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The annual conference aims to strengthen the scientific bases of social work: it provides an arena for researcher, practitioners, educators and policy makers to disseminate and discuss knowledge which is relevant to social work theory and practice and social policy. The scientific committee invites submission on the following themes:

1) Knowledge production and public accountability in social work
2) Research in social work as participative learning process
3) Standing up to complexity – specific and universal issues in social work
4) Evidence and uncertainty – pathways to accountable social work research and practice
5) Social diversity: Promoting human rights and the role of research
6) Social work and political action: what has research to do with this?


Submission Instructions

You are invited to submit abstracts for presentations of four types:
(1) Oral paper presentation
(2) Poster presentation
(3) Workshop
(4) Symposium

Paper and poster presentation abstracts should be maximum 300 words.

If you are proposing a Workshop please bear in mind that workshops are intended to be more thoroughly interactive than conference paper sessions, with considerable participation and discussion from those attending. They will deal with recent developments in subjects relevant to the conference theme. They may have an explicit agenda of training participants on a given topic, or of generating an interest group for future collaboration.
Abstracts for workshop sessions should be no more than 600 words in length and include a description of the content and how it will be covered (pedagogical methods, etc.). Note: Image(s) and table(s) are not permitted in your abstract.  

If applying for a symposium, please submit an abstract of maximum 300 words for each symposium paper, along with an overall abstract of maximum 500 words for the symposium session that describes the symposium theme and its importance. Preference will be given to symposia that demonstrate cohesiveness across presentations. Symposia will be accepted or rejected in total, i.e., abstracts will not normally be accepted independently.  

Please note that all abstracts are to be submitted online.



If your abstract is for a presentation based on one or more empirical research projects, it should be submitted to include the following:

• Background and purpose: description of the problem, study objectives, research question(s) and/or hypotheses.

• Methods: study design, including a description of participants and selection strategies, data collection procedures, measures, and approaches to analysis.

• Results: specific results in summary form, or way forward.

• Conclusions and implications: description of the main outcome(s) of the study and  implications for practice, policy, or further research.

• 1-4 keywords 

If your abstract is for a presentation which is not based on primary empirical research, it should include the following:

• Background and purpose of the proposed presentation.

• A summary of the main points of the presentation

• How the proposed presentation addresses one or more of the conference aims and themes.

• Conclusions from and implications of your presentation for practice, policy, or subsequent research.

• 1-4 keywords


Click here to download the submission instructions in PDF format.


The Call for Abstracts is now closed!
Submissions will be selected through a peer review panel and notification of decisions made by 20th December 2013.