Editorial for the Special Issue "Requirements in Design Processes: Open Issues, Relevance and Implications"

Requirements play a key role in the design process by affecting analysis, synthesis and evaluation activities at different levels and in different ways [...

What surprised you? A questionnaire to map unexpectedness through FBS variables

The paper presents the analysis of an original online survey that aims at checking the factors triggering surprise in randomly chosen evaluators who were submitted a set of surprising products. The authors use the answers to check the capability of a situated FBS-based model to help catch the main factors triggering surprise in products, here seen as a mismatch between what is interpreted and previously conceived expectations. The survey questionnaire shows to be effective in grabbing surprising factors and the results demonstrate that the model allows a strong ex-post convergence in the investigation of surprising factors

The epistemological trends of Social Work in the latin american context

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this article is to share some of the results of the research State of the Art of the Theoretical and Methodological Foundations of the Professional Intervention of Social Work in Latin America. It analyzes the epistemological dimension of professional intervention in Social Work by reviewing scholarly production in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia from 1998-2008. The discussion seeks to advance in the configuration of the disciplinary status of Social Work, by consolidating intervention as the foundational and structuralizing axis of the profession, emphasizing its scientific and transformative character in the realm of the social sciences.RESUMEN: El presente artículo tiene como finalidad compartir algunos de los resultados de la investigación Estado del arte sobre la fundamentación teórica y metodológica de la intervención profesional en Trabajo Social en América Latina. Se aborda la problematización de la dimensión epistemológica en la intervención profesional en Trabajo Social a partir de la revisión de esta producción en cuatro países: Argentina, Brasil, Chile y Colombia, en el periodo comprendido ente 1998-2008. La discusión que se propone, pretende avanzar en la configuración del estatuto disciplinar en Trabajo Social, a partir de la consolidación de la intervención como eje fundante y estructurante de la profesión, reivindicando su carácter científico y transformador en el concierto de las ciencias sociales