The Future of Global Social Work

Abstract

This article addresses the social work within the context of internationalism and globalization. Based on an examination of published documents on international social work in the past decade, the authors make an evidence-based projection of what is likely to occur in the future of global social work. Finally, the authors make a social work values-based projection of what should occur.

Brief note: Trends in international social work research

“…The 10-year period from 1995 to 2004 provided a time span sufficient to observe changes in two blocks of time: 1995-9 and 2000-4. The 1995-2004 time period is also consistent with the time period employed in a previous article on globalization by Potocky- Tripodi and Tripodi (2005). All of the articles (N=2321) in the seven journals over a 10-year period were analyzed and classified as research or non-research.…”

“…In addition, Hokenstad and Midgley (2004) demonstrated that international social work research can help countries to learn about and possibly adopt successful social policies and programs that have been implemented in other countries. Indeed, in a content analysis of article abstracts retrieved from the Social Work Abstract database for 1995-2004, using the term 'international social work', it was found that 57 percent of the articles (n ¼ 279) employed social research methods (Potocky- Tripodi and Tripodi, 2005). However, clear distinctions of different types of international social work research were not evident, and the degree to which comparative research has increased or decreased over time could not be ascertained.…”

“…During the past decade there has been a growing interest in international social work. This is due to increased social-political, cultural and economic interchanges between countries through internationalism and globalization (Potocky- Tripodi and Tripodi, 2005). Moreover, opportunities for international social work research appear also to have increased as a result of phenomena such as the increased numbers of international associations and their members, international conferences, exchanges of international scholars and easier access to foreign academic journals online.…”