Globalization, contemporary challenges and social work practice

Abstract

Globalization has had a profound effect on social work practice, changing service delivery; altering the labour process for professional social workers; creating new social problems for practitioners to address, such as people-trafficking and environmental issues; and producing demands for indigenization, or the development of locality specific forms of theory and practice. This article considers globalization in terms of these issues and the impact of the current financial crisis on a more closely connected and interdependent world. It also explores the role of the state in these developments and considers the implications of these for social work practice in the 21st century.

Students' Involvement in International Humanitarian Aid: Learning from Student Responses to the 2004 Tsunami in Sri Lanka

“…The IM and PPM were selected for study because they shared the explicit aim of building longterm, empowering, egalitarian partnerships with local communities and institutions in Sri Lanka, thereby reflecting the values of culturally-relevant, locality-specific social work (Dominelli 2010 (2007), we eschewed pre-determined objective measurements of students' success, applying instead, an interpretive ethnographic methodology which enabled us to explore the contested nature of international interventions and socially constructed realities.…”

“…Hancock (1994), Hoogvelt (2007), and Duffield (2010) exposed oppressive theories and practices that underpin humanitarian initiatives. These connect to controversies within social work over universalism, indigenisation and culturally-relevant, locality-specific practices under globalisation (Midgley 2001;Healy 2007;Dominelli 2010). In Sri Lanka, Harris (2006) highlighted fragmentation and inefficient distribution of aid resources, an issue we consider elsewhere.…”

The criminalization of immigration and the privatization of the immigration detention: implications for justice

“…As part of the global trend of neoliberal state policies designed to turn services previously handled by government over to the market (Dominelli, 2010), the privatization of prisons has accelerated rapidly. This new penology and privatization are congruent with and provide an important context for new state laws that have sought to criminalize key aspects of the lives of undocumented immigrants (Furman, Ackerman, Loya, Jones, & Negi, 2012).…”

Counseling with Muslim Refugees: Building Rapport

“…There is an urgent need to obtain a better understanding of culture to improve the quality of services provided to individuals from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. This is becoming even more important in a globalized, constantly changing world (Egan 1998;Miller 2003;Dominelli 2010). In recent years, there has been an increase in the literature on effective practice with culturally diverse marginalized groups.…”

“…Clients in feminist counseling share an equal power with the counselor. Counselors are expected to focus on client's strength and to empower clients (Brown 1994;Erlichman 2001;Dominelli 2010).…”