Social Work

Social work is not a static activity but responds to both social need and social change. This means it is not possible to provide an essential definition of social work or to provide a definitive list of the roles and responsibilities of social workers. For example, a 2017 study by Katharine Hill and colleagues titled State Definitions of Social Work Practice: Implications for Our Professional Identity in the United States of America and published in the Journal of Evidence-Informed Social Work, found 51 different definitions of social work in the state of Columbia alone. If one considers historical and geographical variations, social work becomes a truly partial and disputed concept. Bearing such considerations in mind, this entry introduces the concept of social work with a ...