ABSTRACT This article explores the alignment between Libya’s post-2014 sustainable development agenda and social work’s priorities in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Using a qualitative approach, the article combines a review/analysis of national policy documents, global SDG frameworks, and narratives from fourteen Libyan social workers. The findings reveal a significant discrepancy: the government prioritizes prosperity-based SDGs, while social workers prioritize dignity-based SDGs. It concludes that sustainable development in fragile states is unattainable without confronting the political structures that systematically marginalize the very people the SDGs aim to help.

ABSTRACT The poem portrays the struggle and suffering caused by war in Gaza through the symbolism of nature and living beings. The Moon, as a silent witness, weeps and communicates with the Palestinian Sunbird, delivering a message of peace signed by thousands of flamingos at the Gaza border. Symbols such as cacti, tulips, and olives represent hope amid despair, while war devastation is depicted through wreckage of fighter planes and bombs that destroy everything. The poem reflects on beauty within destruction and conveys a universal message calling for an end to war and protection of life.

ABSTRACT Prostitution Diversion Programs (PDPs) attempt to address underlying circumstances that lead people to sell sex, using court-monitored rehabilitation in lieu of prosecution or incarceration. Based on interviews with 26 current and former professional court stakeholders and participants, conducted in 2021, this study examines Philadelphia’s PDP, “Dawn Court,” through a social work micro – macro lens that calls for combined individual and social interventions. Findings suggest that Dawn Court offers solely micro-interventions, criticized by the research respondents for being insufficient, coercive, and lacking clear parameters. Macro interventions are referred to, by research respondents, mainly regarding their trauma-informed approach. Research respondents conveyed macro criticism, addressing the need for criminal law changes and reallocating law-enforcement funds to develop lacking community services. Yet, such criticism was not directed at the court or perceived as its responsibility. Based on the theoretical macro social work view, we challenge this perception and call for PDPs and problem-solving courts to take on social change responsibilities in addition to their individual-focused interventions, thus implementing a combined micro-macro solution to social problems.

ABSTRACT Increasing scholarship focuses on mobilizing media - including those generated by artificial intelligence - to address social, health, or educational inequalities. Expanding upon Freirean theory, efficacy of media intended for social justice may be impacted by various inequitable social structures. At base level, societies may inspire, diversify, complicate, or impose a multitude of tasks upon individuals, effectively backgrounding social justice as a valid task. Severe injustices may thus be invisibilized by less-severe social justice considerations, leading to inaction on worthy causes despite depiction in social justice media. Ten total social mechanisms are outlined, to identify potential leverage points in equitable media-based empowerment.

ABSTRACT Traditional family-based care for older people in Ghana is declining as globalization and social change weaken historical support systems. This analysis is informed by a review of scholarly literature concerning the implications of globalization for the provision of caregiving for older people managing chronic life-limiting illnesses. We aimed to explore ways of strengthening social structures to enhancing the quality of lives of older people with chronic life-limiting illnesses in rural Ghana amongst 15 older people; 15 family caregivers; 10 healthcare professionals. Critical Social Theory (CST) functions as the primary theoretical framework for conducting an interrogation of the systemic structures that perpetuate social, economic, and political inequities. The average age of participants was 75 years. Ethnographic interviews were conducted after participatory observations during 6 months of fieldwork supported with daily fieldnote notes utilized to gather the needed data and purposively sampled across the study location. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and thematic analysis procedure used as the major data analysis approach to present the results. Our paper finds that the significant physical, financial, and emotional burden on family caregivers threatens the sustainability of informal care and proposes addressing these vulnerabilities by restructuring national policies to foster inclusivity and social justice for older people and their caregivers.

ABSTRACT Donald Trump is a precedent-shattering president. Managing the U.S. government to benefit elites did not previously require a president who behaved in this way. This article contends that despite their apparent power, elites feel threatened and have consequently resorted to relying on a president who has disregarded many prior presidential norms.

ABSTRACT A white instructor and two BIPOC students reflect on their racialized experiences with vulnerability in a social work with groups course. The instructor describes his process to understand the importance of the instructor as a model for practicing vulnerability and to work with his own white shame and white fragility in an embodied manner. We discuss student feedback on the courses and how white students and BIPOC students have a vastly different experience working with vulnerability. Suggestions are provided for how to make the social work classroom more supportive and equitable around vulnerability.

ABSTRACT Drawing on the concept of political ecology and analyses of agrarian change in Southeast Asia, this commentary examines how agrarian liberalization systematically marginalizes Indigenous communities in Indonesia. It argues that liberalization, while often framed as a driver of economic growth, perpetuates structural inequality, dispossession, and ecological degradation within Indigenous territories. The state’s persistent failure to ratify the Indigenous Peoples Bill (RUU Masyarakat Adat) underscores its reluctance to recognize collective land rights and customary governance systems. It contrasts the commodification of land under neoliberal development with Indigenous worldviews that regard land as sacred and communal.