Social work and climate change: the split between the personal and the professional

Abstract

The climate crisis is accelerating even quicker than feared with devastating consequences for nature, animals and especially people that social workers engage with. This article, drawing on empirical data from qualitative research with social work practitioners in Sweden, highlights the gaps between global rhetoric and on-the-ground realities, and the huge chasm between social worker’s commitment to climate justice on a personal level and their professional practice. Informed by reflexive thematic analysis and the descriptive-interpretive research design, the empirical data show that while social workers reflect deep awareness of the importance of responding to climate change, understanding it as everyone’s responsibility, they see the call to action as being far removed from the demands of daily practice. There are strong indications that global patterns of individualization, specialization and the impositions of efficiency and narrowly defined outcomes, featured of neoliberalism and new public management, influence social workers’ scope of work in decided ways. The global, national and institutional constraints on the roles of social workers raise ethical issues in relation to the imperative that all social workers address issues of ecosocial justice. The data suggest that if there were spaces for dialogue and reflexivity in their workspaces, and educational political and organizational support for group and community-based approaches, social workers would be willing to live up to the global imperatives to fulfill their roles in contributing towards ecosocial justice. The implications for the politicization of social work and the importance of emancipatory praxis in social work education and practice are discussed.

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