Call for Chapters: Social Work and Neuroscience
Social work and neuroscience: Implications for policy, practice, and research
Published by Springer Publishing Company
“Neuroscience is at a historic turning point. Today, a full decade after the “Decade of the Brain,” a continuous stream of advances is shattering long-held notions about how the human brain works and what happens when it doesn’t. These advances are also reshaping the landscapes of other fields, from psychology to economics, education and the law (Volkow, 2010).”
Implications from the current decade of discovery for social work practice are tremendous. Understanding the ways in which strategic psychosocial interventions act on brain structures to change behavioral response is deeply relevant to the person-in-environment perspective integral to the social wok profession. Therefore, social workers should be committed to reciprocally promoting new developments in social neuroscience research agendas to incorporate a social work perspective that will inform social and behavioral health fields.
It is crucial that social workers apply empirical knowledge from the social neuroscience literature to social work education, practitioner training, and innovative treatment development, and reciprocally contribute new scientific discoveries to this knowledge base. In advancing our profession’s practice models to incorporate current brain science research, social workers will be positioned to strengthen interdisciplinary research-practice partnerships in ways that enhance our ability to help social work populations. Such interdisciplinary scientific discoveries can be used to inform advocacy efforts in the area of health disparities, influence human service policy decisions, contribute to practitioner education, and facilitate more effective client service-delivery practices.
There is historical and enduring commitment by the profession of social work to construct a research and practice agenda that addresses the complex practice-based questions faced by the populations we serve from a bio-psycho-social perspective. Technological innovations (such as fMRI) and unique funding opportunities have significantly advanced research on social work practice. Still, there is enthusiastic discussion of how to ensure that such capacity development helps the profession move forward in ways that make use of the biological sciences and that facilitate social work–specific contributions to the larger interdisciplinary scientific community. This book entitled “Social work and neuroscience: Implications for policy, practice and research” is contracted with Springer Publishing Company to be published in 2013. The book will be a “snapshot” of the current state of the field of social work and neuroscience and will aim to explain the latest findings in simple language, and include clear implications that can be incorporated into social workers’ daily practice, teaching and future research. .
We are currently soliciting chapters that illustrate how the social work profession can make use of biomedical knowledge and technological advances from social neuroscience to inform social work practice, policy, teaching, and research (across populations and fields of practice).
Process and Timeline for Chapter proposals
1) Submit the following by March 31, 2012 to Jessica Strolin-Goltzman at jstrolin@uvm.edu:
a) Proposed title of chapter
b) Authors, with complete addresses and 150 word biography for each author
c) 500-word outline of proposed chapter, including, where applicable, theoretical, methodological and conceptual considerations.
2) Confirmation of selected chapters for peer review by April 30, 2012. Invited contributors will also receive detailed template for chapters at this time.
3) Invited contributors will have chapters completed by July 31, 2012.
4) The chapters will be peer reviewed and Editors will make final decisions on acceptance. Authors of chapters that are accepted will receive detailed comments and suggestions for revisions by September 15, 2012.
5) The contributors will make all of the necessary edits, and send the final chapters to the editors by November 1, 2012.
6) Once the Editors have approved the text, the finalized, formatted volume will be submitted to the publisher by December 31, 2012
Book Editors:
Holly C. Matto, PhD George Mason University Jessica Strolin-Goltzman, PhD University of Vermont Michelle Ballan, PhD Columbia University