Global Social Transformation and Social Action: The Role of Social Workers

Social Work-Social Development Volume III

Sven Hessle

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317127260
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Social Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Global social transformation calls for global social action. 2010 saw the launch of The Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development, which detailed how social workers can strive to bring about increased social justice. The time is right to start to address and demonstrate the actions that might be required to develop and accomplish the Agenda - with regard to methods in practice and research, in social policy and social work education, and in a broader discourse of global commitment and cooperation. This informative and incisively written edited collection brings together experts from around the world to discuss issues which the social work and social welfare sectors face every day and to ensure a closer link between evidence-based practice, policy objectives and social development goals. Furthermore, this book reveals how these may affect the conditions of people and demonstrate how the social work and social development community can contribute to sustainable development.

Chapter 1
Introduction

Sven Hessle

A Global Agenda as Point of Departure – The Development of Themes

This is the third volume of three covering the most important aspects of social work and social development themes in the world today. The focus of this volume is global transformations and the role of social workers. The other books are Human Rights and Social Equality: Challenges for Social Work (Vol. I) and Environmental Change and Sustainable Social Development (Vol. II).

The main international organisations representing social policy and social work gathered together in Stockholm in July 2012 under the theme Social Work and Social Development 2012: Action and Impact.¹

At the 2012 conference we wanted to advance the work on the Global Agenda and beyond by addressing and demonstrating the actions that might be required to develop and accomplish the Agenda – with regard to methods in practice and research, in social policy and social work education, and in a broader discourse of global commitment and cooperation.²

The conference also provided opportunities to discuss issues which the social work and social welfare sectors face every day and to ensure a closer link between evidence-based practice, policy objectives and social development goals. Furthermore, the conference revealed how the actions that were meant to develop and accomplish the Global Agenda might impact on the conditions of people and demonstrate how actions in the social work and social development community can contribute to an enduring physical environment and sustainable development.

Selection of Contributions for the Volumes

It is an understatement to say that the Stockholm conference was a success with about 2,500 participants representing 106 nations present. Around 2,100 abstracts and poster suggestions were received in advance for assessment by an international select panel. Every contribution was evaluated on a 5-point scale by two independent members of the panel. It should be noted that we did our best to recruit experts to the panel for the three main themes of the conference.

The volumes that comprise the three themes have been edited with the intention of being representative of the basic theme and including a wide panorama of international examples of implementations. But, first and foremost, the contributions were selected from those abstracts that the international panel evaluated as the best within its theme.

We could not cover all the subjects in the conference completely but the priority was to deliver academic research presentations as well as presentations from practicing social workers.

I am sure that any reader, whether from social policy/welfare, social work practice, education or research will find treasures for inspiration in this kaleidoscope of current implementations and discourse from around the world.

Global Social Transformation and Social Action: The Role of Social Workers – an Overview

To begin with, we can note that this volume contains 29 contributions by 50 authors, who in 11 chapters try to find new ways of meeting a world of social transformations that create new challenges in social work policy and practice. A prism of inspiration from all corners of the world.

This volume is set off by maybe the most translated and read author within Social work, Malcolm Payne (UK) (Chapter 2). His basic message in his own words is that, “If we are going to build human solidarity in global relationships, therefore, we must be prepared to hear not just only other people’s words, but other cultures, and the social assumptions that underlie other cultures”.

Payne’s standpoint reminds the reader that this concern was also brought up in different contributions in Volume I in discussions on dialogues with Human Rights as a basic theme and Volume II with Environmental Change as the platform.

The following two chapters cover the Arab Spring as a mutual theme. From a top-down position in Chapter 3 and a bottom-up position in Chapter 4: Chakib Benmoussa the President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, Morocco, develops the theme on the work in his country on Desirable Social Policy Consequences of the Arab Spring, aiming at respect for basic rights, the promotion of gender equality and cultural openness. Mehdi Gharbi (Sweden), was responsible for the newsletter Tunisnews when the Arab Spring movement changed Tunisia. He produced his newsletter from his home in Stockholm, Sweden with internet information from all sides of the political conflict. Mehdi Gharbi shows with his prize-winning newsletter that social media can play an important role in the process of democratisation.

Chapter 5 is on fighting poverty and developing social protection: Dividing this theme into four parts, we find that the struggle for reducing poverty has taken different paths in different countries and with different results. That is not surprising but war on poverty is maybe one of the most important themes for social policy and social work and the fight might be set in context. But, there is sometimes a risk of creating increased inequality while successfully fighting poverty! Establishing social protection is, likewise, a question of how to do it! There is a call for social protection policies grounded in values of social justice and human rights with a strong State commitment towards universal programmes.

In Public Procurement Law and social services in Europe. A Critical Perspective, Nikolaus Dimmel (Austria) investigates the concept of competitive tendering and public procurement on the European level. He finds that this kind of purchasing is basically not compatible with the particularities of social services. The important conclusion is that “… from every point of view competitive tendering seems to carry more of an ideological dogma than of an inclusive concept”.

In The Congressional Social Work Caucus: A renewed focus on the social safety net Elizabeth Hoffler (USA) and Elizabeth Clark (USA) communicate that the US Congress took action and established the Congressional Social Work Caucus (CSWC). The CSWC is dedicated to maintaining and strengthening social work and social welfare services in order to meet the needs of millions of clients worldwide. It was launched on World Social Work Day in 2011.

In her critical contribution Food Security and Sustainability, Wanda Griep Hirai (Brazil) describes that, due to the use of pesticides there are a growing number of cases of poisoning, especially among workers in rural areas. The State’s actions are restrictive because they only work on the consequences of hunger and not on their actual causes

Poverty Eradication Programmes in India are described by Manoranjan Pal (India), Bhola Nath Ghosh (India) and Premananda Bharati (India), showing that the trend in inequality (Gini-Index) is increasing in India despite poverty eradication programmes due to the absence of important considerations, such as awareness of the programmes, the absence of support for education, and especially women’s education.

The main theme of this volume focuses on the role of social workers in different settings of transformations. In Chapter 6, on Social Work in Contexts of Political and Military Conflicts, we take three steps: From political conflicts with social movements via asylum seeking youth due to societal conflicts in their country of origin, to social work in ongoing political and military conflicts

Social movements may be seen not only as organisations but also as periods of social change characterised by the uprising of people in resistance to social and economic problems. Linda Smith (South Africa) in Amandla, Ngawethu (Eng: The power is with us) develops a critical analysis of social movements in South Africa. According to the author, social work knowledge and practice constitutive of social change needs to build on its own radical tradition and engage with theoretical insights to be found in social movements in order to work for the transformation of the society.

According to Asylum seeker young people: negotiation of social work value conflicts and age assessment in the UK by Sarah Cemlyn (UK) and Miriam Nye (UK) there is a challenge to meet the demands on age assessment without losing the trusting professional relationship with asylum seeking young people who have lost their everyday, basic relationships. Young people are placed in care and education to meet their perceived needs and the age they claim to be. If the care put in place is not appropriate it may later be adjusted in consultation with the young person and with consideration of their best interests. Through giving young people the benefit of the doubt in relation to this inexact assessment process, a safe space is created and arguably more accurate results are eventually gained, while safeguarding children’s rights.

In his contribution, Conceptualizing popular social work in the context of war: lessons from Lebanon and Palestine, Michael Lavalette (UK) finds that what he calls popular social work is best suited for social work in refugee camps on the West Bank, where it is necessary to address, the ‘public causes’ of so much ‘private trauma’.

Very close to the theme in Chapter 6, is the focus in Chapter 7, Migration: Challenges and Possibilities which raises complicated questions, because the reasons for migration are multi-factorial. And, the consequences are different, both in the country of origin and the country of settlement. The migrant, independent of reason, might be looked upon as a carrier of both of these consequences, as the following contributions show.

Reflecting on Global Care Chains from the experience of Latin American migrant women, Gioconda Herrera (Ecuador) examines the ways in which the care of children and older adults is reorganised after women’s migration, particularly mothers’. Networks of care are intersected by different dimensions of inequality: gender, class, ethnicity, race, age and nationality. The dynamics of transnational care render more visible the structural inequalities that prevail in the social reproduction of both migrant and non-migrant families in the countries of origin

From the experience of Migration Challenges in Mexico and the US, Alex Munguía Salazar (Mexico) develops a critical view on Labour migration, which is currently faced with an internationalisation of racism, xenophobia and discrimination: This has increased with the application of restrictive migration policies. The implementation of a coherent immigration policy should take as support the implementation of the whole framework of international legal standards of human and labour rights. The victims of forced labour or operating conditions are often people who are in situations where they have no choice but to submit to labour exploitation.

Susana Adamo (USA), in her contribution Migration and climate change, makes a highly qualified analysis of the policy implications and considerations of climate change-induced migration and displacements, and its direct and indirect effects on environmental migration – sea level rise, water availability and extreme weather events; the consequences for the displaced population, the implications for the origin and receiving communities, in terms of implications for the people left behind, or conflict over scarce resources between local populations and newcomers. Trans.-disciplinary research is recommended, as well as collaboration and interaction between the research, policy and relief communities.

Julie Drolet (Canada) and Natalie Drolet (Canada) found, through interviews on the Migration experiences of domestic workers in Cambodia that the majority of migrant domestic workers interviewed face numerous challenges and abuses, grounded in exploitative labour practices pre- and post-migration and during their work placements in Malaysia. A wide range of abuses were documented as a result of the study, including overcrowded training facilities, non-payment of salary, excessive hours of work, verbal and physical abuse.

Jane McPherson (USA) presents an assessment method of Four factors: assessing refugee survivors of torture in personal and cross-national context for use with refugee survivors of torture that addresses individual histories and experiences within the socio-political and human rights environments of the resettlement community and country.

Nina Insarova (Russia) and Marina Kasyanova (Russia) present the use of Restorative approach for social adaptation of Central Asia and Caucasus migrant families in the Crossroad Adolescent Work Center in Moscow. Differences in traditions, family values and understanding cause adjustments problems for immigrant families from Central Asia and Caucasus and difficulties in establishing relations within the social environment.

Chapter 8, Families in Transition: The postmodern family pattern is under development, new family patterns are evolving and this means new challenges for social policy and social work practice. We present here challenges both within nations and challenges built on the consequences of globalisation.

In Social work with families – a comparative study on how social workers understand the concept of family in child welfare, using a research network representing 15 countries in all parts of the world, social workers’ understanding of ‘family’ in child welfare is investigated comparatively through focus groups. Lennart Nygren (Sweden) and Siv Oltedal (Norway) expect that the results of the comparisons of this study can build the development of theoretical understandings of how families are conceptualised in different social work and social service contexts

In Family Minded Policy and Practice: A critical analysis of contemporary approaches to vulnerable families, there is much to be done in the UK, according to Kate Morris (UK) and Nathan Hughes (UK) – for instance, the important differences between working with families as opposed to working with members of families. The authors call for research projects close to marginalised families to challenge and inform social policy and service provision across disciplines and professional domains, about what kind of families they are supporting.

Erica Righard (Sweden) in her contribution Families in context – A transnational approach, is interested in how we can understand family forms and family relations at the intersection of the national and the transnational. Her research focuses on parents with a migrant background residing in a small Swedish town.

The final contribution in this chapter International commercial surrogacy: 21st century global families in transition unlike ever before, by Claire Achmad (UK), is really shaking some basic ethical understandings. International Commercial surrogacy (ICS) occurs, writes the author, when a couple or individual (‘commissioning parents’) pay for a surrogate mother, located in a country different to that in which they live, to carry a child to term and provide the child to them upon birth. The biological material used to create the child may or may not be genetically linked to the commissioning parents or the surrogate (third-party eggs and sperm are sometimes separately paid for and implanted, or an embryo is purchased and implanted). Often, the surrogate will be a gestational surrogate, with no genetic relationship to the child. ICS has fundamentally changed the way children can be created, raising questions about the value of children and challenging the rights of the child established b...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Notes on Contributors
• 1 Introduction
• 2 We Meet as Brothers and Sisters – Human Solidarity in Global Relationships
• 3 Desirable Social Policy Consequences of the Arab Spring
• 4 Social Media and the Arab Spring: “Tunisnews” as a Model
• 5 Fighting Poverty and Social Protection
• 6 Social Work in Contexts of Political and Military Conflicts
• 7 Migration: Challenges and Possibilities
• 8 Families in Transition
• 9 Social Media and its Impact on Social Development
• 10 Transforming Organisations and Creative Practice
• 11 Recognising the Face of the Other: Difference, Identity and Community
• Appendix: The Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development Commitment to Action
• Index