<p>Social work is a social phenomenon, existing in most societies, that has given rise to a multitude of special organizations and professions. For that reason social work is dealing with a complex identity. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how social workers and the scientific discourse interpret the concept of social work. In addition to that the study intends to show similarities and differencies. The research process containes two studies, one based on qualitative interviews with five social workers and the other consisting a surway of academic litterature. To enable a comparison of the results the studies start out of some, deliberatly choosen, themes. These are “definitions of social work”, “socialworkers”, “society, law and organization” and “ethics”.</p><p>In summary, the results, reviled a surprising unity in the interpretations of social work. Social workers, as well as the scientific discourse, manifest social work as a profession that promotes social change and problem solving in human relationships. The differencies concern social work beeing interpret normative by the social workers and more descriptive by the scientific discourse.</p>

Social work is a social phenomenon, existing in most societies, that has given rise to a multitude of special organizations and professions. For that reason social work is dealing with a complex identity. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how social workers and the scientific discourse interpret the concept of social work. In addition to that the study intends to show similarities and differencies. The research process containes two studies, one based on qualitative interviews with five social workers and the other consisting a surway of academic litterature. To enable a comparison of the results the studies start out of some, deliberatly choosen, themes. These are “definitions of social work”, “socialworkers”, “society, law and organization” and “ethics”. In summary, the results, reviled a surprising unity in the interpretations of social work. Social workers, as well as the scientific discourse, manifest social work as a profession that promotes social change and problem solving in human relationships. The differencies concern social work beeing interpret normative by the social workers and more descriptive by the scientific discourse.