Green social work and its implications for social development in China

Citation

Dominelli L & Ku H (2017) Green social work and its implications for social development in China. China Journal of Social Work, 10 (1), pp. 3-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/17525098.2017.1300338

Abstract
Green social work has been significant in introducing new issues into environmental debates and increasing its centrality to social work practice. These have included: the mainstreaming of environmental considerations; a widening of the theoretical and practice base to ensure that social and environmental justice are considered integral to any environmental involvement by social workers; highlighting the need to think of innovative approaches to socio-economic development; and making disaster interventions core elements in the social work repertoire of knowledge, skills, capacity building and curriculum formulation. This paper considers the challenges of China’s rapid industrialisation and its implications for rural people migrating into cities, the urban populations that receive them and environmental degradation. It introduces the idea of green social work and discusses the implications of green social work for social development in China in the context of environmental crises precipitated by the country’s rapid economic development.

Keywords
Green social work; environmental crises; China; locality specific and culturally relevant practice; resilience; sustainable development

Journal
China Journal of Social Work: Volume 10, Issue 1

People

Professor Lena Dominelli

Professor of Social Work, Social Work