In this chapter, we focus on Finnish social work academics’ engagement in welfare policy against the background of some distinctive features of Finnish social work. To provide a basis for the interpretation of the empirical results, in the next section we briefly discuss three different types of factors that may assist in viewing faculty members’ positions in context. Firstly, social work in Finland has developed and is undertaken primarily in the public sector as an integral part of a comprehensive Nordic-type system of social benefits and services. Secondly, Finnish social work education is only offered at universities. A position as a public sector social worker requires a Master's degree, based on the idea that qualified social workers should have scientific training (Mäntysaari, 2005). Thirdly, social work only became a major subject at universities in the 1990s, having previously had the status of a sub-programme within the ‘mother discipline’ of social policy. The result of this might be characterised by the somewhat contradictory position of social work as an academic discipline. It is an important and independent discipline providing knowledge and professionals for the welfare state, but at the same time it is dependent on the role given to it by the (welfare) state and its position in relation to other academic disciplines studying the welfare state, including, among others, social policy.

The important but limited role of social work in the social welfare policy system, together with the markedly academic/scientific character of social work education, would seem to point at, for example, a strongly perceived professional (academic) role, while engagement in more general social welfare policy issues could perhaps be assumed to have been less pronounced.

On the other hand, as in many other countries, societal development at large and the development of issues more directly related to social work have been marked by diverse challenges and negative trends. These might have resulted in social work faculty members perceiving a need to engage in public policy development and in social welfare policy issues, by using the various channels provided by their position within the university system.

The importance of these different factors, and how their interplay affects social work academics’ engagement in welfare policies in contemporary Finland, have so far been the subject of very limited scholarly attention.