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 socio-political 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.
