Gratitude and Dedication

Abstract

The special issue began with a series of conversations that coincided with our assumption of the coeditorship of the journal. In our discussions, we were excited to find a special issue topic and an approach to the special issue that would reflect our interest in connecting the present world of human service organizational and management practice with the future-forward world of research on human service organizations and managers. The topic of “The Future of Human Service Organizational and Management Research” was thus quite easy to select. We were interested in having leading scholars provide panoramic overviews of critical human service organizational and management practice challenges and needed future research emphases. We were not at all interested in restricting the topic to a well-defined subfield of human service organizations and management; nor did we want to be dogmatic in how authors approached their pieces. In essence, our hope was that the authors of the 10 commentaries comprising the special issue would offer their own perspectives, using their own scholarly styles and research backgrounds, to contribute to the good of the whole. The approach was a little more challenging to envision, but soon took flight as we played with the idea of a macro practice/research salon. To Habermas as well as critical scholars of the Enlightenment era, salons emerged in Europe as rising economic conditions supported the development of bourgeois social cultures. (A comparable institution in Asia was organized around teahouses.) Salons were small, intimate gatherings that sought to promote high-level dialogue and sharing of the newest ideas, while drawing connections to classical influences. They presented opportunities for serious and convivial discussion, in which guests were intimately connected with current affairs because they were deeply involved in them. Needless to say, there was a performative aspect to the salon, involving intellectual interchanges that were rooted in the concerns of the present. Salons arguably fell into disuse as a result of reduced cosmopolitanism and increased nationalism and authoritarianism. The idea of a macro practice/research salon therefore appealed to us, as it reflected: the need to identify and support future generations of macro practitioners and scholarresearchers; the rise and uncertain effects of new research and educational developments in the social work academy; and the changing environment of public and private human service organizations. The macro practice/research salon thus provided an opportunity for the commentators to make individual and collective sense of these developments. We express our immense gratitude to those who supported the salon. In their capacity as current and former Managing Editor of the journal, Amanda Mosby and Tiffany Newton were indispensable in organizing the salon and seeing the special issue through to its completion. Abby Carson from Taylor & Francis supported the food and beverages so needed for our gathering. And Patty Couch of Travelink and the Society for Social Work and Research provided the venue for the salon. After the salon concluded, the following experts helped to improve the works-in-progress as the special issue took shape. We name them here to express our gratitude for their efforts.