Advancing Local, Social, and Ecological Transitions Through Community Development

Author(s):  
Anne C. Jennings

This chapter explores social work and community development practices in light of the urgent social, economic, and environmental issues facing the world today. Can those professions, established to support individuals and communities, overcome social disadvantage, evolve into new, alternative roles that seek combined human and non-human (animals, plants, living organisms) understandings leading towards transformative practices? Those professions are viewed within their own constructs and environmental agendas. Ancient and contemporary Indigenous knowledges are then considered, as they relate to the First Law of caring for their living country and living lifestyles. Two community development case studies are examined, involving non-Indigenous people in their community, and Indigenous traditional owners across a whole river catchment to address key questions: How can those disciplines contribute to ecological transformation? Can they appreciate and include non-humans in their practice? and How can Indigenous ancient and current knowledges contribute to social justice practice?

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-127
Author(s):  
Deborah Rose

The force of disaster hit me in the heart when, as a young woman, I heard Bob Dylan sing ‘Hard Rain’. In a voice stunned by violence, the young man reports on a multitude of forces that drag the world into catastrophe. In the 1960s I heard the social justice in the song. In 2004 the environmental issues ambush me. The song starts and ends in the dying world of trees and rivers. The poet’s words in both domains of justice are eerily prophetic. They call across the music, and across the years, saying that a hard rain is coming. The words bear no story at all; they give us a series of compelling images, an account of impending calamity. The artistry of the poet—Bob (Billy Boy) Dylan—offers sequences of reports that, like Walter Benjamin’s storm from paradise, pile wreckage upon wreckage.


Author(s):  
Angela Summersgill

Aotearoa/New Zealand is considered one of the most multicultural countries on the planet. The 2013 census revealed that ‘New Zealand has more ethnicities than there are countries in the world. In total, 213 ethnic groups were identified in the census, whereas there are 196 countries recognised by Statistics New Zealand’. This chapter shares some of the issues, experiences, questions, and practice implications arising for the author, a mixed-race, British-born community development practitioner and social work educator living in Aotearoa. She has sought to better understand the issues and questions regarding the coexistence of biculturalism and multiculturalism; and to question what it might be that we separately and collectively need to do in order to move forward with respect and inclusivity.


2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-72
Author(s):  
Sarah Pharaon ◽  
Sally Roesch Wagner ◽  
Barbara Lau ◽  
María José Bolaña Caballero

Since 1999, the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience has worked with historic house museums around the world who assist their visitors in connecting past and present, use dialogue as a central strategy in addressing needs in their immediate community, and encourage visitors to become active in the social issues their sites raise. Featuring case studies from Coalition members Centro Cultural y Museo de la Memoria (Montevideo, Uruguay), Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation (Fayetteville, New York), and the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice (Durham, North Carolina), this article reviews the revolutionary approaches Sites of Conscience take toward addressing challenging histories and their contemporary legacies.


1989 ◽  
Vol 21 (8-9) ◽  
pp. 1065-1076 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Whitelaw ◽  
J. F. de L. G. Solbé

Water quality in certain UK rivers has deteriorated due to episodic pollution from farms and storm sewage overflows. In response to the need to further our knowledge of the effects of episodic events on water quality and to derive appropriate quality standards, WRc Environment has established a number of case studies involving both field and laboratory investigations. This paper describes the approach to standard setting which has been adopted in these studies. Two complementary approaches are used: the first based on examining published toxicity data in order to derive working draft standards; the second is the testing of these draft standards against the performance of living organisms.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Young ◽  
Joanna Zubrzycki

• Summary: The Australian Prime Minister’s 2008 historic Apology to the Stolen Generations gives Australian social work an opportunity to confront its past complicity in Australian Indigenous disadvantage and embrace the development of Indigenous social work as central for practice. Critical Whiteness1 theory in social work curricula could assist the development of Indigenous social work as a core approach by challenging the ongoing and largely un-reflexive practices emanating from social work’s Euro-centric heritage with its often taken-for-granted knowledges and principles which negatively affect Indigenous peoples. • Findings: Recent professional and theoretical attention on critical Whiteness highlights race privilege, questions the invisibility and continuing invisibilization of race, critiques previously taken-for-granted Western knowledges and practices, and facilitates the development of countering practice approaches. Research studies reveal some practitioners to be aware of the need for different practices as well as some who practice differently without realizing they are using critical Whiteness principles. • Application: Critical Whiteness theory in the social work curriculum offers a strong conceptual and practical opportunity for students and practitioners to become more racially cognizant in their work with Indigenous people, allowing this work to be more effective in the profession’s social justice mission as well as decreasing some of the extant colonizing practices.


Author(s):  
Kathleen Van Buren ◽  
Brian Shrag

Make Arts for a Better Life: A Guide for Working with Communities provides a groundbreaking model for arts advocacy. Drawing upon methods and theories from disciplines such as ethnomusicology, anthropology, folklore, community development, and communication studies, the Guide presents an in-depth approach to researching artistic practices within communities and to developing arts-based projects that address locally defined needs. Through clear methodology, case studies from around the world, and sample activities, the Guide helps move readers from arts research to project development to project evaluation. It addresses diverse arts: music, drama, dance, oral verbal arts, and visual arts. Also featured are critical reflections on the concept of a “better life” and ethical issues in arts advocacy. The Guide is aimed at a broad audience including both scholars and public sector workers. Appendices and an accompanying website offer methodology “cheat sheets,” sample research documents, and specific suggestions for educators, researchers, and project leaders.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-142
Author(s):  
Alison Grittner ◽  
The Social Justice Learning Collaborative

Drawing upon Heron and Reason’s (1997) participatory inquiry paradigm and extended epistemology, this article explores how six Master of Social Work (MSW) students engaged in sensory arts-based critical reflection concerning their social location, identities, social justice, and social policy. We share our process for creating sensory arts-based stories, the stories themselves, and pedagogical reflections. We elucidate how sensory arts-based storytelling allows learners to draw upon their strengths, unique perspectives, and experiences in the world, generating transformative understandings of social justice. Sensory arts-based storytelling holds potential as an interdisciplinary mode of critical reflection, generating inclusive learning environments oriented towards social change.


2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 173-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Hinson ◽  
Aaron J. Goldsmith ◽  
Joseph Murray

This article addresses the unique roles of social work and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in end-of-life and hospice care settings. The four levels of hospice care are explained. Suggested social work and SLP interventions for end-of-life nutrition and approaches to patient communication are offered. Case studies are used to illustrate the specialized roles that social work and SLP have in end-of-life care settings.


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