Special Issue: What is going on? Digitalization in social work

What is going on? Digitalization in social workIt is impossible to comprehend the many different ways in which digitalization is transforming our world.The increased development and use of digital technologies in almost all aspects of life influences and transforms social structures, interactions and cultural norms.In this special issue, we focus on how social work practice is impacted and transformed by digitalization in several significant ways.Digitalization of social work, or the practice of digital social work, can be defined as the use of new information and communication technologies in social work practice, and includes a wide range of technologies and activities, such as digital contact with clients and the implementation of digital administrative system (Pelez & Kirwan, 2023).As pointed out by Boddy and Dominelli (2017), there are many ethical issues associated with digital practice related to, for instance, confidentiality blurring between public and private boundaries, and 'disembodied' communication in digital spaces.Digital skills and knowledge are becoming a transversal specialization, when most of the public administration has been digitized, and interactions with clients are increasingly digital (Pelez & Kirwan, 2023).The Internet, and increasingly artificial intelligence (AI) assisted tools, are becoming a natural part of everyday life, providing both learning and social opportunities.When it comes to social work, AI is being increasingly used to conduct risk assessments, support people in crisis, identify systemic biases in the delivery of social services and provide social work education, among other uses (Reamer 2023).However, increased digitalization, in the form of AI, social media and digital networks, can also put safety, privacy and the physical and mental health of individuals at risk, and therefore demands reflexive implementation and use.Yet, there is lack of clarity about how to deal with such ethical implications of practitioners' use of digital technology.With this issue, we wish to argue for greater attention to, and acknowledgement of, the influential role digitalization, digital media and technologies already have in social work.Covering a wide area of technologies, digitalization processes are becoming an integral part of everyday life for many professions, calling for social work researchers to find ways to examine how and in what ways digitalization is continually re-shaping everyday life and professional practice.