Search results for ‘Publisher:"munksgaard/ blackwell"’ Sort:
Results 1 - 4 of 4
Evaluating community care in Scotland: critical reflections on a study of policy implementation
- Author:
- FULLER R.
- Journal article citation:
- Scandinavian Journal of Social Welfare, 7(2), April 1998, pp.167-173.
- Publisher:
- Munksgaard/ Blackwell
This article describes the reality of evaluation the implementation of the reforms in community care in Scotland in 19993. In doing so it reports a trajectory familiar to evaluative researchers: the presentation of problems at the design stage, and their imperfect solutions; the emergence of delays in timetable; discoveries made during the research which affected the hopes invested in the original design, and the adoption of pragmatic solutions; the outcome of the research and its reception. Ends with some critical reflections upon the study and on evaluative research in general. It is suggested that evaluative research occupies a middle ground which results in the inevitability of compromise, queries whether there is truly an audience for uncompromised evaluation, and argues for the continuation of dialogue after completion as a guard against the ephemerality to which evaluation is often prone.
When is evaluation a scientific activity, when is it not?
- Author:
- TRISELIOTIS J.
- Journal article citation:
- Scandinavian Journal of Social Welfare, 7(2), April 1998, pp.87-93.
- Publisher:
- Munksgaard/ Blackwell
Because of the nature of social work, evaluating its impact on users presents a range of definitional and design problems calling into question the scientific basis of its evaluation. Competing paradigms, claiming to be the only seekers of the truth, may not always suit the problem under investigation or may provide limited answers to questions of outcome. Concepts such as truth, objectivity and certainty are elusive even in the physical sciences and are more so when it comes to human interactions with which social work is concerned. With the limitations of each of the established paradigms in mind, this article puts forward the idea of a composite/pluralist approach. Such an approach can produce relatively reliable and valid results by combining statistical and qualitative methods, including the use of control and comparative samples and of pre- and pro-tests/
Social work research and its dependence on practice
- Authors:
- NYGREN L., SOYDAN H.
- Journal article citation:
- Scandinavian Journal of Social Welfare, 6(3), July 1997, pp.217-224.
- Publisher:
- Munksgaard/ Blackwell
The state of the art in social work research indicated major difficulties concerning the knowledge basis of this discipline. This article aims to contribute to the discourse on the nature of social work research as a scientific activity. It is argues that knowledge is primarily gained through activity in attempting to change social reality and through communication with other people. The article attempts to delimit the provisional borders of social work research. A model of social work field research is presented.
How to use the vignette technique in cross-cultural social work research
- Authors:
- SOYDAN H., STAL R.
- Journal article citation:
- Scandinavian Journal of Social Welfare, 3(2), April 1994, pp.75-80.
- Publisher:
- Munksgaard/ Blackwell
The vignette approach was used in a cross-cultural comparative study of the delivery of the personal social services in the United Kingdom and Sweden. Considers the methodological and practical aspects of the method adapted for cross-cultural social work research.