About Fieldnotes

Practice-based research for more humane systems

Fieldnotes is an independent, practice-based research and development project focused on how real people experience systems in the real world — especially in social work, addiction services, mental health, and other human services.

The work grows out of lived experience, frontline observation, and long attention to what assessment, intervention, and “advice” actually feel like from the inside.

It is interested in the gap between what systems say they value and what their structures actually make possible.

What this work stands for

What it doesn’t stand for

Current work

Fieldworks

A capacity-first, regulation-first framework for addiction treatment, recovery, and service sequencing.

Fieldnotes

A practice-based field report series on trauma-informed, promise-aligned assessment and care.

Fieldethics

A systems ethics project on targets, timelines, and outcome-driven design in human services.

Horizon Theory

A developing framework on caring for conditions within the fields people live and work inside, focusing on how environments, systems, relationships, and transitions shape regulation, capacity, and sustainable change.

Contact

admin@fieldnotes.scot