Green social work : from environmental crises to environmental justice / Lena Dominelli.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dominelli, Lena.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social service.

Environmental disasters--Social aspects.

Environmental disasters.

Social aspects.

Physical Description:

xiv, 244 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Malden, MA : Polity Press, 2012.

Summary:

Social work is the profession that claims to intervene to enhance people's well-being. However, social workers have played a low-key role in environmental issues that increasingly impact on people's well-being, both locally and globally.

This compelling new contribution confronts this topic head-on, examining environmental issues from a social work perspective. Lena Dominelli draws attention to the important voice of practitioners working on the ground in the aftermath of environmental disasters, whether these are caused by climate change, industrial accidents or human conflict. The author explores the concept of 'green social work' and its role in using environmental crises to address poverty and other forms of structural inequalities, to obtain more equitable allocations of limited natural resources and to tackle global sociopolitical forces that have a damaging impact upon the quality of life of poor and marginalized populations at local levels. The resolution of these matters is linked to community initiatives that social workers can engage in to ensure that the quality of life of poor people can be enhanced without costing the Earth.

This important book will appeal to those in the fields of social work, social policy, sociology and human geography. It powerfully reveals how environmental issues are an integral part of social work's remit if it is to retain its currency in the modern world and emphasize its relevance to the social issues that societies have to resolve in the twenty-first century. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Introduction 1

Setting the Scene 1

Locating a new discursive space 5

The rationale for green social work 7

The Structure of the Book 9

2 A Professional Crisis within Social and Environmental Calamities 19

Introduction 19

A Profession in Turmoil 21

The New Challenges Facing the Profession 24

Defining green social work 24

Fiscal, Social and Environmental Crises 27

Responses to the fiscal crisis: lack of publicly funded welfare services in the age of austerity 32

Urbanization and Slum Clearances 38

Conclusions 41

3 Reclaiming Industrialization and Urbanization for People 42

Introduction 42

Urbanization, a Defining Feature of Industrial Capitalism 44

De-urbanizing the environment 53

Developing Alternatives to and within Centralized Urbanization 55

Microfinances and microenterprises 57

Credit unions 58

Social enterprises 59

Conclusions 62

4 Industrial Pollution, Environmental Degradation and People's Resilience 63

Introduction 63

Reconceptualizing Resilience 64

Defining vulnerability 67

Industrial Pollution and Accidents 69

The tragedy of the Bhopal gas explosion 70

Chemical Pollutants and Radioactive Gas Escapes 72

Toxic chemical pollutants and discharges 72

Three Mile Island, the USA 73

Chernobyl, Ukraine 74

Chalk River's nuclear accident 74

Fukoshima Daiichi, Japan 75

Caring for the Carers in Disaster Situations 76

Virtual support for carers and victim-survivors 76

Guidelines for a Virtual Helpline Support Network in Disaster Situations: The Christchurch Example 77

Principles to follow in providing online or telephone support 77

Social Worker Involvement in Industrial Pollution and Environmental Degradation Issues 79

Conclusions 82

5 Climate Change, Renewable Energy and Solving Social Problems 84

Introduction 84

Climate Change 86

The Polluter-Victim Binary 87

People's responses to climate change 89

Climate Change Endeavours Led by the United Nations 90

Kyoto and beyond 91

Environmental Justice 97

Social Work Action on Climate Change 99

The Equitable Carbon Sharing Scheme: an international response 100

Implementing ECSS 101

Risk Reduction 102

Conclusions 104

6 Environmental Crises, Social Conflict and Mass Migrations 105

Introduction 105

The Impact of Environmental Crises on People's Movements 106

Migration as a Response to Social, Economic and Environmental Crises 112

Migrating in search of food 113

Recurrent famine in the Horn of Africa 114

Environmental Degradation and Food Production 118

Holistic disaster interventions 122

Conclusions 126

7 Environmental Degradation, Natural Disasters and Marginalization 127

Introduction 127

Exploring Marginalization and Social Exclusion 129

Sustainable Development 134

Coping with the Demands of a Growing World Population 137

'Natural' Disasters are Aggravated by Human Actions 138

Hurricane Katrina 139

Floods in Pakistan 140

The 2010 earthquake in Haiti 143

Addressing social divisions: disability 147

Conclusions 149

8 Scarce Natural Resources and Inter-Country Conflict Resolution 150

Introduction 150

Scarce Resources and the Dynamics of Place and Space 152

Social Workers' Involvement in Situations of Resource Scarcity 154

Shortages in housing and employment opportunities 154

Scarce water resources 155

Conflict refugees 159

Consumption of non-renewable fossil fuels 162

The caring triangle in conflict situations 165

Conclusions 169

9 Interrogating Worldviews: From Unsustainable to Sustainable Ways of Reframing Peoples' Relationships to Living Environments 171

Introduction 171

Indigenous Worldviews 174

First Nations peoples in Canada, Turtle Island 175

First Nations' social welfare provisions 178

The Maori worldview 181

Indigenous Peoples' Struggles for Land and Self-Determination 183

The Mapuche struggles for land rights in Chile 184

A First Nations Environmental Assessment Framework 188

Conclusions 191

10 Conclusions: Green Social Work 193

Introduction 193

Developing Holistic, Sustainable Practices 194

Working for a Sustainable, Interdependent and Healthy Planet that Nurtures All Peoples and Their Environments 199

Building Capacity in Communities 202

Conclusions 206.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 208-227) and indexes.

ISBN:

9780745654010

0745654010

OCLC:

779263722