Community Social Labs and Social Work

This book introduces an innovative, experiential and participatory approach to social work education and community transformation. Community Social Labs (CSL) is systematically presented as both an epistemological framework and methodology for co-creating locally grounded solutions to problems that confront communities in the global south.

With a focus on empirical experiences from Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania, this volume challenges readers to recognize communities as co-creators and owners of knowledge, whilst appreciating the role of universities as useful catalysts for societal change. As pedagogy, CSLs offer experiential and context-responsive learning, and they aim to democratize the curriculum to embed local knowledges. Stories directly from the field are used to demonstrate this, narrated first hand by students who participated in this innovative methodology. Thus, this collection offers a balanced and objective assessment of the potential of the approach, and the challenges that come with it.

Contributing new insights to the decolonization and indigenization of social work, this book will be a useful tool for scholars and students who wish to advance and challenge their knowledge and social work practice, as well as professionals and organizations in both government and civil society.

Janestic Mwende TWIKIRIZE is Associate Professor of Social Work at Makerere University, Uganda. She has published 50+ peer-reviewed works, including seven books. She is Secretary of the International Association of Schools of Social Work since 2024. She is a recipient of Makerere University’s 2024 Research Excellence Award. Her scholarship focuses on decolonisation and indigenisation of social work, international social work and child protection.

Ann Christin E. NILSEN is Professor of Sociology at the University of Agder, Norway and the overall project manager of the RESILIENT project. She has published extensively in national and international journals, including four books. She specializes on qualitative research methods and theory of knowledge and her research interest include childhood and families, education and professional work, welfare and social development.