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 researcher who is deeply engaged, inclusive and authentic – she lives the values she espouses.
Sue is a collaborative leader in bringing eco-social work to the mainstream of social work understanding in Australia. Her eco-social work practice focuses on addressing the wicked problems of ecosystem degradation, climate change and mass extinctions using a loss and grief framework. Her practice (community work, education, and research) supports individuals, families, organisations, and communities across the world to engage a change process to both mitigate and adapt to a climate changed world. At the heart of this work is a commitment to supporting humans to reconnect with their eco-systems that they rely upon to live.
INTRODUCTION TO THIS EPISODE:
My guest on this episode of the series, Dr Susan Bailey, undertook her original PhD research on social work responses to terrorism and the context of violence perpetrated on ‘the other’ and it was through that work that she first came to realise the importance of an ecological perspective in helping to understand global problems and associated social work approaches. Most recently Susan has extended such interest into teaching and researching on eco-social work approaches (ESW) using a grief and loss framing as a core part of her work.
Sue believes that we live on an Earth that is changing in ways that will make it challenging for some if not all humans to live well into the future. The recent fires, floods, COVID-19 pandemic, and the changing climate, are all consequences of a Western philosophical positioning that situates humans outside of their eco-systems.
A particular recent research interest of Dr Bailey has focussed on the way in which urgently needed, high level responses to global heating and climate change impacts are still too often being denied and resisted. Even as the climate emergency continues to unfold, there remains in some quarters what is known as a socially constructed silence on the subject. Susan and her colleagues believe that climate change denial and resistance can be theorised, in part, as a form of grief response to the damage and loss caused to the natural world by human impacts. In this episode she talks with me about how her work might be applied within future eco-social theorising and practice.
INTERVIEW TALKING POINTS – with approximate time elapsed locations.
- Guest self-introduction – 2.32
- Guest’s development of interest in eco-social work – 5.50
- For you, what is eco-social work in 2021? - 9.47
- Grief and loss framings – some models – 16.01
- Applications to social work climate change responses – 20.10
- Strategies for social workers to use traditional skill sets – 32.40
- Why should mainstream social work be involved with ecological issues? – 35.30
- Guest preferred future for ESW practice – 45.15
- Constraints acting to slow ESW adoption – 55.45
- Guest’s take home message/closing remarks – 59.00
RESOURCES AND REFERENCES MENTIONED IN THE DISCUSSION
May be separate or incorporated into talking points listing depending on extent of detail.
-
Dr.Nicholas Gerrish, Grief Therapy and Support
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological and bioecological theories - Biosphere thickness
- Gribbin, J., & Gribbin, M. (2008). From Here to Infinity. Crawley: University of Western Australia Press.
- Stroebe, M., & Schut, H. (1999). The dual process model of coping with bereavement. Rationale and description. Death Studies, 23(3), 197-224.
- Transition Towns movement – Transition Network
- The Mushroom at the End 0f the World – book review
- The Buy Nothing initiative
- Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches – e.g., the Environmental Humanities
- Deep ecology, bioethics and the intrinsic right of nature to exist
- The Good Grief Network
- Naomi Godden – role of love in social work practice
- Godden, N. J. (2017). The Love Ethic: A Radical Theory for Social Work Practice. Australian Social Work, 70(4), 405-416. doi:10.1080/0312407X.2017.1301506
- Louise Morely – social work and love of humanity
- Morley, L., & Ife, J. (2002). Social work and a love of humanity. Australian Social Work, 55(1), 69-77. doi:https://doi.org/10.1046/j.0312-407X.2002.00008.x
- Ellen Walker – soil microbes – ‘the world beneath our feet’ TEDx talk
GUEST AND CONTACT DETAILS:
Guest: Dr. Susan Bailey, Senior Lecturer, Social Work Program, School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University – South West Campus E: s.bailey@ecu.edu.au
Householders’ Options to Protect the Environment (HOPE):
T 07 4639 2135 E office@hopeaustralia.org.au WEB FACEBOOK
Production:
Produced for HOPE by Andrew Nicholson E: counsel1983@gmail.com
T: +61 413979414
This episode recorded in Toowoomba, S.E. Queensland, Australia in April 2021
Artwork: Daniela Dal'Castel Incidental Music: James Nicholson
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