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.
* Exam copies only available to lecturers for whom the book may be suitable as a course text.
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"Lena Dominelli has done it yet again with another first in social work education! In Green Social Work, she combines her usual interests in human rights, poverty and inequality, and social justice with that of climate justice. Pragmatic intervention strategies and case studies are provided that make the book a necessary companion for educators, practitioners and students of social work and related disciplines."
Vishanthie Sewpaul, University of KwaZulu Natal
"Green Social Work makes an important contribution to explicating the links between the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. Lena Dominelli convincingly argues that social workers are key to articulating the social with the environmental, and provides environmentalists with valuable insights into the ways in which societies' more vulnerable people and communities experience social-environmental disadvantage."
Susan Buckingham, Brunel University
