Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the various roles that social workers might hold in disaster sites and explores factors such as self-care to assist workers to be better able to fulfil their professional role. It presents a synthesis of social work and disaster theorising and practice insights from an environmental and ecological social work perspective to assist social workers to build knowledge and skills in this field. The book also discusses social work’s traditional engagement with the physical environment. It provides some background to disasters. The book outlines differing conceptualisations of disaster and environmental practice. It describes critical concepts that shape this field including vulnerability, resilience, adaptive capacity, social sustainability, social capital and empowerment. The book also presents case studies written by social work colleagues from across the world.