Environmental Social Work

Social Work Education, 2015

This paper seeks to add to the growing literature on environmental social work education which suggests the need for a fundamental rethinking of the humanistic values and theories informing social work to embrace concerns relating to environmental degradation and climate change. For the most part, social work's interest in the environment to date relates to human needs. Of most concern here is the over-representation of people in poverty and subsistence among those impacted by deforestation and climate injustice. However, even here the emphasis is on the human experience of environmental and climate change when this is an outcome of human actions and structural inequalities. The paper begins with an overview of the theoretical terrain of environmental thought before examining issues in relation to perspective transformation and the implications for undergraduate (BSW) and graduate (MSW) curriculum development.

Routledge eBooks, 2012

The relationship between social justice, environmental sustainability, and positive peace has been well established by theorists who highlight the need for multidisciplinary community-level responses to conflicts resulting from environmental issues and concerns. Schmitz, Matyók, Sloan, and James (2011) argue that many of the issues of poverty, injustice, and quality of life are connected to the health of the physical environment and its long-term sustainability. Increasingly, social workers, with their commitment to social justice, are called upon to recognize the relationship between social work, the environment, and human well-being (Coates, 2003).

International Journal of Social Welfare, 2013

Social workers face many contemporary challenges. Alongside the difficulties of upholding human rights, social justice and active citizenship, are those of affirming environmental justice and care for planet earth in and through social work practice and addressing climate change and other disasters. I call for social workers to take action that addresses these issues as a strong, united profession that works alongside dispossessed and marginalised people who do not get their share of global resources, despite their limited ecological footprint. I suggest a new paradigm for practice rooted in environmental justice that enhances the well-being of people, the flora, fauna and the ecosystem that sustains and supports us all-green social work, for practitioners supporting life in one interdependent world.

Although many professions and citizen groups are actively working to create practice models and policies that will help people adapt to climate change, the social work profession is not currently engaging with this issue. If the social work profession would join these other groups and create its own practice models based on meeting the physical, psychological, and social needs that result from climate change, then the core social work value of creating a just society and empowering underrepresented populations can be strengthened in climate change adaptation work. This qualitative, exploratory study asked eleven social workers what concerns they have for their clients or community with regards to adapting to a changing climate; what professional actions they would need to take to help with these concerns; what support they would need to successfully complete the action; and how this relates to justice. This sample population of this study formed two distinct groups: social workers who were highly involved in eco-activism over a long period of time; and the general sample. The highly engaged sample engaged in eco-activism outside of the clinical social worker setting and they reported the need for more community support and involvement. The general group worked in a variety of clinical settings and reported the need for more structural support in order to help clients adapt to climate change.

European Journal of Social Work, 2019

This book argues that attaining environmental justice should be an essential part of social work practice. Chapter 1, Environmental Justice and Social Work Practice, introduces the book's key concept: that environmental justice is part of social work practice, linking with social concern about the well-being of individuals within their environments. 'Environmental justice' is defined as fair treatment and meaningful involvement by people regardless of race, colour, national origin, or income in developing, implementing and enforcing environmental laws, regulations and policies (US Environmental Protection Agency, Definition of Environmental Justice, 2019). The concept of the 'individual-in-environment' (Coates, 2003) takes personal, social, psychological and economic environments into account, but Erickson urges readers also to have concern for the natural environments in which we live, and recognise their links to other environments. She draws attention to population dispersals, natural disasters, climate changes, and urbanisation that exacerbate human inequalities. The Chapter depicts four waves of environmentalism: first, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, moves to preserve natural environments and wildernesses took place; second, in the mid twentieth century, questions were asked about human consumption of natural resources, typified by Rachel Carson's book, The Silent Spring (1963); third, from the 1970s, a rethinking of how culture and environment intersect as influences on human lives and nature occurred, typified by the civil rights movement that highlighted, inter alia, the dumping of industrial waste in African-American communities; and fourth, current concerns address the kinds of inequalities that occur when poor neighbourhoods where people of colour live are disproportionally exposed to environmental pollution. Chapter 2, Social Work's Foundational Concepts: Values and Skills for Environmental Justice, discusses how social work concepts can apply to environmental justice. The author argues that social work thinkers have expanded their understanding of what 'environment' means, and now include natural environments as areas of concern. The Chapter explores six key social work concepts (justice, the strengths perspective, person-in-environment, power, the life span perspective, and micro, meso and macro environmental levels) in relation to environmental justice. The Chapter also considers four additional concepts (sustainable development, deep ecology, the environmental justice framework and the concept of love.) Erickson claims that research, efficiency, and effectiveness are never enough and do not offer sufficient insight into solutions. Instead, we need to own our love for humankind, and by implication, our love for the natural environment in which humans live. Chapter 3, Theoretical Foundations: Systems, Narrative, and Structural Theories, discusses relevant theories, models, perspectives, and values that can illuminate practice, focussing on systems theory, narrative theory, and structural theory. Erickson proposes six themes, drawn from Kemp, Whittaker, and Tracy (1997, pp. 86-87) to guide and inform environmental practice: (1) recognising an environmental focus is central to efforts to empower individuals, families, groups and communities; (2) focussing on environmental resources to bolster clients' strengths; (3) acknowledging that environmental practice is developmental; (4) seeing the environment as an objective reality that has different meanings; (5) understanding that environmental interventions include intervention both in the environment and in individual perspectives; and (6) incorporating into practice an understanding that the environment offers opportunities but also constraints, and should involve critical reflection and action. Chapter 4, Ethics for Environmental Justice, discusses the moral norms of ecological justice; the choice of issues; the contrast between professional social work ethics and environmental ethics; situational ethics; ethical environmental economics; an evaluation tool called an 'ethical principles screen';

The Brundtland Commission, formally the World Commission on Environment and Development, established by the United Nations in 1983, links peace, security, development and the environment claiming that war, poverty and structural violence result in the oppression and degradation of the human community as well as the physical environment. Likewise, human rights and social and environmental justice are intertwined, and social work, as a profession which collaborates across disciplines and within communities, is uniquely situated to provide leadership in the field of environmental studies. Its strong focus on human rights, social justice and community building creates a sound base from which to engage in the collaborative, creative, interactional processes required for environmental practice. This article seeks to discern a model for environmental social work within the context of interdisciplinary practice with peace and conflict workers and through the integration of inclusive models of economic development.

International Journal of Social …

Social justice education for social work practice is concerned with addressing issues of power and oppression as they impact intersections of identity, experience, and the social environment. However, little focus is directed toward the physical and natural environment despite overwhelming evidence that traditionally marginalized groups bear the burden of environmental problems. In this article, we discuss environmental disaster impacts on marginalized communities, presence of environmental justice in social work literature, and opportunities for integrating environmental justice into social work’s mandated disciplinary competencies. We conclude with an example of a module implemented in a foundation Social Justice for Social Work Practice course using place-based education principles as an illustration of concrete strategies for incorporating environmental justice into social justice curricula.