Guest: Dr. Dorothee Holscher: Lecturer, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, The University of Queensland, 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 by the effects of global heating and climate change. Such advocacy is predicated, in part, on a critique of neoliberal capitalist economic development models which are accelerating both environmental damage and socio-economic inequality around the world.
The transformative turn within social work practice is a central interest of my next guest, Dr Dorothee Holscher, a social work researcher, academic and educator with a research interest in the social work response to the nexus of environmental and other social injustices – most recently as these have affected some Australian indigenous communities, as they responded to challenges posed by coal mining and river health impacts in their country. In today’s interview, we talk about this research and its implications for social work practice, as well as another of Dorothee’s interests concerning the ways in which a more critical focus can be brought into social work training. She cites the work of the influential philosopher, critical theorist and feminist thinker, Nancy Fraser, as an important influence on her own social work training practice.
Dorothee does not strictly consider herself to be an eco-social work practitioner, but I have included her in this series because her work, touching as it does upon critical appraisals of the negative and oppressive effects operating across social, environmental and economic interdependencies is, for me, a good example of a holistic worldview in operation. The principle of holism, for example as it relates to the inclusion of physical environmental concerns operating across micro, meso and macro levels of intervention, is a core principle informing eco-social work practice.
INTERVIEW TALKING POINTS – with approximate time elapsed location in minutes.
- General introduction – 0.50
- Guest self- introduction – 3.16
- Overview of guest’s recent research explorations – 7.06
- Some possible social work practice implications – 12.06
- Introducing Nancy Fraser’s scholarship – 19.01
- Fraser’s definition of social justice – 21.44
- Fraser’s past approach to physical environment – 28.15
- Her more recent crisis of capitalism perspective – 31.04
- Why should the mainstream engage with environmental concerns? – 37.75
- What could the short term future hold for such engagement? - 41.24
- Guest’s take home message – 49.35
- End of interview and credits - 50.50
RESOURCES MENTIONED OR RELEVANT TO THE DISCUSSION:
Dr. Dorothee Holscher some research articles mentioned:
Return of the posthuman: Developing Indigenist perspectives for social work at a time of environmental crisis (Holscher & Woods, 2020)
The relevance of Nancy Fraser for transformative social work education (Holscher et al., 2018)
- Paper Decolonization is not a metaphor by Tuck and Yang (2012)
- Professor Nancy Fraser - list of some of her research output and a recent (2021) video presentation of her ideas on capitalism and physical environmental destruction
- Professor Rosi Braidotti paper (2013) on posthumanism citing Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man artwork
GUEST AND CONTACT DETAILS:
Guest: Dr. Dorothee Holscher UQ: and holscher.dorothee@gmail.com
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 on 20th November 2021.
Artwork: Daniela Dal'Castel Incidental Music: James Nicholson
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