(Re-)Imagining Social Work in the Anthropocene

Abstract

The ecological crisis, marked by the Anthropocene epoch, is having a major impact on the global ecosystem, and the consequences are predicted to become increasingly severe in coming decades. The turbulence and uncertainty of the crisis means social work must begin planning, reflecting and reorientating. The first half of the article contextualises the climate crisis within neoliberal capitalism, whereas the second half proposes alternatives for social work practice that attempt to exist outside these structures. We have argued that social work should have a greater focus on developing an eco-social transition which means engaging with alternative economic systems, intentional communities, community gardens and localism. These approaches can practically espouse the profession’s values whilst beginning to conceptualise a response to the climate crisis that operates outside neoliberal capitalism.