Social workers are called upon to shift from a human-centric bias to an ecological ethical sensibility by embracing love as integral to their justice mission and by extending the idea of social justice to include environmental and species justice. This book presents the love ethic model as a way to do eco-justice work using public campaigns, research, community arts practice and other nonviolent, direct action strategies. The model is premised on an active and ongoing commitment to the eco-values of love, eco-justice and nonviolence for the purpose of upholding the public interest. The love ethic model is informed by the stories of eco-activists who used nonviolent actions to address ecological issues such as: pollution; degradation of the environment; exploitation of farm animals; mining industry overriding First Nation Peoples’ land rights; and human health and social costs related to the natural resource industries, private land developments and government infrastructure projects. Informed by practice insights by activists from a range of eco-justice concerns, this innovative book provides new directions in social work and environmental studies involving transformational change leadership and dialogical group work between interest groups. It should be considered essential reading for social work students, researchers and practitioners as well as eco-activists more generally.

Divided into three parts, this field-defining work explores what environmental social work is, and how it can be put into practice. It focuses on theory, discussing ecological and social justice, as well as sustainability, spirituality and human rights.

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.

This groundbreaking book both explains and expands the growing debate on ecological (environmental) social work at the global level. In order to achieve this, the book strengthens the environmental paradigm in social work and social policy by undertaking further research on theoretical and conceptual clarification as well as distinct reflections on its practical directions. Divided into five parts: concepts; the impact of environmental crises; sustainable communities and lifestyles; food politics; and the profession in transition, this work’s main objective is to place ecological social work as a part of the more comprehensive and interdisciplinary eco-social transition of societies towards sustainability, balancing economic and social development with the limited resources of the natural environment. By focussing on these five core concepts, it shows how social work and social policy contribute to this transition through having a research-based approach and orientation on solutions rather than problem analysis. The book will be of interest to scholars from a broad range of disciplines, including those in social work and social policy, sustainability, economics, agriculture and environmental studies.

In ten essays, contributors from a variety of disciplines consider such topics as the relationship between the two movements' ethical commitments and activist goals, instances of successful cooperation in U.S. contexts, and the challenges posed to both movements by globalisation and climate change.

This book examines what the connection between social and environmental issues means for social work practices.

The world is on the brink of ecological crisis. In the last decade we have seen a number of catastrophic events that illustrate this, including the 2004 tsunami across the Pacific, which killed over 150,000 people, and Hurricane Katrina in the United States, which left thousands dead and millions displaced. As the frequency and scale of environmental disasters has increased, social workers have found themselves on the front line of crisis interventions, working to ensure that the basic needs of communities are met. This evocative, highly thought-provoking book encourages social workers to incorporate an awareness of the physical environment into their work with individuals, groups and communities. Written by an international group of experts and led by two of the top names in the field, it offers an examination of key theoretical concepts combined with specific guidance on developing an ecological social work practice in a variety of situations – from daily life in urban communities to post-disaster sites – from areas across the globe. A fresh new perspective on a topic that gains greater significance day by day, Ecological Social Work calls for practitioners to use their skills in speaking on behalf of the vulnerable to lend their voice to the physical environment: to bring forward the stories of those marginalised by environmental disaster in order to lead creative solutions to this most fundamental of crises.