ABSTRACT
Context and background of the book Be it global climate change or the wars rooted in the global oil business, both of which are causing fathomless human suffering and forced migration, the manifold interconnections between environmental crisis, economic cupidity, social catastrophes and cultural losses are becoming increasingly evident to everybody. The economic models aiming at constant economic growth at any price have already crossed over the ecological limits of the Earth, but economic reasoning still dominates public attention and political efforts (Crouch 2012). However, instead of deferring to pessimism and cynics, numerous critical scholars, practitioners and movements around the globe and across different sectors are quite advanced in seeking practical models towards more viable and resilient conditions for the current and next generations. These efforts can be gathered together to form a comprehensive process of transition of societies towards sustainability. The main areas of the transition address new economic and environmental solutions, especially those built on new sources of energy beyond peak oil. What has not yet been comprehensively focused on is the social embeddedness of this transition, which matters more than the conventional understanding of social sustainability. For the context of this book, where we focus on the perspective of social work and social policy, it is important to consider that the paradigmatic change of a society addressed by the transition has direct linkage to social work and social policy. The ecosocial transition of societies brings about the following questions:
• What kind of welfare state, social services and support for the social life of communities are sustainable without the current model of economic growth and environmental hazards?
