Book Review: Healy, L. (2008) International Social Work: Professional Action in an Interdependent World, Oxford University Press, New York, second edition. ISBN13: 9780195301670, 432 pp

Whose life matters? A call for social work action in response to a global humanitarian crisis

“…To define international social work is challenging as there are numerous connecting concepts. Healy (2008) says it refers to ‘comparative social welfare, international practice, cross cultural knowledge and understanding, intergovernmental work on social welfare, concern and action on global social problems, a worldwide collegiality among social workers, professional exchange activities, and a general worldview’ (pp. 7–8).…”

“…The initial commitment was to world peace as these female-dominated organizations had recently won suffrage rights and many subscribed to a gender-based version of feminism where they believed that female leadership would result in less war (Author 1, 2015). Over time, the shared commitment of all three organizations broadened to promoting human rights and social development and to accomplish this by representation on the UN NGO Commissions and Committees (Healy, 2008).…”

‘All social work takes place in a macro context’: The gap between international social work training and practice

“…In reality, social work practice varies across cultures and nations and even within (Ornellas et al, 2018) and this may very well be one of the key advantages of international social work and its workers to collaboratively, relationally, and flexibly weave in and out of diverse micro, meso, and macro environments to respond to a specific cause (Claiborne, 2004). It is not surprising then to see that social workers are divided when it comes to finding a unified concept of what international social work is and social work practice and international curriculum should look like (Healy and Thomas, 2021; Midgley, 2001). Gray and Fook (2004) advise that the issues at stake are less about agreeing on a universal definition of social work but rather collaborating to identify commonalities that tackle poverty and injustice.…”