ABSTRACT
In social work, our general rule or procedure would, in principle, be applicable to practice. Social work, particularly when conducted within the state, is covered by a range of procedures and guidelines, all of which may be considered in some sense to be technical. The more mundane version of technical instrumentalism lies in the managed context of social work. There are various dimensions to this which, in the form of ‘new managerialism’, asserts that ‘better management will provide and effective solvent to a wide range of social and economic ills’. Those most firmly in the positivist camp have strongly pursued an approach to the use of knowledge in social work which follows the deductive model. In the social sciences, we may develop competing theories. We might, for example, attribute juvenile delinquency to the experience of poverty and disadvantage, to the influence of peer groups or to inadequate socialisation as a person was growing up.
