Social Work and Climate Justice

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the ever-growing climate crisis challenges and the resulting climate (in) justice challenges all over the world, and it discusses the ways in which social work knowledge and practice can actively contribute to addressing these problems. It presents the recent knowledge additions in social work writing, and it highlights the knowledge gaps to connect social work and climate justice; it critically discusses why and how social work education and practice focus on building a holistic climate justice approach to address the growing challenges of climate change, risks, and resource inequities. It advocates that social work curriculum and frameworks should address the human, social, political, and cultural rights of disadvantaged populations in the face of climate change and outlines the future scope of further knowledge contributions and research in social work education and practice in dealing with this climate change crisis. After this, it summarizes the structure and chapters of this book and emphasizes that social work educators and professionals need to transform climate change discussions from science, technocratic, economic, market-based, and policy discourses to eco-social interventions, green social work, and sustainable welfare systems, and environmental and climate justice discourses.