Abstract
This volume collects contributions to an international conference held on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the degree programme in Social Work at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. The conference aimed at the reflexive assessment of the challenges for social work education, practice, and research highlighting the importance of both context and cultural sensitivity as well as the outreach through dialogue, exchange, and learning in a comparative and European perspective. The contributions intend to foster such a dialogue as well as the development of a common and critical understanding of social work as a profession and discipline which engages with its historical and political contexts and keeps alive the debate about its scientific foundations, values, professional standards and criteria of appropriateness and accountability in different practice fields and in changing welfare arrangements.