Teaching and Learning in Ecosocial Work | Concepts, Methods and Practice

This book aims to champion teaching and learning of ecosocial work in educational institutions which offer social work and related programmes. It is the first book to focus specifically on teaching and learning in ecosocial work and one of the first to incorporate student perspectives on and initiatives in ecosocial work teaching, learning and practice.

Ecosocial work is an evolving framework to learn about and practice social work from the premise that humans are part of the web of life on Earth. While this understanding should guide human activities, current planetary-scale anthropogenic socio-environmental problems such as the climate crisis, ocean acidification, biodiversity and species loss, prove the opposite. Social work and allied professions stem from the same anthropocentric world view and need to reconfigure their relationship to other-than-humans and the planetary limits of existence. This requires in-depth renewal of social work and related professions and an ecosocial/ecological paradigm change in which education is pivotal.

Written by academics, students and practitioners working in different parts of the world and offering interdisciplinary perspectives, the book provides:

• Chapters and case studies on concepts, methods, and experiences of teaching and learning in ecosocial work.
• Discussion of the current terrain of ecosocial work in principle and practice.
• Ideas on the kinds of new thinking ecosocial work requires and on how these can be taught and practiced, promoting economic, social and environmental sustainability.

This book makes an original and internationally acclaimed contribution to ecosocial work education. As the conduit for preparing social workers to become active agents of ecosocial change, critical attention is given to the importance of education as foundational to this professional endeavour. This book provides essential reading for all social work professionals, scholars, educators, and learning institutions.

Heather Boetto, Associate Professor, Charles Stuart University, Australia.

A comprehensive book about the challenges and opportunities of teaching the ecosocial framework in social work. Various perspectives open up new possibilities for understanding the practices of teaching ecosocial work in different contexts. A strong reading recommendation for anyone interested in understanding and teaching the relationship between social work and environmental issues.

Kati Närhi, Professor, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

Catherine Forde is senior lecturer in youth and community work at University College Cork. She delivers twin modules on environment and sustainability on qualifying social work and youth and community work degree programmes at the School of Applied Social Studies, UCC. Catherine’s main research/publication interests are in the areas of community development; ecosocial work and environmental education; state-civil society relations; and children and young people's participation. She has published widely on these themes and is co-author of the book Social Work and Community Development: A Critical Practice Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). She is co-editor of the themed section Community Development in Social Work Education: Themes for a Changing World (Community Development Journal, October 2021). She is a Co-I on the Horizon Europe project Intersectional Spaces of Participation: Inclusive, Resilient, Embedded (INSPIRE) (2024-2027) and co-PI of a research project (2023) for the Feminist Communities for Climate Change initiative of the National Women’s Council of Ireland/Community Work Ireland. She serves on the editorial board of the journal Ethics and Social Welfare. 

Satu Ranta-Tyrkkö, PhD Title of Docent, is a university lecturer in the faculty of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her teaching and research focus on the interfaces and confluences of social work and environmental issues, including her postdoctoral research (2014-2017) on the consequences of the mining industry for disadvantaged groups in Northern Finland and Eastern India, and the Climate Handbook for Social Work (in Finnish) together the Talentia Union of Professional Social Workers. Her interests also include the diversity of social work as both locally embedded, and transnationally and globally manifest profession, discipline, and social movement, and interfaces of social work with arts (especially theatre) and arts-based practice. Satu has also published on ethical and postcolonial issues in social work. Overall, she has a macrolevel ecosocial and community-based orientation to social work.

Pieter Lievens is a lecturer in the Bachelor of Social Work of KdG University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Belgium and he is connected to the Thomas More University of Applied Sciences in Flanders since 2003. He was educated as a sociologist and specialized in European Social Policy Analysis. He has done research in the fields of women in vulnerable labor positions, participation of lower classes in local organizations, satisfaction among users of labour counselling services and older people’s care. He was a consultant for municipalities on local social policy planning. He has expertise in the design of e-learning environments. He has coordinated Intensive Programmes in Social Work and is involved in many international projects. He has been teaching international perspectives in social work and ecosocial work since 2005. Global challenges are his main expertise. Between 2010 and 2013 Pieter was chairman of the learning network 'Orientation of Social Work towards sustainable development'. Pieter has been teaching sustainability, ecology, ecosocial work and international perspectives and global change for more than 15 years. He is currently engaged in futures thinking, deep history of planet earth, collective governance of commons and other activities related to ecosocial work.

Komalsingh Rambaree (PhD) is an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Gävle, Sweden. He started his career in the year 1990, as a social worker working with youth and adolescents in Mauritius. He has also worked on various sustainable development projects for international organizations such as the European Union, World Bank , and the United Nations. He graduated with a PhD in Social Work and Social Policy from the University of Manchester, England in the year 2006. He is currently engaged in teaching, learning, and researching at the University of Gävle, Sweden, ecosocial/green social work issues, international social work, adolescent and youth development, and computer-assisted qualitative data analysis with ATLAS-ti.

Helena Belchior Rocha, PhD in Social Work, is an assistant professor at ISCTE- University Institute of Lisbon in the Department of Political Science and Public Policies and deputy director of the Transversal Skills Laboratory. Integrated researcher at CIES, Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology, linked to national and international research projects, namely three Marie Curie Actions. She is the author of papers and communications at national and international congresses in the areas of social work theory and methodology, environment, sustainability, community intervention, ethics, human rights, social policies and well-being, education and soft skills. She is a member of the editorial boards of several national/international journals. Helena is also a member of the Inclusive Policy Lab of UNESCO and  a member and Scientific Science Communication Coordinator of the EU Cost Action ‘Digital Human Rights’.