Guests: Dr. Satu Ranta-Tyrkkö: senior lecturer at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Dr. Ingo Stamm: postdoctoral researcher at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Introduction to this episode: The social work training institutions around the world play a crucial role in helping shape the specific competencies and wider professional culture of new generations of social workers. Those emerging professionals are now taking up their diverse social work duties and roles against a backdrop of escalating physical environment and ecological justice challenges. Those challenges will inevitably in ..read more

Guest: Bayley Johnson - Australian social work student in training Introduction to this episode The social work (SW) student perspective on eco-social practice (ESW) offers interesting insights into the principles of that practice for a number of reasons. Almost by definition, many students will come to an eco-social framing of practice with little or no prior experience, theoretical preferences or practice assumptions. In addition to presenting an intellectual tabula rasa, and the freshness of view which often goes with it, students in training are encouraged, systematically, to reflect and t ..read more

Guest: Professor Margaret Alston, AM, OAM, School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Science, University of Newcastle, New South Wales and Emerita Professor, Monash University. Introduction to this episode: Professor Margaret Alston has developed a longstanding research and teaching interest around the social work role in relation to natural disasters, and particularly regarding the differential gendered experience of disaster impacts amongst women, men and children. She has taught and conducted research within a number of premier Australian universities over the years on topics suc ..read more

Guest: Dr. Naomi Godden: Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Social Work, School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia. Introduction to this episode: Dr Godden is a social worker, social justice and environmental activist, and feminist participatory action researcher from the rural community of Margaret River, Western Australia. She has 16 years of community development and social research experience in Australia and internationally in areas such as gender justice, Aboriginal family violence prevention, youth development, education advocacy, pov ..read more

Guest: Dr.Sylvia Ramsay, School of Health Sciences and Social Work, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. INTRODUCTION TO THIS EPISODE The growing academic research base of eco-social work (ESW) practice in Australia has a been an important springboard in helping to diffuse ESW ideas and approaches into the mainstream here. Several guests in this podcast series, including Dr Heather Boetto, Dr. Peter Jones and Dr. Sue Bailey, have already contributed influential published research work linked to eco-social work practice and approaches in this country. My guest on this episode of the seri ..read more

Guest: Dr. Dorothee Holscher: Lecturer & BSW Programme Advisor (Logan) School of Health Sciences and Social Work | Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. INTRODUCTION TO THIS EPISODE: For many practitioners, eco-social work approaches are transformative in their intent and objectives around linked physical environment and social justice concerns. Some examples are the recent social work call in Australia for far more ambitious national greenhouse gas reduction efforts, and advocacy around greater social and environmental justice for marginalised communities impacted disproportionately ..read more

Guest: Dr. Heather Downey, Senior Lecturer in Social Work and Social Policy and member of the Centre for Freshwater Ecosystems at Latrobe University, Albury Wodonga. INTRODUCTION TO THIS EPISODE The crucial importance of water as a resource to support the economic, social, cultural, recreational, and environmental wellbeing of human society and the natural world cannot be overstated. This is particularly the case in Australia, the driest inhabited continent, whose water security challenges have further intensified in response to global heating and climate disruption trends. As a key, multiface ..read more

GUEST: Beni McKenzie, social worker in practice in the Gold Coast region of Queensland. Beni is Vice-President of the AASW (South) Qld Branch and a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) National Advisory Panel for Climate Action. Over a number of  years, Beni has been active in finding ways to embed eco-social work practice principles into his mainstream work and opportunities to spread the word on eco-social approaches to his colleagues and other social workers at local, regional, and national levels.  INTRODUCTION TO THIS EPISODE An upsurge in green or eco-s ..read more

Welcome to this new podcast series ‘Eco-Social Work in Australia.’ The series will contain interviews with a diverse range of Australian social work practitioners: academics and researchers, social work trainers, professionals in mainstream practice and students in training. Each guest will give their personal perspectives on some of the still emerging ideas, practices, and principles of an exciting and much needed turn within contemporary, mainstream Australian social work practice. This body of work has been variously termed Green, environmental or eco-social work. The latter term is used ex ..read more

GUEST: Dr Susan Bailey - senior lecturer in Social Work at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia.  Sue has lived all her life on Whadjuk Noongar Country. Her curiosity, dangerous as a toddler but transformative as an adult, led her to a PhD in social work that consolidated her belief in the importance of social and ecological justice. For over 25 years Sue has worked in academia, government, non-government, and community sectors where she has developed her skills in working alongside people using participatory approaches.  She has a reputation as a practitioner, educator and rese ..read more