Cross-national comparisons of social work—a question of initial assumptions and levels of analysis

Abstract

The last few decades have seen the publication of articles and textbooks containing surveys and comparisons of social work in different countries. This article discusses various attempts at systematic descriptions and comparisons of social work in different parts of the world. Three main ways of making comparisons are identified: comparisons based on models of social policy, profession-oriented comparisons, and practice-oriented comparisons. Each of the three methods captures essential aspects of similarities and differences in social work, but they all have obvious limitations as well. The article sums up what has been discovered by the different methods of comparison and the criticism that can be levelled at them.