Prof. Dr. Peter Sommerfeld

    Undergraduate and postgraduate education and work experience

    • Studied sociology, psychology and educational sciences at the University of Tübingen
    • PhD in Social Pedagogy, Institute of Education, University of Tübingen with Hans Thiersch and Ludwig Liegle
    • Senior assistant to the Chair of Social Work, University of Fribourg
    • Head of R & D, Social Affairs, FH Solothurn, member of the Management Board
    • Head of the Institute for the Study and Development of Social Work as a Profession, FHNW School of Social Work, member of the Management Board
    • Professor for Social Work at the Institute for Social Work and Health at the FHNW School of Social Work

    Main focus

    • Theories of social work, in particular system theories
    • Social work as a profession and action science
    • Social work and psychiatry
    • Social work in health care
    • Research-based social work
    • Theory-practice interfaces
    • Case-based reasoning
    • Diagnostics in social work

    Further information

    • 2006 to 2015: Co-founder and Vice President of the Swiss Society for Social Work (SGSA)
    • 2012 to 2018: Co-founder and Board member of the European Social Work Research Association (ESWRA)
    • Since 2017: Honorary member of the Swiss Association of Social Work in Health Care (sages)
    • Review activity for SNF (Swiss National Science Foundation), Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Soziale Arbeit, British Journal of Social Work, Qualitative Social Work, European Journal of Social Work, Neue Praxis