International Social Work: Themes and Perspectives

This book advocates the development of international social work, both as offering an important perspective on practice at local level and as a distinct form of cross-border and supra-national activity. The author argues that the effects of globalization and regional policies on the welfare sector have implications for the users of social services and community development programmes which require all social professionals to have a better understanding of these processes and consequences and of the international networks through which they themselves might operate. Some of the material used is of a comparative nature, for instance in relation to the education of social professionals or their relationship with the state or the family and examples are drawn from a wide range of countries. But there is also a thematic treatment of three phenomena which are seen to have significant international dimensions, that is, poverty, migration and disasters. The book considers the role of social professionals in relation to these themes and identifies greater scope for intervention in relation to a range of social problems at international levels.