Collaboration in practice research? Sure! ... But what is the context of practice?

When an empirical Practice Research project is designed, questions of participation arise. Yet, participating in what else than the research process? With practice as a concept of social occurrences, the presentation focuses on collaboration and interactions in Practice Research with a particular interest in social work practices. By applying a theoretical concept of practice, Practice Research can unfold and strengthen the comprehension of the context and interacting positions of the participants.

Based on an ongoing Practice Research study of and with social workers and how they manage their personal service user experiences, whether current or previous, it appears that boundaries of otherwise separated categories of social workers and service users with different and/or unlike positions are transcended. As a methodological contribution, the presentation emphasises the potential of temporary, multiple collaboration processes during a Practice Research study – as an alternative to the idea of overall and constant participation. With collaborative Practice Research, such processes enable social workers to describe their service user experiences in interviews, produce written portraits of their practice experiences, and partake in a practice board to critically discuss and directly contribute to the decision-making during the Practice Research study. Practice concepts help to contextualise knowledge about and with social workers with personal experiences as service users. Among others, the embodiment of social positions in various practice contexts, the interwovenness of social workers’ service user experiences, and what managing these imply.