"We are delighted that "Understanding Research in the Pandemic and Other Exceptional Situations. Practical and Methodological Findings of Reconstructive Social Work" as volume 23 of our book series Reconstructive Research in Social Work has been published in open access by Verlag B. Budrich," says Dr. Claudia Streblow-Poser(Opens in a new tab) , Professor of Social Work in the Faculty of Applied Social Studies . The starting point for the volume was almost a year and a half ago, when the annual conference of the Reconstructive Social Work Network(Opens in a new tab) was held in the context of the exceptional pandemic situation that had already lasted for over a year at the time.
Network Reconstructive Social Work and Research in the Pandemic
In the Reconstructive Social Work Network - for the development of research, teaching and professional practice, academically active colleagues throughout Germany (and in some cases beyond) exchange ideas and develop the theoretically and methodologically based concept of reconstructive social work. But how can research that enters living environments succeed if the social work profession itself was prevented from carrying out home visits? And what's more: what added value do qualitative reconstructive approaches have for academia, the profession and university didactics in the context of the pandemic?
Conference "Taking stock: Reconstructive research in times of a pandemic"
These initial considerations became the subject of the digital conference "Taking stock: Reconstructive research in times of a pandemic". The contributions at the conference illustrated, for example, how reconstructive approaches are suitable for researching new problems and their patterns of coping with life, which ethical dimensions need to be considered, which metaphors are used to describe the pandemic and how diary entries by students have replaced interviews in teaching.
Publication in the book series "Reconstructive Research in Social Work"
The conference was so well received that the five organizers quickly decided to acquire funding (thanks to the Hans Böckler Foundation(Opens in a new tab) and the TH Köln(Opens in a new tab) ) and to invite the contributors (researchers and students) to participate in the publication so that - in keeping with the network concept - the discussions and ideas would continue to bear fruit.
The book is currently published by B. Budrich and has also been published Open Access in addition to the printed version.