why eco-social work?
Everything on our earth is interconnected.
This is why we privilege an ecologically centred worldview over an anthropocentric worldview.
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Social workers have traditionally operated from a 'person-in-environment' perspective. However, the understanding of a person's 'environment' has traditionally focussed on the social environment. The natural environment has generally been considered to be outside the scope of our practice.
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Eco-social work recognises that individual, community and societal wellbeing is inextricably linked to our natural environment. It places our natural environment as being central to our profession. As Boetto (2019) notes, "At the heart of eco-social work... is an understanding that the delicate balance of Earth’s ecosystems sustains humanity, and alternatively the disruption of healthy ecosystems threatens life on Earth for all living organisms."
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We are on the frontline of climate change.
"...I spend my days focused on people often affected by weather events because the loss stemming from natural disasters has such an effect on mental wellbeing and resilience." Sandra Croaker
We have an ethical responsibility to act.
"The profession has begun to recognise the ways in which a dramatically changing climate will directly impact on human wellbeing, and the ways in which these inequitably distributed impacts create issues of social justice and for the protection of human rights." Dr Peter Jones
