ABSTRACT
Throughout this book[Shaw, I. and Gould, N. (2001)] the writers and contributors have trodden the contested borderlands between research and practice. In so doing, they have persistently questioned and challenged commonly held understandings about both. They have said less about the technical requirements and methods of good qualitative research, and more about the mind-set, values and logics that are essential if qualitative social work research is to prove rigorous and relevant. We have not quite exhausted our agenda. In this final chapter we will confront some conventional positions regarding the contribution of qualitative inquiry to practice.
