As a profession that works directly to improve the human condition, social work has made a special effort to integrate social science knowledge with its methods for identifying and dealing with human problems. This book is about the relationship between the systematic study of human problems and actions to improve them. The group of experts do not provide practical instructions; they do not provide advice on how to conduct evaluation studies or how to solve the problem of homelessness. Instead, the contributors examine the questions and issues that arise, and the knowledge gained, when purposeful attempts are made to understand and solve human problems using the best available social science knowledge.

The issue of the integration of social work and the social sciences has not been examined in any depth in current research. The social sciences have evolved steadily through the years and social workers have increasingly relied on them—both substantively as well as in terms of research methodologies. In turn, social work has contributed to this dialogue by providing challenging research questions, in formulating critiques of social science theory and methodology, and in emphasizing the need to study social problems in their complex environments. The book's goal is to define how social work and the social sciences can continue to build on a clear sense of the issues and developments common to both.