Nexus between social work and environmental sustainability
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1921/swssr.v24i2.1874Keywords:
environment sustainability, sustainable development goals, social work, environmental practiceAbstract
The United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development declared environmental problems as social problems. Over the years, the social work profession, although governed by the ‘person-in-environment’ principle, has long neglected the natural environment and progressively assumed the significance of environmental issues in the social intervention context. In this article, we first describe the environmental context for human life, followed by a narrative review of existing research on understanding environmental sustainability and its relationship with social work. This is supported by an explanation of the current global climate change situation and the utilization of sustainable development goals which are directly associated with environmental sustainability. In order to arrive at the conclusion, social work before environmental sustainability in the UK context and Hamilton’s psychosocial casework are also discussed. It can help social workers broaden and strengthen practices by incorporating the realm of ecology and the environment in the social work field.
References
Arora, N. and Mishra, I. (2019) United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and environmental sustainability: race against time. Environmental Sustainability, 2, 4, 339-342
Belchior, R. H. (2018) Social work practices and the ecological sustainability of socially vulnerable communities. Sustainability, 10, 5, 1312
Boetto, H., and Bell, K. (2015) Environmental sustainability in social work education: An online initiative to encourage global citizenship. International Social Work, 58, 3, 448-462
Booth, T. A., Martin, D., and Melotte, C. (Eds.) (1980) Specialisation: issues in the Organisation of Social Work. British Association of Social Workers/Social Services Research Group Joint Publication
Bowles, W., Boetto, H., Jones, P., and McKinnon, J. (2018) Is social work really greening? Exploring the place of sustainability and environment in social work codes of ethics. International Social Work, 61, 4, 503-517
Christen, M., and Schmidt, S. (2012) A formal framework for conceptions of sustainability–a theoretical contribution to the discourse in sustainable development. Sustainable Development, 20, 6, 400-410.
Coates, J. (2003) Ecology and Social Work: toward a new paradigm. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing
Cooper, J. (1983) The Creation of the British Personal Social Services, 1962-1974 (Vol. 18). Ashgate Publishing Company
Cornell, K. (2006) Person-In-Situation: History, Theory, and New Directions. Praxis, 6, 50-57. [Accessed 15 February 2022 at http://www.canonsociaalwerk.eu/1940_Hamilton/Person%20in%20situation.pdf]
Council on Social Work Education. (2015) 2015 educational policy and accreditation standards for baccalaureate and master’s social work programs. Alexandria, VA: Author. [Accessed 23 March 2022 https://www.cswe.org/getattachment/Accreditation/Accreditation-Process/2015-EPAS/2015EPAS_Web_FINAL.pdf.aspx]
Cypher, J. (1975) Social reform and the social work profession: What hope for a rapprochement? in H. Jones (Ed.) Towards a new social work. Taylor & Francis
Dominelli, L. (2011) Climate change: social workers’ roles and contributions to policy debates and interventions. International Journal of Social Welfare, 20, 4, 430-438
Dominelli, L. (2012) Green social work. From environmental crises to environmental justice. Cambridge: Polity Press
EPA - Environmental Protection Agency. (2023) Learn about environmental justice. [Assessed 30 March 2023 https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/learn-about-environmental-justice]
Ferguson, I. (2008) Reclaiming social work: challenging Neo-liberalism and promoting social justice. London: Sage
Fogel, S., Barkdull, C., and Weber, B. (Eds.) (2018) Environmental justice: an issue for social work education and practice. Routledge
Fry, T. (2011) Design as politics. Oxford, UK: Berg
García, J. L. S., and Sanz, J. M. D. (2018) Climate change, ethics and sustainability: an innovative approach. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 3, 2, 70-75
Goni, F., Shukor, S., Mukhtar, M. and Sahran, S. (2015) Environmental sustainability: research growth and trends. Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, 21, 2, 192-195
Goodman, S., and Trowler, I. (2012) Social work reclaimed: innovative frameworks for child and family social work. London: Jessica Kingsley
Gray, M. and Coates, J.. (2015) Changing gears: shifting to an environmental perspective in social work education. Social Work Education, 34, 5, 502-512
Gray, M., Coates, J. and Hetherington, T. (2013) Environmental social work. London, UK: Routledge
Hall, P. (1976) Reforming the welfare: the politics of change in the personal social services (Vol. 1). Heinemann Educational Publishers
Halmos, P. (1978) The personal and the political: social work and political action. London: Hutchinson
Halperin, S. (2018) Development theory. Encyclopedia Britannica. [Accessed 25 March 2022 https://www. britannica. com/topic/development-theory]
Hamilton, G. (1951) Theory and practice of social case work. New York: Columbia University Press
Hare, I. (2004) Defining social work for the 20th Century: the International Federation of Social Worker’s revised definition of social work. International Social Work, 47, 3, 407-424
Harris, C. and Boddy, J. (2017) The natural environment in social work education: a content analysis of Australian social work courses. Australian Social Work, 70, 3, 337-349
Harris, J., Paylor, I., and Froggett, L. (2000) Reclaiming Social Work: the Southport papers (Vol. 1). Birmingham: The Venture Press
Hay, K., and Pascoe, K. M. (2022) Engaging social workers in disaster management: Case studies from New Zealand. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 74, 102941
Holman, B. (2013) Champions for children: the lives of modern child care pioneers. Bristol: Policy Press
IFSW. (2022) The role of social workers in advancing a new eco-social world. [Accessed 13 July 2022 https://www.ifsw.org/the-role-of-social-workers-in-advancing-a-new-eco-social-world/]
Jhariya, M. K., Banerjee, A., and Meena, R. S. (2022) Importance of natural resources conservation: moving toward the sustainable world. In Natural resources conservation and advances for sustainability. Elsevier (pp. 3-27)
Jones, R. (2014) The best of times, the worst of times: social work and its moment. The British Journal of Social work, 44, 3, 485-502
Jordon, B. (2000) Social work and the third way: tough love as social policy. London: Sage
Kemp, S. P. (2011) Recentring environment in social work practice: necessity, opportunity, challenge. British Journal of Social Work, 41, 6, 1198-1210
Kemp, S. P., Palinkas, L. A., Wong, M., Wagner, K., Reyes Mason, L., Chi, I., … Rechkemmer, A. (2015) Strengthening the social response to the human impacts of environmental change (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 5). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare
Kibert, C. J., Thiele, L., Peterson, A., and Monroe, M. (2012) The ethics of sustainability. [Accessed 29 November 2022 http://rio20.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Ethics-of-Sustainability-Textbook.pdf]
Kondrat, M. (2013) Person-in-Environment. Oxford: Encyclopedia of Social Work, National Association of Social Workers and Oxford University Press
Korten, D.C. (1992) Sustainable development. World Policy Journal, 9, 1,157-190
Krings, A., Victor, B. G., Mathias, J., and Perron, B. E. (2020) Environmental social work in the disciplinary literature, 1991–2015. International Social Work, 63, 3, 275-290
Leanord, P. (1972) Professionalization, community action and the growth of social service bureaucracies. The Sociological Review, 20, 1, 103-117
Lele, S. (1991) Sustainable development: a critical review. World Development, 19, 6, 607-21
Liu, K., and Flynn, C. A. (2021) How the environment is conceptualised and represented globally in social work codes of ethics. International Social Work, 66, 3, 868-888
Lysack, M. (2015) Effective Policy Influencing and Environmental Advocacy: health, climate change, and phasing out coal. International Social Work, 58, 3, 435-447
Maja, M. M., and Ayano, S. F. (2021) The impact of population growth on natural resources and farmers’ capacity to adapt to climate change in low-income countries. Earth Systems and Environment, 5, 271-283
Mary, N. (2008) Social Work in a Sustainable World. Chicago: Lyceum Books
Mason, L., Shires, M., Arwood, C. and Borst, A. (2017) Social work research and global environmental change. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 8, 4, 645-672
McKinnon, J., and Alston, M. (2017) Ecological Social Work: Towards sustainability. Bloomsbury Publishing
Mensah, J. (2019) Sustainable development: Meaning, history, principles, pillars, and implications for human action: Literature review. Cogent Social Sciences, 5, 1, 1653531
Mungham, G. (1975) Social workers and political action. In H. Jones (Ed.) Towards a new social work. Taylor & Francis.
NDMA – National Disaster Management Authority (2022) NDMA MONSOON SITREP. Daily SITREP No 096, dated 17th Sep, 2022. [Accessed 18 September 2022 http://cms.ndma.gov.pk/storage/app/public/situation-reports/September2022/WtrnsYOKrzD17isQaokk.pdf]
Norton, C. (2009) Ecopsychology and Social Work: Creating an interdisciplinary framework for redefining person-in-environment. Ecopsychology, 1, 3, 138-145
Oakley, A. (2011) A Critical Woman: Barbara Wootton, social science and public policy in the twentieth century. London: London Bloomsbury Academic
Orr, D. W. (2011) Down to the Wire. Confronting climate. Washington, DC: Island Press
Padovan, D., Arrobbio, O., Sciullo, A., Gilcrease, G. W., Gregg, J. S., Henfrey, T.,... And Candelise, C. (2019) Collective Action Initiatives. Some theoretical perspectives and a working definition. Torino: COMETS
Paylor, I., Froggett, L., and Harris, J. (2000) Reclaiming Social Work: The Southport papers (Vol. 2). Birmingham: The Venture Press
Payne, M. (2006) What is Professional Social Work? Policy Press
Pearson, G. (1975) The Deviant Imagination: Psychiatry, social work and social change. Macmillan International Higher Education
Pinker, R. (1982) The Barclay Committee on Social Workers. Their role and tasks. London: Bedford Square Press
Priestley, P. (1975) New careers: Power sharing in social work. In H. Jones (Ed.) Towards a new Social Work. Taylor & Francis
Purvis, B., Mao, Y., and Robinson, D. (2019) Three pillars of sustainability: in search of conceptual origins. Sustainability Science, 14, 681-695
Rambaree, K.. (2020) Environmental Social Work: Implications for accelerating the implementation of sustainable development in social work curricula. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 21, 3, 557-574
Rambaree, K., Powers, M. and Smith, R. (2019) Ecosocial work and social change in community practice. Journal of Community Practice, 27, 3/4, 205-212
Ramsay, S., and Boddy, J. (2017) Environmental social work: A concept analysis. The British Journal of Social Work, 47, 1, bcw078-86
Rannard, G. (2022) How Pakistan floods are linked to climate change. BBC. [Accessed 03 December 2022 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62758811]
Ritchie, J. D. (2010) The Relevance of the Natural Environment to Social Work: A comparison of fields that consider the natural environment in social problems: a project based upon an independent investigation. Master’s Research Project, Smith College School for Social Work
Ritchie, H., and Roser, M. (2020) CO2 emissions by fuel. Our World in Data. [Accessed 06 July 2022 https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions]
Rinkel, M., and Powers, M. (Eds.) (2017) Social Work Promoting Community and Environmental Sustainability: A workbook for global social workers and educators. Berne, Switzerland: International Federation of Social Workers
Rocha, H.B. (2018) Social work practices and the ecological sustainability of socially vulnerable communities. Sustainability, 10, 5, 1312
Sachs, I. (1999) Social Sustainability and whole development: Exploring the dimensions of sustainable development. In Becker, E. and Jahn, T. (Eds.) Sustainability and the Social Sciences. A cross-disciplinary approach to interacting environmental considerations, London, UK: Zed Books, 26-36
Schmitz, C., Matyok, T., Sloan, L. and James, C. (2012) The relationship between social work and environmental sustainability: Implications for interdisciplinary practice. International Journal of Social Welfare, 21, 3, 278-286
Seymour, V. (2016) The human–nature relationship and its impact on health: A critical review. Frontiers in Public Health, 4
Shaw, T. (2009) Is social Work a Green Profession? An Examination of Environmental Beliefs. Journal of Social Work, 13, 1, 1-29
Stamm, I. (2023) Human rights–based social work and the natural environment: Time for new perspectives. Journal of Human Rights and Social Work, 8, 42-50
Stevenson, O. (1981) Specialisation in Social Service Teams. Allen & Unwin
Thompson, N. (2010) Theorizing Social Work Practice. New York, USA: Palgrave Macmillan
Truell, R., and Jones, D. (2012) The global agenda for social work and social development: Extending the influence of social work. International Social Work, 55, 4, 454-472
UN - United Nations. (2019) The Climate Crisis — A race we can Win. [Accessed 26 June 2022 https://www.un.org/en/un75/climate-crisis-race-we-can-win]
UN - United Nations. (2021) The Sustainable Development Goals Report. [Accessed 28 June 2022 https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2021/The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2021.pdf]
UNFCCC - UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. (2009) Report of the Conference of the Parties on its fifteenth session, held in Copenhagen from 7 to 19 December 2009. [Accessed 16 March 2022 https://unfccc.int/documents/6102]
UNEP - UN Environment Programme. (2020) Sustainability: UN Environment Programme. [Assessed 12 March 2022 https://www.unep.org/about-un-environment/sustainability]
UNEP - UN Environment Programme. (2022) In historic move, UN declares healthy environment. [Assessed 13 September 2022 https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/historic-move-un-declares-healthy-environment-human-right]
Ungar, M. (2002) A deeper, more social ecological social work practice. Social Service Review, 76, 3, 480-497
Nicollin, L. (2017) Social work and sustainable development-world social work day at the UN in Geneva
Waas, T., Hugé, J., Verbruggen, A., and Wright, T. (2011) Sustainable development: a bird’s eye view. Sustainability, 3, 10, 1637-1661
WMO - World Meteorological Organization. (2019) Global Climate in 2015-2019: Climate change accelerates. Geneva: Report of World Meteorological Organization
Wootton, B. (1959) Social Science and Social Pathology. London: Allen and Unwin
Zakour, M. J. (1997) Disaster research in social work. Journal of Social Service Research, 22, 1-2, 7-25
Zapf, M. K. (2009) Social Work and the Environment: Understanding people and place. Canadian Scholars’ Press
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright lies with the journal. Enquiries regarding reproduction should be sent in the first place to enquiries@whitingbirch.net
Accepted 2023-09-18
Published 2023-12-21
