- The University of Newcastle, School of Humanities and Social Science, Faculty Memberadd
- Indigenous Social Work, Environmental social work, Social Development, International Social Work, Decolonizing Social Work, Evidence-based practice, and 17 moreKnowledge Production and Transfer In Social Work, Critical Social Work, Social Work, Social Theory, Social Policy, Ethics/philosophy, Social Work Research, Pedagogy of Social Work, Social Work Education, Evidence Based Practice, South Africa, Social Work Ethics, Community Development, Human Services & Social Work, Mental Health, Child Protection Social Work, and Social Work Education and Practiceedit
- Mel Gray (PhD) is Professor Emeritus (Social Work) in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Scienc... moreMel Gray (PhD) is Professor Emeritus (Social Work) in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Science at the University of Newcastle. Mel is also a keen photographer – her work can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/40234133@N00/edit
In this volume, Indigenous and non-Indigenous social work scholars examine local cultures, beliefs, values, and practices as central to decolonization. Supported by a growing interest in spirituality and ecological awareness in... more
In this volume, Indigenous and non-Indigenous social work scholars
examine local cultures, beliefs, values, and practices as central to
decolonization. Supported by a growing interest in spirituality and
ecological awareness in international social work, they interrogate
trends, issues, and debates in Indigenous social work theory, practice
methods, and education models including a section on Indigenous
research approaches.
examine local cultures, beliefs, values, and practices as central to
decolonization. Supported by a growing interest in spirituality and
ecological awareness in international social work, they interrogate
trends, issues, and debates in Indigenous social work theory, practice
methods, and education models including a section on Indigenous
research approaches.
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Popular interest in the environment has steadily grown in recent decades such that the environmental movement has been called the ‘largest, most densely organised political cause in human history’. The wide disciplinary interest in... more
Popular interest in the environment has steadily grown in recent decades such that the environmental movement has been called the ‘largest, most densely organised political cause in human history’. The wide disciplinary interest in environmental issues, such as climate change, habitat destruction and species extinction, has resulted in a multidisciplinary perspective among scholars regarding discussions of causes, consequences and restorative actions. The beginning of the modern environmental movement has been attributed to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, an exposé of the consequences of the unquestioned use of pesticides. Western knowledge systems, ideologies and methods of social care and development have been shown repeatedly to be inappropriate and totally inadequate for addressing the major crises confronting our planet. The discourse on social development and the environment is closely aligned to social work and highlights the importance of sustainable development. Environmental ethics highlights the difficulty humans have conceptualising nature as having other than instrumental value.
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Social work has been late to engage with the environmental movement. Often working with an exclusively social understanding of environment, much of the social work profession has overlooked the importance of environmental issues. However,... more
Social work has been late to engage with the environmental movement. Often working with an exclusively social understanding of environment, much of the social work profession has overlooked the importance of environmental issues. However, recently, the impact of and worldwide attention to climate change, a string of natural disasters, and increased understanding of issues around environmental justice has put the environment, sustainability, and well-being in the spotlight.
Divided into three parts, this field-defining work explores what environmental social work is, and how it can be put into practice. The first section focuses on theory, discussing ecological and social justice, as well as sustainability, spirituality and human rights. The second section comprises case studies of evolving environmental social work practice. The case studies derive from a range of areas from urban gardens and community organizing to practice with those affected by climate change. The final section – relevant to students and lecturers – looks at learning about environmental issues in social work.
Environmental Social Work provides an integrated theoretical and practical overview of why and how social work might respond to environmental factors affecting the societies and people they work with at international, national, local and individual levels.
CONTENTS
Introduction Editors
Part 1 - Theory: Mapping the Terrain of Environmental Social Work 1. Ecological and Social Justice: A Call to Action - Fred Besthorn
2. Ecosocial Work with Marginalized Populations: Time for Action on Climate Change -Tiani Hetherington & Jennifer Boddy
3. Environmental Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Social Work - Arielle Dylan
4. Social Science Research in Ocean Environments: A Social Worker's Experience -Susan A. Taylor
5. Climate Change as a Human Rights Issue - Frank Tester
Part 2 - Practice: Case Studies of Environmental Social Work Practice
6. Community Gardens, Creative Community Organizing, and Environmental Activism -Benjamin Shepard
7. Social Work Practice with Drought-Affected Families: An Australian Case Study -Daniela Stehlik
8. Social Work, Animals, and the Natural World - Thomas Ryan
9. Restoration Not Incarceration: An Environmentally-Based Intervention for Working With Young Offenders - Christine Lynn Norton, Barbara Holguin, & Jarid Manos
10. Social Work and the Struggle for Corporate Social Responsibility - Dyann Ross
Part 3 - Education: Challenging Students to Respond to Environmental Issues
11. Transforming the Curriculum: Social Work Education and Ecological Consciousness - Peter Jones
12. Emotion, Ethics, and Fostering Environmental Citizenship - Mishka Lysack
13. Social Work Education on The Environment in Contemporary Curricula in the USA -R. Anna Hayward, Shari E. Miller, & Terry V. Shaw
14. Environmental Sustainability: Educating Social Workers for Interdisciplinary Practice - Cathryne Schmitz, Tom Matyok, Channelle James, & Lacey Sloan
15. Social Work Education for Disaster Relief Work - Lena Dominelli
Conclusion Editors
Divided into three parts, this field-defining work explores what environmental social work is, and how it can be put into practice. The first section focuses on theory, discussing ecological and social justice, as well as sustainability, spirituality and human rights. The second section comprises case studies of evolving environmental social work practice. The case studies derive from a range of areas from urban gardens and community organizing to practice with those affected by climate change. The final section – relevant to students and lecturers – looks at learning about environmental issues in social work.
Environmental Social Work provides an integrated theoretical and practical overview of why and how social work might respond to environmental factors affecting the societies and people they work with at international, national, local and individual levels.
CONTENTS
Introduction Editors
Part 1 - Theory: Mapping the Terrain of Environmental Social Work 1. Ecological and Social Justice: A Call to Action - Fred Besthorn
2. Ecosocial Work with Marginalized Populations: Time for Action on Climate Change -Tiani Hetherington & Jennifer Boddy
3. Environmental Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Social Work - Arielle Dylan
4. Social Science Research in Ocean Environments: A Social Worker's Experience -Susan A. Taylor
5. Climate Change as a Human Rights Issue - Frank Tester
Part 2 - Practice: Case Studies of Environmental Social Work Practice
6. Community Gardens, Creative Community Organizing, and Environmental Activism -Benjamin Shepard
7. Social Work Practice with Drought-Affected Families: An Australian Case Study -Daniela Stehlik
8. Social Work, Animals, and the Natural World - Thomas Ryan
9. Restoration Not Incarceration: An Environmentally-Based Intervention for Working With Young Offenders - Christine Lynn Norton, Barbara Holguin, & Jarid Manos
10. Social Work and the Struggle for Corporate Social Responsibility - Dyann Ross
Part 3 - Education: Challenging Students to Respond to Environmental Issues
11. Transforming the Curriculum: Social Work Education and Ecological Consciousness - Peter Jones
12. Emotion, Ethics, and Fostering Environmental Citizenship - Mishka Lysack
13. Social Work Education on The Environment in Contemporary Curricula in the USA -R. Anna Hayward, Shari E. Miller, & Terry V. Shaw
14. Environmental Sustainability: Educating Social Workers for Interdisciplinary Practice - Cathryne Schmitz, Tom Matyok, Channelle James, & Lacey Sloan
15. Social Work Education for Disaster Relief Work - Lena Dominelli
Conclusion Editors
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Growing worldwide concern for climate change and environmental decline has spawned much scholarship in social work, where attention to ecological approaches has increased due to global awareness of these issues and their anticipated... more
Growing worldwide concern for climate change and environmental decline has spawned much scholarship in social work, where attention to ecological approaches has increased due to global awareness of these issues and their anticipated catastrophic consequences. Advocates suggest that these approaches provide a foundation of values, assumptions, and practices for the profession to contribute effectively to the struggle to counter climate change and environmental degradation. Despite some notable exceptions, ecological articulations, however well intended, have proved ineffective in garnering sufficient endorsement and adherence to move the profession away from the dominant individualistic, deterministic, and clinical/direct practice focus. Many of these articulations deal with causal connections as they add additional layers of services and skill-sets, while the core foundation remains unexamined and unchanged. Any hope of positive long-term change is minimised as interventions, to be effective, must operate from a value base different from that from which the problem arises. This chapter asks 'how green is social work' and examines what an ecological turn in social work would entail.
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This chapter describes an Australian arts-based, community-focused project, which aimed to address attitudes to domestic and family violence within a low socioeconomic community, with a high rate of domestic and family violence. The... more
This chapter describes an Australian arts-based, community-focused project, which aimed to address attitudes to domestic and family violence within a low socioeconomic community, with a high rate of domestic and family violence. The researchers conducted the project in partnership with a local anti-violence network keen to try an innovative arts-based approach to address the issue. The Network participated in, and supported, the arts-based interventions. The theory that most approximated the method, focus, and aim of the project was process-oriented community development in that it worked through small community groups focused around arts-based interventions that aimed directly to address issues of domestic violence and safety at home. Thus, it involved children and adults, and multiple arts-based interventions, across a three-year period, with varying degrees of community and partner participation. The project generated positive community engagement and the interventions achieved variable outcomes.
Quality locally relevant social work education is essential in social workers’ professional development and, in Nigeria, in the profession’s struggle for legitimacy and connection with local families and communities. It is also pivotal to... more
Quality locally relevant social work education is essential in social workers’ professional development and, in Nigeria, in the profession’s struggle for legitimacy and connection with local families and communities. It is also pivotal to efficient and effective service delivery in the contemporary digitally connected world, where myriad social issues warrant the professional intervention of skilled practitioners in diverse fields. Social workers’ responsiveness and effectiveness depends crucially on the quality and relevance of the education and training they receive at the start of and throughout their professional careers. This paper examines social work education, its relatively recent origins, and issues in contemporary Nigerian society highlighting the ongoing need for sociocultural relevance in the interests of professional recognition. It proposes that social work educators and administrators have a crucial role to play in enhancing the profession’s relevance and suggests a way forward.
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This chapter describes the researchers’ reflections on the arts-based, community-focused project, discussed in Chapter *. It examines several themes in the discourse on connecting to social work and art in community practice relating to... more
This chapter describes the researchers’ reflections on the arts-based, community-focused project, discussed in Chapter *. It examines several themes in the discourse on connecting to social work and art in community practice relating to social work and community, and art and community. It reviews two strands of theory relating to arts-based practice, namely, community cultural development and arts-based community development. It ends with some practical information, suggestions and resources for arts-based community practice arising from the Safe at Home project presented in Chapter *.
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This paper traces the trajectory of my thinking on social development shaped, initially, by the huge changes that swept South Africa in the 1990s. It describes my early focus on discerning what the policy-driven changes to a developmental... more
This paper traces the trajectory of my thinking on social development shaped, initially, by the huge changes that swept South Africa in the 1990s. It describes my early focus on discerning what the policy-driven changes to a developmental welfare system meant for social work and the subsequent critical turn, as social development proved extremely difficult to translate to practice. It traces the changes in my thinking on coming to Australia in 1999, when the country was undergoing a period of massive welfare reform, firmly embedding neoliberal privatization policy. In reflecting on switching concepts in the social development discourse, the discussion turns to its embrace of neoliberalism. Thereafter, it considers three models to highlight the turn from centralized planning, which held the government responsible for social development, to social enterprise, which divested government of its responsibility, and a critical development model that linked national policy to the wider international system. Noting critiques of neoliberal social development, the discussion ends with the current trajectory of my thinking outlined in a critical model for developmental practice with the core foci being the structural-political, cultural-contextual, critical-developmental, and environmental-spiritual dimensions of social development.
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Research Interests: Social Work, Mental Health, Mental Health Service Access, Evidence Based Practice, Public Relations, and 14 moreAustralia, Participation, Qualitative Research, Peer Review, Medicine, Service User Involvement, Peer Support in Recovery of People with Mental Health Challenges, Service Users, Peer Support, EBP, service Business, Service user participation, Peer support program, and Qualitiative case study
This book offers a global audience insight into Nigeria's developmental issues and problems and a local audience – social science and human service researchers, educators, practitioners, students, and policymakers - a glimpse of what's... more
This book offers a global audience insight into Nigeria's developmental issues and problems and a local audience – social science and human service researchers, educators, practitioners, students, and policymakers - a glimpse of what's possible when people work together toward a common goal.
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This paper examines the progress of the social service professions delivering developmental social welfare in South Africa, a subject we have followed closely over the last 20 years. Being policy‐driven, developmental social welfare... more
This paper examines the progress of the social service professions delivering developmental social welfare in South Africa, a subject we have followed closely over the last 20 years. Being policy‐driven, developmental social welfare stemmed from expert social analyses that resulted in technically oriented solutions, including the broadening of social service professions. Twenty years on, it is hard to see developmental social welfare, as envisaged in government policy, in action, since the practice reality does not differ drastically from the prior apartheid system with the government's heavy reliance on social security as a poverty‐alleviation measure. The expanded social security budget has led to underfunded services and a crisis for social service professionals. This paper focuses on the regulated professions of social workers, and child and youth care workers. Our examination of critical issues for these occupational groups revealed that South Africa still has a long way to...
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This article examines pivotal issues relating to social workers’ search for professional recognition in Nigeria. It begins with a historical discussion of social work’s universal quest to establish a distinct professional identity.... more
This article examines pivotal issues relating to social workers’ search for professional recognition in Nigeria. It begins with a historical discussion of social work’s universal quest to establish a distinct professional identity. Thereafter, it examines Nigerian social work’s path to professionalisation before introducing an analytical framework through recourse to an R-lexicon to highlight the interrelated processes by which professions establish their credentials and attain legitimation. These are registration and regulation, relevance, recognition, representation, relational connection, rights and research. This R-lexicon highlights key strategic areas Nigerian social workers might address to advance their quest for professional status.
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The growth of socially engaged art practice over the last decade is considered in light of the relationship between social work, art and social change. The question posed is ‘has social work—caught in neo-liberal paternalism—given way to... more
The growth of socially engaged art practice over the last decade is considered in light of the relationship between social work, art and social change. The question posed is ‘has social work—caught in neo-liberal paternalism—given way to socially engaged art as a medium of social change?’ The paper argues that, as social workers have vacated public spaces of activism and change, so artists have moved in to fill the void and suggests there has never been a better time to reinvigorate critical social work and its emancipatory potential.
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Page 1. Indigenous a] £d Social Work around the World Towards Culturally Relevant Education and Practice 1 il ;1 edited by MEL CRAY, JOHN COATES and MICHAEL YELLOW BIRD Page 2. Page 3. INDIGENOUS SOCIAL WORK AROUND THE WORLD Page 4. ...
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This chapter critically examines the utility of a public health approach in addressing, and preventing complex constellations of maltreatment, particularly when this occurs within impoverished neighbourhoods and communities. It discusses... more
This chapter critically examines the utility of a public health approach in addressing, and preventing complex constellations of maltreatment, particularly when this occurs within impoverished neighbourhoods and communities. It discusses issues surrounding the tensions between the increasing push for more accurate risk assessment against concerns relating to greater social surveillance. Both approaches relate to the value of advanced data-integration systems. It begins by examining problems in the investigation-oriented child protection system that fail to engage families, provide needed services, and proactive early intervention and prevention. A public health model seeks to address prevention issues and takes seriously the social determinants of inequality and poor outcomes for low-income families. The question of whether its whole-of-population epidemiological focus translates well to child protection is one this chapter seeks to examine.
Research Interests: Sociology, Social Work, Early Intervention, Child protection, Child Maltreatment, and 13 moreInjury Prevention, Public Health, Suicide prevention, Child Abuse, Occupational Safety and Health, Early Childhood Intervention, Human Factors and Ergonomics, Family Support, Poison Control, Predictive Risk Modeling, Prevention and Early Intervention, Public Health Approach, and Prevention risk assessment
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Description This paper examines the progress of professional associations in South Africa in order to provide an understanding of the current difficulties being experienced in forming one unified body to represent social workers on... more
Description This paper examines the progress of professional associations in South Africa in order to provide an understanding of the current difficulties being experienced in forming one unified body to represent social workers on international organizations, particularly ...
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Abstract This paper presents Midgley's theory on social development to an Australian social work audience. It explores the concept and theory of social development, examines the relationship between social work and social... more
Abstract This paper presents Midgley's theory on social development to an Australian social work audience. It explores the concept and theory of social development, examines the relationship between social work and social development, and discusses the relevance of ...
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This article describes the situation of a community, comprising mainly women and preschool children, living in shacks on the pavement in Durban, South Africa reputed to be the second fastestgrowing city in the Southern Hemisphere. It is a... more
This article describes the situation of a community, comprising mainly women and preschool children, living in shacks on the pavement in Durban, South Africa reputed to be the second fastestgrowing city in the Southern Hemisphere. It is a community about which there has been a great deal of (mainly negative) coverage in the local media. It is not uncommon for the general public to see slum conditions and equate them with a ’myth of social pathology, turning the harshness of economic inequality back upon its victims
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There is a growing awareness, world-wide, of the need for indigenization and authentization of social work education and practice (Cossom, 1990; Freire,1970; Midgley,1981; Stein,1973; Walton and Abo El Nasr, 1988). This process requires... more
There is a growing awareness, world-wide, of the need for indigenization and authentization of social work education and practice (Cossom, 1990; Freire,1970; Midgley,1981; Stein,1973; Walton and Abo El Nasr, 1988). This process requires the development of education and practice models which are drawn from local sociopolitical and economic contexts. Working and living in the South African sociopolitical system creates ethical and practical dilemmas. ’Racism’ defined as the assertion of inherent superiority of particular racial or ethnic groups over others (Van den Berghe, 1967) permeates all aspects of public and private life in South Africa through the institutionalized apartheid system. The South African government has used direct legal intervention to organize people’s personal lives. The Population Registration Act, No. 30 of 1950 with Proclamation 123 of 1967 introduced nine so-called racial categories into which people had to be classified. Although, as Burman (1986) pointed out, the concept of race has been discredited as a meaningful biological classification system, it has marked sociopolitical implications in South African society. In terms of the Group Areas Act, No. 41 of 1950 (as amended), each group may live only in separately allocated areas. Except for private schools, children may attend school only with members of the same ’racial’ group. Although apartheid legislation is changing, ’colour and ethnicity legally determine where one may live, where one may visit, where one is educated, and whom one may love’ (Dawes, 1985). Apartheid directly conflicts with the values of the social work profession, yet social work agencies, and thus social workers, are funded through racially divided social welfare structures and there is
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This article reports on qualitative Australian research that was conducted with 32 workers from Job Services Australia and Emergency Relief agencies. Researchers investigated the operationalisation of assistance for unemployed people to... more
This article reports on qualitative Australian research that was conducted with 32 workers from Job Services Australia and Emergency Relief agencies. Researchers investigated the operationalisation of assistance for unemployed people to illuminate the language, discourse and processes through which workers and unemployed people were constructed within the quasi-market culture. Findings included individualistic and behaviourist frames, paradoxical positions in relation to client choice and blame, and a metaphorical frame which reinforced position, status and difference. This study provides important evidence from the frontline of Australia’s deregulated employment services, adding to the growing body of international social work literature pertaining to neoliberal welfare reform.
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PART ONE: WELFARE, SOCIAL POLICY AND SOCIAL WORK Social work, social policy and welfarism - David Gil Theorising welfare for social work - Mimi Abramovitz New modalities of welfare governance - Robert P. Fairbanks II Welfare professionals... more
PART ONE: WELFARE, SOCIAL POLICY AND SOCIAL WORK Social work, social policy and welfarism - David Gil Theorising welfare for social work - Mimi Abramovitz New modalities of welfare governance - Robert P. Fairbanks II Welfare professionals and Street-level Bureaucrats - Sanford Schram Gender and welfare - Mary Daly Welfare and social development - James Midgley PART TWO: SOCIAL WORK PERSPECTIVES Practice perspectives - Pamela Trevithick Ecological perspective - Gordon Jack Behavioural perspectives - Eileen Gambrill Family perspectives - Jacqueline Corcoran Strengths perspectives - Patrick Sullivan Critical perspectives - Karen Healy PART THREE: SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE Knowledge for reflective practice - Paula Doherty & Sue White Risk assessment and decision making - Eileen Munro Integrative psychotherapy - Marlene G. Cooper Crisis intervention and trauma work - Barry Cournoyer Empowering and transformative practice - Karen S. Haynes Macro-community practice - Keith Popple PART FOUR: SOCIAL WORK VALUES, ETHICS Codes of ethics - Frederick Reamer Ethical decision making - Donna McAuliffe Anti-oppressive practice - Lena Dominelli Feminist ethics of care - Brid Featherstone & Kate Morris Diversity and social work practice - Purnima Sundar Human rights and social justice - Richard Hugman PART FIVE: SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH Mapping the social work research agenda - Daniel Gredig, Ian Shaw and Peter Sommerfeld Evidence-based social work - Bruce Thyer Intervention research - Brian Taylor Evaluation research - Donald Forrester Qualitative social work research - Deborah Padgett Participatory action research - Mark Baldwin Systematic review - Elaine Sharland PART SIX: SOCIAL WORK IN CONTEXT Children and families - Stan Houston Mental health - Barbara Fawcett Older people - Nancy Hooyman Disability - Romel Mackelprang Immigrants and refugees - Doreen Elliott Drug and alcohol intervention - Holly Matto Criminal and juvenile justice - Nicola Carr Family support services - Steven Walker PART SEVEN: FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR SOCIAL WORK The future(s) of social work - Paul Michael Garrett Social work education - David Stoesz & H. Karger Interprofessional practice - Imogen Taylor New technologies for practice - Thomas Ley Service-user participation - Peter Beresford International social work - Narda Razack Social work in developing countries - Kwaku Osei-Hwedie, Morena Rankopo The politics of social work - Iain Ferguson Stirling
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Introduction Editors Part 1 - Theory: Mapping the Terrain of Environmental Social Work 1. Ecological and Social Justice: A Call to Action Fred Besthorn 2. Ecosocial Work with Marginalized Populations: Time for Action on Climate Change... more
Introduction Editors Part 1 - Theory: Mapping the Terrain of Environmental Social Work 1. Ecological and Social Justice: A Call to Action Fred Besthorn 2. Ecosocial Work with Marginalized Populations: Time for Action on Climate Change Tiani Hetherington & Jennifer Boddy 3. Environmental Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Social Work Arielle Dylan 4. Social Science Research in Ocean Environments: A Social Worker's Experience Susan A. Taylor 5. Climate Change as a Human Rights Issue Frank Tester Part 2 - Practice: Case Studies of Environmental Social Work Practice 6. Community Gardens, Creative Community Organizing, and Environmental Activism Benjamin Shepard 7. Social Work Practice with Drought-Affected Families: An Australian Case Study Daniela Stehlik 8. Social Work, Animals, and the Natural World Thomas Ryan 9. Restoration Not Incarceration: An Environmentally-Based Intervention for Working With Young Offenders Christine Lynn Norton, Barbara Holguin, & Jarid Manos 10. Social Work and the Struggle for Corporate Social Responsibility Dyann Ross Part 3 - Education: Challenging Students to Respond to Environmental Issues 11. Transforming the Curriculum: Social Work Education and Ecological Consciousness Peter Jones 12. Emotion, Ethics, and Fostering Environmental Citizenship Mishka Lysack 13. Social Work Education on The Environment in Contemporary Curricula in the USA R. Anna Hayward, Shari E. Miller, & Terry V. Shaw 14. Environmental Sustainability: Educating Social Workers for Interdisciplinary Practice Cathryne Schmitz, Tom Matyok, Channelle James, & Lacey Sloan 15. Social Work Education for Disaster Relief Work Lena Dominelli Conclusion Editors
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This chapter explores the complex processes surrounding the global diffusion of social work. It examines the Western drivers of international social work education and provides a critical analysis of social work’s internationalising and... more
This chapter explores the complex processes surrounding the global diffusion of social work. It examines the Western drivers of international social work education and provides a critical analysis of social work’s internationalising and universalising tendencies that all too quickly run aground on the rocks of decolonisation and indigenisation, where they are seen to be culturally inappropriate and even imperialistic. The universality of social work is tested by its fit with diverse contexts and cultures through the lens of indigenisation, decolonisation, localisation, and cultural appropriateness ...
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Social justice means different things to different people. This has resulted in diverse meanings and interpretations despite some commonalities, such as a focus on marginalised groups including women, people living in rural areas, persons... more
Social justice means different things to different people. This has resulted in diverse meanings and interpretations despite some commonalities, such as a focus on marginalised groups including women, people living in rural areas, persons with disabilities, children, racial minorities, and refugees, among others. In Nancy Fraser's interpretation of social justice, these and other marginalised groups are subject to maldistribution, misrecognition, and misrepresentation. This paper examines Fraser's theory in relation to disability policy in Southern Africa. It begins by outlining core concepts in Fraser's theory of social justice before examining regional and national policy measures designed to improve the lives of people with disabilities in Southern Africa guided by the question: how might Fraser's perspective on social justice enhance disability policy in Southern Africa? From this analysis, the authors conclude that Fraser's notion of redistribution is pivotal to policy implementation supported by recognition and representation of people with disabilities in Southern Africa.
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This article describes the situation of a community, comprising mainly women and preschool children, living in shacks on the pavement in Durban, South Africa reputed to be the second fastestgrowing city in the Southern Hemisphere. It is a... more
This article describes the situation of a community, comprising mainly women and preschool children, living in shacks on the pavement in Durban, South Africa reputed to be the second fastestgrowing city in the Southern Hemisphere. It is a community about which there has been a great deal of (mainly negative) coverage in the local media. It is not uncommon for the general public to see slum conditions and equate them with a ’myth of social pathology, turning the harshness of economic inequality back upon its victims
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There is a growing awareness, world-wide, of the need for indigenization and authentization of social work education and practice (Cossom, 1990; Freire,1970; Midgley,1981; Stein,1973; Walton and Abo El Nasr, 1988). This process requires... more
There is a growing awareness, world-wide, of the need for indigenization and authentization of social work education and practice (Cossom, 1990; Freire,1970; Midgley,1981; Stein,1973; Walton and Abo El Nasr, 1988). This process requires the development of education and practice models which are drawn from local sociopolitical and economic contexts. Working and living in the South African sociopolitical system creates ethical and practical dilemmas. ’Racism’ defined as the assertion of inherent superiority of particular racial or ethnic groups over others (Van den Berghe, 1967) permeates all aspects of public and private life in South Africa through the institutionalized apartheid system. The South African government has used direct legal intervention to organize people’s personal lives. The Population Registration Act, No. 30 of 1950 with Proclamation 123 of 1967 introduced nine so-called racial categories into which people had to be classified. Although, as Burman (1986) pointed out, the concept of race has been discredited as a meaningful biological classification system, it has marked sociopolitical implications in South African society. In terms of the Group Areas Act, No. 41 of 1950 (as amended), each group may live only in separately allocated areas. Except for private schools, children may attend school only with members of the same ’racial’ group. Although apartheid legislation is changing, ’colour and ethnicity legally determine where one may live, where one may visit, where one is educated, and whom one may love’ (Dawes, 1985). Apartheid directly conflicts with the values of the social work profession, yet social work agencies, and thus social workers, are funded through racially divided social welfare structures and there is
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This chapter views sustainable development as environmentally friendly. It explores policy on social and sustainable development and examines issues of environmental sustainability within contemporary approaches to poverty alleviation. It... more
This chapter views sustainable development as environmentally friendly. It explores policy on social and sustainable development and examines issues of environmental sustainability within contemporary approaches to poverty alleviation. It reviews development policies that prioritise growth and production over social and ecological justice, and calls for an extension of sustainable development to embrace environmental sustainability within frameworks that emphasise economic and human development outcomes. Environmental sustainability concerns issues surrounding economic growth, human development, environmental decline, and building a bridge between economics and ecology. The chapter ends with a discussion of social work, arguing that, due to its humanistic focus, it is highly unlikely that environmental justice, or radical ecological justice, would become more important than social justice and human development while poverty and inequality remain. The best we can do in social work is learn from practice by documenting what social workers are doing to further sustainable social development and environmental justice, cognisant that most social workers are not engaged in such work and social workers are small players in this terrain. In addition, those in the profession promoting developmental and green social work constitute a growing voice. Hence, we should avoid over-ambitious claims and instead seek to establish the effectiveness of what we do. The goals of social work’s are wide-ranging and its practice so diverse that it is difficult to articulate exactly what it is that social workers do. This is possibly one reason why social workers around the world feel their work goes unrecognised and the profession lacks the respect not only of politicians but also local communities and service users of all ilk.
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This is a beginner's text to social work published in 1997, which is now out of print. Since the chapters I have posted on academia.edu have proved so popular and I am no longer contracted to the publisher, I am not able to upload an... more
This is a beginner's text to social work published in 1997, which is now out of print. Since the chapters I have posted on academia.edu have proved so popular and I am no longer contracted to the publisher, I am not able to upload an electronic copy of the book, which I hope won't be too outdated.
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Dramatic changes swept South Africa in the early 1990s. I wrote this paper in 1996 when developmental social work came to the fore in the Draft White Paper for Social Welfare. So I set down my ideas on the nature of developmental social... more
Dramatic changes swept South Africa in the early 1990s. I wrote this paper in 1996 when developmental social work came to the fore in the Draft White Paper for Social Welfare. So I set down my ideas on the nature of developmental social work and its relationship to related endeavours, such as rural community development, primary health care, and adult education. These were my tentative ideas to add to the discussion and debate at the time. I saw social development as a macro, policy perspective, community development as a form of strategic intervention, and developmental social work as their application to social work practice in those contexts where poverty and under-development were a major concern.
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Publikationsansicht. 37245803. Community development: has social work met the challenge? (1989). Gray, Mel. Details der Publikation. Download, http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/30946. Herausgeber, Universiteit Stellenbosch, Department of... more
Publikationsansicht. 37245803. Community development: has social work met the challenge? (1989). Gray, Mel. Details der Publikation. Download, http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/30946. Herausgeber, Universiteit Stellenbosch, Department of Social Work. ...
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Youths are both perpetrators and victims of crime. However they are involved, society as a whole has to assume responsibility for breaking the cycle of crime and violence. Literature and evidence from existing programmes indicate that... more
Youths are both perpetrators and victims of crime. However they are involved, society as a whole has to assume responsibility for breaking the cycle of crime and violence. Literature and evidence from existing programmes indicate that crime prevention should begin with children and ...
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This paper reports on a study undertaken by two student research trainees from the University of Michigan, USA, on placement in the Department of Social Work at the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa from June to August 1996.... more
This paper reports on a study undertaken by two student research trainees from the University of Michigan, USA, on placement in the Department of Social Work at the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa from June to August 1996. Their study aimed to achieve a better ...
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Publikationsansicht. 37245802. Problems in the development of a moral foundation for social work (1991). Gray, Mel. Details der Publikation. Download, http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/30940. Herausgeber, Universiteit Stellenbosch, Department... more
Publikationsansicht. 37245802. Problems in the development of a moral foundation for social work (1991). Gray, Mel. Details der Publikation. Download, http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/30940. Herausgeber, Universiteit Stellenbosch, Department of Social Work. ...
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This is the prepublication version of the chapter published in Gray, M., & Webb, S. A. (Eds.). (2010). Ethics and value perspectives in social work (pp. 120-131). London: Palgrave.
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This is a chapter from my PhD thesis on the relationship between social work, ethics, and politics in which I tried to discern what form of justice social work was trying to promote. Much has been written since I wrote this in the early... more
This is a chapter from my PhD thesis on the relationship between social work, ethics, and politics in which I tried to discern what form of justice social work was trying to promote. Much has been written since I wrote this in the early 1990s, most notably the debate in Australian Social Work between Jim Ife, Richard Hugman, and John Solas in 2008 on this, as well as Michael Reisch’s (2014) Routledge Handbook of Social Justice, in which colleagues and I wrote about the resonance of Nancy Fraser’s theory of social justice for social work. This attests my enduring interest in this subject and the issues discussed in this chapter
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Much has been made of the move from a welfare to a development paradigm in Africa without any serious interrogation of what this means in relation to the development discourse. Though the focus of this book is social work and social... more
Much has been made of the move from a welfare to a development paradigm in Africa without any serious interrogation of what this means in relation to the development discourse. Though the focus of this book is social work and social development practice in Africa, to really understand the meaning of a 'development paradigm'-and social work's role in and contribution to social development-requires exploration of the discourses shaping development, foreign aid, and poverty reduction policies in Africa. Social work more often than not uses a value-driven approach undergirded by human rights and social justice discourse. On the basis of these values, its emancipatory claims are seen as self-justifying: Social workers are said to champion the rights of vulnerable and oppressed people and work toward poverty alleviation without serious consideration of how they do this located in government or non-government organisations with various goals and missions. In Africa, international financial institutions (IFIs) and non-government organisations (INGOs) exert a strong influence on national development policy and exactly what the relationship is between development, foreign aid, and poverty alleviation has been a matter of ongoing debate. The tripartite relationship between these three domains hinges on how each is conceptualised and defined, and shifts in understanding of exactly what each seeks to accomplish. What is the