Participatory approaches are needed in Finland for service users to participate in designing and developing social services. New collaborative methods are the focus of this research, as this pilot case-study analyses the experiment-driven design approach and its consequences on service users' agency and participation. This practitioner research belongs to the pragmatist research tradition. The data comprises transcribed focus group-and individual interviews of service users and social workers in group operations in a Finnish municipal adult social service organisation. The data is evaluated by content analysis. The experiments with service prototypes allowed the service users to observe the consequences of their actions in practice. Instead of only being heard and consulted, the service users found they could influence the practice in concrete ways. The professionals and organisation shaped the service users' participation and agency by operating as gatekeepers in sharing power. The service users reported that collaboration with professionals and participation in the group gave them a sense of renewed citizenship, improved social skills and helped to manage with personal illnesses or daily struggles. The research concludes that experimentation can provide a way to utilise experiential knowledge in developing social work collaboratively.

How could social workers apply theory in their everyday practice? According to John Dewey, theories are helpful instruments in analysing situations and forming hypotheses which are tested in practical experiments. Inspired by Dewey’s pragmatist philosophy, we designed a “Practice and Theory” pilot intervention group in which social workers were provided external, theory-driven supervision. This research is a three-case study of the pilot intervention group. Based on a thematic analysis of reflective discussions during the last group sessions and follow-up group interviews, we investigate the difficulties the social workers described in applying theoretical knowledge to practice. We explore what consequences they recognized when reflecting on and experimenting with theoretical knowledge. Our study demonstrates that the major barriers were lack of time and access to theories, difficulties in changing one’s own practice and establishing supportive structures, the lack of competence to understand the role theories and having become estranged theories. However, the positive consequences experienced in the three Practice and Theory groups suggest that the pilot intervention could serve as a potential model for integrating theoretical research into practice. The participants considered that reflecting theories enabled new understanding as well as allowed experimenting with new ways of operating. Participating in the group also improved social workers’ argumentation, helping them to recognize their own expertise. It also raised professional self-esteem and enabled self-development. In the group, the dialogical, reflective and experimental inquiry were key to understanding how theoretical knowledge can open new perspectives.

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This 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.