Social Work in a Globalizing World

"Lena Dominelli's extremely readable book not only analyzes the dynamics of globalization but points the way forward to a more compassionate world in which international collaboration rather than exploitation characterizes the human condition. Social workers have much to learn from her insightful analysis." --James Midgley, University of California, Berkeley "Lena Dominelli has always been at the forefront of commenting on some of the key issues for social work education and practice in our fast-changing world. This book is a significant contribution to the contemporary debates and will prove both controversial and important. I encourage you to engage with it." --Keith Popple, London South Bank University "This book presents to the reader complex issues, debates and arguments in Professor Dominelli's characteristically informal and engaging narrative style. The breadth of issues she covers is wide and all encompassing. This book ensures that social work scholarship will survive the present challenges of "legitimacy and porous borders" and helps reposition social work at the forefront of critical debates in the globalized world." --Carolyn Noble, Victoria University, Melbourne This inspiring and stimulating book confronts contemporary challenges facing social workers. Many of the forms of human, social and environmental degradation addressed arise from social problems that have persisted over time, such as social work's own uncertain professional status, poverty, structural inequalities, migratory movements and armed conflicts. However, these challenges include newer problems rooted in the interdependent nature of the world. These issues centre on globalization, the worldwide recession undermining fiscal sustainability in Western countries, environmental pollution, climate change and natural disasters - concerns which present fresh arenas for social worker involvement and opportunities for innovation in social work theories and paradigms for practice. In exploring the tensions that globalization creates for practice, Lena Dominelli reveals the diverse and heterogeneous nature of social work as a profession, even though it has many facets that are shared across borders. In a fluid global context where migratory movements and the internationalization of social problems mean that problems that began in one country have significant implications and require action in another, social workers must support practices that endorse human rights, social justice and citizenship for all of the planet's inhabitants. Social Work in a Globalizing World sets an ambitious agenda for social work and calls for international cooperation, alliances and action alongside local efforts. Only then can its optimistic message of a viable end to the degradation of human beings and their physical environment be achieved.