Spirituality, Culture, and Development
Implications for Social Work
Contributions by Shreya Bhandari, Subhabrata Dutta, Srilatha Juvva, Khadija Khaja, Rosemary J. Link, Mizanur R. Miah, Aravind Raj Elangovan, Chathapuram S. Ramanathan, Pravina Ramanathan, Neil Renwick, Kasi Sekar, Prerna Sharma, Ruchi Sinha, Pius V. Thomas Edited by Chathapuram S. Ramanathan, Srilatha Juvva, Subhabrata Dutta, Khadija Khaja
Publication date:
07 October 2016Length of book:
298 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksDimensions:
239x158mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9781498519670
This book explores culture, development, and spirituality from the perspective of social work. This framework serves as foundation and guides analytical deliberation through the use of case studies from around the world. With emerging trends in development, synchronistic synthesis between the inner self and interventions, it is anticipated to contribute to advancing well-being of all people. The book reflects global experiences from both the social work professions and development practitioner’s perspectives, as it pertains to economic and social development.
The book serves as a guide to those who want to better understand and incorporate spirituality into successful social work interventions, practice, and research. It examines social development in the daily lives of children and families by looking at larger national and international phenomenon that can affect the well-being of communities. The book further discusses natural disasters, poverty, war, migration, human trafficking, war, violence and other factors with suggestions of innovative global interventions that have been utilized to assist diverse marginalized groups and communities.
The book serves as a guide to those who want to better understand and incorporate spirituality into successful social work interventions, practice, and research. It examines social development in the daily lives of children and families by looking at larger national and international phenomenon that can affect the well-being of communities. The book further discusses natural disasters, poverty, war, migration, human trafficking, war, violence and other factors with suggestions of innovative global interventions that have been utilized to assist diverse marginalized groups and communities.
This book goes far in presenting wide-ranging political, economic, social, cultural, and religious differences among nations for social work readers around the world. The authors assert that the wisdom or truth of the individual—and therefore motivating factor for social justice—is often a spiritual one. “Spirituality” is writ large here, from organized religions to a mindful connection with self, others, and the world. The book is equally valuable to global western and northern social workers in that it challenges not only the terms “first-world” and “third-world,” but also the idea of degree of a country’s “development.” The authors argue that countries are continuously creating their states, economies and civil societies within their cultures and histories and there is no single desired “developed” endpoint. In fact, the typical development measures of Gross National Product (GNP) or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rely heavily on measures of the market. These minimize the value of civil society and progressive state policies evident in the Social Progress Index (SPI) such as ecosystem sustainability, access to healthcare and education, gender equality, attitudes toward immigrants and minorities, religious freedom, and nutrition measures. Understanding “development” in this way would provide a rather different assessment of the global stage. This book is ambitious and creates an important theoretical foundation on which to build the next installment regarding global development and its relation to spirituality.