ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book addresses some of the fundamental issues surrounding the relationship between theory and practice. The knowledge base of social work and the relationship between theory and practice are significant areas of debate and yet epistemology remains a rare word in the social work literature. The existentialist framework is one amongst many which can be used to try and understand social work and so it is necessary to establish what existentialism can offer which other paradigms fail to achieve. Existentialist social theory places great emphasis on the concept of the 'group'. Existentialism attempts to grasp social reality as a dialectical totalisation and this offers scope for understanding social work as a concrete whole. Jean-Paul Sartre's contribution to understanding the social and political sphere owes much to Marx's dialectical materialism.
