Domain analysis of social work: An example of an integrated methodological approach
Knowledge organization, (2003)Abstract
This study exemplifies an integrated methodological approach to domain analysis. The study analyzes the field of social work. It is aimed at developing a systematic, comprehensive, and scientifically valid knowledge map, and its applicability as an efficient tool to adequately represent knowledge in the field. The map is composed of seven parts: foundation (meta-knowledge), social worker, environment, organization, area of practice, method, and client. The study followed a qualitative four-phase research methodology. The first phase was a phenomenological analysis of the basic characteristics of social work as a social service. The analysis resulted in a seven-facet subject classification. In the second phase the conceptual skeleton was elaborated, and adjusted to the field of social work by a grounded-theory methodology. The data used for grounding the model were 14 social work resources. The model was tested in the third phase by classifying 200 terms randomly selected from the Dictionary of Social Work (Barker, 1999). Finally, in the fourth phase we classified 197 papers published in two leading journals, Social Work and Social Service Review, in three successive years, 1997, 1998, and 1999. This exemplary study has implications for domain analysis. The paper discusses these implications.