Summary

Given the global and local social inequalities and the complex life circumstances of people living in poverty, social workers are called upon to broaden their knowledge with the purpose of developing social services that respond to the needs of this growing population. However, very little research has been done on the kind of knowledge that social workers require in order to care for this population. The present article focuses on the epistemological aspects of service development for people living in poverty and reviews three main issues: What is “poverty knowledge,” where does it come from, and what are the barriers to and opportunities for its development? These questions are investigated through a qualitative paradigm among social workers employed in Israel’s public social services.

Findings

Findings reveal a profound epistemological controversy about what poverty knowledge means: Is it objective, consistent, readily available, and transferrable knowledge, or is it a dynamic and reflexive process affected by a great number of fluctuating contexts? Findings stress the dominance of positivist views of poverty knowledge, mostly derived from practice while other sources of knowledge development, such as service users’ local knowledge, theory, and research knowledge were seen as less relevant to their needs.

Applications

Practical recommendations are offered relating to the need for poverty knowledge development processes in social services as well as in social-work education through collaborative, contextual, and reflective learning with and from service users and other stakeholders.

中文翻译：

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认识贫困：社会工作者对贫困知识的看法

概括

鉴于全球和地方的社会不平等以及生活在贫困中的人们的复杂生活环境，社会工作者被要求拓宽知识面，目的是开发社会服务，以满足不断增长的人口的需求。然而，关于社会工作者为照顾这一人群所需的知识种类的研究很少。本文重点关注贫困人群服务发展的认识论方面，并回顾了三个主要问题：什么是“贫困知识”，它来自哪里，它的发展障碍和机遇是什么？这些问题是通过在以色列公共社会服务中雇用的社会工作者的定性范式进行调查的。

发现

研究结果揭示了关于贫困知识意味着什么的深刻认识论争论：它是客观的、一致的、随时可用和可转移的知识，还是一个受大量波动环境影响的动态和反思过程？调查结果强调了贫困知识的实证主义观点占主导地位，主要来自实践，而其他知识发展来源，如服务使用者的本地知识、理论和研究知识，被认为与他们的需求不太相关。

应用

通过与服务使用者和其他利益相关者的合作、情境和反思学习，就社会服务和社会工作教育中贫困知识发展过程的需求提出了实用建议。