Social work research through and towards human relationships

at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy.The main conference theme was 'Social Work Research through and towards Human Relationships'.Social work research, professional practice and policymaking are human relationships in which the focus is not something but someone at the individual and collective levels.Thus, promoting social work research through and towards human relationships is a possibility to retain the key values of the profession and to inform policies and political decisions in complex times.Through research and knowledge development processes, social work researchers give voice to the voiceless, stimulate critical debates, inform social policies and practices, and guide transformative processes through and towards human relationships inspired by such principles as empowerment, reflexivity, self-determination, equality and reciprocity.The conference was attended by more than 600 participants from 37 European and non-European countries and represented an important opportunity for sharing critical debates focusing on how human relationships shape our practice as researchers, educators and practitioners.The conference theme was first approached through six keynote speeches focused on 'Social work ethics' (by Sarah Banks), 'Relational approach in social work research' (by Fabio Folgheraiter), 'Social work participatory research with the communities' (by Meredith Powers, Jean Pierre Wilken and Chiara Menescalchi) and 'Geopolitics of knowledge and social work: decolonial perspectives for epistemic justice' (by Giannina Muñoz Arce).