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Research in Social Work has become increasingly important in a time of advanced use of technology and the need for more evidence in decision-making at micro, meso- and macro-level. Several factors contribute to this perspective: in the developed world, social work research serves to choose objectively between multiple possibilities of addressing social problems (e.g. implementing social work programs), to support prove and highlight the added value of social work, or to refine its methods and techniques; in the developing world social work research serves similar aims, but with less complexity (as a result of lack of resources, or of advanced research expertise) and sometimes is accompanied or supervised by researchers from developed countries. Moreover, in times of fewer resources being allocated for developing social work programs, research becomes a luxury for the developing world, while in the developed one is more market-driven. When resources are scarce, in the former case those available are directed to the most pressing (social) needs, or to support measures such as conditional cash transfers, while in the later, fundamental research is replaced by research aiming at finding ways to increase economic productivity, or for instance labour market participation of specific vulnerable groups. Where is Romania in this puzzle? Though classified as ‘upper-middle income country’ by the international agencies (e.g. World Bank), social work research in Romania is closer to the developing world, being rare, commissioned (or project-based), sometimes carried out pro bono by devoted researchers or without specific funding and mostly limited to a small group/area. With some notable exceptions, the degree of complexity in terms of methodology is reduced, thus their impact on policy-making, practice or theory is unknown.
This special issue of Social Work Review started from this status quo and brings together theoretically-driven articles (the article by Van Raemdonck, Seedat and Raeymaeckers on the capability approach and the one by Rotărescu and Sleath on recovery from drug addiction), articles proposing to link research with decision-making (article by Nongrum from India), research notes on new methodologies (Eser Davolio’s article on the use of quasi-experiment for practice rationale) and articles targeting specific groups/problems – children from Albania (Tahsini and Duci), children and young people with Down Syndrome from Romania (Alexandru), elderly from Romania (Rușitoru and Gal) and Roma people ethnic identification in Romania (Buzea and Dimitrova). We conclude with two book reviews of a classic eight edition of the Research Methods for Social Work (by Allen Rubin and Earl Babbie) and the other one, by Ian Shaw and Susan Holland on Doing Qualitative Research in Social Work.
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