ABSTRACT
Process knowledge refers to the understanding of the mental processes by which practitioners reason, judge and make decisions about practice. We know very little about this – in relation to social work – at present, although Sheppard and his colleagues have begun the process of excavating its various dimensions. Social work is committed to an objectivist view (at least in part) of the social world, one which is consistent with this common-sense assumption. In adopting this view social workers are, in the technical sense of their knowledge commitment, realists. Social workers, in dealing with people’s lives (with crucial decisions about psychological well-being and health, with matters of personal liberty, and even, on occasions, life and death), have at least as much claim upon the need for rigour as social scientists. Social workers are not simply involved in meaning making. They are involved in social interaction, and its complex nature further emphasises the importance of analytical processes of thinking and reasoning.
