Towards autonomy? On theoretical knowledge in Swedish social work

Abstract

Social work is held to be interdisciplinary in character, meaning education, practice and research need to import knowledge from other disciplines. At the same time, there are professional claims for the development of a scientific, theoretical knowledge of its own. The aim of this article is to investigate conceptions like interdisciplinarity, knowledge import and paradigmatic openness and thereby discuss the potential contradiction between import and theoretical development within the discipline. This is done through the description and analysis of the use of theory in all of the 89 dissertations so far produced in social work in Sweden and, for comparative reasons, in more than 500 theses written on undergraduate and master’s level courses in 1977–97. On the whole the discipline displays a great deal of knowledge import, theoretical pluralism and a high level of paradigmatic openness. Results show a very strong position for sociology in dissertation research and a strong position for psychology in the educational system. References to social work research are more concealed but in growth. The article closes with the prediction of a change, from the 10/90-relation of today, towards a 50/50-relation between borrowed and domestic theoretical knowledge. Finally, reasons for the erosion of the contradiction are presented.

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