European Perspectives on Social Work: Models of Education and Professional Roles. A Briefing Paper
Comparative research undertaken by the Thomas Coram Research Unit found that social workers in England have more responsibility and a wider remit than many of their continental European counterparts. 
 
Social workers in England have responsibility for all aspects of case management and direct contact with families, but in much of continental Europe these responsibilities are split between several different highly-trained professionals. 
 
In England, most direct work with children and families is undertaken by support staff, many of whom have no specialist qualifications. In Denmark, Germany and France, most of this work is undertaken by professionals highly qualified in therapeutic and direct work, working alongside social workers. 
 
The report’s authors, Dr Janet Boddy and Professor June Statham, called for a fundamental reassessment of what social workers can and should be expected to do.
The development of guidelines for social workers involved in early childhood development within the Department of Social Development
Social workers employed by the Department of Social Development in South Africa are tasked with the provision of a broad spectrum of social services and may specialise in fields, such as welfare planning, which involves the capacity building, support and monitoring of welfare organisations. Early childhood development services fall in this category, as these services are monitored by social workers. Social workers employed by the Department of Social Development are the only group tasked with the mandate to capacitate, register partial care facilities and programmes, as well as monitor unregistered and registered facilities, on an on-going basis. Social workers adhere to these mandates amid many challenges. The aim of this study is to develop guidelines for social workers, who render services to Early Childhood Development (partial care) facilities. The objectives of this study are to explore the needs of social workers in the Early Childhood Development field in the Department of Social Development, identify challenges related to effective service delivery, explore the current methods of service delivery, develop guidelines and refined the draft guidelines, through a Delphi study. The Intervention Research design was used in this study, as it best suited the development of a tool; however, it was adapted to use only certain phases that were suitable for implementation for this study. The adaptation involved the use of the first four phases of the Intervention research method, combining of phase 1 and 2 to form a new phase 1 of the modified phases that linked to objectives one and two of the study. Therefore, this study only has three operational phases. A qualitative methodology was employed in this study to achieve the intended outcomes. Data collection occurred through semi-structured and telephonic interviews. Purposive sampling was used to select twenty (20) social workers from the Department of Social Development in the Western Cape and five (5) in the Eastern Cape. These participants engaged with Early Childhood Development facilities and interviews were conducted with them, while five (5) telephonic interviews were conducted with social workers in the Eastern Province. Conclusions from the analysed data were used to develop guidelines for DSD social workers within ECD settings. Two rounds of a Delphi study were employed to refine the proposed guidelines.
The development of biological systematics : Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu, nature, and the natural system
A reevaluation of the history of biological systematics that discusses the formative years of the so-called natural system of classification in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Shows how classifications came to be treated as conventions; systematic practice was not linked to clearly articulated theory; there was general confusion over the "shape" of nature; botany, elements of natural history, and systematics were conflated; and systematics took a position near the bottom of the hierarchy of sciences.