Environmental issues have been well-documented in recent years, paying particular attention to the anthropogenic climate change impact. To date, research addressing the relationship between environmental issues, environmental justice and sustainability within social work education has been scarce. The importance of these topics in education, especially in social work programmes must be well understood and research being generated on these subjects must increase. The primary goal of this article is to help increase the conversation and debates about environmental issues, environmental justice and sustainability within the social work academic community. Social work scholars must analyse and discuss opportunities and difficulties that are presented by the necessity to make the subjects mentioned, key concepts of the core curriculum and base for social work education. The secondary goal is to describe practical ways that environmental issues, environmental justice and sustainability content can be integrated into social work education to better equip professionals with the tools to assist in the continuously growing global environmental issues.
This chapter presents the results of the exploratory qualitative research “Experiences of environmental justice of socio-environmental organizations and movements in Curicó-Chile and Antioquia-Colombia,” carried out in 2020. The study allowed us to identify the purposes and foundations of social movements in the struggle for environmental justice in their territories. This gave us a glimpse of their link with social work intervention in general and specifically with leadership and organization for sustainability. The findings show that collective action is the articulating axis of socio-environmental organizations and movements, which constitutes a social force for the struggle against environmental inequality, defense of territory, and water.
It is generally accepted that the effects of climate change are a significant threat to human ecosystems, culture and health, and to global economic development as a whole. In response to these environmental changes and the attendant human vulnerability, it is imperative that social workers can more consciously lead the planning and social advocacy efforts needed to meet this challenge. The poorest and most vulnerable communities generally suffer the worst effects of climate change, and it is, therefore, essential to understand the different experiences of socio-environmental organisations and movements in response to environmental justice issues. This article presents the results of a comparative exploratory research study on Chile and Colombia, focusing on the practices and knowledge of socio-environmental organisations and movements in the Maule Region, Chile and the Department of Antioquia, Colombia. The research uses qualitative methodology and considers the views of nine social actors and leaders, four in Chile and five in Colombia. The conclusions indicate that these socio-environmental organisations see their purpose as defending water and territory, they fulfil a local advocacy role and they raise awareness and provide education on issues through participation and collective action.
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