Jane Addams and Epistemic Agency in Contemporary Social Work

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter discusses Addams’s views on knowledge and how they resonate with evidence-informed and theory-informed social work today. Addams and her colleagues adopted the pragmatist method in experimenting and observing the consequences. Besides experiential and sympathetic knowledge, they also applied multidisciplinary knowledge. The chapter illustrates through a social workers’ group intervention model how Addams’s perspectives on knowledge application have contemporary applicability in social work. In the three analyzed groups, the social workers consciously applied the pragmatist method. The participants experienced this supported them to make their interpretations more explicit or to find new ways to operate in clinical work. This can be described as strengthening their personal epistemic agency. At the same time, the shared discussions and active listening within the group enabled epistemic agency at a collective level. To achieve this, having the group as an organizational structure was significant. Epistemic agency is a metacognitive skill that is at the core of the pragmatist method and is a characteristic of a research-minded practitioner. For contemporary social work, Addams’s thoughts on the scientific mindset, the pragmatist attitude, and using multidisciplinary research could provide insights to obtain a wider understanding of evidence-informed and theory-informed social work as a process.