This book provides an accessible, research-informed text for students, social workers and other social service workers and community development workers focused on practically linking climate change to social justice.
The book is designed for:
• Those who want to embed an understanding of climate change and its social justice impacts in their everyday practice.
• Those keen to explore the explicit but also often invisible ways we see injustice playing out and exacerbated by climate change.
• Those interested in embarking on research and action which addresses climate change in an inclusive, creative and fair way.
Utilising existing and current research with organisations, government and communities, it examines key themes and contexts where work has been done and where more work is needed to design and implement inclusive and just action on climate change.
With a core position revolving around the idea and practice of justice – for earth and everything that lives here, it draws on First Nations worldviews, critical analysis, community-led approaches and complexity theory, to outline some practical ways to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change as well as a strategy to reshape our life and work for the longer term.
It will be required reading for all scholars, students and professionals of social work, social welfare, community development, international development, community health and environmental and community education.
Author(s): Amanda Howard, Margot Rawsthorne, Pam Joseph, Mareese Terare
Series: Routledge Advances in Social Work
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 225
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Acknowledgement
How we name and use key concepts throughout the book
1 Starting the conversation
About this book
The start
First Nations Worldviews – the first sunrise
Complexity theory
Community development
A note on context – neo-liberalism
Social work and human services: what’s climate change got to do with it?
Research and its roles
Possibilities
The layout of this book
The authors
2 Ideas in action
Connecting social and ecological justice: exploring frames and ideas
Responsibility
Risk
Resilience
Making sense of action: mitigation and adaptation?
Locating social work and human services – ethics, care and social justice
Care, ethics and intersections
Ideas to action
3 First Nations Worldviews – the first sunrise
Author standpoint
The first sunrise – time immemorial
First Nations Worldviews
Climate action and Aboriginal Worldviews
Cultural burning, a renewed interest
What is cultural burning?
Environmental justice
The Victorian Traditional Owner Cultural Fire Strategy
Human rights and social work
Practical tools
Cultural humility
Decolonisation
Listening deeply
Acknowledgement
Critical reflection
4 Complexity
Introduction
The development of complexity theory
Complexity theory and social systems
Focus concepts
Convergence
Emergence
Self-organising systems
Feedback loops
Adaptation
Incorporating a critical lens
Wicked problems
Human services and collaborative complexity
Action research and complexity thinking
Implications for social work and human service practice
Connections are key to complex systems
Complexity thinking acknowledges and values diverse perspectives
Complexity theory integrates micro-, meso-, macro- and chrono-systems
In the life of complex systems and wicked problems, there is no end point, only progression
Arising from this, small actions can have large consequences (and vice versa)
Social workers and human service practitioners are agents for change
Complexity thinking encourages innovation and optimism in an uncertain world
Conclusion
5 The basics
Food
Alternative food systems and their challenges
Promising directions
Energy
Renewable energy and social justice
Community renewable energy projects
Water
The Murray-Darling Basin
Social work and human services
6 Acting for change
Community development practice and climate change
Some useful conceptual tools
Understandings of power
Critical consciousness or conscientisation
Recognition
Dadirri (as practice)
A few words of caution: the ‘c’ word
Acting for change as individuals
At home
At the office
With our neighbourhoods
7 Acting for change together: collective action
The dominance of individual choice and why we need to reconnect collective networks for action
Collective action persists and re-emerges
Swimming against the tide not in a good way
What are we talking about when we say, ‘collective action’?
Self-organising systems
Drawing down on social capital and local networks
Widening and deepening the view: collective action at multiple scales
Collective action: not as simple as it looks
8 Acting for change: mobilising policy
Public policy
Wicked social problems
Climate change and policy
National policy
Global policy making
Positive steps
Social work and human service practitioners as policy actors
9 Emergent moments: when it all goes wrong
Drawing from our research to make sense of ideas, context and action when disasters bring climate change to our attention
Context 1 – coastal communities
Context 2– peri-urban communities on the outskirts of a capital city
Context 3 – region comprising rural, urban, coastal and inland communities
Learning from emergent moments
10 Emergent moments: the future
Introduction
Mental health
Scenario
What is the change we suggest?
What is the role of social workers and human service workers?
Health
Scenario
What is the change we suggest?
What is the role of social and human service workers?
Housing
Scenario
What is the change we suggest?
What is the role of social workers?
Child protection
Scenario
What is the change we suggest?
What might this mean for social workers and human service workers?
Income support
Scenario
What needs to change?
What is the role of social and human service workers?
Place- based (non-government) organisations
Scenario
What needs to change?
What is the role of social and human service workers?
Conclusion
11 Case studies
Case study: food systems, water and workers
Water risk as plantings grow
Harvest labour: challenges and responses
Case study: Aboriginal knowledges and community voices
We’d love a flood about now…
They were invited…
Case study: Knitting Nannas
‘What are you knitting? – A revolution’
The Nannas as a self-organising system
Craftivism in action
The importance of interconnectedness
Case study: urban heat sinks
Impacts of heatwaves
Perceptions of climate change
Case study: beyond the hero narrative: recognising community collective action
Community in action
Index
