About the conference

Sustainable development in contemporary social work approaches

 

Sustainable development is a concept that aims at achieving a social, economic and environmental balance of human functioning on the planet. The unsustainability of the current system of social functioning in relation to the global ecosystem and its ability to fulfil its ecosystem functions (including in relation to people) has been discussed since at least the 1970s. Since then, a number of international documents have been produced. Most recently, for example, the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which defines seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”). These include ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring peace and prosperity. Another document is the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which formulates environmental commitments, in particular to reduce CO2 emissions. Both documents outline a common approach to addressing  a wide range of political, economic and social issues that have a profound impact on all dimensions of social coexistence. Particularly relevant to the field of social work are the waves of migration, the replacement of humans by technology, the neoliberalization of social policy and the mindset of some people to “grab as much as they can, as fast as they can”. The European Commission supports the  so-called holistic approach to implementing the SDGs.  

The International Federation of Social Workers included sustainable development in its policy in April 2021. This decision was based on the negative socio-economic impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic on the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals. Priorities for social workers from around the world should include working with climate justice organizations, communicating and facilitating collaboration at global, national and local levels, implementing education on sustainable development, and focusing on the opportunities and limits in SDG implementation.1   

An outline of how social workers can engage in the implementation of sustainable development is provided, for example, in the book The Sustainable Development Goals From a Social Work Perspective in the COVID-19 Pandemic Period, published in 2022. Its authors offer a wide range of possible perspectives through which to view the role of social work in the process of implementing sustainable development in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, they have left ample room for developing other themes involving different contexts, causes and possible solutions. In the Czech Republic, too, there are many issues that need to be addressed in order for social work to move towards solving the environmental aspects of the social and economic problems of society in the 2020s.  

 

Sustainable development in contemporary social work approaches - thematic areas in the application: 

1. Sustainable development and global contexts of social work
2. Social and demographic conditions for sustainable development in social work
3. Economic and political conditions for sustainable development in social work
4. Legal conditions for sustainable development in social work
5. Environmental ethics and environmental justice in the context of social work
6. “Green” social work and community social work
7. International Section: Sustainable development in Social Work’s perspectives

 

Main paper will be presented by Malcolm Payne. The paper is titled:

Critical eco practice: a sustainable social work for sustainable social relations?

And what the paper would be about?

Recently, texts have proposed an eco or green social work practice, which seeks to contribute to critical perspectives in social work. It responds to rising concerns about climate change and other disaster scenarios. Does eco social work offer enhanced opportunities for practice or innovative critical analysis? Does it connect with existing social work roles and tasks or with concerns of people receiving social work services? Does it relate to policy issues already engaging social work intervention? Is it a distinctive critical practice issue or a further example of concerns about globalising and neoliberal economics and politics? Can it constitute a future social work endeavour? Will critical eco practice be a sustainable part of social work in the future?