Walter Lorenz is Professor of Social Work at the Free University of Bozen/Bolzano, Italy, and was previously Jean Monet Professor at University College, Cork, Republic of Ireland. His research focuses on the interface between social policy and social work practice in different European contexts.Ian Shaw is Professor Emeritus at the University of York, UK. He was the inaugural chair of the European Social Work Research Association, and his most recent book is Social Work Science.

• Introduction: Private troubles or public issues? Challenges for social work research 1. Reconsidering the ‘idea’ of evidence in evidence-based policy and practice 2. Science and social work: a sketch 3. Reaching the person—social work research as professional responsibility 4. Standing up to complexity: researching moral panics in social work 5. Social work education in a time of national crisis in Greece: educating the workforce to combat inequalities 6. Attitudes toward poverty among exit students of undergraduate social work programs in eight Latin American countries 7. The circle of social reform: the relationship social work—social policy in Addams and Richmond 8. The street-level delivery of activation policies: constraints and possibilities for a practice of citizenship 9. Active social policies revisited by social workers 10. Investigating the quality of social work. An experience of self-assessment with Italian social workers 11. Towards an interactional approach to reflective practice in social work 12. Critical factors of intensive family work connected with positive outcomes for child welfare clients 13. Migrant voices addressing social work: listening to Italian women in Germany 14. Culturally sensitive social work: promoting cultural competence 15. Education, ethnicity and gender. Educational biographies of ‘Roma and Sinti’ women in Germany 16. Social assistance trajectories in Switzerland: do they follow discernible patterns? 17. Standardisation—the end of professional discretion?