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E-social work: an empirical analysis of the professional blogosphere in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy

ABSTRACT In just a very short period of time, the digital revolution and new information and communication technologies have changed the media of learning, inter-professional relationships, and interactions between social work professionals and users. This study, pioneered in Europe, examines one of the least researched dimensions of e-social work: social work blogs in four countries of Southern Europe with long-standing socio-cultural ties (France, Italy, Portugal and Spain). This exploratory study seeks two aims. The first is to identify the scope of social work blogs, in the overall context of the Internet, using the Alexa and Majestic global analytical tools. The second is to determine through an online survey of social work bloggers (in these four countries) if there is a thematic virtual community in social work, what its characteristics are, and if the blogs are, or can become, new tools for professional socialisation. The results reveal some differences by countries and that although virtual networks are not yet widespread, an increasing number of social work practitioners have begun to collaborate in creating a shared professional culture.