Social Work in a Globalizing World

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This inspiring and stimulating book confronts contemporary challenges facing social workers. Many of the forms of human, social and environmental degradation addressed arise from social problems that have persisted over time, such as social work’s own uncertain professional status, poverty, structural inequalities, migratory movements and armed conflicts. However, these challenges include newer problems rooted in the interdependent nature of the world. These issues centre on globalization, the worldwide recession that undermined fiscal sustainability in Western countries, environmental pollution, climate change and natural disasters, concerns which present fresh arenas for social worker involvement, and opportunities for innovation in social work theories and paradigms for practice.In exploring the tensions that globalization creates for practice, Lena Dominelli reveals the diverse and heterogeneous nature of social work as a profession even though it has many facets that are shared across borders. In a fluid global context where migratory movements and the internationalization of social problems mean that problems that began in one country have significant implications and require action in another, social workers must support practices that endorse human rights, social justice and citizenship for all of the planet’s inhabitants.Social Work in a Globalizing World sets an ambitious agenda for social work and calls for international co-operation, alliances and action alongside local ones. Only then can its optimistic message of a viable end to the degradation of human beings and their physical environment be achieved.

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Lena Dominelli is Professor of Applied Social Sciences in the School of Applied Social Sciences and Associate Director of the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience Research at Durham University.