ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses about social development and social work focuses on the global South, especially on those countries that are considered to be the 'least developed'. This chapter examines the way in which even in these latter so-called developed contexts there are still developmental needs and, from this, the potential for a social development approach to inform contemporary social work in Western Europe, North America and Australasia. In the context of the ascendancy of neo-liberal capitalism it may be that in both social development and social work an emphasis on individual and family functioning and less on communities and other collective perspectives. Using the human development index (HDI) criteria, the gaps between the gains achieved by Indigenous peoples and the gains achieved by those who are descended from the colonisers can be seen as stark. It finally proceeds to address the links between levels of practice as part of a social development approach to the wider society.
