Ecosocial Work in Community Practice: Embracing Ecosocial Worldviews and Promoting Sustainability

This book focuses on ecosocial work within the context of community practice. It aims to provide insights on understanding key issues, concepts and debates surrounding the mainstreaming of ecosocial work for sustainable community development. Divided into three parts, the first part of the book focuses on ecosocial work and ecosocial change around water, the ecology of coastal communities experiencing climate change, and environmental degradation. The second part includes chapters on ecosocial change and community practice in other kinds of bioregions. Finally, the third part primarily focuses on pedagogical approaches for teaching ecosocial work. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Community Practice.

Komalsingh Rambaree is an associate professor of social work at the University of Gävle, Sweden. He has been involved in several community work projects with youth and adolescents, as well as with coastal communities in Mauritius and some other Western Indian Ocean countries. He is currently engaged in teaching, learning, and researching issues related to ecosocial/green social work, international social work, adolescent and youth development, and computer assisted qualitative data analysis with ATLAS-ti.

Meredith C. F. Powers is an associate professor in the department of social work at UNC Greensboro, USA. Her applied scholarship includes climate justice, climate migration, ecosocial worldviews, and eco-therapy. She is the Founding Director of the Climate Justice Program of IFSW and of the Green/EcoSocial Work Collaborative Network.

Richard J. Smith is a native of Michigan. He currently serves as a core advisor for the International Ecocity Standards project of Ecocity Builders, Inc. In Detroit, he serves on the Hope Village Steering Committee and the Urban Learning and Leadership Collaborative. Smith's research has been published in the Journal of Urban Affairs, Journal of Policy Practice, International Journal of Social Welfare, Social Work, Urban Studies, and others.