The book offers unique access to theoretical approaches and practical examples of international social work in the context of war and conflicts. The reader gains knowledge about the competences and role of social work, which contributes to mitigating the effects of war and conflict. The book raises the question of how to connect international social work with local approaches and offers suggestions for a development of social work with respect to exchanging knowledge and experiences between the West and the East, the Global North and the Global South. It furthermore discusses the role of social work in reducing the problem of gender-based violence and in the methods of peacebuilding processes in post-war and post-conflict societies.
The book presents a theoretical and practical approach to international social work. It uses examples from Germany with a long tradition of social work and focuses on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which is in a pioneering phase in teaching social work while at the same time experiencing a highly explosive situation in global politics. Socio-political challenges such as violence, traumatization, (religious) fundamentalism, ethnicization, changing gender relations, flight and migration call for a professional examination of social work as a human rights profession in international comparison.
International Perspectives on Social Work and Political Conflict provides an important basis for readers to recognise and understand the unique and specialist role that social workers have played and continue to play in international contexts of political conflict. Social workers make an important contribution in these difficult and sometimes dangerous situations across all continents. This book highlights the importance of social work in these very challenging contexts. The first part of this book includes four chapters that summarise the existing knowledge base. The second part focuses on a case study of Northern Ireland where, for the first time, a detailed examination of the social work role was completed which involved researching the views of social work practitioners, managers and educators. Part three then draws together international experts in the field who have written chapters on those regions where social workers have been dealing with long standing periods of political conflict. At a time when violent conflagrations are currently a feature of many countries and regions across the continents of the world, this book offers a critical view of the social work role in these contexts and should thus be considered essential reading for all social work academics, students and professionals working in conflict-affected societies.
This book explores the circumstances surrounding state-provided, low-cost housing for people at the lower end of the housing market in Africa. It deploys Ubuntu philosophy to unpack the provision of housing security to citizens, arguing that interpreting housing rights within Ubuntu philosophy recognises the spirit of reciprocity and collective solidarity as fundamental to meeting the housing needs of low-income groups. In essence, the volume reflects on the values of Ubuntu and informs both policy and practice by guiding policymakers, researchers, and practitioners with the episteme of basic human rights and the Ubuntu philosophy. It pointedly grapples with issues that resonate with efforts by African governments to protect vulnerable citizens from multidimensional poverty, homelessness, gender-neutral policies, and self-help housing schemes. The book’s insights raise red flags concerning the realisation of Ubuntu as a vehicle earmarked to deliver adequate and sustainable housing delivery outcomes. The volume is a must-read for academics, researchers, practitioners, government officials, and leaders from various sectors.
In this issue of Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice, guest editor Dr. David O'Gurek brings his considerable expertise to the topic of Chronic Pain Management. Top experts in the field cover this timely topic in depth, including non-pharmacologic and rehabilitative strategies to address chronic pain and management of chronic pain in patients with substance use disorder. - Contains 12 practice-oriented topics including comprehensive evaluation for chronic pain; pharmacologic management of chronic pain; trauma and behavioral health care for patients with chronic pain; the use of medical marijuana for chronic pain; ethical challenges in chronic pain management; and more. - Provides in-depth clinical reviews on chronic pain management, offering actionable insights for clinical practice. - Presents the latest information on this timely, focused topic under the leadership of experienced editors in the field. Authors synthesize and distill the latest research and practice guidelines to create clinically significant, topic-based reviews.
This book presents a unique analysis of the learning derived from East-West contacts in social work and reflects on the discipline's inalienable trans-national dimensions, of high actuality in the face of the re-emergence of nationalisms. The fundamental transformations in Europe subsequent to the revolutions of 1989 had a profound impact on social work in terms of raising sharply the profession’s relationship with politics. The exchanges between western schools of social work and the emergent academic partner institutions in former Communist countries formed a valuable testing ground for the essential principles and competences of social work in terms of their universal scientific basis on the one hand and their regard for cultural and national values and contexts on the other. The chapters in this contributed volume focus on lessons derived from fundamental social and political transformations, highlighted by East-West encounters and intra-national divisions, and thereby have important messages for mastering impending transformations in the light of the global COVID-19 health crisis. They demonstrate how cultural and social divisions can be addressed constructively with direct implications for training and practice in dramatically changing contexts: Lithuanian social work’s claim to professional autonomy vs. authoritarianism in popular and political culture Social work between civil society and the state – lessons for and from Hungary in a European context When Europe’s East, West, North and South meet: learning from cross-country collaboration in creating an international social work master programme Nordic-Baltic cooperation in social work researcher education: A Finnish perspective on the impact on scientific, historical and linguistic similarities and differences Intra-national similarities and differences in social work and their significance for developing European dimensions of research and education Social work, political conflict and European society: reflections from Northern Ireland European Social Work After 1989: East-West Exchanges Between Universal Principles and Cultural Sensitivity is an invaluable resource for social work educators; social work practitioners confronted with national and international divisions; students of social work, of social administration and policy; and any policy researcher with a comparative focus.
What is the relationship between social work and the state? Who controls which services needs are addressed and how? This important book looks at social work responses in different countries to extreme social, economic and political situations in order to answer these questions. Examples include: war situations, military regimes, earthquakes and Tsunamis. The results show the innovative nature of grass-roots provision and social work intervention and will be of interest to all social work academics, students and professionals.
Prevalent poverty and related problems in the East African region call for substantial action from various stakeholders, including social workers. This book, based on comprehensive empirical research, portrays an emerging yet powerful profession that has a significant role to play in the endeavour towards social development, social justice, human rights and gender equality. The book is the first of its kind to provide first-hand theoretical and empirical evidence about social work in East Africa.
This book traces the origins and development of social work as we now know it. Providing an ambitious synthesis of historical and international material, it explores the different faces of social work, whether defined by social policy developments, professionalization, changes in client group, or shifts in practice orientation. This is a unique book undertaken by an author with a strong international reputation and, as such, it promises to be a landmark for years to come in the social work literature.
The Routledge Handbook of International Critical Social Work is a companion volume to the Routledge Handbook of Critical Social Work. It brings together world-leading scholars in the field to provide additional, in-depth and provocative consideration of alternative and progressive ways of thinking about social work. Critical social work is increasingly involved in a global conversation, and as a subfield of social work it is rapidly becoming an interdisciplinary field in its own right and promoting novel forms of political activism. The Handbook showcases the global influences and path-breaking ideas of critical social work and examines the different stances taken on important political and ethical issues. It provides the first complete survey of the vibrant field of critical social work in a rich international context. This definitive volume is one of the most comprehensive source books on crucial social work that is available on the international stage and an essential guide for anyone interested in the politics of social work. The Handbook is divided into sever sections • Thinking the Political • Politics and the Ruins of Neoliberalism • Negotiating the State: Resistance, Protest and Dissent • Race, Bordering Practices and Migrants • Post Colonialism, Subaltern and the Global South • Critical Feminism, Sexuality and Gender Politics • Posthumanism, Pandemics and Environment The Handbook is comprised of 46 newly written chapters (and one reprint) which concentrate on differences between European and American contributions in this field as well as explicitly identifying the significance of critical social work in the context of Latin America. It provides a further vital trajectory of intellectual practice theory via interdisciplinary discussion of areas such as biopolitics, critical race theory, boundaries of gender and sexuality, queer studies, new conceptions of community, issues of public engagement, racism and Roma people, ecological feminism, environmental humanities and critical animal studies. The Handbook is an innovative and authoritative guide to theory and method as they relate to policy issues and practice and focus on the primary debates of today in social work from a critical perspective, and will be required reading for all students, academics and practitioners of social work and related professions.
