SOAD4013 Week 1 Notes

Acknowledgement and Local Context

• Flinders Social Work recognises the traditional lands and waters of Kaurna Peoples and pays respects to Elders past, present, and emerging. Acknowledges sovereignty and responsibility to care for Country.
• Respects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges, languages, and spirituality and their relationship with Country.
• Commitment to truth telling about the history of social work education and practice in this State and working in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities to achieve reconciliation.
• Artwork note: Niina Marni by Kamilaroi artist Katie Bugden.

Agenda

• 1. About me
• 2. Topic overview
• 3. Key theory and frameworks

About the Instructor

• Erin (she/her)
• PhD in Conservation Psychology
• Passionate about conservation, sustainable lifestyles, and nature as a tool for wellbeing

Topic Overview

• $1$ hour lecture + $2$ hour workshop over $12$ weeks (staggered release)
• Bonus brain food each week
• $x3$ assessments ( $1$ weekly, $2$ major )

Assessments

• Oral Presentation: $40\%$; Due Week $8$ (Mon, 15th September)
• Report: $50\%$; Due Week $13$ (Mon, 3rd November)
• Weekly Forum: $10\%$; Continuous

Why Learn About Sustainability?

• Major national and international social work bodies now incorporate statements about social workers’ responsibilities towards the environment.
• AASW Practice Standards referenced:
  • $3.4$: challenge policies and practices that are oppressive and fail to meet international standards of environmental sustainability, human rights, social inclusion, and social development
  • $3.5$: advocate for the significance of connection with land and Country, and commitment to safeguarding the physical, ecological, and spiritual environments of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
  • $2.6$: (note on content alignment; see slide for exact wording)

International Policy Context

• The International Federation of Social Work (IFSW) has acknowledged the reciprocal relationship between humans and the environment and advocates for the environment to form an essential part of social work focus.
• IFSW (2004) called on social workers to recognise:
  • the importance of the natural and built environment to the social environment,
  • to develop environmental responsibility and care for the environment in social work practice and management today and for future generations,
  • to work with other professionals to increase knowledge and with community groups to develop advocacy skills and strategies to work towards a healthier environment,
  • to ensure environmental issues gain increased presence in social work education.

Personal Sustainable Social Professional Work

• Concept summarized as a personal, sustainable, and professional approach to social work.
• Emphasis on integrating personal values with professional ethics to support sustainability in practice.

A Final Note on Wellbeing and Distress

• Many topics may be upsetting (climate change, future projections, trauma, injustice, impacts on other species).
• Importance of balancing awareness with motivation and resilience; pathways forward.
• If distressed, reach out to peers or the facilitator.

Background, Terminology, and Key Frameworks

• Foundational concepts and terminology introduced; prepares for deeper exploration of frameworks later in the course.

Socio-ecological Crises

• Current environmental crises include climate change, global warming, habitat loss, etc.
• These crises exist alongside a declining natural resource base and a rapidly growing wealth gap.
• They operate within a market-based economic paradigm that prioritises growth and productivity over individual wellbeing, and personal wealth over the common good.
• Result: a socio-ecological crisis where failure to act threatens ecological and social wellbeing (McKinnon & Alston, 2016).
• Key citation: McKinnon & Alston (2016).

Socio-ecological Crises: Impacts

• Natural disasters lead to trauma, displacement, injury, financial strain, and community-level impacts.
• Changing climate effects:
  • Food availability and price volatility
  • Mental health impacts on agricultural communities
  • Impacts on First Nations cultural practices and connection to Country
• Pollution and air quality concerns; reduced access to green space and urban heat; temperature effects on quality of life, sport, and culture.

Environmental (In)justice

• Environmental damage does not affect everyone equally (environmental justice).
• Those contributing least to anthropogenic climate change often bear the worst effects and have fewer resources to adapt.
• Relevance to social work: convergence of private troubles and public issues among vulnerable populations; aligns with social justice and advocacy roles.
• Key sources: McKinnon & Alston (2016); Chakraborty & Green (2014) Environmental Research Letters (Australia's first national level quantitative environmental justice assessment of industrial air pollution).

Social Work’s Role

• Historically, social work focused on the social environment, with less attention to the physical/natural environment.
• Since the 2000s, literature shows increasing interest in environmental factors and their relation to social work.
• As knowledge of environmental degradation increases, social workers become more relevant to sustainability concerns.

Social Work’s Role (Continued)

• A clean, stable, and flourishing environment is recognised as a requirement for human health and wellbeing.
• UN stipulations: humans have rights to a healthy environment (unpolluted air, drinking water, land, oceans) as per UNEP (2022).

Theoretical Backgrounds

• Numerous environmental practice theories exist in social work; none have become mainstream.
• Commonalities (McKinnon & Alston, 2016):
  • Social workers are political actors aiming for social change, not merely adapting to current conditions.
  • Call for a new ecological social paradigm (societal transition), acknowledging capitalism as depleting planetary resources.
  • Thinking globally, acting locally (glocal).
  • Humans as part of – not separate from – nature.

Sustainable Social Work?

• Sustainable Social Work is an umbrella term for a broad range of ideas on how social work can respond to contemporary challenges.
• Within this umbrella, an eco-social work lens is used to broaden the focus from individual wellbeing to holistic planetary wellbeing; humans are part of nature and the natural environment is vital for wellbeing.
• Other typologies include Green Social Work, which focuses on climate change, disaster response, and environmental justice.

Eco-social Work

• Core idea: promote connection between humans and the environment to pursue wellbeing; consider wellbeing of humans alongside the natural environment.
• Aims to expand existing frameworks (e.g., Person in Environment, Ecological Systems Theory) to include the natural world.
• Not an add-on; a call to transform adherence to current paradigms (Boetto, 2017).

Eco-social Work: Three Levels (Being, Thinking, Doing)

• Manifests at three levels: self (being), theory (thinking), and practice (doing).
• Visual framing: THINKING, DOING, BEING (interconnected in practice).
• Key dimensions include identity, professional values/ethics, professional knowledge, and community/organizational change.

Eco-social Work: Being

• Personal beliefs, morals, and attitudes influence behaviour.
• If we recognise the interconnected relationship between humanity and the natural world, the environment is more likely to be integrated into practice.
• Personal awareness leads to questioning personal lifestyle choices (purchasing and consumption); personal and professional spheres merge; identity becomes interconnected with nature (Boetto, 2017).

Eco-social Work: Thinking

• Develop or change thinking around:
  • how justice applies to all living organisms
  • how to promote healthy ecosystems
  • learning from and valuing Indigenous cultures
  • recognising how social and political systems exploit the disadvantaged
  • adopting a global perspective on environmental crises (primarily caused by the Global North) and impacts on the Global South and vulnerable groups
  • understanding degrowth as a pathway to sustainability

Eco-social Work: Doing

• Actions, interventions, and strategies used in everyday practice should involve:
  • personal growth and actions toward sustainability
  • reconceptualising wellbeing to include environmental aspects
  • moving from individual to community wellbeing
  • deep respect for culture
  • initiating social action to facilitate economic and political change

Reminders

• All classes online in Week 1
• Workshop activities directly relate to final assessment
• Complete first Book Club entry
• Say hi on the intro forum

References

• Boetto, H. (2017). A transformative eco-social model: Challenging modernist assumptions in social work. British Journal of Social Work, 47, 48-67. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcw149
• IFSW. (2004). International policy statement on globalization and the environment. https://www.ifsw.org/globalisation-and-the-environment/
• McKinnon, J., & Alston, M. (2016). Ecological social work: Towards sustainability. Bloomsbury Publishing. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/flinders/detail.action?docID=6419088
• Thysell, M., & Cuadra, C. B. (2023). Imagining the ecosocial within social work. International Journal of Social Welfare, 32, 455-472. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsw.12571
• United Nations Environment Programme. (2022). In historic move, UN declares healthy environment a human right. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/historic-move-un-declares-healthy-environment-human-right