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Client participation is one of the social work’s central ideals, yet several studies have illustrated the challenges around including client perspectives in decision-making and action-planning procedures in institutional settings. The present study explores how social workers can help clients form and expresses their views to influence decisions about how to proceed in their case. We use a discourse analysis methodology focused on naturally occurring interactions in meetings in which a client initiative has consequences for the decisions made. Our analysis illustrates a process where the social worker assists the client in taking the initiative to form and express their views about how to proceed in the case followed by joint exploration, adjustment and concretisation of the client’s initiative into an institutional referral. This account casts participation in conversation as more than the acceptance or implementation of clients’ ideas or requests. Rather, participation in this setting is a negotiated activity that entails supporting clients in developing thoughts and ideas about how to achieve their long-term goals within the available framework of institutional resources. The analysis offers concrete implications for practice, as the single case illustrates interactional practices involved in facilitating client participation within a welfare-to-work context.

Given the emphasis on communication in social work, the empirical study of social work interactions is an important area for research. By examining recordings of naturally occurring social interaction and analysing participants’ practices in close detail, conversation analysis (CA) provides rigorous resources for understanding the practical challenges and opportunities of professional intervention. Since the origins of CA in the 1970s, this approach has been used for investigating interactions in a wide range of institutional domains. Based on articles published in peer-reviewed journals in English, this scoping review maps the development of CA in social work research. The review gives an overview of the institutional contexts, professional groups and client groups that have been investigated using CA methods, as well as how their interactional practices have been examined. We show contributions of CA to understanding social work in terms of specific interactional practices, how practitioners accomplish challenging institutional activities in interactions and how theories and ideals about interactions relate to social work practice. The review highlights research gaps concerning clients’ resources for pursuing agendas, embodied conduct in social work, contributions to the cumulative body of CA research and implications for practice. We discuss these findings in relation to CA as a relatively new approach in social work research and the challenges which CA may need to address to become a more integrated part of social work research and practice.

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