Social Work Practices: Perspectives, Opportunities and Challenges

Social work as a profession should foster equity and social justice by improving the human condition and by standing at the forefront of the fight against all forces that tear down humanity. Despite the recognition of Eurocentric hegemony in American social work, this segment of the global profession has not moved away from practices that essentially reify white supremacy. In fact, the American social work profession often ignores the global aspect of local problems and tries to solve social problems within its nation and state boundaries, despite espousing a systems perspective as a guide for practice. In contrast, social work professionals in other countries continue to look and learn across borders for insights and changes to social work practice and education. In the current hyper-globalized milieu, American social work practitioners must recognize that the global is local and the local is global. Too often client systems are affected by and connected to global communities, thereby requiring American social workers to develop practice skills, knowledge, and models to better serve these client communities. American social work professionals can no longer practice with a myopic national or local focus, but must consider the multisystemic factors fueling local, international, and global social problems.