ABSTRACT
Social work is a practice, both in the sense that its proficiency arises from the rehearsing and repetition of activities until they are mastered, and in the sense that such rehearsing and repetition occur within the application of knowledge, rather than knowledge by itself. The knowledge of social work is, thus, the interpretation and modification of those boundaries of knowledge that separate different spheres of practice. Philosophically, the concept of practice wisdom has its roots in the Aristotelian concept of phronesis. As Roger Smith argues: in order to achieve a holistic approach to practice, social workers must first bring an appreciation of their own structural location and the associated baggage which exercises significant influence on both the opportunities available to them and the constraints which they experience. De Certeau argues that social science traditionally fails to see the tactical use of culture because what is counted is what is used, not the ways of using.
