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The authors review the findings of a research project conducted throughout schools of social work in Europe on the level of attention paid to the vocational use of information technology in social work education. Provided is an outline of the research design and an overview of how information technology is being applied in service provision across Europe. The study introduces the concept of social informatics. Research results suggest a wide gap between the use of informatics in social work agencies and the expectations of social work students because of the attention paid to this topic in the curricula of the schools of social work.
In this paper, we apply a civic perspective and social innovation theory to examine how residents of a Dutch village experiencing rural depopulation and austerity reforms evaluate a civic initiative aimed at improving liveability, and what explains their evaluation. Using multivariate statistical analysis, we found that most residents were positive about the initiative and its contribution to local liveability. We also discovered that a substantial group knew very little about the initiative and that low-income groups, in particular, lacked the interest to identify and become engaged with it. Voluntary engagement, however, did not necessarily result in a positive evaluation. Above all, tangible outputs explained citizens’ appreciation. A perceived increase in collaboration within the village and novel forms of collaboration with the local government also proved important, but only when they were accompanied by realised tangible outputs.
