Schmitz CL, Matyók T, James C, Sloan LM. The relationship between social work and environmental sustainability: Implications for interdisciplinary practice The Brundtland Commission, formally the World Commission on Environment and Development, established by the United Nations in 1983, links peace, security, development and the environment claiming that war, poverty and structural violence result in the oppression and degradation of the human community as well as the physical environment. Likewise, human rights and social and environmental justice are intertwined, and social work, as a profession that collaborates across disciplines and within communities, is uniquely situated to provide leadership in the field of environmental studies. Its strong focus on human rights, social justice and community building creates a sound base from which to engage in the collaborative, creative, interactional processes required for environmental practice. This article seeks to discern a model for environmental social work within the context of interdisciplinary practice with peace and conflict workers and through the integration of inclusive models of economic development.

Design is a transformative, socially engaged practice and design education must provide a platform from which that practice can grow. Education plays a vital role in preparing design students to move beyond a purely reactive state to one in which they are actively engaged in shaping the world around them. Such a shift is built upon the provision of a holistic education that invites interaction with the concepts of democracy, engagement and empathy at the global scale. At a time when our graduates need to be prepared for global citizenship and design without borders, higher education has moved sharply toward discipline specific training and job preparation and away from liberal education and the development of critical thinking abilities. The internationalisation of education in design disciplines is reliant upon the formation of deep connections that are an embedded part of a student's larger academic career, rather than an isolated opportunity. Rather than focus on ‘exposure’, the internationalised education that design students need includes deep immersion and diverse contact in order to transform the study abroad tour into a layer of embedded experience rather than an artificial veneer. As students develop relationships with students from other cultures and experience the richness of others, they explore their own knowledges, values and assumptions. While all design graduates will live and work in a global environment, not all students are able to study abroad. Therefore, alternative opportunities for internationalising the curriculum must be explored.

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Investigating highly mobile labor populations presents researchers with unique challenges and opportunities. In this paper, I share my experiences and reflections in collecting international merchant seafarers' oral histories and propose to move the dialogue forward regarding the use of hybrid qualitative research practices. Seafarers are constantly moving, at sea and in port, and traditional research methodologies are inadequate in determining the nature of modern-day seafaring. I suggest how qualitative research methods must be flexible enough to accommodate researchers' needs in a chaotic global milieu. Investigators researching highly mobile labor populations, as well as mobile immigrant and refugee communities, can gain insights into the challenges and methods available for meeting those challenges.