The academia–policy nexus is the topic of this book. Drawing on a cross-national quantitative study, we endeavour to better understand the degree to which academics seek to affect the policy formulation process, the means they use to try to affect it, and the factors associated with their level of engagement in this effort. While, hopefully, the findings of the study will have relevance to the wider universe of academia, the book's focus is on academics from schools (departments) of social work.

The decision to focus on social work academics is anchored in the nature of the professional schools in which they teach and undertake research and of the social work profession itself. Social work academics are expected to have an impact on the profession they teach, on the scientific field in which they conduct their research, and on the society in which they live. Engaging in policy is an integral component of their assumed impact on society and reflects not only an overarching theme in academia but, more uniquely, it is also a key component of social work.

At the core of the social work profession is a strong commitment to social justice and the consequent expectation that social workers involve themselves in policy processes and social reform (Hessle, 2014; Hoefer, 2012; Jansson, 2014). This is a central stated goal of the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development Commitment to Action, which was published in 2010 under the leadership of three international social work and social development organisations: the International Federation of Social Workers, the International Association of Schools of Social Work and the International Council on Social Welfare. It declared that social workers and social work educators should commit themselves to social change and to social and economic justice and equality, since they witness the daily realities of personal, social and community challenges. Indeed, since the early 2000s, schools of social work in various countries have increasingly sought to train social workers to engage in policy processes, reflecting efforts to equip students of social work with the necessary values, knowledge, perceptions, skills and motivation to do so (Weiss-Gal, in press).

The present volume is underpinned by three assumptions. The first is that social work academics identify with the profession's goal of social justice and its commitment to social and policy change.