Peace as opportunity for social justice: Establishment of new social change organizations in Israel in the wake of the Oslo Peace Accords

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 368-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roni Kaufman
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
The Social ◽  
Peace Accords ◽  
Social Change Organizations ◽  
Israeli Experience

The social work profession is committed to the promotion of peace and social justice. It is often assumed that peacetime enables diverting resources and attention to the promotion of disadvantaged groups. However, little is known about the mechanisms. This study of the Israeli experience following the Oslo Peace Accords suggests that one potential mechanism is the development of social change organizations (SCOs) in the wake of peace. Findings indicate growth in SCO establishment in the periphery and small towns, in vulnerable groups, and in the Israeli Palestinian (Arab) citizen minority group. Implications for social work are suggested.

scholarly journals COVID-19 and the calls of humanistic social work: Exploring the developmental-clinical social work concerns of the pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 002087282110079
Author(s):  
Robert K Chigangaidze
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Technological Innovation ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Clinical Social Work ◽  
Health Community ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Face

Any health outbreak is beyond the biomedical approach. The COVID-19 pandemic exposes a calamitous need to address social inequalities prevalent in the global health community. Au fait with this, the impetus of this article is to explore the calls of humanistic social work in the face of the pandemic. It calls for the pursuit of social justice during the pandemic and after. It also calls for a holistic service provision, technological innovation and stewardship. Wrapping up, it challenges the global community to rethink their priorities – egotism or altruism. It emphasizes the ultimate way forward of addressing the social inequalities.

scholarly journals Exhaustion and possibility. The wor(l)dlyness of social work in (G)local environment worlds during a pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 54-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona B Livholts
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Writing Genres

Exhaustion is not about being tired. It is an intense feeling of restlessness, of insomnia, and awakening when I ask myself: have I exhausted all that is possible? Such a state of restlessness and wakefulness represents a turning point for having enough, and opens for new possibilities to act for social change. This reflexive essay departs from the notion that the language of exhaustion offers a wor(l)dly possibility for social work(ers) to engage in critical analytical reflexivity about our locations of power from the outset of our (g)local environment worlds. The aim is to trace the transformative possibilities of social change in social work practice through the literature of exhaustion (eg. Frichot, 2019 ; Spooner, 2011 ). The methodology is based on uses of narrative life writing genres such as poetry, written and photographic diary entrances between the 4th of April and 4th of June. The essay shows how tracing exhaustion during the pandemic, visualises a multiplicity of forms of oppression and privilege, an increasing attention and relationship to things, and border movements and languages. I suggest that social work replace the often-used terminology of social problems with exhaustive lists to address structural forms of racism, sexism, ableism, ageism, which has been further visualized through death, illness, violence, and poverty during the pandemic. I argue that the language of exhaustion is useful for reflexivity and action in social work practice through the way it contributes to intensified awareness, attention, engagement, listening, and agency to create social justice.

How the environment is conceptualised and represented globally in social work codes of ethics

2021 ◽  
pp. 002087282110200
Author(s):  
Kang Liu ◽  
Catherine A Flynn
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Codes Of Ethics ◽  
Mixed Methods Study ◽  
Sequential Mixed Methods ◽  
The Social ◽  
Holistic Understanding

While the environment is fundamental to humankind’s wellbeing, to date, social work has been largely focused on the social, rather than the physical, environment. To map how the broader environment is captured in the profession’s foundational documents, an exploratory sequential mixed methods study (QUAL → quan) analysed data from 64 social work codes of ethics. Findings indicate that although the environment is mentioned in the majority of these, there is a continued focus on the social, overlooking to some degree the physical, predominantly the built, environment. A more holistic understanding of the environment would enable social work to better fulfil its commitment to human rights and social justice.

Social workers, critical theory and the political sphere: addressing political misrecognition and marginalisation in the Republic of Ireland

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Flynn
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Critical Commentary ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Electoral Representation ◽  
Irish Politics

Despite the traditional social justice mandate of social work, and critical and radical theoretical traditions that pursue egalitarian and just societies, the engagement of the social work academy with Irish politics has been underwhelming at best. While there are abstract analyses that address sociopolitical theory and ideological wrongdoings related to neoliberalist rationality, attention in social work academia to the nuts and bolts of everyday political life in Ireland, such as democratic party politics and electoral representation, leaves much to the imagination. This article therefore pursues a more grounded reading of social justice in Irish politics for social workers. The supporting proposition is that to effectively interject in political misrecognition and marginalisation, social workers must understand the present political state of play. Towards achieving this, Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition aids thematic critical commentary on the literature.

Practitioner perspectives on learning for social change through non-formal global citizenship education

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor J Brown
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Citizenship Education ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Global Citizenship ◽  
Small Individual ◽  
Global Citizenship Education ◽  
The Social

This article engages with debates about transformative learning and social change, exploring practitioner perspectives on non-formal education activities run by non-governmental organisations. The research looked at how global citizenship education practitioners met their organisation’s goals of change for social justice through educational activities. This education is sometimes criticised for promoting small individual changes in behaviour, which do not ultimately lead to the social justice to which it pertains to aim. Findings suggest that this non-formal education aims to provide information from different perspectives and generate critical reflection, often resulting in shifts in attitudes and behaviour. While the focus is often on small actions, non-formal spaces opened up by such education allow for networks to develop, which are key for more collective action and making links to social movements. Although this was rarely the focus of these organisations, it was these steps, often resulting from reflection as a group on personal actions, which carried potentially for social change.

Facilitating CSWE's Social Justice Competency in Baccalaureate Social Work Courses

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-73
Author(s):  
Simon Funge ◽  
Nancy Meyer-Adams ◽  
Chris Flaherty ◽  
Gretchen Ely ◽  
Jeffrey Baer
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Educational Policy ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Core Competencies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Practice Behaviors ◽  
The Social ◽  
Work Education

The Council on Social Work Education identifies social justice as one of 10 core competencies in its 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards. Educators can find it daunting to address this particular competency. The National Association of Social Workers' Social Work Speaks can provide a practical guide for educating students in the policy positions of social work's primary professional association. This article offers uses of these materials that can infuse social justice concepts into foundation coursework, mitigating not only some of the challenges associated with teaching this content but also fostering the expected practice behaviors associated with the social justice competency. This model can apply to teaching strategies pertaining to the other nine competencies. Examples of assignments and methods for assessment are provided.

The Violence of Care

2019 ◽  
pp. 114-142
Author(s):  
Felicity Aulino
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Structural Violence ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Social Forms ◽  
The Social ◽  
Two Sides

This chapter addresses questions of structural violence and stasis in relation to the hierarchy and habituation in various forms of care. In many powerful analyses, structural violence is the term given to systematic limits placed on individual agency. This naming has served to illuminate systems of oppression and inequality. And yet, notions of individual agency, like intention, emerge differently in different historical and philosophical traditions. The chapter then demonstrates how Thai social worlds habituate people to feel themselves as part of collectives and to provide for one another through maintaining differentiated roles within groups, which forces one to consider anew people's complicity with repressive social forms. That is, one must reckon with the forms of care that emerge in and sustain oppression. Compassion and pity can thus come into view as two sides of what may be the same coin, with implications for humanitarianism beyond the borders of Thailand. Limitations are placed on individual agency in a multitude of ways in contemporary Thai society. As such, the stakes of altering norms are high because care is enacted through patronage and patterned into micro- and macrostructures. Ultimately, understanding the social training of awareness toward different modes of providing for others may lead to novel ways of approaching social change and working for social justice, in Thailand and elsewhere.

Complicating our understanding of environmental migration and displacement: The case of drought-related human movement in Kenya

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 364-370
Author(s):  
Jennifer Willett ◽  
Jeanelle Sears
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Human Movement ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Environmental Migration ◽  
The Social

The social work profession is increasingly concerned with human movement due to environmental changes and has issued a call to develop appropriate interventions to support the vulnerable groups that tend to migrate. However, the scholarship in this area is lacking. In this brief note, we explore a case of environmental migration that was linked to drought in Kenya. We found that their experiences tend to be different than those that are highlighted or warned about in the literature. Through considering these differences, we propose several avenues for social work to support this population appropriately and ethically.

Reproductive Justice and the Social Work Profession: Common Grounds and Current Trends

Affilia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica L. Liddell
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Search Term ◽  
Reproductive Justice ◽  
The Social ◽  
Country Rankings ◽  
Location Study

Reproductive rights and justice frameworks, which take an intersectional and social justice approach to reproductive health, are compatible with social work’s philosophical and theoretical foundations and its practical goals of advocating and promoting social justice. However, reproductive rights and justice are not frequently addressed in social work publications, an important gap that should be addressed. The search term “reproductive justice” was used to identify 10 articles published between 1994 and 2018 among the top 50 social work journals (using SCImago Journal and Country rankings). Only 3 of these 10 articles focused substantively on reproductive justice. By comparison, 55 article were identified with the search term “reproductive rights.” An analysis of the reproductive justice articles was conducted for purpose and topic, location, study population, year, journal, key findings, and implications for the social work profession. All articles called for an increase in research on reproductive justice topics. Encouragingly, these articles also included an analysis of the role of the social work profession with these frameworks. However, there is a lack of articles on reproductive justice, and the range of topics, and the methodological approaches, covered are limited. Although the increase in reproductive rights literature is heartening, there is a need for reproductive justice framings in social work practice and research.

Social Exclusion and Inclusion

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Lyons ◽  
Nathalie Huegler
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
International Development ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
The Social ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

The term social exclusion achieved widespread use in Europe from the late twentieth century. Its value as a concept that is different from poverty, with universal relevance, has since been debated. It is used in Western literature about international development, and some authors have linked it to the notion of capabilities. However, it is not widely used in the social work vocabulary. Conversely, the notion of social inclusion has gained in usage and application. This links with values that underlie promotion of empowerment and participation, whether of individuals, groups, or communities. Both terms are inextricably linked to the realities of inequalities within and between societies and to the principles of human rights and social justice that feature in the international definition of social work.

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