Green Social Work

Social work is the profession that claims to intervene to enhancepeople's well-being. However, social workers have played a low-keyrole in environmental issues that increasingly impact on people'swell-being, both locally and globally.
This compelling new contribution confronts this topic head-on,examining environmental issues from a social work perspective. LenaDominelli draws attention to the important voice of practitionersworking on the ground in the aftermath of environmental disasters,whether these are caused by climate change, industrial accidents orhuman conflict. The author explores the concept of 'greensocial work' and its role in using environmental crises to addresspoverty and other forms of structural inequalities, to obtain moreequitable allocations of limited natural resources and to tackleglobal socio-political forces that have a damaging impact upon thequality of life of poor and marginalized populations at locallevels. The resolution of these matters is linked to communityinitiatives that social workers can engage in to ensure that thequality of life of poor people can be enhanced without costing theEarth.
This important book will appeal to those in the fields of socialwork, social policy, sociology and human geography. It powerfullyreveals how environmental issues are an integral part of socialwork's remit if it is to retain its currency in the modern worldand emphasize its relevance to the social issues that societieshave to resolve in the twenty-first century.