbury conference. The Helsinki conference indicated that the number of practice research studies and initiatives had increased significantly. The conference linked to the Salisbury statement with the intention of scrutinizing and unpacking the discussions raised in 2008.
