ABSTRACT
Social work has always been a contested activity, characterised by a history of uncertainty and of continually shifting identities (Lorenz, 1994). Its search for meaning and coherence has taken place in the context of a series of crises in relation to its status as an academic discipline and a professional practice (Camilleri, 1999). Subject to competing challenges both from within and without, there is currently renewed interest in the theoretical and research dimensions of social work, at a time when recent and ongoing major changes in the broad social, political and economic context in which practice takes place require a further re-evaluation of social work's role and a re-examination of its identity. A continuing flow of texts is contributing to such a reappraisal, notable among them recent books by Fawcett et al. (2000), Ife (1997), Jordan (2000), Leonard (1997), Lyons ( 1999), Parton (1996a), Parton and O'Byrne (2000), and Pease and Fook ( 1999); Davies and Leonard's forthcoming collection (in the same series as this present one) will add to this list. Our own aim here is similarly to stimulate and contribute to further debate on the fundamental nature and role of social work, and about its future, in light of the dominant constraints and opportunities facing the discipline and the profession at the beginning of the twenty-first century. We envisage this collection as an exploratory conversation on these matters amongst the contributors and, by extension, with readers. We hope thence to promote wider discussion in a similar spirit.
