Abstract
This article considers the significance of a web-based experimental project that aims to discover how social work might be displayed and demonstrated via a collection of Objects. An open access approach invited participants to ‘donate’ an object and to tell the story of how and why the object connects them to social work. The aim is to find a way to express the contested nature of social work in a more immediate and accessible way than text book definitions can achieve.
 The experiment is quantitatively successful (more than 150 objects from 25 different countries); in qualitative terms, the objects donated to the website have elicited a very broad range of themes in entertaining and engaging ways. The exhibition has ‘toured’ to many countries where it proves to be adaptive to cultural differences and gives rise to spontaneous object donation, thus proving its relevance and immediacy. Understanding social work via Objects has been used successfully to teach students about the contested nature of social work theory and practice.
Highlights
IntroductionWhereas most people have experienced medicine, nursing, education and the law in some form or other, direct contact with social work is less common
Social work is a largely private occupation
In the 1997 British General Election, the campaign slogan of the winning Labour Party was “Education! Education! Education!” – it brings a smile to think that a political party would ever have “Social Work! Social Work! Social Work!” as its campaign message
Summary
Whereas most people have experienced medicine, nursing, education and the law in some form or other, direct contact with social work is less common. Those who do experience social work are likely to be the most. Social work values like social and economic justice evoke feelings – of passion (for change) and outrage (at injustice) and other emotions, too. Educators and researchers deepen their relationship with social work by telling and listening to stories of social work refracted through Objects?. A collaboration with Universidad de Los Lagos in Osorno, Chile, was hoping to develop a Latin American perspective on the project but has been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic)
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