Social Work as a Transformative Science: The Importance of Relevance Structures in Knowledge Production

Abstract

Abstract This article focuses on the question of how cooperative knowledge production takes place and, in particular, how novel knowledge is formed and implemented in organisational action. According to the current state of knowledge, this process, which results in a change in the way an organisation acts, is called social innovation. The framework for argumentation and reflection is provided by studies from the social work sciences on cooperative knowledge production and social innovation, as well as studies on the hybridity of knowledge and its interaction with the knowledge resources of scientific and non-scientific actors. Relevance structures are recognised in this article as a fundamental structure in the field of cooperative knowledge production; they significantly influence the question of how and when new knowledge leads to social innovation. A research project on homelessness serves as an example. Homelessness has been a research topic in Europe for many years. In Switzerland, however, there are hardly any scientifically sound studies and there are also few documented methods of action in practice. From this point of view, homelessness in Switzerland is therefore in need of innovation.