Social Work as a Transformative Science: The Importance of Relevance Structures in Knowledge Production

This article focuses on the question of how cooperative knowledge production takes place and, in particular, how novel knowledge is formed and implemented in organisational action. According to the current state of knowledge, this process, which results in a change in the way an organisation acts, is called social innovation. The framework for argumentation and reflection is provided by studies from the social work sciences on cooperative knowledge production and social innovation, as well as studies on the hybridity of knowledge and its interaction with the knowledge resources of scientific and non-scientific actors. Relevance structures are recognised in this article as a fundamental structure in the field of cooperative knowledge production; they significantly influence the question of how and when new knowledge leads to social innovation. A research project on homelessness serves as an example. Homelessness has been a research topic in Europe for many years. In Switzerland, however, there are hardly any scientifically sound studies and there are also few documented methods of action in practice. From this point of view, homelessness in Switzerland is therefore in need of innovation. New knowledge is of major importance for innovation in social work. This article is dedicated to this topic and focuses on the situation where different knowledge arising from science (scientists), practice (professionals) and everyday experience (the people) meets and is negotiated. This is illustrated by a research project on homelessness. Within the framework of the project, representatives of the different stocks of knowledge met regularly for workshops to identify the most important needs for innovation and change in homeless care, in order to hand it over to academics to research and react to their results, and review how it can be incorporated into practice. The results show that the production of knowledge is by no means linear and homogeneous, but on the contrary very preconditioned and influenced by power structures. The rationalities of time and place (e.g. the local socio-political paradigm, or the European framework of the social investment state) in particular rule the field of cooperative knowledge production. For this reason, the question 'What is relevant for whom and why?' is recognised in this article as a fundamental structure of how and when new knowledge leads to social innovation.