Abstract
I am thrilled to have been invited to join the editorial team as European Book Review Editor, taking over from Mark Hardy, York University. Mark has done a sterling job in the role and I hope to continue his excellent work. It is exciting to be joining the team at the start of the year and contributing to the very first issue of 2016.
My first book review is by Ian Shaw. Inspired by the book, The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity, by Robert Merton and Elinor Barber (2004), Ian's review begins with an exploration of the notion of serendipity and then discusses this specifically in relation to social work. As always, the review reflects Ian's commitment to sociological social work (see Shaw, 2014, 2015). Interestingly, Ian explains how his extensive work on the historical relationship between sociology and social work began by chance when he submitted a paper on this subject, even though he had not done a moment's serious work on the problem before. The paper was accepted and thus began a key strand of Ian's work for the next eight years.
Ian's review made me reflect upon the part that serendipity played in my own social work career. I'd planned to study English Literature at university but a close family bereavement meant that I needed to take a year out. A friend was working across the road from my home and suggested it would be fun to work together. It was a NHS mental health unit and sparked the beginning of my 30-year career in mental health services, from working in an asylum, to supporting people to move from an asylum into the community, and finally 10 years working as a qualified social worker in Community Mental Health teams. My move into academia was also a matter of chance. After taking some time at home with my children, I was looking for a social work post in the paper when I noticed the advert for a registered social worker to undertake an ESRC-funded doctorate. I had never even heard of a PhD studentship but decided to apply, mainly as I thought it would fit in nicely with childcare! I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to spend four years immersed in exploring how mental health social workers accomplish a social work identity when based in Mental Health Trusts. During the four years, it was the articles in Qualitative Social Work which intrigued, inspired and engaged me, as they continue to do today.
Moreover, it is serendipitous that my first review is by Ian as it was his work that I first read when I returned to study social work in 2010 for my PhD. In particular, reading Ian Shaw's (2007) article, ‘Is social work research distinctive?’, initiated a period of reflection and a feeling of uncertainty that pervaded my thinking at the time (as my then supervisor, Hugh McLaughlin, will testify!). Indeed, uncertainty is an element that Ian explores in his review in relation to social work practice; an exploration that is crucial in the culture of blame in which social work exists at present. Furthermore, I was aware that ‘Serendipity, luck, and biography’ all played an important part throughout my doctoral research (Morriss, 2014: 48). Finally, it was through noticing the unforeseen importance of laughter in my interviews with mental health social workers that ultimately culminated in my very first article (Morriss, 2015), published in Qualitative Social Work, the journal founded by Ian Shaw, and the journal I am now lucky enough to be joining as book review editor.