Generating Innovation in Social Work

Abstract

A paradigm of inquiry is presented in which the objective is to generate interventional innovation and other social technology for social work. Social technology is described as the technical means by which social work objectives are achieved, and is specified in terms of nine general types. Because there is continuing need to generate new social technology in social work and conventional research methods are not well suited to the task of developing new social technology, there is need for a different methodology. The models of research and development and research utilization are among the areas of applied research reviewed that make contributions to an emerging model of developmental research. The phases, material conditions, and operational steps of developmental research are presented in the context of a more general model called developmental research and utilization (DR&U). Eight sources of basic information necessary to the design and innovation of social technology are presented. The methods critically involved in the generation process in which information from a basic source is transformed into a new technological product are among the distinctive research methods of developmental research. The presentation provides the basis for the conclusion that developmental research may he the single most appropriate model of research in social work.