Full Description
Dealing with a rapidly changing world is the purview of all professions. Nowhere is this truer than in those professions dealing with well-being, social change, justice, and equity. What is the future of social work as a profession, and how should social work prepare for--and help to shape--what comes next?
In Anticipatory Social Work, Laura Burney Nissen asserts that social work faces a series of vital turning points for its own future including artificial intelligence and technology in our shared world and the impacts of climate change on human well-being. These relate to new kinds of practice challenges--and mutations of old ones. Anticipatory social work is simultaneously a philosophy that becoming more ready for the future is not only possible, but desirable; a history and global community of those doing exactly that; and a set of tools and techniques for bringing this to life in an ethical and equitable manner. This includes such features as actively and imaginatively considering scenarios of what the future may hold and assisting communities to prepare for the unexpected. Going beyond simple labels of utopia and dystopia, anticipatory social work engages individual and group skills to bring a sense of playfulness, possibility, and creativity to the opportunities social workers have to make a difference in this world.
This book includes an overview and history of foresight, methods, and tools; a practice template to provide guidance and put ideas into action; and explicit ideas of how social workers can become more "future ready" in their work. It aims to help social workers become individually more effective and engaged in relation to issues of the future that promote more justice and success, and intentionally help move the profession forward on purpose.
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Boxes
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Anticipatory Social Work: An Introduction
PART ONE A Future for Social Work: Foresight Fundamentals for a Changing Profession
Welcome-Why Foresight for Social Work?
Futures Thinking: Building Blocks for Critical and Participatory Foresight
History, Futurity, and the Evolution of Foresight
Futures Thinking Foresight Practice
PART TWO Anticipatory Social Work: Building a Contextual Framework
Building an Anticipatory Social Work Definition
Social Issues
Social Movements
Social Welfare and Social Care
All Forms of Equity
Future of Professions
Synthesis of Context Mapping
PART THREE Foresight Tools in Action and the Hard Work of Changing Making
Anticipatory Social Work: Foresight Tools in Action
Making Meaning Together
ASW Planning Canvas
What Does the Future Need?
Conclusion
Afterword
Appendices
References
Index
