Inclusive Social Work: A New Vision of Community Practice

Humanity has developed amazing technologies in such areas as communications, energy, manufacturing, construction, biotechnology, and transportation. We however have not yet developed the wisdom and cooperation necessary to guide the use of these technologies toward the highest good. As a result, we have created conditions that increasingly threaten the existence of humanity and many other species on the planet.

Within the social work profession, there is a unique opportunity and growing responsibility to address these challenges through a more inclusive practice model. Inclusive Social Work: A New Vision of Community Practice introduces readers to an innovative approach that integrates the micro, mezzo, and macro levels of practice and that addresses humanity's often ego-based, left-brained, and dualistic reactions to the world and the resulting disconnection that we have had with ourselves, other people, and the ecosystems that support all life.

The text examines the interconnected roots and symptoms of our current global challenges, including climate change, loss of biodiversity, pandemic, overpopulation, preparations for war and terror, xenophobia, and alienation from our world. To help transform these challenges, readers are introduced to the Inclusive Social Work Practice (ISWP) model, an approach that equally values both artistic and scientific factors in engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation. Within this framework, readers learn strategies for de-corporatizing the university, transforming social work classrooms into inclusive communities, and integrating ISWP principles into ecobiopsychosocialspiritual practice with local and global communities.

David Derezotes is currently Professor of Social Work in part-time retirement at the University of Utah, where he has also served as Director of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program in the College of Humanities and Chair of the Senate Advisory Committee on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. He can frequently be found wandering in Utah's beautiful deserts.