Social Work Theories and Methods

Mel Gray · Stephen A Webb

Jun 2012 · SAGE

About this ebook

`An excellent book that provides a good deal of valuable material to stimulate debate and to alert readers of the need to engage more critically with the wider world in which social work is located′ - Professor Keith Popple, Professor of Social Work London South Bank University

This exciting book draws together the key contemporary theories, theorists and perspectives used in social work and explains how they are applied in practice and critiqued by social workers.

It provides:

- An outline of the contribution made by a key theorist, theory or perspective to social work

- A selective bibliography of each thinker or approach

- A glossary defining key traditions, with cross links to key theorists and perspectives

- A timeline of key publications

- Study questions at the end of each chapter.

The book will be valuable for undergraduate, graduate students, post qualifying students and researchers in social work.

About the author

In 2008 Stephen Webb was appointed from the University of Sussex, UK to the University of Newcastle. He is Professor of Human Sciences and Director of the newly established Research Institute for Social Inclusion and Wellbeing (RISIW). Professor Webb is one of the worlds leading international researchers in the field of human services, Social Policy and is a pioneer of evidence-based practice research. His influential international research and publications since the late 1980s have significantly enriched the field of human services research by bringing innovative theoretical and methodological perspectives to the evaluation of social interventions and professional practice. His 2006 book Social Work in a Risk Society is widely acclaimed by international reviewers as demonstrating advanced scholarship and integrating sociological analysis to construct new conceptual and methodological frameworks in social work. His 2001 publication: 'Some considerations on the validity of evidence-based practice in social work', British Journal of Social Work, 31 (1), pp.57-79 is the world's highest cited social work (field 1607) publication and ranked as the most influential journal article in the discipline over the past decade (Hodge et.al, 2011).