SWSD Conference, Stockholm 09.07.2012 Aila-Leena Matthies and Kati Närhi

1. The importance of eco-social social work for the sustainable development in current situation of unsustainable social work practices in the Finnish context SWSD Conference, Stockholm 09.07.2012 Aila-Leena Matthies and Kati Närhi University of Jyväskylä, Finland

2. THEORETICAL DISCOURSES OF ECOLOGY IN SOCIAL WORK • EARLY ROOTS OF ”ECOLOGICAL” THINKING: • at the veryfirstbeginning of SW as a discipline and profession 1890- • holisiticview on human life, includingenvironment • Mary Richmond, Jane Addams, Ilse Arlt… • Pioneers of SW in your country? Systems theoreticalthinking 1960- 70- (human in environment, social ecology, eco-systems) Eco-socialapproach 1980- (Ecologicalcrisis, critics of industrialmodel of society and SW) Trend to Convergence at globallevel 2001 New debate on Social, ecological and economicSustainability 2009 - Concretised in developingcountriestoday?

3. Earlyroots of ecologicalthinking in SW • significanceof (social) environment for humanwelfare • Mary Richmond ”social situation”; ”Person-in-environment” 1922 • Jane Addams: urbanecology • consistingfrom social and physicalenvironment as politicalissue (poverty, culture, housing, pollution, sanitation, food, water. Staub-Bernasconi 1989)

4. Systems theoreticalapproaches Focusing on socialenvironmentand using ”Environment” as a metaphor ”Human-in-environment” as leadingconcept of social work, Social work focusses in thisrelationship (Hollis 1966, Pincus& Minaham 1973,), Eco-systems(,Life ModelGermain & Gitterman1980, Bronfenbrenner 1979, Meyer 1985): applied in therapy, case work, communityworkprojectsincludingurbanstructure, ”Sozialraumorientierung”, social and physicalurbanplanning In Germany: Wendt 1982, Mühlum 1986,

5. Eco-SocialApproach Ecologicalparadigm and crisis: connectionbetween Social work and natural, physicalenvironment; critics of the industrialconcept of Modernalso in Social Workitself Influencedbyalternative and greenmovementssinceearly 1980ies Separatediscussions in Germany + Switzerland and Austria (Swendter 1981, Opielka 1985, Blanke & Sachsse 1987, Opielka 1986, Staub-Bernasconi 1989), in Canada (Coates 2003), in Australia (Hoff & McNutt 1994, McKinnon 2008), Finland (Matthies 1987, 1993, Matthies, Närhi & Ward 2001, Närhi 2004), Belgium(Peeters 2009, 2011, 2012), in your country Social politicalconceptswhichwouldnotbebased on constanteconomicgrowth and exploitation of naturalressoruces Action-orientedpracticalprojects of SW; employment, youthactions, outdooractions, communitygardens, communitywork, ecological food, Green Care Social Workinterventions in urban and ruralplanning in the frame of EnvironmentalImpactAssessment = Social ImpactAssessement SIA

6. Trend to convergence at globallevel • Separateddiscussionfromvariouscountries and regionscomingtogether • Separateddiscussions of systemstheories and eco-socialapproachescomingtogether • Since 2008 severalpublicationswhicharemapping out and summarizing the variousdebates (McKinnon2008, Peeters2009, International Journal of Social WelfareJune 2012, Dominelli 2012 fortcoming) • Workingtowards the concept of Sustainability • Leadingrole of SW in developingcountries?

7. Indicators for Social Sustainablity of a society Community-orientation, participation, democracy, social cohesion, equality, public welfare, services infrastructure and financial distribution (nef, International organisations) = functioning social services and social work as such can be regarded as indicators of social sustainability, = SW as a part of the concept of sustainability Samecriteria for the ”inside” of SW: areweworkingdemocraticly, participative, equally, communityoriented, respecting social diversity of life?

8. Economic, ecologicalsustainabilityin social workitself Economic: costs and impacts of services? Economicfunction of social work in the neoliberalmarketeconomy? Holistic and preventive ”householding” (whatpeopleneed) orexpanding the technical and managerialcosts of servicesystems? Ecological: Environmentalself-consciousness of SW? In harmony with the nature? Preventingexploitation of naturalressources? Combiningecologicalsolutions in social workinterventions? Respecting and usingnature as a tool of social work?

9. Current Paradigms of Rural Development ( OECD 2008, Matthies, Kattilakoski, Rantamäki 2011)

10. Current Paradigms of Social Services in Rural Areas

11. Towardseco-socialsustainability in working with people in unemployment • Co-creating eco-social transformation of economy and labour • “we don’t want in this kind of labour market but give us a place where we can ourselves produce what we need” • Distancing from NPM forcing SW into unsustainable practices • Turning into more community based and structural orientation, in which the entire living environment of services users is taken into account • empowerment and participatory approaches instead of oppressive functions of welfare institutions • the idea of social work as a human rights-based profession vs. the selection practice of “useless human beings”. • Realizing that each action in social work is either hindering or promoting eco-social sustainability