Abstract

Social work is a profession that is increasingly involved with issues which have a global dimension. This Handbook tackles the global/local aspect of social work in its various forms and interrogates the key concerns that societies are facing through an international lens. The contributors show that, with an appreciation of commonalities and differences, local practices and appropriate forms of international activity can be better developed.

Areas covered include:

- Analysis of 'International social work'

- Globalisation and indigenisation

- Social justice and human rights

- Poverty and livelihoods

- Ecological issues

- Migration

- Education, theory, research and practice

- Social work in different settings

- Religion and spirituality

- Responses to disasters and conflicts

- Life course perspectives

- Regional perspectives

- Future directions

With a truly international range of contributions, the Handbook incorporates perspectives from Asia, Africa, Europe, Australasia, the Middle East and the Americas.

It will be an invaluable resource for undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers and academics working in the fields of social work, social welfare, human services, and community development worldwide, as well as service providers and policy makers in the international arena.

''Faced with stark global challenges - social, economic, health-related, demographic - social workers require culturally appropriate knowledge to respond sensitively to complex needs. This book brings together some of the foremost social work academics, who illuminate brightly the complexities and subtle nuances of that slippery concept international social work. It represents a real 'state-of-the-art' excursus into social work: a diverse occupational group expressed in many forms across the world. I am sure that this volume will become a seminal work, turned to by academics and policy-makers throughout the world for many years to come. It's reach is wide and the book fulfils it's aim to be comprehensive. Dealing with concepts of space, time and power relations it focuses on diversity, challenges of intersecting experiences of power in a critical and analytic way. It is to be highly recommended for all social workers!' -
Professor Jonathan Parker, Bournemouth University