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Full-Text Articles in Social Work
Stinky Water And Other Ills: Environmental Justice For Rural Services, Michael R. Daley
Stinky Water And Other Ills: Environmental Justice For Rural Services, Michael R. Daley
Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal
Environmental justice concerns affect rural communities and the people who are members of them. Social workers’ long-standing involvement in improving living conditions of the people and communities with whom they work make environmental justice an important responsibility. Yet there is a rural-urban divide on topics related to the environment, and rural and urban communities tend to establish different environmental priorities. Rural communities tend to prioritize local conditions and solutions over global and societal ones. Rural people distrust national policies especially those established by governmental as not being responsive to their interest. Some common environmental rural problems are identified. Environmental justice …
Promoting Environmental Justice Research And Practice For Social Workers In A Rural State: Methodology And Findings Of A Pilot Qualitative Study, Monika Leininger, Kirsten Havig
Promoting Environmental Justice Research And Practice For Social Workers In A Rural State: Methodology And Findings Of A Pilot Qualitative Study, Monika Leininger, Kirsten Havig
Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal
Environmental justice work is an emerging field of practice that recognizes the interrelationship between social, economic, racial, gender, and environmental injustice and the impact social workers can have for policy and practice. Despite inclusion of environmental justice knowledge and practice as critical elements of ethical social work, little research exists on the topic in the professional knowledge base. Additionally, little research exists to date that specifically examines environmental justice knowledge and practice in a rural area. This pilot study examines awareness and knowledge of environmental justice issues and practice amongst licensed social workers in a rural western state using focus …
Social And Environmental Justice And The Water-Energy Nexus: A Quest In Progress For Rural People, Karen V. Harper-Dorton Ph.D., Stacia J. Harper
Social And Environmental Justice And The Water-Energy Nexus: A Quest In Progress For Rural People, Karen V. Harper-Dorton Ph.D., Stacia J. Harper
Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal
Access to affordable and reliable clean water and energy is necessary for economic development, health, and well-being of all people worldwide. Unavailable, unaffordable, or unreliable water and energy resources represent social and environmental injustices that disproportionately burden poor people, especially those in rural areas. Furthermore, there is an inextricable link between water and energy: clean water requires power for delivery and sanitation, and power production requires large amounts of water. This water-energy nexus connects two vital resources for humanity with more attention to economic concerns than to human or environmental issues. This paper addresses social and environmental justice issues that …
Social Action Meets Social Media: Environmental Justice In West Virginia, Debra Hunt Young, Samantha Teixeira, Helen Hartnett
Social Action Meets Social Media: Environmental Justice In West Virginia, Debra Hunt Young, Samantha Teixeira, Helen Hartnett
Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal
This article presents a case study of a community organizing effort known as Citizens Actively Protecting the Environment (CAPE). Led by rural West Virginians in response to the Elk River chemical spill of 2013, this environmental justice movement was novel in that it harnessed social media, specifically Facebook, to catalyze advocacy and change efforts in a rural area. The literature on environmental health disparities and environmental justice in rural communities is reviewed. Then authors describe how resident-led organizing in rural areas was effective in promoting environmental justice. Details of the CAPE project are presented, as well as ways social media …
Ecology And Social Justice: A Course Designed For Environmental Social Work In Rural Spaces, Arielle Dylan
Ecology And Social Justice: A Course Designed For Environmental Social Work In Rural Spaces, Arielle Dylan
Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal
This article describes a course developed by the author that responds to the stated social justice aims of the social work profession. If social workers are to advocate successfully for environments conducive to the general welfare of all people, promote social justice, equitable distribution of resources, and just environmental management, environmental social work scholarship needs to move beyond theorizing and suggestions itemizing broad responses, and provide instead illustrative examples of interventions and alternative practices. The trend in very recent years of environmental social work scholarship has done just this. Education, in particular in the classroom setting, provides an opportunity to …
The Slow Violence Of Climate Change In Poor Rural Kenyan Communities: “Water Is Life. Water Is Everything.”, Jennifer L. Willett
The Slow Violence Of Climate Change In Poor Rural Kenyan Communities: “Water Is Life. Water Is Everything.”, Jennifer L. Willett
Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal
Climate change is the most pressing global environmental problem and the most unyielding worldwide environmental injustice of our time. Although some social workers have begun to address climate change, this literature is centered on its generalized impact, rather than its specific effects on vulnerable populations. As a concept, slow violence offers a frame to understand the slow occurring effects of climate change on the global poor. This study used an ethnographic approach to examine the effects of climate change on two poor rural Kenyan communities. Findings discussed include the consequences of droughts, the connection between droughts and deforestation, failed governmental …