Perspectives on the future workshop as a participatory methodology to include service users in practice research

In the Social Work Practice Research there has been an awareness of the involvement of service users that need to be more included in the research methods. Various stakeholders contribute to knowledge production with the ambition of bringing research closer to practice or vice versa. While this is an interesting development, there is still a need to develop hands-on methods which can ensure the inclusion of service users in practice research. I argue that “future workshops” (Jungk and Müllert 1987) with the right measures and openness is an appropriate method to involve marginalised groups and collectively benefit from practice research by:

1) achieve new knowledge in a collaboration,
2) a more (deliberative) democratic approach,
3) strengthen the agency and service users,
4) joint responsibilities and learning processes

As an empirical example, I use my ongoing PhD-project concerning how service users and practitioners experience opportunities to involve families in digital technologies in the child welfare system where future workshops, interviews and observations are being used as methods. The project is inspired by practice research. In the field of child welfare services, there are challenges in involving vulnerable children and parents. While there in practice research is a common understanding of collaboration consists of dialogue, negations, and compromises, it is still uncertain how all stakeholders can contribute to positioning as subjects rather than being just objects.