This collected volume presents a series of detailed discursive studies of talk and interaction in the social work profession. The eight concepts that the main chapters focus on are key to many important topics in social work. These concepts are: categorisation, accountability, boundary work, narrative, advice-giving, resistance, delicacy, and reported speech. With naturally occurring data in social worker-client encounters, the authors of the volume attempt to establish links between discursive interaction studies and social work practices.

The volume comprises eleven chapters. Chapter 1 is a general introduction where the editors set the scene by discussing the discursive turn in social work research. They point out that using discourse methods to study talk and interaction in social work is oriented towards ‘not only what is said, but how it is said and the interaction between the two’ (3). Some key concepts in discourse and social work studies are also examined in this chapter. Chapter 2 provides a methodological foundation for the studies in the following chapters. After tracing the origin and premises of interaction research, the authors discuss how discursive approaches are related to social work interaction studies. From chapter 3 to chapter 10, the above-mentioned eight discursive and professional concepts are presented in turn with an innovative approach to the empirical analysis of cases in social work settings. Chapters 3 and 4 explore the foundational concepts of categorisation and accountability. With empirical data and analyses, chapter 3 attempts to demonstrate how problems in social work are classified as an institutional communicative practice and chapter 4 explores the concept of accountability by revealing ways in which accountability is constructed, negotiated, and achieved in social work interactions. Chapter 5 considers boundary work as being both enabling and constraining with consequences for interaction and intervention in social work. Chapter 6 is concerned with approaches that examine narratives in social work encounters. While Chapter 7 focuses on advice-giving in social worker-client communication, chapter 8 aims to show how resistance can be dealt with in social work interactional studies. Chapter 9 and chapter 10 turn to two more specific features of human services interaction: doing delicacy and using reported speech in social work communication. The final chapter summarizes the major conclusions of the eight key concept chapters. Implications for social work practice and areas for further research are also offered.

With contributions by twelve scholars of the discourse of social work in seven countries including England, Finland, the United States, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Belgium, this publication constitutes a welcome addition to the field of discourse studies in the context of social work. It would be particularly appealing to post-graduate students and social work researchers interested in the studies of language, communication, and professional practices.