Labs of Contextualized Urban Social Work

Social work and field research work exceptionally well together. Using not only your eyes, but also your ears, nose and other senses, a social worker can gain a deeper understanding of the space around them.

With LOCUS we strive to give students a taste of how it is to interact, collaborate and create with residents as a social worker. We employ a bottom-up approach and ethnographic research methods to facilitate engagement between students, residents and social workers.

We believe this method is important for social work practices because it explores lived experiences of residents and in relation to the residents comes to conclusions about why things work the way they do and how these worlds are experiences.