Slums and Affordable Housing

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie Young Laing
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Urban Slums ◽  
Slum Dwellers ◽  
Global Arena ◽  
General Community

By the year 2035, slums may become the primary living environment for the world’s urban dwellers. This entry explores key definitions, causes, and characteristics of slums in the global arena, along with the types of social-work practice and general community development approaches being used to catalyze action to decrease the prevalence of slums. Core strategies include using pro–poor planning efforts that empower slum dwellers, creating affordable housing, and otherwise transitioning urban slums into vibrant communities. Concluding thoughts and further considerations for practice are offered to close the entry.

More Than Place-Based: Viewing Geography on a Continuum and the Implications for Social Work Practice

2018 ◽  
Vol 99 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason T. Carbone ◽  
Stephen Edward McMillin
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Community Engagement ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
New Method ◽  
Work Activities ◽  
Community Membership ◽  
Community Rights ◽  
The Social

Communities play an important role within the field of social work as the context within which specific social work activities occur. To date, much of the social work literature divides communities into the mutually exclusive, dichotomous categories of geographic and functional communities. The authors propose a new method for defining community that views geography on a continuum and suggests that membership within a community is moderated by place. The concept of place-moderated communities is applied to specific examples, and the application to social work practice is discussed within the context of community membership, community engagement, community rights, and community development efforts.

scholarly journals Incorporating community development into social work practice within the neoliberal environment

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Aimers ◽  
Peter Walker
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Community Work ◽  
Core Subject ◽  
Work Education

Community development is a core subject in social work education, yet social work discourse often places community development at its margins (Mendes, 2009). This article considers the location of community development and community work within the current neoliberal environment in New Zealand and how such practice can be sustained by social workers in the community and voluntary sector. Community development is a way of working with communities that has a ‘bottom up’ approach as an alternative to State (top down) development. Over recent years, however, successive New Zealand governments have embraced neoliberal social policies that have marginalised community development. In addition the term ‘community work’ has been used to describe activities that have little to do with a bottom up approach thereby making it difficult to define both community development and community work. By applying a ‘knowledge intersections’ schema to two New Zealand community and voluntary organi- sations we identify where community development and social work intersect. From this basis we challenge social workers to consider ways in which community development can be embedded within their practice. 

Community Development with Older Adults in Their Neighborhoods: The Elder Friendly Communities Program

2005 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol D. Austin ◽  
Elizabeth Des Camp ◽  
David Flux ◽  
Robert W. McClelland ◽  
Jackie Sieppert
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Community Practice ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Gerontological Social Work ◽  
Multicultural Practice ◽  
Development Practice

In this article, the authors report on lessons drawn from more than 3 years of experience with seniors-led community development at the neighborhood level, the Elder Friendly Communities Program (EFCP). Although community practice has a long history in social work, it has been largely neglected with older adults. Based on analysis of qualitative data, the authors discuss key themes that inform community development practice with seniors including (a) challenging the dominant paradigm of community-based service delivery, (b) efficiency and sustainability, (c) expectations and perceptions of expertise, (d) involvement and leadership, and (e) multicultural practice. With a growing and increasingly healthy elder population, it is time to expand the scope of gerontological social work practice beyond a focus on disability and dependency.

scholarly journals Resisting gentrification: The theoretical and practice contributions of social work

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amie Thurber ◽  
Amy Krings ◽  
Linda S Martinez ◽  
Mary Ohmer
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Community Organizing ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Home Values

Summary Gentrification is changing the landscape of many cities worldwide, exacerbating economic and racial inequality. Despite its relevance to social work, the field has been conspicuously absent from scholarship related to gentrification. This paper introduces the dominant view of gentrification (a political economic lens), highlighting its contributions and vulnerabilities, then introduces four case studies that illuminate the distinct contributions of social work to broaden the ways in which gentrification is theorized and responded to within communities. Findings When gentrification is analyzed exclusively through a political economy lens, researchers, policy makers, and practitioners are likely to focus on changes in land and home values, reducing the adverse effects of gentrification to a loss of affordable housing. A singular focus on affordable housing risks paying insufficient attention to racial struggle, perpetuating damage-based views of poor people and neighborhoods, and obfuscating political, social, and cultural displacements. Social work practice—including social action group work, community organizing, community development, and participatory research and planning—offers a holistic approach to understanding, resisting, and responding to gentrification and advance equitable development in the city. Applications By exploring social work practice that amplifies residents’ and change makers’ efforts, advances existing community organizing, produces new insights, builds inter-neighborhood and interdisciplinary collaborations, and facilitates social action and policy change, this paper helps community practitioners to reimagine the role of social work research and practice in gentrifying neighborhoods.

scholarly journals Democracia, participación ciudadana y funciones del trabajo social

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 3-30
Author(s):  
Tomás Alberich-Nistal ◽  
Mª Ángeles Espadas-Alcázar
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Systemic Crisis ◽  
Trabajo Social ◽  
University Training ◽  
Different Levels

El artículo comienza con unas reflexiones en torno a la situación actual de la democracia y la participación, marcada por la crisis sistémica en la que vivimos. En la segunda parte se estudian las relaciones que se dan entre la profesión y formación universitaria en Trabajo Social y de estas con los programas de participación ciudadana ejecutados desde los Servicios Sociales. En la práctica profesional del Trabajo Social en entes locales se han ido reduciendo los proyectos de desarrollo comunitario y de fomento de la participación, aunque, de forma esperanzadora, en el nuevo título de Grado en Trabajo Social se vuelven a incluir estos temas entre las competencias que deben tener los futuros graduados. En un tercer bloque se trata de definir y diferenciar mejor los conceptos que se suelen utilizar cuando se tratan estos temas: democracia representativa/participativa y participación social/ciudadana, finalizando con la descripción y análisis de los diferentes niveles y formas de participación que se re-producen en las sociedades democráticas. The article begins with some reflections on the current situation of democracy and participation, marked by the systemic crisis in which we live. In the second part we deal with the relationships that exist between the profession and university training in social work, and between those and citizen participation programs run from social services. Professional social work practice in local services has reduced community development projects and participative projects, though, hopefully, the new Degree in Social Work reinstates these issues between the skills required future graduates. In a third section we try to define and differentiate the concepts that are often used when these topics: representative/participatory democracy and social/civic participation, ending with the description and analysis of the different levels and forms of participation that are re-produced in democratic societies.  

‘The soul of the community’: two practitioners reflect on history, place and community in two community-based practices from 1980 to 1995: St Hilda’s Community Centre in Bethnal Green and Waterloo Action Centre in Waterloo, South London

2020 ◽  
pp. 201-220
Author(s):  
Jeanette Copperman ◽  
Steven Malies
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Voluntary Sector ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Politics Of Place ◽  
Work Education

This chapter offers an exploration of the Settlement House movement in a contemporary light. It uses the reflections of two practitioners and data from recently conducted focus groups on the community-based practice in two organisations in England during the period 1981 to 1995. The authors contend that community development and community social work were part of mainstream social work practice supported by local authorities and integrated into social work education but that this has largely been lost from both mainstream social work practice and education, taking place only in the voluntary sector. This chapter aims to document the value of social work within contemporary based community-based organisations where politics of place were central to the community-based practice which took place, thus carrying on the original ethos and ideas of the original Settlements.

scholarly journals Social Work Practice with Local Communities in Balochistan: Essential for Political Engagement

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-172
Author(s):  
Siraj Bashir ◽  
Muhammad Faisal Zia ◽  
Naheed Abrar
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Community Practice ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Wide Community

The article argues a variety of characteristics of social work, wide community practice movements, and necessities for political engagement in local communities in Balochistan. Drawing on secondary knowledge and also the author's observations and analysis on community development in Balochistan, it highlights a question: do social work practice in local communities typically, and notably through political engagement? The analysis shows wide community practice movements in Balochistan and argues that social                  work and their profession are practically absent in local communities, and after they are thus engaged, most of them don't interact politically. Insight of local communities’ backgrounds and people’s depressing circumstances, the very important for social work to interact politically in community practice are mentioned. These are as follows: holding to values social work practice with communities, creating access and gaining acceptance, awareness-raising and capability building, difficult artful and oppressive community power structures, and make certain property community development. Finally, it's argued that too with success address these necessities, social work might have to alter its non-political and non-religious unbiased stand, wherever appropriate. In several conditions, social workers have to be compelled to specialize in the profession’s basic values and principles and keenly interact with local politics and power structures so on improving the living conditions of individuals and local communities in Balochistan.

scholarly journals Sustainable communities and social work practice learning

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-114
Author(s):  
Joanna Blake
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The University

This paper explores the ways that social work practice learning, through community development projects, can help take forward the local sustainability agenda. The first part establishes links between three pedagogic areas: education for sustainability, student learning in the community and social work practice learning. The second section presents a case study of a small-scale, sustainability initiative at the University of Plymouth, UK. The paper negotiates an inherent tension between a broad and all encompassing conceptualisation of education for sustainability, and the specific approach to professional training prescribed for social workers and teachers. The tension mirrors the multi-leveled dimensions of the sustainability initiative under discussion. The case study considers the emergent, methodological approach to learning that was adopted. Prescribed outcomes were actively resisted and the paper argues that this approach carries merit. In closing, aspects of partnership working amongst the community development agencies and university, and future trajectories of the project are elucidated.

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