Beyond Disposable Social Work and Towards Ecosocial Work: An Ethnographic Case Study of Jjokbang-Chon in Seoul, South Korea

Background and Purpose: This study examines the role of social work in addressing the vulnerability of urban poor residing in jjokbang-chon, a neighborhood characterized by a high concentration of informal housing in Seoul, South Korea, particularly in the context of extreme weather disasters.Despite the call for an ecosocial work paradigm shift, there is still a lack of research on developing the necessary social work skills and knowledge for this practice (Ramsay & Boddy, 2017). Ecosocial work remains largely theoretical, needing more empirical analysis of practical applications regarding what it means to practice ecosocial work in the real world (Molyneux, 2010). Thus, more empirical research is needed to understand how social work responds to climate and environmental justice issues. With jjokbang-chon being one of the most vulnerable places to extreme weather (Kang, 2024), the primary research question that guided this study was, ‘What social work practices are in place to address extreme weather in jjokbang-chon, and how can we analyze them from an ecosocial work perspective?’ This case study aims to contribute to empirical knowledge of the role of social work in responding to climate change.

Methods: This ethnographic study is based on a year-long ethnographic study. As part of fieldwork, I lived in the community and conducted participant observations through volunteering with a social work agency as well as a local grassroots community advocacy group. In total, I interviewed more than 50 residents and 25 social workers. A thematic analysis was carried out using two main coding approaches, open coding and ‘in vivo’ coding. The coding process started with reading through notes and transcripts and assigning codes to chunks of text. Then, later, the codes were revisited and combined with other codes into higher thematic codes. The findings were later shared with the community members as part of the member-checking process.

Findings: The research reveals that the government-funded social work agency primarily focuses on providing charitable material aid. This approach, which I named “disposable social work,” is not only environmentally wasteful but also characterized by short-term, reactionary responses that fail to address the fundamental problems, with effects that quickly fade away. In contrast, I highlight the work of the local grassroots group as an example of ecosocial work practice, which is more inclusive of the community members by providing opportunities for political participation and decision-making. The findings illuminate the role of ecosocial work in addressing climate change-related disasters in marginalized communities that empower marginalized individuals and communities.

Conclusions and Implications: The findings emphasize the importance of actively listening to the community and involving them in the process, especially when communities are preparing for, mitigating, and adapting to disasters. There is inherent power in these fundamentals, and we should consider ways to establish an organizational structure that allows community participation and ultimately entrusts decision-making to the community members. This approach holds the potential for more effective disaster risk reduction strategies within the field of social work.