Social work today is facing major global changes. Economic shifts are widening the gap between rich and poor. AI is developing faster than governments can regulate it, and social media companies hold enormous influence. At the same time, ecological, political, economic, and technological crises are growing, alongside ongoing conflicts over colonialism, nationalism, identity, and democracy. This list is long—and still incomplete.
Around the world, people are experiencing displacement, war, genocide, political unrest, and even starvation used as a weapon. These events make life more unstable and unpredictable for individuals, families, and communities. Because social work is closely connected to people’s struggles, the profession is also reaching the limits of older ways of understanding social problems and power. Many argue that institutional social work has become too silent or neutral in the face of these crises.
All of this shows that current social work knowledge and practice are no longer enough. The profession needs new ways to respond. As these challenges grow, social work must rethink not only how it responds, but what kinds of responses are possible—locally, nationally, and globally.
This latest edition of Social Dialogue takes up some of these pressing challenges. In responding to our call for new ways of addressing current social and political crises, we received an overwhelming number of submissions. The response was so substantial that we have produced two volumes, each offering fresh perspectives on how social work might take up the struggles shaping its future—or at the very least, provide a snapshot of current efforts that remind us how social work can flourish and continue to generate creative pathways forward.
Across these two volumes, we feature articles from 64 contributors representing Malta, India, the United States, Canada, Ecuador, Nigeria, Australia, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Chile, Uruguay, Spain, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Bangladesh, Japan, Latvia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Germany, the Philippines, the Czech Republic, Senegal, and Hong Kong/China. We thank each of them for their generous and thoughtful contributions.
Social work is uniquely well placed to respond to global issues, as it is one of the few professions whose mandate explicitly requires practitioners to confront injustice beyond national borders. The vast global network of social workers represented in these volumes demonstrates a shared commitment to forging new pathways for addressing power, inequality, and injustice in ways that enhance the wellbeing of individuals, families, and communities. Enjoy.