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date: 15 February 2025

Environmental Justicelocked

Environmental Justicelocked

  • Christina L. EricksonChristina L. EricksonAugsburg University

Summary

Environmental justice in social work is the study and practice of assuring all people are protected from environmental burdens and are able to live, work, learn, and play in safe and healthy communities. Reducing the burdens and increasing the benefits of nature and human-made infrastructures are important social work efforts toward environmental justice. Awareness of environmental injustices followed the social movements of Civil Rights, recognition of environmental degradations, and efforts to save large swaths of land and endangered species in the Wilderness Act. Environmental justice is intertwined with social and economic justice, and the pursuit engages social workers in local to international struggles for access to nature’s benefits, and freedom from hazards that are shielded from people who are economically wealthy. Moreover, environmental justice calls wealthy individuals and communities to realign resource consumption to reduce environmental degradation and increase environmental sustainability.

Subjects

  • Administration and Management
  • Ethics and Values
  • Macro Practice
  • Policy and Advocacy
  • Social Justice and Human Rights
  • Social Work Profession

Updated in this version

Content and references updated for the Encyclopedia of Macro Social Work.

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