A Critical Analysis of Inclusion Gaps in Directly Relevant Sustainable Development Themes, Facts and Findings in Recent Social Work Research

Background & Purpose

For survival, humans depend on Earth’s ecosystems and the services they provide, such as clean air and water, food, medicines, disease management, building materials, fuel, climate regulation, buffering of storms, or spiritual fulfillment. Over the past fifty years, humans have negatively altered global ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable time period. These detrimental changes are largely to meet rapidly growing yet unsustainable human demands for resources. Transformation of Earth has contributed to substantial gains in human well-being and economic development for some, but at the cost of the health, well-being and security for most humans, particularly marginalized and oppressed populations. We find that most social work professionals are unaware of the prevalence and severity of these issues even though they negatively impact their clients, policies and interventions. Social workers must account for global sustainability issues in order to ensure effective practices.

Methods

We performed a systematic review of recent social work literature (published 2010-2015) to uncover existing gaps in sustainable development themes directly relevant for social work practice. The Campbell Collaboration Resource Center methodology was used to guide our systematic review. Databases explored were Social Work Abstracts, Social Services Abstracts, PsycINFO, Scopus, Sociological Abstracts, Academic Search Premier, ProQuest, SocINDEX and EconLit through EbscoHOST. Peer-reviewed articles, social work reports, white papers and policy documents about the theories, the extent and types of sustainable development-related themes were examined. Keywords used were sustainability, sustainable development, green(ing) social work, environmental social work, indigenous social work and conservation social work, among others.

Results

We found that the broader social work research community appears largely unaware of the major direct impacts of the prevalence, frequency and severity of various environmental changes on human and social development, in particular regarding human health, well-being, security and survival. Environmental factors tend to be ignored in research even when the focus is on social issues or individual and community risk factors, vulnerabilities or sufferings that are directly related to environmental change. The environmental change literature provides clear evidence of these threats and their impacts and therefore social work studies need to incorporate these analysis variables.

 

Conclusions and Implications

Earth’s continued sustainability for humans can no longer be taken for granted. Our review supports our hypothesis that recent social work literature does not appropriately account for environmental damage and issues with sustainability even in circumstances where we have clear evidence for significant impacts on social work practice. Therefore we argue that it is imperative to raise awareness among social work researchers that recognition of these linkages is imperative, especially regarding macro, mezzo and micro level social work problems and issues. Global environmental destruction is a grand and significant challenge for social work in the 21st century. Our study demonstrates the need for greater recognition in social work research.