Measurement, Meaning, and Justice: Stitching Paradigms Across a Century of Social Service Review

Exploring social work epistemology, this article traces the epistemological evolution of Social Service Review (SSR) publications from 1927 to the present. We identify three broad epistemic eras in the social sciences and then group articles accordingly: positivism (1920s–present); socially situated, constructed epistemologies (1960–present); and critical epistemologies of liberation and repair (1990s–present). Our findings demonstrate that SSR articles have never endorsed a single epistemology but straddle the line between professional and disciplinary responsibilities. Rather than pit epistemic traditions as rivals, this moment calls for stitching across them—weaving measurement into conversation with meaning, critique with evidence, and empirical inquiry with justice and repair.