Abstract
Environmental problems are also social problems. Social work, as a scientific area, has increasingly assumed the importance of including environmental problems in social intervention. This close linkage to ecological issues is particularly relevant when addressing vulnerable communities. In this article, we analyze the results of a study focused on social work intervention in two Portuguese eco-neighborhoods in the context of ongoing urban regeneration projects, which suggest that social vulnerability accentuates the damage of exposure to environmental threats and amplifies its effects. The analysis of data collected from social workers, through 9 semi-structured interviews and through questionnaires (N = 131), with the residents of the neighborhoods together with non-participant observation, allowed to highlight the difficulties, contradictions, but also the potential of this type intervention. Results appear to support an eco-social model which may help social worker to promote social transformation and change, respecting community rhythms, promoting empowerment of individuals, addressing the challenges of socially vulnerable communities within the complexity of a globalized world.
Highlights
Environmental problems are a consequence of the industrial revolution whose development model, coupled with lifestyles based on continuous consumption, has led to the erosion of natural and energy resources
The study presented in this paper aims to understand how the intervention of social work can promote the ecological sustainability of socially vulnerable communities, through a qualitative and quantitative methodology approach that explores the different dimensions of two urban rehabilitation projects with an environmental sustainability orientation
The reflection on the observations of urban regeneration projects, as those which were the focus of this study, seems to point to the need for an eco-social model for social work intervention which has been developed in recent years [66]
Summary
Environmental problems are a consequence of the industrial revolution whose development model, coupled with lifestyles based on continuous consumption, has led to the erosion of natural and energy resources. The discourse on the environment has been focused mainly on climate change, depletion of natural resources and energy issues as well as other factors such as the increase of urban population and territorial expansion. Environmental sociology, for example, recognizes human–ecosystem interdependence and the biological constraints on social phenomena and, in the reverse sense, claims awareness to the role that issues as social inequality may play in modeling human/environment interaction [3]. Available online: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/157471468765323606/Poverty-and-environmentbackground-paper-for-the-World-Bank-environment-strategy (accessed on 12 February 2018). Environment Matters at the World Bank: 2006 Annual Review; World Bank: Washington, DC, USA, 2006
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