This study is an inquiry into the knowledge acquired and used by social workers, with its focus on their understanding about alcohol and its use in practice. The thesis starts by outlining the relationship between alcohol and social work, and the profession's response to the increasing prevalence of alcohol-related issues in workloads and to calls for more effective intervention responses. It highlights how this is often reflected in demands for social workers to receive more education about alcohol. It then considers possible typologies of knowledge for social work and alcohol, exploring how these are likely to be composed of multiple sources, including both codified and noncodified elements. In reflecting on possible research approaches to gain a better understanding of these knowledge frameworks, it adopts a mixed methods qualitative design which employs extensive biographical interviews and case study vignettes with
fifteen social workers. The presentation and analysis of the data is done within four distinct themes. Firstly, it considers how social workers have knowledge which is acquired from everyday experiences of drinking; it then examines how key work-based experiences of alcohol compound frameworks of understanding, before examining the relationship between formal and informal knowledge acquisition that is displayed within the data. The final chapter of analysis explores how the utilisation of spaces for extended dialogue, both within the workplace and research, can contribute to a greater understanding of the complexities of these typologies. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the implications of working with more holistic knowledge frameworks, for social work education, policy, practice and research.