Social work practitioners’ views of ecosocial work

Abstract

Summary: The globe is in transition due to changes in ecosystems, such as climate change and biodiversity loss. One challenge is to guide this transition toward a more sustainable future at the local and global levels. The discussion around ecosocial work as a transformative framework for social work theory and practice underlines the interdependency of social and ecological sustainability and calls for a definition of social work's role in the ecosocial transition of society. This study explores how social work practitioners perceive current ecological crises and how they integrate ecosocial work into their own practice. The qualitative thematic analysis is based on focus group interview data collected from 14 social workers in three different locations in Finland. Findings: The social workers who participated in focus group interviews had a strong relationship with nature. They understood the environment holistically, as both social and natural. In addition, they considered the environment in terms of resource wisdom regarding the sustainable use of different resources. There are both challenges and opportunities for social work's ability to support the ecosocial transition. The challenges are mainly related to organizational and managerial understandings of social work tasks and sustainability in general. The opportunities are at the local level, where sustainable practices are created. Applications: Our findings regarding social workers’ views of their own relationship with the environment, as well as the boundary conditions of ecosocial work practice, help us to understand social work's potential role in the ongoing ecosocial transition of society.