Towards a Scientific Social Work

This paper critically examines efforts to make social work a more scientifically based profession. Although social workers have long sought to make their profession scientific, consensus on the nature of such a science has been difficult to achieve. An argument is presented for a relatively "open" model of science for social work. Support for this position is based on the lack of clarity regarding a definition of science, shortcomings of traditional approaches, and an examination of alternative perspectives.