Building Social Work’s Environmental Research Capacity

Contemporary societies face unprecedented challenges resulting from climate change, natural disasters, urbanization, and environmental degradation. Globally, these interlocking hazards are inescapably a social problem, threatening human health, security, and rights, and destabilizing assets, coping capacities, and response infrastructures. Poor and marginalized groups are particularly at risk of further harm. Although social responses, particularly those targeting vulnerable populations, are increasingly recognized as central to efforts to navigate increasing global environmental turbulence, there is significant need for more research focused on developing, implementing, and evaluating equitable, contextually relevant social interventions (IPCC, 2014). As identified in the Grand Challenges, social work is well positioned to contribute to these efforts. However, two recent systematic reviews of the social work literature (Bexell & Rechkemmer, 2016; Mason et al., 2016) identify a marked lack of social work research focused on environmental change and sustainability. Responding to this gap, this roundtable aims to lay the foundation for a more intentional, expansive approach to enhancing social work’s environmental research capacity and presence.   

 Objectives:The roundtable will focus particular attention on building research capacity in three key areas: 1) crafting social work environmental research agenda; 2) expanding social work’s portfolio of sociospatial research methods (and relevant theoretical frameworks); and 3) building related skill sets (e.g., for confident participation in interdisciplinary research teams).

 Methods: To anchor the conversation, the presenters – doctoral, early career and senior scholars with diverse environmental research interests – will briefly discuss their research foci, methods, and training, in three domains central to global environmental change and sustainability research: 1) community-based participatory research; 2) interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary research; and 3) translational research. Two presenters will focus on different forms of community-based participatory research. One uses innovative, mixed methods approaches, including photography, community mapping, in-depth interviews, and spatial analysis, to uncover the perspectives of neighborhood residents on environmental justice issues in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods. The other combines indigenous and participatory methodologies, interdisciplinary frameworks drawn from environmental psychology and critical geography, and historical trauma theory and research to explore the intersections of social and environmental justice for Indigenous peoples. The second two presenters will illustrate interdisciplinary approaches, including research collaborations with colleagues in the spatial sciences, engineering, and design professions examining social vulnerability and adaptation to socio-environmental problems such as climate change, water security, urban change and pollution, and severe weather. Moving to intervention, the final presenter will explore the adaptation and translation of interventions to address emerging challenges, such as disaster preparedness and response and population dislocation. Collectively, these presentations will illuminate what innovative, rigorous, interdisciplinary environmental social work research can achieve, and provide a starting point for dialogue about advancing a research agenda in this critical area.

Engagement/Implications: These brief presentations will be followed by open discussion with roundtable participants aimed at collectively enhancing the capacity of social welfare scholars to produce relevant, conceptually and methodologically sophisticated, impactful environmental research – and at frankly exploring the potential contributions of social work researchers in this domain, the challenges entailed in entering new interdisciplinary research arenas, and the practicalities entailed.