Sustainability: Creating Social Responses to a Changing Environment as a Grand Challenge

by

Lawrence A. Palinkas

• LAST REVIEWED: 27 October 2022
• LAST MODIFIED: 27 October 2022
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195389678-0318

Introduction

Creating social responses to a changing environment is one of twelve Grand Challenges for Social Work (GCSW) that were launched in 2015 by the American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare to use science, innovation, and new forms of collaboration to accelerate progress toward solving major social problems. One of these grand challenges pertains to the social problems created by human-caused changes in the physical environment. Along with genetic factors, human evolution has largely been driven by changes in our environment brought about by natural geophysical and biological processes and human activity, including urbanization and migration. In recent years, human activity has led to unprecedented levels of environmental degradation and unsustainable trends in environmental problems such as air pollution, water shortages, extreme weather events, and sea-level rise threatening the health, well-being, and survival of people and entire ecosystems. Moreover, these changes have not been distributed equally or equitably. Environmental change is fundamentally a social justice issue because climate change and other forms of environmental degradation disproportionately affect marginalized populations, including ethnic and racial minorities, women, children, older adults, people living in poverty, individuals with a history of mental or behavioral health problems, and people with disabilities as well as low-income, geographically vulnerable communities and nations. Disproportionate impacts include climate-related morbidity and mortality; population dislocation, notably rural to urban “climigration,” to areas less impacted by climate change; disruptions in employment and income; escalating food and water insecurity; heightened risks of gendered violence; and the devastating effect of extreme weather events. To ensure an environmentally sustainable and healthy world for all, solutions are urgently needed that are socially and culturally responsive, ethical, and equitable. The grand challenge to create social responses to a changing environment is perhaps the only one that is global in scope. The goals of this grand challenge are to: (1) adopt and implement an evidence-based approach to disaster preparedness and response; (2) develop policies and practices targeting environmentally induced migration and population displacement; (3) strengthen equity-oriented urban resilience policies and practices and proactively engage marginalized communities in adaptation planning; and (4) engage with individuals, groups, and communities in learning about and crafting responses to the local impacts of global changes. The grand challenge is intended to develop a workforce of social workers to address these changes through partnerships with vulnerable, under-resourced communities and collaborations with researchers from other disciplines, practitioners, and policymakers. This article summaries work that has served as the foundation for social work research, policy, and practice related to environmental changes with a specific focus on climate change, urbanization, environmental justice, and ecosocial work. It also summarizes work on these issues that has been specifically inspired by the social work grand change to create social responses to environmental change.

General Overviews

The need to create social responses to a changing environment and a plan for accomplishing this is first articulated in Kemp 2011. The position paper Kemp and Palinkas 2015 came in response to the call for Grand Challenges for Social Work from the American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare. An agenda for advancing the potential for social work to create social responses to a changing environment emerged from Mason, et al. 2017, a scoping review of existing literature on the subject. An elaboration of this need with proposed strategies for addressing it appears in Kemp, et al. 2018 in an edited volume describing each of the grand challenges. The work accomplished and the issues raised since the publication of that chapter are summarized by Kemp and colleagues in Kemp, et al. 2022, a second edition of Grand Challenges for Social Work and Society. Mason, et al. 2021 outlines the roles and skills for creating and implementing macrolevel social responses to environmental change. Although not written in response to the grand challenge, McKinnon and Alston 2016 provides a summary of key concepts that underlie efforts to create social responses to human-induced changes in the physical environment.

• Kemp, S. P. 2011. Recentring environment in social work practice: Necessity, opportunity, challenge. British Journal of Social Work 41.6: 1198–1210.

  DOI: 10.1093/bjsw/bcr119

  This article represents one of the earliest acknowledgments that the social work profession lacks a presence in environmental practice, research, and policymaking despite its traditional person-in-environment focus. It also includes recommendations for developing practice theories, models, and interventions; elevating the focus of environmental practice in social work education; and developing interdisciplinary partnerships with local communities.

• Kemp, S. P., and L. A. Palinkas. 2015. Strengthening the social response to the human impacts of environmental change. Saint Louis, MO: American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare.

  This seminal position paper outlines the need for the grand challenge and describes four core areas for social work leadership: (1) local, national, and international disaster preparedness and response; (2) assistance to dislocated populations; (3) collaborative capacity building to mobilize and strengthen place-based, community-level resilience, assets, and action; and (4) advocacy to elevate public and policy attention to the social and human dimensions of environmental change.

• Kemp, S. P., L. A. Palinkas, and L. R. Mason. 2018. Grand challenge #7: Create social responses to a changing environment. In Grand challenges for social work and society: Social progress powered by science. Edited by R. Fong, J. Lubben, and R. Barth, 240–260. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

  This chapter outlines three priorities for a social work response to a changing environment: (1) disaster risk reduction, (2) environmentally induced migration and population displacement; and (3) equity-oriented, socio-ecological urban resilience and adaptation policies and interventions, including proactive inclusion of marginalized and vulnerable communities. It provides a metric for assessing progress in meeting goals and reports on dissemination activities to date.

• Kemp, S. P., L. A. Palinkas, L. R. Mason, S. Billiot, F. M. Mitchell, and A. Krings. 2022. Create social responses to a changing environment. In Grand challenges for social work and society: Milestones achieved and opportunities ahead. 2d ed. Edited by R. P. Barth, J. T. Messing, T. R. Shanks, and J. H. Williams, 201–229. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

  DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197608043.003.0015

  This chapter provides an update of the Grand Challenge, describing progress made to date, new issues to be addressed, and new opportunities for advancing its goals. This chapter also includes a section on social work’s transformative, intersectional, and feminist response to a changing environment.

• Mason, L. R., S. P. Kemp, L. A. Palinkas, and A. Krings. 2021. Social responses to a changing environment. In Encyclopedia of social work. Edited by Cynthia Franklin. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

  DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.013.1431

  This article describes the roles and skills unique to macrolevel social workers for creating and implementing macrolevel social responses to environmental change, followed by examples of strategies and interventions. Opportunities and directions for future social work responses to a changing environment are identified.

• Mason, L. R., M. K. Shires, C. Arwood, and A. Borst. 2017. Social work research and global environmental change. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research 8.4: 645–672.

  DOI: 10.1086/694789

  This scoping review assesses the state of empirical social work research on global environmental change to identify an agenda for advancing social work research and practice in this area.

• McKinnon, J., and M. Alston, eds. 2016. Ecological social work: Towards sustainability. London: Palgrave.

  This book examines key theoretical concepts of ecosocial work and demonstrates their application in ecological social work practice across the globe.