Active listening in social work – from abstract principle to interactional practice

The project aims to nuance and operationalize the concept of active listening within social work. Active listening is regarded as a practical, context-dependent, and interactionally skilled activity rather than as a set of abstract recommendations from manuals. The goal is to highlight the complexity of active listening, discuss the concept in terms of genuine and feigned attention in interaction, and its implications for communication training in social work. The project also seeks to examine how the communication skills associated with active listening may be employed in text-based communication—particularly in its synchronous forms, where participants exchange messages in real time (such as in an online chat).

The project aims to answer the following research questions:
How is the concept of 'active listening' conceptualized within social work?
In which situations and through which interactional practices can 'active listening' be expressed in professional encounters?
How can 'active listening' be identified and analyzed in text-based interactions?