ABSTRACT

This chapter explores issues that globalisation raises for the agenda facing social work around the world and reconceptualise international social work as a force in strengthening and sustaining a global community of social workers. It suggests that globalisation has had an impact on social work in a number of ways. The chapter also suggests that professional function be examined in terms of how globalisation is changing the practice of social workers and creating shared goals. An important dimension is the creation of a new arena for action – social workers as actors in global civil society; this involves developing new patterns of relationships and a global agenda. Social work has experienced an important paradigm shift in approaches to international exchange from a uni-directional transfer of models and information, commonly called the export model, to an emphasis on mutuality. Concerns over conflict, terrorism and severe poverty call attention to the concept of human security.