Abstract: The advent of the digital-intelligent era has introduced new opportunities for technological artefacts to reshape the boundaries and practical modes of social work services. The application of technological artefacts is promoting a “nonhuman turn” in social work intervention wherein nonhuman entities function as active agents in practical networks. As supporters of social workers, technological artefacts engage in translation processes such as problematization, interessement, enrollment, and mobilization within relational networks composing both human and nonhuman entities. Through these processes, technological artefacts collaborate with human actors to form joint agency and advance the effectiveness of social work interventions. Social workers collaborating with technological artefacts should adhere to contextualized principles, including assessing the situational appropriateness of technologies, engaging in ongoing critical reflections on their agential effects, and actively participating in “value negotiation” with technological artefacts. Social workers are key actors, translators, and constructors within the “human-nonhuman assemblage” intervention network, driving the ecology of social work practice towards fairness, justice, and enhanced well-being. The “nonhuman turn” enriches our understanding of the complexities of social work practice in an era characterized by deeply intertwined human-nonhuman relationships.

Key words: social work practice, nonhuman turn, technological artefacts, digital-intelligent era