Eco-social work and community resilience

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I am quite excited about this article because the ways in which social work can/should be engaging with community-based 'environmental' activism, environmental justice initiatives, and climate change action become so clear when you look at why and how people get involved. Water activists everywhere, I think, are driven by much bigger ideas, priorities and principles than "I'm thirsty and there is no water." Just look at Standing Rock – "Water is life!" And embedded within those ideas and principles, I think, are the principles and values (as well as objectives, methods and strategies!) that community-based social work is all about (or at least strives to be). In this article, I am basically trying to show how the concept of "community resilience", which appears to be important to water activists in Guelph, Ontario at least, maps onto social work theory and praxis, and provides a conceptual and practical bridge between traditional social work domains and emerging imperatives generated by environmental destruction and climate change. I would love to hear from you if you have any kind of reaction to this article. Critique is welcome!

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