The evaporation of context: Epistemic agency and the problematic of ‘understanding’ in social work scholarship in the age of generative AI

Abstract

The growing use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in academic writing raises questions about authorship, reflexivity, and epistemic responsibility in social work scholarship. This study examines whether generative AI can reproduce not only the structural features of scholarly discourse but also the reflexive and contextually embedded knowledge practices central to critical social work. A qualitative comparative case design was employed, comparing a human-authored article on multicultural social work (2010, Turkish context) with an AI-generated text produced under controlled conditions using identical references and thematic structure. Analysis focused on three dimensions: theoretical integration, reflexivity and epistemic positioning, and contextual embeddedness. While the AI-generated text demonstrated strong structural coherence and citation alignment, differences emerged in dialectical engagement, explicit normative positioning, and national contextual grounding. The findings suggest that generative AI can simulate disciplinary discourse but does not inherently enact accountable epistemic agency, underscoring the continuing importance of reflexive human authorship.