The COVID-19 pandemic has created a sense of instability in the world that may help people to recognise 'the uncertainty that accompanies the great adventure of humanity' (Morin, 2020). From the perspective of complexity sciences, this pandemic is connoted as a 'systemic emergency', namely a new phenomenon associated with the global unity of a complex system (Morin, 1977).

In this crisis situation, we have seen the interdependence ot the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda. In Italy, the 2020 report of the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS) showed a regression of nine out of 17 goals. Confinement has also been a magnifying glass for social inequalities. In the case of people with disabilities, countries have not been able to take sufficient measures to protect the rights of these people in their responses to the pandemic (COVID-19 Disability Rights Monitor). For this reason, social work is being called upon to confront this emergency and to direct its action towards assistance, to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable people.

This contribution reports the first results of ongoing research, involving some social workers and volunteers of a disability service system in Northern Italy. The arrival of the pandemic in Italy constituted a disruption that forced these services to interrupt their usual activities and to find new ways of action. The decision makers and managers of social cooperatives of this local area grasped the informative scope of what was happening. They decided to start research aimed at identifying useful elements to innovate practices related to social inclusion of people with disabilities.

The research design is following an emergent procedure and this makes it similar to a type of post-qualitative research. The uncertainty of post-qualitative research (Carlson, 2020) is an invitation to tune in to the subtext, texture of language and felt impressions of life in motion. It does not aim for a representation of reality but to experiment with the creation of new meanings (St. Pierre, 2019).

The research follows an exploratory inquiry carried out during the first wave of the pandemic in Italy. It aimed to understand the meaning attributed to the situation by 6 coordinators of these services. It was possible to identify the presence of ‘disorienting dilemmas’ (Mezirow, 1991) related to the meaning of their work, the adequacy of the tools used up to that moment, the function of the service and the relationship with families and others within this context. The results have brought awareness to the need to support the social work of these operators, in these months characterised by great uncertainty.

The current research is interacting with some training courses aimed at social workers and volunteers, some of which are connoted as 'research-training' devices (Formenti, 2017). The aim is to understand the process of attribution of meaning and its transformative impact, not only on individuals, but also on their relationships, their work and the community (Alhadeff-Jones, 2012). Research, in association with training, can become an opportunity for critical reflection on the cultural and educational models of these social workers. The learning process is seen in its embodied and situated aspects: the focus is not only on the individual mind but on the whole learning situation that is created from participation in community/culture (Lave, Wenger, 1991). The practices developed during the months of emergency, the biographical memories and personal experiences of social workers and volunteers, are used within the training as resources. These resources can be drawn on in order to critically reflect on the cultural models that guide social work, also from a transformative perspective.

The research is part of a workplace doctorate, based on an agreement between a social cooperative in the examined area and the University of Milan-Bicocca. The research questions are: "If and how is it possible to learn how to transform the cultural model that guides social work in an uncertain situation? What role can training that enhances a bottom-up approach to learning play?". In agreement with the participants, I chose a cooperative inquiry methodology (Heron, 1996; Heron, Reason, 2001), characterised by conducting research with people rather than on people. It is a type of action research that goes beyond data collection and analysis and is used to foster social change and community development (Alcantàra, Yorks, Kovari, 2005). Its distinctive feature is to consider the wide range of human sensitivities and capacities as a tool for investigation. In some cases I proposed a research-training pathway (Formenti, 2017). It proposes narrative, compositional, cooperative practices and aims at complex and transformative learning and the development of a satisfactory theory, starting from the lived experience of the participants, recounted and re-signified together. I am using an ethnographic and autoethnographic approach. Chang (2008) considers culture as the product of interactions between self and others, that arises within a community of practice. I have related my personal and professional experience to the social and cultural context in which my research experience is taking place, in order to deepen the embedded and embodied understanding of my attachment to the ethnographic community of which I am a part (Anderson, Glass-Coffin, 2013). The research involves 47 social workers, 9 service coordinators and 13 volunteers. For data collection, I am using field notes, recordings and transcriptions of communicative exchanges from the meetings, artefacts produced by the participants (drawings, photos, narratives) and a research journal. In accordance with Maxwell (2005), my process of analysis and interpretation begins immediately and continues throughout the research. In particular, I am following a scissor-like process: on the one hand, I am supported by the connections with certain theoretical and methodological constructs and, on the other, by the close interaction and co-construction of meaning with the participants/co-researchers who, together with me, are involved in the research.

Using a metaphor from Morin (2011), the only way to navigate complexity is to find islands of certainty to orient oneself while navigating. The first results of this continuing research illustrate the role that complex, stratified and ‘holistic knowledge’ (Heron, 1992) can play in two directions. On the one hand, they allow critical reflection to be rooted in an authentic, embodied experience which, through narrative, is brought to the surface. On the other hand, they allow for the re-appropriation of forgotten words and sensations that can become tools (Kasl, Yorks, 2012) to question the perspectives of meaning that guide one's work and identify new ways of action, within a collective space. The ‘disorienting dilemmas’ (Mezirow, 1991), expressed by participants during training, become opportunities to explicate tacit theories and to share different points of view about social work. Uncertainty, which is characterising the context within which these services are working, is also seen by participants/co-researchers in its positive qualities, favouring the birth of new and unprecedented connections. In particular, it seems that the use of a research and training methodology that draws on holistic knowledge (Heron, 1992; Yorks, Kasl, 2006), is also becoming a tool for rediscovering the creative, generative and transformative side of social work. The recursiveness between reflexivity and action becomes an opportunity to devise, experiment, observe and verify new insights, in a process that can continue until saturation, as determined by the participants/co-researchers. It will be interesting to understand if and how this process will be able to foster the consolidation of an attitude to learn, know, interact and creatively transform with the intrinsically uncertain context within which social work constantly takes place.

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