How is the work of social workers shaped in terms of individuals and the internal organization of the structure? And how does the relationship between knowledge and practical knowledge affect professional vision, performance and choices of action? This book helps to explore how the working practice of social workers is expressed on that path where knowledge and practical knowledge, learnt in situations, becomes knowing how to work together, weaving together relationships among people, professions, objects, languages, technologies and institutions. The book therefore proposes new ways of combining these two aspects: how social workers construct their knowledge through everyday practices and what it means to empirically study the practical knowledge of social workers.

Silvia Carbone is an RTDA researcher at the University of Messina in General Sociology. Since 2012, she has carried out intense teaching and research activities at different universities: the Universities of Palermo, Trento, Padua, and Verona. Her main research interests include socio-health inclusion, migration and social services and social policies.

Introduction – The institutional, historical and cultural dimensions of the social worker – The dynamic analysis of the profession of social workers – The daily work of the social worker – Body- mediated knowledge – The discursive practice of the social worker – Social workers and the reception of refugees/ asylum seekers: Institutional coordination and cooperation – Considerations – Bibliography.