Furthering social justice and human rights is a fundamental principle underlying the social work profession. Engaging in social policy formulation processes is a major route through which social workers can realise this goal. This type of social work activity has been termed 'policy practice'. The aim of this book is to shed light on policy practice in social work discourse, education and practice in eight liberal democracies. This is the first effort to undertake a cross-national study of social worker engagement in social policy formulation processes. The book offers insights into questions such as 'what is the importance attributed to social worker involvement in policy change in the social work discourse and education in different countries?' and 'how do social workers influence social policy in various national settings?' These issues are relevant to social worker practitioners, students, educators and researchers, as well as to social policy scholars, who are interested in the role of professionals in social policy formulation.

Rather than being seen simply as social policy implementors, in recent decades there has been increasing recognition of social workers as professionals with unique knowledge and insights to contribute to policy formulation and social justice. This book offers a path-breaking, evidence-based theoretical framework for understanding why social workers engage in policy, both as professionals and citizens, and the impact of their actions. Drawing on concepts from social work and the political, sociological and policy sciences, the authors set out the implications of this framework for research, education and practice.

Weiss, Gal, Dixon, and their contributors provide the first large-scale cross-national and cross-cultural examination of the views and the perceptions of social workers through this analysis of graduating social worker students on the threshold of their careers in social work. They identify and analyze the graduating social work students' attitudes towards the sources of social distress, the preferred ways to deal with social problems, the goals of social work, and their professional preferences with regard to client groups, types of professional activity, and place of work. Since first being practiced more than a century ago, social work has become an international profession and is today an integral part of the social services in many different countries. However, as Weiss, Gal, Dixon, and their contributors make clear, there is a distinct lack of ideological consensus over the goals, tasks, desired technologies, major client groups, the preferred sector in which to operate, and a variety of other issues. Throughout its history, social work has undergone a constant process of change; nonetheless, despite the existence of a common professional core, social work is quite clearly socially constructed and takes very different forms in the various national settings throughout the world. This book provides the first large-scale cross-national and cross-cultural examination of the views and perceptions of social workers through an analysis of graduating social worker students at the threshold of their careers in social work. The country chapters identify and analyze the graduating social work students' attitudes towards the sources of social distress, the preferred ways to deal with social problems, the goals of social work, and their professional preferences with regard to client groups, types of professional activity, and place of work. Experts on social work provide analyses on Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Zimbabawe.

Rather than being seen simply as social policy implementors, in recent decades there has been increasing recognition of social workers as professionals with unique knowledge and insights to contribute to policy formulation and social justice. This book offers a path-breaking, evidence-based theoretical framework for understanding why social workers engage in policy, both as professionals and citizens, and the impact of their actions. Drawing on concepts from social work and the political, sociological and policy sciences, the authors set out the implications of this framework for research, education and practice.

Furthering social justice and human rights is a fundamental principle underlying the social work profession. Engaging in social policy formulation processes is a major route through which social workers can realise this goal. This type of social work activity has been termed 'policy practice'. The aim of this book is to shed light on policy practice in social work discourse, education and practice in eight liberal democracies. This is the first effort to undertake a cross-national study of social worker engagement in social policy formulation processes. The book offers insights into questions such as 'what is the importance attributed to social worker involvement in policy change in the social work discourse and education in different countries?' and 'how do social workers influence social policy in various national settings?' These issues are relevant to social worker practitioners, students, educators and researchers, as well as to social policy scholars, who are interested in the role of professionals in social policy formulation.

Based on data from 12 diverse societies, this is the first cross-national comparative study on academic engagement in social policy formulation. Chapters present survey data on the policy involvement of social work academics in different countries and an analysis of this data by country experts. This is essential reading for academics and students interested in the ongoing debate on the role of academia in policy.