Presenter: Professor Ian Shaw
SR Nathan Professor
National University of Singapore

Time: 10am to 12pm, followed by lunch from 12pm to 1pm

Venue: Auditorium, Shaw Foundation Alumni House
Address: 11 Kent Ridge Drive, Singapore 119244

Abstract:
Practitioners sometimes are joined by social work academic faculty and policy makers in thinking social work is at risk from too much – or the wrong kind of – theory, research and the mystifications of science. In this lecture I will endeavour to show that no social work is free from science, theory or research. But I also will suggest that the implications of each of these often are ambiguous for social work. Inescapable – yet ambiguous. I will pursue this through a consideration of the claims for best evidence, reflective practice, and ‘new’ technology. Best practice, I will conclude, calls for practitioners with a critical appreciation of science, theory and research.

Presenter’s profile:
Dr Ian Shaw is S R Nathan Professor of Social Work at NUS and Professor Emeritus at the University of York, England. He was the first chair of the European Social Work Research Association (ESWRA), and a founder editor of the journal Qualitative Social Work. He has authored almost 100 peer reviewed papers, just over 20 books, approximately 60 book chapters and various research reports. He has written extensively in the journals on issues arising from the relationship between social work and sociology over the last century. His work has been translated into several languages including Chinese, Dutch, Finnish, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Welsh. He jointly edits the ESWRA sponsored book series ‘Research in Social Work’ for Policy Press. HIs latest book Research and the Social Work Picture (2018) is in that series. He is pursuing a graduate programme in creative writing, which sits alongside his interests in gardening, his local church, volunteering in his village shop, playing badminton (badly), and Bob Dylan.