Social Inequalities are still and again on the agenda of social work and social policy. The former promise of social integration in a welfarist context is more and more delegitimized by an increasing number of political interest groups. New conceptual frameworks and normative perspective are needed for social work practice and other educational agencies.

Hans-Uwe Otto and Petra Bollweg from Bielefeld University (Germany), who have edited the new SW&S-Special Issue on Landscapes of Education and the New Role of Social Work argue for a new multi-professional approach, bringing together different agencies of education, youth work and social work on a local and regional level. Such “new landscapes of education” can open a new horizon of human development, Otto and Bollweg suggest and all international contributors do show in their Special Issue-Papers: Maja Mendel and Tomasz Szkudlarek for the Polish situation, Manuela du Bois-Reymond regarding to the Dutch context, Niels Rosendal-Jensen for the Danish education system and Rogério Adolfo de Moura reflecting to the current situation in Brazil.

All papers do show strongly that the specific local context is from fundamental importance for the implementation and establishment for new networks of formal, non-formal and informal education and the question of an adequate ethical background has still to be answered.
The great selection of excellent international papers in the new SW&S-Special Issue, and similarily in all our SW&S-Sections let us declare: The new SW&S-Issue is now available!