No abstract

The ecosystems perspective has become the most prevalent approach for understanding the relationship between person and social environment. It views the individual and larger social systems as separate but contiguous elements that transact with each other in relationships of mutual influence. This article revisions the relationship between person and social environment through the lens of critical theory. Emphasizing distinctively human characteristics, arguments define human actors as coconstructors of, not just interactors within, their social environments. It is suggested that the individual is "in" the larger social system not so much the way a smaller box is contained within a larger box but rather the way dancers are in a ballet or a football team is in a game. The dancers and the players co-constitute the dance and the game. Although human behavior is shaped by society and its structures, those very structures are recursively constructed, maintained, and reproduced by the social actions of human agents over time. Implications for social work practice, research, and education are discussed.

In this article, I argue that the starting point for inquiry about practice knowledge should be the empirical question, How does the competent practitioner go about knowing "in" practice? Using the work of Jurgen Habermas, Michael Polyani, Donald Schon, and others, I advance a claim for the nonderivative status of substantive rationality alongside the technical in the construction of professional knowledge. I maintain that the researcher and practitioner have functionally different relationships to the practice arena and, therefore, differing cognitive interests for their involvement in that arena. These interests are assumed decisive for (1) categories in which knowledge is structured, (2) methods by which truth claims are authenticated, (3) the type of discourse in which knowledge is communicated, and (4) the mode in which knowledge is available to the knower.The professional school of social work builds its raison d'etre on the notion that theoretical knowledge can be translated into skills and know-how for practice. In the prevailing view, knowledge generated and disseminated in the academy is applied to problems faced in the practice arena. 1 The language of technology (applied research) is the metaphor of choice for the relationship assumed to exist between the achievements of the academic, on the one hand, and the work of the practitioner, on the other. From the perspective of this metaphor, the role of the researcher-theoretician is to produce and authenticate knowledge, whereas the role of the practitioner is to apply Social Service Review (June 1992).

The person-in-environment perspective in social work is a practice-guiding principle that highlights the importance of understanding an individual and individual behavior in light of the environmental contexts in which that person lives and acts. The perspective has historical roots in the profession, starting with early debates over the proper attention to be given to individual or environmental change. Theoretical approaches that have attempted to capture the meaning of person-in-environment are presented, as well as promising, conceptual developments.

Within recent social work literature, the concept of empowerment as a practice perspective has received wide endorsement. In this article, I argue that adopting the notion of empowerment as a framework for practice requires not only that we think differently about professional practice but, more fundamentally, that we think differently about professional knowledge. Using the work of philosopher Jiirgen Habermas, particularly the distinction he makes among three arenas of human activity-work, interaction, and power-I outline ways in which the functional and cognitive interests associated with these arenas dictate differing orientations to practice, alternate commitments to various forms of knowledge as applicable in practice settings, and different accounts of practitioner error. Implications for professional education are addressed.