Social Work and Sustainability in Asia: Facing the Challenges of Global Environmental Changes 2018046346, 9781138200227, 9781315514970

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Social Work and Sustainability in Asia

The rapid trend of globalization has brought with it a variety of sustainability challenges, including global climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty, and social inequalities, which are problems with unclear boundaries, complicated interrelated components, undefined parameters, contradictory values, and no single solution. Social work has a long-standing tradition of emphasizing the interaction of people and their environment. For this reason, the field of social work is one of the best-placed academic disciplines and professions for studying the impact of environmental changes on social systems and should play an important role in developing strategies for mitigating and adapting to these environmental challenges. However, traditional social work tends to lag behind sustainability work and neglect globally interconnected social problems. Combining case studies and country reports from around Asia with a theoretical framework for understanding sustainability concerns, this book aims to show how social work can play a valuable role in mitigating and adapting to environmental challenges and social sustainability. For social work to develop into a meaningful and viable profession that addresses contemporary sustainability issues, it requires changes and transformation in paradigm, theories, strategies, social policy, and social services that will facilitate a sustainable future for all mankind. Alice M. L. Chong is a Professor and Social Work Discipline Leader at the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. Iris Chi is the Chinese-American Golden Age Association/Frances Wu Chair for the Chinese Elderly at the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.

Routledge Advances in Asia-Pacific Studies

13 Diminishing Conflicts in Asia and the Pacific Robin Jeffrey, Edward Aspinall and Anthony Regan 14 Health Transitions and the Double Disease Burden in Asia and the Pacific Histories of Responses to Non-Communicable and Communicable Diseases Edited by Milton J. Lewis and Kerrie L. MacPherson 15 Film Censorship in the Asia-Pacific Region Malaysia, Hong Kong and Australia Compared Saw Tiong Guan 16 Asian and Pacific Cities Development Patterns Edited by Ian Shirley and Carol Neill 17 Eurasia’s Regional Powers Compared – China, India, Russia Edited by Shinichiro Tabata 18 Arts and Cultural Leadership in Asia Edited by Jo Caust 19 Asian Worlds in Latin America Stefania Paladini 20 Social Work and Sustainability in Asia Facing the Challenges of Global Environmental Changes Edited by Alice M. L. Chong and Iris Chi

For the full list of titles visit: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Advancesin-Asia-Pacific-Studies/book-series/SE0453

Social Work and Sustainability in Asia

Facing the Challenges of Global Environmental Changes Edited by Alice M. L. Chong and Iris Chi

First published 2019 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2019 selection and editorial matter, Alice M. L. Chong and Iris Chi; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Alice M. L. Chong and Iris Chi to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Chong, Alice M. L., editor. | Chi, Iris, editor. Title: Social work and sustainability in Asia: facing the challenges of global environmental changes / edited by Alice M.L. Chong and Iris Chi. Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2019. | Series: Routledge advances in Asia-Pacific studies | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018046346 | ISBN 9781138200227 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315514970 (e-book) Subjects: LCSH: Social service—Asia. | Sustainability—Social aspects— Asia. | Sustainable development—Social aspects—Asia. | Climatic changes— Social aspects—Asia. | Asia—Environmental conditions—Social aspects. Classification: LCC HV376 .S64 2019 | DDC 361.3095—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018046346 ISBN: 978-1-138-20022-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-51497-0 (ebk) Typeset in Galliard by codeMantra

Contents

List of figures List of tables List of photographs Notes on contributors Preface Part I

ix xi xiii xv xix

Theory and concepts of social sustainability and social work

1

1 Social work and sustainable development: an overview

3

I ris C hi , A lice M . L . C hong , T ing K in N g , and Diego Busiol

2 Neoliberalism and globalization: trends shaping sustainable social work practice

21

M ichael J. Holosko and Joelle A . P ettus

3 Social sustainability and global climate change: a new challenge for social work

31

L awrence A . Palinkas and M arleen Wong

4 Operationalizing and measuring social, economic, and environmental sustainability: current efforts and future directions M ary L . Ohmer

46

vi Contents Part II

Case studies in Asia

61

5 Global grassroots green movement driven by Tzu Chi Foundation’s recycling volunteers: a multifaceted model of environmental sustainability with transformative social changes

63

H sin -Y i H siao, H sun -T a H su, Debra B oudreaux , and A lice T ing

6 Apocalyptic learning for sustainability in aged Japan: positive reciprocities and social innovations in the information age

83

On -K wok L ai

7 Reducing the high vulnerability of the elderly to urban flooding: findings from the 2011 floods in Bangkok

99

Danny M arks

8 Humanitarian response after a complex environmental disaster: a case study of Typhoon Haiyan

109

T ara P owell and J ade Brack

9 In the Typhoon Corridor: rebuilding communities in the Philippines through empowerment and innovation

119

A nnalisa D. E nrile , G abrielle Aquino, and V ivien  V illaverde

10 The global climate change: necessary child protection services in Vietnam

137

T uyen T hi T hanh Bui , G race M . M ishler , and G ary W. S tudebaker

11 Mass relocation and social sequence for the elderly in rural China W eihong Z eng , Z heng W u, C hristoph M . S chimmele , and S huzhuo L i

146

Contents  vii

12 Maximizing impact in Hong Kong: economic, social, and environmental sustainability among nongovernmental organizations

164

E laine S uk C hing Au L iu and Paul V inod K hiatani

13 Collaboration and innovation for inclusive green growth at a community level in Suzhou, China

186

Wanxin L i , E ric Z usman , and J ining C hen

14 Social work education in China: issues, challenges, and implications for sustainability

197

Patrick L eung and A shleigh S cinta

Part III

Leadership and future development

211

15 Preparing social workers to advance social sustainability: transforming social work education

213

M ary L . Ohmer

16 Leadership and sustainable development in the future

225

A lice M . L . C hong , I ris C hi , and Diego Busiol

Index

243

List of figures

2.1 Five selected neoliberal globalization trends influencing sustainable social work practice 23 3.1 Three-tier model of prevention and mitigation of climate change human impacts 35 7.1 Map of the BMR and location of the four communities 101 8.1 I ntervention pyramid for mental health and psychosocial support 112 10.1 Three-level child protection service system 140 12.1 Number of NGOs registered in Hong Kong per decade (1950s–2010s) 171 12.2 Sustainability focuses of post-1995 NGOs in Hong Kong 172 13.1 The state-owned recyclable waste collection network 191 envisioned by Mr. He for Suzhou

List of tables

4.1 Summary of Major Global Sustainability Indicators 49 4.2 Sustainability Indicators for Selected Asian Countries 52 8.1 Inter-Agency Standing Committee Guidelines (IASC, 2007) 111 11.1  Descriptive Statistics of Variables Used in the Regression Analysis: Older Persons (Age 60+) in Rural China, 2011–2013 152 11.2 T  wo-Stage Probit Least Squares Regressions of Depression with Correction for Selection into Migration: Older Persons (Age 60+) in Rural China, 2011–2013 156 11.3 T  wo-Stage Probit Least Squares Regressions of Depression on Social Support with Correction for Selection into Migration: Older Persons (Age 60+) in Rural China, 2011–2013 157 11.4 T  wo-Stage Probit Least Squares Regressions of Depression with Correction for Selection into Migration by Reason for Relocation: Older Persons (Age 60+) in Rural China, 2011, 2013 158 11.5 O  rdinary Least Squares Regressions of Depression on Type of Relocation and Other Selected Variables: Relocated Older Persons (Age 60+) in Rural China, 2011–2013 159

List of photographs

5.1 Two older volunteers sorting reusable resources among trash 5.2 A group of older volunteers sorting reusable plastic bags at a local recycling station 5.3 A female volunteer in China educating local residents on plastic recycling symbols, such as the numbers on the bottom of plastic bottles 5.4 A local recycling station with poster exhibitions educating the public on how to differentiate reusable resources from nonrecyclable materials, knowledge of reuse/recycle plastic bottles, and the impact of recycled bottles on the environment 5.5 Eco-friendly blankets manufactured by DA.AI Technology 5.6 Eco-friendly T-shirts for males and females manufactured by DA.AI Technology 5.7 Volunteers providing eco-friendly blankets to disaster survivors 5.8 Volunteers constructing a portable classroom 5.9 Schoolchildren showing their handmade “Thank you” card, appreciating Tzu Chi Foundation’s completion of portable classrooms in time for them to resume their study 13.1 The waste transfer station in the City Garden Estate

76 76

77

77 78 78 79 79

80 190

Notes on contributors

Gabrielle Aquino is an Adjunct Professor at Azusa Pacific University, USA. Elaine Suk Ching Liu is an Associate Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Debra Boudreaux is Executive Vice President, Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, US Headquarters, San Dimas, USA. Jade Brack is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). Tuyen Thi Thanh Bui is a PhD Student in School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Illinois, USA. Diego Busiol is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Jining Chen is the Minister, Ministry of Environmental Protection, China. Iris Chi is the Chinese-American Golden Age Association/Frances Wu Chair for the Chinese Elderly at the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, USA. Alice M. L. Chong is a Professor and Social Work Discipline Leader at the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Annalisa D. Enrile is a Clinical Professor at the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, USA. Michael J. Holosko is a Professor at the School of Social Work, University of Georgia, USA. Hsin-Yi Hsiao is a Research Associate Professor at the School of Social Work, University of Southern California, USA. Hsun-Ta Hsu is an Assistant Professor in School of Social Work, University of Missouri Columbia, USA.

xvi  Notes on contributors Paul Vinod Khiatani  is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Social and ­Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. On-Kwok Lai is a Professor at the Graduate School of Policy Studies, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan. Patrick Leung is a Professor of Social Work, and the Director of the Office for International Social Work Education at the Graduate College of Social Work, University of Houston, USA. Shuzhuo Li is a Director and Professor at Institute for Population and Development Studies, School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. Wanxin Li is an Associate Professor at Department of Public Policy, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Danny Marks  is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at the Department of Asian and International Studies, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Grace M. Mishler is a Social Work Advisor/Consultant/Networker at Faculty of Sociology, National University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Ting Kin Ng  is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Mary L. Ohmer is an Associate Professor in School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh, USA. Lawrence A. Palinkas  is an Albert G. and Frances Lomas Feldman Professor of Social Policy and Health, and Director of the Behavior, Health and ­Society Research Cluster in the School of Social Work, University of Southern ­California, USA. Joelle A. Pettus  is a Research Projects Manager, Congenital Catheterization Research Collaborative, Emory University, USA. Tara Powell  is an Assistant Professor in School of Social Work, University of Illinois, USA. Alice Ting  is a Physician Practice Coordinator, Cedars Sinai Medical Group, Los Angeles, USA. Christoph M. Schimmele is a Research Associate in Department of Sociology, University of Victoria, Canada. Ashleigh Scinta  is an LCSW and Doctoral Candidate at the Department of Social Welfare, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.

Notes on contributors  xvii Gary W. Studebaker Former Special Education Instructor, National University, Costa Mesa, Canada. Vivien Villaverde  is a Clinical Associate Professor in field education at the ­Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern ­California, USA. Marleen Wong  is an Associate Dean and Clinical Professor, and Director of Field Education at the School of Social Work, University of Southern ­California, USA. Zheng Wu is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Victoria, Canada. Weihong Zeng is an Associate Professor of the School of Public Policy and Administration, Deputy Executive Director of the Center for Aging and Health Research, and Vice Director of Jinhe Center for Economic Research at Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. Eric Zusman  is an Area Leader, Principal Policy Researcher, Climate Policy Project at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Kanagawa, Japan.

Preface

The climate change and its effects, not only on the ecology of the earth but also on the daily life of people, is one of the most discussed topics in the public arena. The 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP 23), which concluded its work in Bonn in November 2017, accomplished its goal of keeping the process of the Paris Agreement alive by setting up rules that have been recently agreed in the Katowice Climate Change Conference (COP 24) in Poland in December 2018 as the ­K atowice Rules. Although it was a step in the right direction, many issues remained unsolved, and we can expect that we will continue to face the effects of climate change, natural disasters, and environmental degradation all over the world. “Climate change is an issue determining our destiny as mankind,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, and we know that it will affect all populations across the globe in different ways because research shows us that the poor and marginalized people, such as children; women; older and disabled people; and those displaced by crises, like (im)migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees, are the most vulnerable. In front of this scenario, does social work have to be directly involved? And if yes, what can social workers do in their practice? International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW), and International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) jointly launched in 2012 a Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development that prioritizes focusing the efforts of the three organizations on four different areas: • • • •

Promoting social and economic equalities Promoting the dignity and worth of peoples Working toward environmental sustainability Strengthening recognition of the importance of human relationships.

The third pillar, which is the object of attention in 2017/2018, highlights the social work role in promoting sustainable communities and environmentally sensitive development. In the document, there are declarations of commitment at different levels, such as strengthen the relationships with the United Nations (UN) and other

xx Preface international agencies in order to support initiatives aimed at protecting the natural environment; promote community capacity building in responding to environmental challenges and human and natural disasters; promote standards in education and practice that facilitate sustainable social development outcomes, including the prevention of, mitigation of, and response to disasters; encourage and facilitate research into the social work role in relation to disasters and environmental challenges. It is not an easy task to reach this consciousness in social work and act consequently. Even if social work has a long-standing tradition of emphasizing the interaction between people and their environment (the person-in-environment perspective), when we operate within an ecological theoretical framework, the focus is often exclusively on the importance of social relationships, ignoring the natural environment. In this scenario, the book edited by Chong and Chi is really timely and represents a significant point of reference. As is underlined in many chapters, although the Global Agenda listed a set of approaches to promote sustainability – such as managing and preventing disasters of natural and human origin; involving local communities in developing responses to social challenges; facilitating sustainable social development; protecting the physical environment; proactively engaging with social, human, and ecological development; and promoting efforts to protect the right to live in a clean, safe, and healthy environment – there is a need to develop a theory that will take into consideration the social side of sustainability and that can support the achievement of these goals at global and local levels. The first chapters of the book provide a good example of setting the scene, defining a conceptual framework, and presenting, under a more theoretical perspective, the definition of sustainability, underlining its social components, the influence of the managerialism and the role that social work can play, and the importance of developing a set of indicators for measuring in a more comprehensive way the status quo but also the outcome and the impact of projects oriented toward enhancing environmental and community sustainability. In the second part, scholars from different countries present case studies, specific to the Asia-Pacific Rim, that can serve as examples of ways to address some concrete problems and to realize effective interventions oriented to the enhancement of the process of achieving the goals stated in the Global Agenda. The conclusion of the book recalls the importance of incorporating a clear emphasis on social sustainability in the social work curriculum as well as a change of mind-set and openness to new interdisciplinary and interprofessional alliances. The authors also advocate the importance of reconsidering the social work role, including policy practice interventions in working for environmental justice and social sustainability, to avoid an implicit support of the power imbalance in society.

Preface  xxi In conclusion, this innovative book offers teachers, students, professionals, and policymakers clear knowledge and opportunity to reflect on the social work role in relation to environmental sustainability as well as concrete examples that can be inspirational for practice interventions in the specific Asia-Pacific area and internationally. Annamaria Campanini President International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) 24/11/2017

The third theme of the Global Agenda for the Role of Social Work in Social Sustainability, developed through International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), International Council of Social Welfare (ICSW), and International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), is amassing a fascinating range of literature based on important changes in our communities that are affected by changes in our climate and our environment. This book is a timely and welcome addition to the literature focusing on Asia. In setting the context of the book, the editors have explored how communities and people who use services have been affected by environmental changes. It challenges social workers to develop a paradigm that includes in their vision the critical role of sustainability in the outcomes of their work that promote community development. The book is split into three sections, and the use of practical examples to illustrate theoretical concepts adds substance to the significance of this collection of chapters. The information and the suggestions for practice are not only applicable in an Asia-Pacific context but have resonance in practice throughout the world. As the book develops, the links between social health and economic health are explored in greater depth. The final chapters encourage social workers to set their work in the wider economic and political framework in which our profession needs to take a more active part. This book adds to our understanding of the world in which we all live, where climate and environment take no heed of national borders. It promotes a paradigm that social work too is a profession that crosses borders. Wherever we live and work, we have a responsibility that through our work and our leadership to promote inclusive, sustainable development where people feel that they have an identity, they belong, and they can contribute to the health of their community. Ruth Stark President International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) 23/11/17

Part I

Theory and concepts of social sustainability and social work

1 Social work and sustainable development An overview* Iris Chi, Alice M. L. Chong, Ting Kin Ng, and Diego Busiol Environmental change Environmental change, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013), is a “physical or material change to the economic, social, or physical environment” (para. 2). The environment, defined as the conditions in which any person lives or develops, can be altered by myriad phenomena; climate change and rapid urbanization, however, are two of the most fundamental causes of current changes to our natural environment. Pollution, drought, food and water insecurity, environmental degradation, poor urban sanitation and human health, increased occurrence of natural disasters, and economic and social inequality are all threats stemming from environmental change. These environmental changes have a profound effect on societies due to the close relationship between social and ecological systems, and can present significant challenges, affecting daily life and forcing societies and individuals to confront the reality of adapting to and mitigating the effects of environmental change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2015) has predicted that nearly 70% of the world’s population will live in urban areas, and global temperatures will increase by 1–3°C by 2050. These projections will result in significant challenges for every area of the globe, especially the Asia-Pacific region, which is currently home to half of the world’s population and will continue to face significant economic, urban, and population growth. Increased industrialization, economic expansion, strained resources, sea level rises, and environmental degradation disproportionately affect socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals by limiting their access to vital resources, employment, and health, and ultimately reducing their quality of life. Environmental changes have given rise to a range of sustainability issues. The field of social work is one of the best-poised academic fields for studying the impact of environmental change on social sustainability and can play an important role in developing strategies for mitigating and adapting to these environmental and sustainability challenges. *This chapter is based on a keynote presentation made by Iris Chi at the Conference on Social Work and Social Sustainability in Asia, Department of Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, June 19–20, 2014.

4  Iris Chi et al.

Definition of sustainability The concept of sustainability refers to development that satisfies the immediate needs of the current generations without compromising the capacity of future generations to satisfy their needs (World Commission on Environment and ­Development, 1987). The term “sustainable” finds its etymology in sustain + able, indicating that some activity or lifestyle is bearable, can be supported; in fact, “sustain” initially derives from the Latin sub “up from below” + tenere “to hold” and later acquired the meaning “to continue, keep up” (e.g., an action).1 Sustainability is not just about the protection of the natural environment; it also applies to political, economic, and social systems (Mary, 2008). Scholars have recently described sustainability as consisting of three distinct but overlapping components: (a) social sustainability, (b) economic sustainability, and (c) physical/ environmental sustainability (Dillard, Dujon, & King, 2009). All three pillars of sustainability are related to or generated from environmental issues. For sustainability problems to be solved, all three pillars of sustainability must be addressed. Environmental sustainability requires that natural resources remain intact and that the source and sink functions of the environment are not degraded. Hence, renewable resources should not be extracted at a faster rate than they are renewed. The extraction of nonrenewable resources should be kept to a minimum. Furthermore, the capacity of ecosystems to absorb waste should not be exceeded (Gilbert, Stevenson, Girardet, & Stern, 2009). Economic sustainability requires that economic activities be financially feasible, self-renewing, and self-reliant (Bartelmus, 2008; Gilbert et al., 2009). The concepts of environmental and economic sustainability have been addressed in much greater depth than social sustainability and as a result are better defined and more consistently applied (McKenzie, 2004). Compared with economic and environmental sustainability, social sustainability is more difficult to quantify and hence has not been well defined in the literature. Social sustainability generally refers to the ability of a social system to indefinitely function at a defined level of social well-being (Sustainability, 2014). It occurs when formal and informal processes, systems, structures, and relationships facilitate the ability of present and future generations to maintain secure and healthy communities. A socially sustainable community is equitable, diverse, connected, and democratic, offering people a good quality of life (McKenzie, 2004), and is driven by an environmental agenda with a focus on environmental justice.

The importance of sustainability today The relationship a society has with its physical environment is never simply neutral but always grounded on some (maybe implicit) antecedents. Our relationship with nature is not just “natural” but already mediated (or created) by the mainstream discourse. However, as we are born into such discourse, we are largely unaware of the underlying assumptions regulating our relationship to the environment. Nevertheless, the way we see (or neglect) the weight of the environment already reflects a particular philosophical and political vision of the world. Neglecting

Social work and sustainable development  5 the importance of the context might be a consequence of the neoliberal discourse, which instead emphasizes the idea of a subject of free will: independent, autonomous, self-directing, irrespective of context (Liebenberg, Ungar, & Ikeda, 2015). However, the individual is not an autonomous and independent actor operating out of any context. Traditionally, one’s community coincided with one’s physical location, whereas nowadays, liberalism and globalization impose higher mobility on people, which, in turn, redefines one’s group or community beyond geographical coordinates. Thus, today, sustainability may mean finding solutions that align individual, community, societal, and global needs.

Sustainability in Asia With its 4.2 billion people (United Nations, 2017), Asia-Pacific is the most populated geographical area on the planet; it is home to the largest urban population and hosts the highest number of megacities in the world. Asia-Pacific presents a great variety of cultures, languages, religions, and political systems; there is much more diversity within it than in Europe or America. For instance, in the same geographical area, we can find some of the world-leading economies and some of the most rapidly developing countries. Growth models based on developed (Western) countries suggest that developing economies initially tend to be quite resource- and pollution-intensive, and show relatively little concern for environmental issues, and that only at a later stage do they develop a “green” consciousness, with greater concern for the protection of the environment, and make the effort to reduce their consumption of resources and production of pollution (Berkhout et al., 2010). However, at present, concern for environmental issues is not strong across the whole of Asia-­Pacific, including in those more developed economies. For example, although Hong Kong’s economy is the freest in the world (Heritage Foundation, 2014), and despite the fact that the majority of Hong Kong people do not feel content with their quality of life, materialistic values (“having a job,” “having enough to eat,” “earning a high income”) and familial values (“having a comfortable home,” “spending time with your family”) still trump post-materialistic ones (“safe and clean environment”) (Sing, 2009). Then, as well as economic growth and the developments in technology, there are other important social, cultural, and political factors that may affect the concern for environmental issues. Nevertheless, recently, a different attitude seems to have emerged (Cheng, 2014; Han, 2015), particularly among the new generations. The 2014 Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong is one of the examples of civil disobedience, and it is possible that this attitude of becoming more responsible and attentive in civic and political issues will also be reflected in greater sensitivity toward environmental justice and social sustainability.

Consequences of environmental exploitation The effects of so-called natural disasters can be multiple and long-lasting. The most visible effects are the death of people and animals, and the destruction of

6  Iris Chi et al. buildings and infrastructures. Earthquakes and tsunamis may be very impressive because they occur unexpectedly and can kill many people in an instant; their destructive power may activate archaic fears of helplessness against what is perceived as an inescapable fate. Events like this may open up the questions of the meaning of life or the presence of God, or may lead one to ask, “Why me?” They may be very traumatizing as, for example, they remind us that we are not in complete control of our lives. On the other hand, other phenomena can be much more destructive but are generally overlooked. For example, pollution is a silent killer that can cause an undefined number of acute and chronic diseases, and serious illnesses, and can definitely impact the mortality rate. Various types of air, water, and soil pollution can cause, among others, asthma, allergies, stroke, pulmonary diseases, cancer, infective diseases, pneumonia, respiratory diseases, heart disease, tuberculosis, diarrhea, and gastroenteritis (Laumbach & Kipen, 2012; Lu et al., 2015; Machdar, Van Der Steen, Raschid-Sally, & Lens, 2013). Recently, researchers from Harvard and Columbia Universities in the U.S. estimated that a smog outbreak resulting from a forest fire in Indonesia in 2015 may have caused over 100,000 premature deaths in Indonesia and several thousand more in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia. Yet the haze is an annual problem caused by fires set in forests and on carbon-rich peatland in Indonesia to quickly and cheaply clear land for palm oil and pulpwood plantations. Effects of pollution can be devastating because they may hit entire communities over a prolonged period of time as, in some cases, the effects of contamination may be evident only after several years and may affect more generations of people. Nevertheless, what is not immediately obvious and what is not clearly observable seem to receive less coverage from the media and seem to have less impact on public opinion when compared, for example, to the emergency that follows a typhoon or an earthquake. Contamination and exploitation of the environment normally bring an immediate economic benefit to a few individuals/organizations but are detrimental to all others, particularly in the long term. The costs of exploiting the environment are economic, social, and psychological. Lands that are contaminated are completely devalued as not only are they a threat to health, and not only do they ruin any potential for cultivating, farming, or even building, but they also require large amounts of money for decontamination and cleanup. This will impoverish both individuals and families, who see their belongings being depreciated, as well as communities, societies, or the nation that will have to remediate the damage to the environment. In some cases, it may be required to provide new accommodation for people who have lost everything because of an earthquake, a landslide, or a flooding. Besides the economic costs, this may lead to geographic reallocation of people, separation of families and communities, social isolation, and marginalization. Further, it can bring a sense of personal insecurity and distrust toward institutions and toward Mother Nature. These events affect the micro-, mezzo-, and macro-systems (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) as well as the relations among the three.

Social work and sustainable development  7 “Environment in the person” and “person in the environment” The aforementioned examples indicate that we should operate a paradigm change and start to consider the influence of the person in the environment, not just the effects of the environment on the person. This means not only that the environment affects one’s development and life but also that a person makes use of the environment, and his or her actions have an impact on both the environment and the lives of other people, and future generations. Social work usually upholds the construct “person in the environment.” The term “environment” is normally understood by social workers as the social, psychological, and cultural context or setting in which one lives. In fact, the physical habitat and the geographical area in which we live do affect our lives; however, these variables are rarely accounted for by social workers (for a review see Alston, 2015), as if they were beyond the social workers’ sphere of interest and/or intervention. This is somewhat surprising because it has been known for a long time that the physical environment also affects how people behave and interact, although, in most cases, this knowledge was used to serve private interests or political goals. For example, psychology in the workplace was (at least initially) understood as a tool for increasing productivity and maximizing profits through manipulation of the environment, such as lighting, space design (e.g., large open space design with desks facing supervisors, as in Taylorism, versus cubicles), noise control, and improvement of air quality. Totalitarian regimes have often created new models of cities so as to shape new societies and individuals (e.g., the creation of the “new man” in Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany; see, for example, Fritzsche & Hellbeck, 2009). These examples represent ways of controlling physical variables to affect psychosocial variables; however, these goals are likely opposite to social work values. Social work is, in fact, person- and community-centered; its goal should be the health and well-being of people and the community. Social work has for a long time neglected the importance of the physical and geographical environment for the person, and now, it is time to fill this gap.

Relationship between physical and social environment Often, the quality of the psychosocial and physical environments is correlated. However, this is not always necessarily the case; for example, Hong Kong, ­Japan, and Korea are wealthy places where the high population density is not associated with the poverty (as it is in slums, for example) and social problems (e.g., social exclusion, marginalization) experienced in Western and/or developing countries. Indeed, previous research studies show that the relationship between living density/psychological symptoms and social problems is most likely mediated by income tenure and socioeconomic status (SES) (Busiol, 2016). Nevertheless, very high urban density may directly and/or indirectly affect one’s physical and psychological development, and one’s system of social relations and place in the community and society. Thus, it is not possible

8  Iris Chi et al. to describe a one-way causality relationship between the physical and social environment as both can be considered independent variables. Both features (physical and social) of the environment are important as they present different challenges and opportunities to individuals and communities. All these variables may have direct and/or indirect effects on the mental health of individuals as well as on the relations among community members; also, the physical or geographical environment becomes psychological or social. For example, previous research showed that high-density living is associated with noise, a higher number of family members living together, more generations living together, reduced physical activity, fast-paced life, greater competitiveness, a lack of recreational space, a lack of socialization, a lack of privacy, more time spent outside the home, poorer parent-child relationships, psychological stress, anxiety, lower sense of control, cognitive overload, social withdrawal, and increased social withdrawal. On the other hand, under some conditions, high-density living can lead to greater usage of public utilities, reduced social exclusion/isolation, more opportunities for social interaction, and a reduction in crime by increasing pedestrian activity and fostering a 24-hour community (Busiol, 2016). Thus, all characteristics of the environment should become of primary interest to social workers, not just those elements that appear or present themselves as already social.

Rationale for sustainability in social work Although environmental and economic sustainability issues have been addressed by professionals, such as environmental scientists and ecological economists, social sustainability has long been neglected (Omann & Spangenberg, 2002). In recent years, some have advocated that the social work profession should place a greater emphasis on social sustainability issues (Mary, 2008). Nonetheless, environmental issues still fall in a gray area of competence as it is not yet clear who should take the lead in doing something, what should be done, and how. For instance, social workers often show themselves to be sensitive toward environmental protection and conscious of the need to be actively engaged; however, they might get involved in initiatives on an individual basis, they might get involved in environmental activities as time-limited innovative projects, or they might even volunteer themselves for remedial work after natural disasters in different parts of the world. They rarely include environmental protection as part of their regular work. Environmental justice is still considered by many social workers to be of secondary importance when compared with other more traditional social work practices, such as child welfare, family counseling, and elderly care. On the one hand, this may indicate that in people’s understanding, a divide exists between the physical and social environment, as if the two were not strictly related to each other. On the other hand, this may also indicate that the economic costs (in addition to the social costs) of living in a polluted environment (e.g., higher illness/mortality rates) are mostly ignored by the majority of the population.

Social work and sustainable development  9 Social work has a long-standing tradition of emphasizing the interaction between people and their environment, e.g., the person-in-environment perspective, although the focus is often exclusively on the importance of social relationships. There is an emerging emphasis in the profession regarding the need to pay more attention to the critical role of the physical environment and concerns about sustainability (Dylan, 2013; Hawkins, 2010). The rapid trend of globalization has brought a variety of sustainability challenges, including global climate change, the loss of biodiversity, poverty, and social inequalities, which are problems with unclear boundaries, complicated interrelated components, undefined parameters, contradictory values, and no single solution (Myers & Beringer, 2010). The states and governments usually have no solutions, leaving communities to find their own. Traditional and current social work tends to lack an approach to sustainability and holds narrow views of globally interconnected social problems. For social work to continue its development as a meaningful and viable profession that addresses contemporary sustainability issues, it requires a transformation in regard to paradigm, theory, strategies, social policy, and social services that will facilitate a sustainable future for all humankind (Mary, 2008). The concepts of sustainability and sustainable development are compatible with the worldview of social work but suggest a shift to a new environmental paradigm (Mary, 2008), which should be an ecological, community-based, and holistic model (Coates, 2003) that asserts the importance of place (Zapf, 2009) and therefore eschews the person-in-environment metaphor (Dylan, 2013). It needs to focus not only on how the environment affects the person but also on how the person affects the environment. People as place (i.e., the new environmental paradigm) elicits a feeling of responsibility toward the natural environment because it is central to human existence and hence raises the importance of sustainability. Championing human rights requires bioregional protection and safeguarding of the planet (Zapf, 2009). The International Federation of Social Workers (2012) called on social workers to recognize the importance of the natural and built environment to the social environment; to develop environmental responsibility and care for the environment in social work practice and management, today and for future generations; to work with other professionals to increase our knowledge and with community groups to develop advocacy skills and strategies to work toward a healthier environment; and to ensure that environmental issues gain increased presence in social work education. In addition, the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development, developed by the International Federation of Social Workers, International Association of Schools of Social Work, and International Council on Social Welfare (2012), listed a set of approaches to promote sustainability, such as managing and preventing disasters of natural and human origin; involving local communities in developing responses to social challenges; facilitating sustainable social development; protecting the physical environment; proactively engaging with social, human, and ecological development; and promoting efforts to protect the right to live in a clean, safe, and healthy environment.

10  Iris Chi et al.

Challenges in sustainability theory building Despite the increasing use of the terms sustainability and sustainable development in recent years, the meaning of these concepts is broad and ambiguous ­(Evans, Hills, & Orme, 2012). Although the body of studies on sustainability has been growing, there has been no clear theoretical framework for sustainability research. Theory building in sustainability has encountered various challenges, including difficulty in educating individuals about environmental challenges, linking the three pillars, and collaborating within and across sectors and disciplines as well as measurement issues.

Education about environmental challenges One of the key challenges of sustainability development and sustainability work is education (Mary, 2008). This involves educating individuals about the scope of environmental challenges and burdens, differential exposure to these burdens based on marginalization, systems that support environmental degradation and discriminatory effects, and sustainability approaches to address these challenges (Dylan, 2013). Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary understanding that draws on a wide array of knowledge domains is not only a historical social work practice but also necessary for sustainability education (Mary, 2008). Because sustainability requires consideration of both space and time, it is essential that education covers immediate and long-term planning at community, international, and policy levels (Morse, Vogiatzakis, & Griffiths, 2011).

Including and linking the three pillars Another major challenge in theorizing sustainability is difficulty in involving and integrating the environmental, economic, and social pillars (Dillard et al., 2009). Although scholars often interpret sustainable development as being solely driven by an environmental agenda, one of its major characteristics is that it highlights the relationship between social justice, human health and well-being, and economic development as well as the need to achieve these agendas in a manner that can be supported by the natural environment indefinitely (Evans et al., 2012). The process of sustainable development equally encompasses social, economic, and environmental justice, and focuses on how resources can be equitably allocated to benefit all people, in contrast to current models of consumption that disproportionately benefit already affluent societies. Advocates of sustainable development have contended that environmental justice, which refers to the human right to live in a clean, safe, and healthy environment, should go hand in hand with human justice (Hawkins, 2010).

Collaborations within and across sectors and disciplines A growing body of literature has explored how intersectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration contributes to sustainability. Sustainability challenges, such

Social work and sustainable development  11 as environmental problems and social inequalities, are complicated metaproblems for which no one sector or discipline has all the best solutions (Gray, 1989). Social workers, businesspeople, churches, environmentalists, policymakers, and concerned citizens have different stakes, knowledge, and experiences to contribute to possible solutions to environmental, social, and economic problems (Mary, 2008). Collaboration within and across sectors and disciplines has certain advantages in promoting sustainability. Collaboration helps stakeholders gain a better understanding of the economic, social, and environmental issues that affect the sustainability of their community (Sharma & Kearins, 2011). Through collaboration, organizations can generate divergent views or definitions of the problems (Gray, 1989). Collaboration can lead to mutual agreements among organizations to promote social sustainability and helps to maintain accountability for promises and efforts made by collaborating partners (Sharma & Kearins, 2011). Working in collaboration with others can reduce the likelihood of working against the agendas of others and facilitate the establishment of long-term sustainable and collaborative relationships (Mary, 2008; Mattessich, Murray-Close, & Monsey, 2001).

Measurement issues Measures of sustainability have been increasingly recognized as crucial tools for policymaking, environment management, advocacy, public communication, and empirical investigation (Singh, Murty, Gupta, & Dikshit, 2009). Owing to the ambiguous nature of the concept of sustainability, researchers have debated over meaningful criteria for the measurement of sustainability and proposed more than 500 indicators to quantify sustainable development (Babcicky, 2013). McKenzie (2004) suggested that social sustainability is a condition that can be measured by a series of indicators, such as (a) equity of access to key services, (b) equity between generations, (c) the widespread political participation of citizens, (d) a sense of community ownership, (e) a system for transmitting awareness of social sustainability from one generation to the next, (f) a sense of community responsibility for maintaining that system of transmission, and (g) mechanisms for political advocacy to meet needs that cannot be met by community action. Yet how to operationalize and measure these indicators is still debatable. Measures of quality of life or well-being in the community have been regarded as important criteria of social sustainability (Magee, Scerri, & James, 2012). Quality of life can be conceptualized at both the personal (e.g., happiness, life satisfaction) and societal (e.g., community integration, social security, and organization) levels (Carrilio, 2007). Another type of sustainability criteria includes health indicators (e.g., health outcomes, health services delivery), which refer to measures of public health related to the physical and social environment. Moreover, various social indexes, which are composite indicators of sustainability that incorporate multiple dimensions, have been developed to measure sustainability and sustainable development. In practice, social indexes tend to

12  Iris Chi et al. incorporate a range of economic, social, and environmental dimensions (­Stapleton & Garrod, 2007). One of the most widely used social indexes is the Human Development Index, developed by the United Nations Development Programme (1990); it assesses life expectancy, adult literacy, years of education, and gross domestic product per capita. Other commonly used social indexes in the sustainability literature include the Genuine Progress Indicator (Lawn & Clarke, 2006), the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (Daly & Cobb, 1990), and the Sustainable Net Benefit Index (Lawn & Sanders, 1999), which measure a range of economic, social, and environmental benefits in monetary terms (Stapleton & Garrod, 2007). However, these social indexes have been criticized for their methods of aggregating components and their failure to recognize differences within a country (Stapleton & Garrod, 2007). Despite the emerging focus on sustainability, researchers have mostly viewed it as a static concept and assessed it at key time points instead of in an ongoing manner. Ongoing evaluation is needed to assess the process and progress of ­social development (Chambers, Glasgow, & Stange, 2013).

Social work approaches promoting sustainable development Environmental changes have caused various sustainability challenges. The vision of contemporary social work should incorporate principles of sustainable development. The focus is on developing human and social capital, with a view to enhancing the capacity of service users and communities affected by environmental changes to make continuing use of learned skills so that the intervention is sustainable (Healy, 2008; Kirst-Ashman, 2013). Examples of these approaches are introduced in the following subsections.

Capacity building and empowerment Capacity building and empowerment are central elements of sustainability (Johnson, Hays, Center, & Daley, 2004; Shediac-Rizkallah & Bone, 1998). Empowering clients to build capacity is a social work task based on the concepts of enabling and facilitating self-help (Healy, 2008). Capacity building and empowerment require meaningful engagement and participation of citizens and the community. They require the engagement of local citizens and communities in both the initial definition of outcomes and the development of solutions to attain them (Evans et al., 2012). The community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach can be used for capacity building and empowerment (Israel et al., 2010). Community participation requires members of the community to invest and participate meaningfully in the design, goal setting, implementation, administration, outcomes, and evaluation of a community project (Pandey, 1998). CBPR is an indispensable approach to understanding a community’s perspective (Evans et al., 2012). The processes and findings of CBPR can be employed in grassroots sustainable development,

Social work and sustainable development  13 in which localized, small-scale, community-based initiatives are designed to seek social, economic, and environmental justice (Stevens & Morris, 2001).

Resilience building and recovery of human capacity Resilience building and recovery of human capacity play an important role in overcoming difficulties and addressing negative conditions for a sustainable future (Peeters, 2012). Resilience is generally defined as the ability to demonstrate a pattern of stable and healthy adjustment, and recover capacity following an adverse event (Bonanno, 2012). At the community level, resilience pertains to a community’s ability to sustain itself by adapting and responding to stress, making resilience integral to social sustainability (Miller, Shinn, & Bentley, 1994). Magis (2010) proposed the concept of community resilience, which refers to the “existence, development, and engagement of community resources by community members to thrive in an environment characterized by change, uncertainty, unpredictability, and surprise” (p. 402). Members of a resilient community deliberately establish and recover personal and collective capability to adjust to changes and to sustain and renew the community (Magis, 2010). The resilience approach also focuses on the vulnerabilities within a community (Folke, 2006). Strengthening the resilience of socially or environmentally vulnerable populations can reduce resources spent on post-disaster relief or remedial work following an adverse event (Brehm & Doll, 2009).

Prevention rather than cure The principle of prevention rather than cure is crucial to ensuring sustainability. From a prevention perspective, Johnson et al. (2004) defined sustainability as “the process of ensuring an adaptive prevention system and a sustainable innovation that can be integrated into ongoing operations to benefit diverse stakeholders” (p. 137). This principle refers to an emphasis on identifying the risks of human problems; identifying the root causes of socioeconomic and environmental problems, such as natural disasters; and identifying solutions to address these issues immediately to prevent the need for a more costly and more complex solution later (Evans et al., 2012).

Pursue long-term outcomes rather than short-term results The pursuit of long-term outcomes rather than short-term results is a key element of sustainable development. Mary (2008) noted that a quick fix to problems may be ineffective and may lead to long-term harmful consequences. Evans et al. (2012) pointed out that “a sustainable development approach begins with a clear definition of the long-term and integrated social, economic and environmental outcomes that are to be achieved” (p. 748). Moreover, sustainable development also focuses on resources in terms of ensuring that expenses are manageable in the short term and show favorable outcomes in the longer term (Evans et al., 2012).

14  Iris Chi et al. To pursue long-term outcomes, it has been recommended that social workers optimize the use of available economic and environmental resources, and do not rely on continuous infusions of new resources (Negi & Furman, 2010). Additionally, social work organizations can diversify their funding sources instead of depending predominantly on grants and donations (Healy, 2008). Capacity building is of key importance in achieving long-term outcomes with minimal costs. If social workers are able to enhance the capacity of service users to make continued use of learned skills, the long-term effectiveness of interventions can be sustained (Healy, 2008; Kirst-Ashman, 2013).

Social innovations and social enterprises Welfare organizations may engage in social innovation initiatives and social enterprises so that both the social and the economic goals of sustainability can be met. Social innovations involve changes in the manner in which a person or community acts to solve problems or create new opportunities, which is typically driven by behavioral changes rather than technological or market changes (Manzini, 2007). Evans et al. (2012) noted the need to develop social innovative systems based on coproduction, mutualism, and localism. These approaches require strong leadership, long-term thinking, and meaningful incentives (­Evans et al., 2012). Introducing new or significantly improved social services can enhance the quality and efficiency of the service delivery process (Giannopoulou, Gryszkiewicz, & Barlatier, 2014). Social innovations allow optimal use of existing resources, reinforce or regenerate social networks, and therefore achieve sustainability. Innovative concepts of social services can be generated through collaborative effort among different sectors (Giannopoulou et al., 2014; Manzini, 2007). Social enterprises are a form of social innovation. Social enterprises are commercial strategies implemented by for-profit or nonprofit organizations that employ commercial strategies to carry out social missions rather than maximizing profits (Ridley-Duff & Bull, 2011). The business mission of social enterprises drives organizations to apply cost-effective strategies to reduce costs and generate income. Social enterprises can reduce the dependence of organizations on grants and donations by obtaining economically sustainable sources of funding (Smith, Knapp, Barr, Stevens, & Cannatelli, 2010).

Localization Localization of social services can facilitate sustainability. The sustainability literature has considered localization as one form of social innovation (Manzini, 2007). When adapting the knowledge and practice of social work, especially in non-Western societies, the local cultural context should be taken into account. Localized social interventions are new and innovative in a particular context, offering an alternative to traditional social work practices that may not satisfy the needs of people and communities (Bradshaw & Graham, 2007).

Social work and sustainable development  15 Another way in which localization helps achieve sustainability is by maximizing the use of local resources instead of relying on external or overseas resources. Local resources encompass financial and nonfinancial contributions from local sources, including local citizens, local government, businesses, institutions, and other sectors (Academy for Educational Development, 2004). In planning and developing social programs to help communities, the willingness of communities to assume financial responsibility for programs must be taken into consideration to achieve sustainability (Negi & Furman, 2010). Healy (2008) noted that many social programs fail to sustain their existence when external grants run out because they did not consider the availability of ongoing resources.

Education and advocacy As helping professionals equipped with a knowledge base of social science, social workers are responsible for disseminating sustainability knowledge through public education and advocacy. Sustainability researchers have contended that social workers need to adopt a combative role to work with communities to mitigate against social, economic, and environmental threats; an educative role to help foster collectivity; and a networking role to forge alliances with funders, agencies, sympathetic government workers, and other allies (Dylan, 2013; Hall, 1996). In addition, social workers can engage in sustainability development to reduce the biosphere burden by forming sustainable consumption patterns, energy generation, and waste management. With its acute focus on poor and marginalized communities, social work is in an ideal position to attend to the hypersusceptibility of low-income and racialized communities to environmental hazards (Dylan, 2013). Furthermore, Gamble and Weil (2008) suggested that social workers can advocate policies that promote sustainability and serve as leaders to implement them.

Transformation of the curriculum To develop sustainable social work practice, it is vital to infuse social work practice and policy with knowledge of sustainability. Social work researchers have noted the need to add or strengthen elements of sustainability in the social work curriculum (Whiteford, Horton, Garrard, Ford, & Butler, 2010). It has been argued that social work education should incorporate a clear emphasis on social sustainability (McKinnon, 2008) and assign social work students to practice in environmental settings (Muldoon, 2006). It has also been asserted that social work training should address environmental issues, such as making links between social and environmental justice (McKinnon, 2008), implementing environmentally effective social work practices, and handling the adverse impacts of natural disasters and environmental problems (Marlow & Van Rooyen, 2001). Because social workers will have to play more varied roles in the future than they did in the past, including

16  Iris Chi et al. working with local communities on environmental issues, sustainability ­education will prepare social work students better for the challenges ahead (Whiteford et al., 2010).

Conclusion The contemporary world is facing increasingly complicated sustainability issues due to the influence of globalization (Mary, 2008; Myers & Beringer, 2010). Because the social work profession has long focused on the interaction between humans and the environment (Dylan, 2013), no profession is better suited to promote social sustainability and environmental justice. To address current and future sustainability challenges, the social work profession needs to develop a consensus on the focus of sustainability issues, develop clear concepts and indicators of sustainability and sustainable development, collaborate with other disciplines to conduct more research, build theories of sustainability in social work, formulate relevant research questions, and educate and train social workers in sustainability knowledge.

Note 1 Source: http://www.etymonline.com

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Social work and sustainable development  19 Mary, L. N. (2008). Social work in a sustainable world. Chicago, IL: Lyceum Books. Mattessich, P., Murray-Close, M., & Monsey, B. (2001). Collaboration: What makes it work. St. Paul, MN: Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. Miller, S. E., Shinn, C. W., & Bentley, W. R. (1994). Rural resource management: Problem solving for the long term. Ames: Iowa State University Press. Morse, S., Vogiatzakis, I., & Griffiths, G. (2011). Space and sustainability: Potential for landscape as a spatial unit for assessing sustainability. Sustainable Development, 19, 30–48. doi:10.1002/sd.418 Muldoon, A. (2006). Environmental efforts: The next challenge for social work. Critical Social Work, 7, 84–93. Myers, O. E., Jr., & Beringer, A. (2010). Sustainability in higher education: Psychological research for effective pedagogy. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 40, 51–77. Negi, N. J., & Furman, R. (Eds.). (2010). Transnational social work practice. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Omann, I., & Spangenberg, J. H. (2002, March). Assessing social sustainability: The social dimension of sustainability in a socio-economic scenario. Paper presented at the 7th Biennial Conference of the International Society for Ecological Economies, Sousse, Tunisia. Retrieved from http://seri.at/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Assessing_­ social_sustainability.pdf Pandey, S. (1998). Women, environment, and sustainable development. International Social Work, 41, 339–355. doi:10.1177/002087289804100306 Peeters, J. (2012). The place of social work in sustainable development: Towards ecosocial practice. International Journal of Social Welfare, 21, 287–298. doi:10.1111/ j.1468-2397.2011.00856.x Ridley-Duff, R., & Bull, M. (2011). Understanding social enterprise: Theory & practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Sharma, A., & Kearins, K. (2011). Interorganizational collaboration for regional sustainability: What happens when organizational representatives come together? Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 47, 168–203. doi:10.1177/0021886310381782 Shediac-Rizkallah, M. C., & Bone, L. R. (1998). Planning for the sustainability of ­community-based health programs: Conceptual frameworks and future directions for research, practice and policy. Health Education Research, 13, 87–108. doi:10.1093/ her/13.1.87 Sing, M. (2009). The quality of life in Hong Kong. Social Indicators Research, 92(2), 295–335. Singh, R. K., Murty, H. R., Gupta, S. K., & Dikshit, A. K. (2009). An overview of sustainability assessment methodologies. Ecological Indicators, 9, 189–212. doi:10.1016/ j.ecolind.2008.05.011 Smith, B. R., Knapp, J., Barr, T. F., Stevens, C. E., & Cannatelli, B. L. (2010). Social enterprises and the timing of conception: Organizational identity tension, management, and marketing. Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 22, 108–134. doi:10.1080/10495141003676437 Stapleton, L. M., & Garrod, G. D. (2007). Keeping things simple: Why the Human Development Index should not diverge from its equal weights assumption. Social Indicators Research, 84, 179–188. doi:10.1007/s11205-006-9081-3 Stevens, K., & Morris, J. (2001). Struggling toward sustainability: Considering grassroots development. Sustainable Development, 9, 149–164. doi:10.1002/sd.165 Sustainability. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.thwink.org/sustain/glossary/­ Sustainability.htm

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2 Neoliberalism and globalization Trends shaping sustainable social work practice Michael J. Holosko and Joelle A. Pettus Neoliberalism and globalization defined Before defining neoliberalism, it is important to note that the term “liberalism” is a political doctrine, and neoliberalism is an economic doctrine. Further, these very different concepts are often blurred because they both have the word “liberal” within them. Another point of conceptual fuzziness here is that when liberalism is applied to the field of economics, it refers to policies meant to encourage entrepreneurship by removing government controls and interference, which positions the term as more of a right-wing conservative notion than its truer liberal left-of-center political meaning. This concept of liberalism clearly embodies a political philosophy favoring individual freedom and liberty, equality, and capitalism (Hartz, 1955 as cited in Nilep, 2012), which has a long history and deep effect in America. Turning to the concept of neoliberalism, neo means “new,” so this “new liberalism” was an economic shift from the previous political concept. The founding fathers primarily identified with neoliberalism were F. A. Hayek, an Austrian Nobel Laureate economist, and the American economist Milton Friedman, also a Nobel Laureate, who for much of his career was the economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan. Martinez and Garcia (1997) from the Corporate Watch listed the main elements of neoliberalism as: 1 The rule of the market – Implies freedom for capital, goods, and services, where the market is “self-regulating.” It also includes the deunionizing of labor forces, removal of financial regulations, and more freedom from the state or government. 2 Cutting public expenditures for social services – This means reducing the socalled “social safety net” for the poor, including health, human services, and education. 3 Deregulation – This involves the reduction of government regulation of anything that could diminish profits, including the protection of the environment and safety at work.

22  Michael J. Holosko and Joelle A. Pettus 4 Privatization – Includes selling state-owned enterprises, goods, and services to private investors, including banks, key industries, railroads, toll highways, electricity, schools, and hospitals. 5 Eliminating the concept of “public good” or “community” – In short, these should be replaced with “individual responsibility,” at any cost (p. 100). Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were the leading conservative political forces and pushed the 35-year policies of neoliberalism strongly, both in their own countries and around the globe. As the concept relates to our post-welfare states of its current citizen regimes, neoliberalism can also be used as a term to describe social welfare, welfare policy, ideology, or governmentality (Holosko & Barner, 2013; Larner, 2005; SUNY Levin Institute, 2013).

Globalization Ever since people from one country traded or sold goods with people from another country, globalization has occurred. Marco Polo and the famed Silk Road, built during the Han Dynasty (206 bc –220 ad) and linking China to Europe via the countries of India, Southeast Asia, Africa, and eventually Rome, saw international global trade blossom almost overnight. For centuries, people in corporations have invested in enterprises in other countries, which has spurred international relations, economic exchanges, cross-border trade, and migration – so rapidly and to such a great extent that many observers feel that the world has entered a new phase of global economic development that “has no end in sight.” Rather contradictorily, international globalization now shapes domestic international policy in many developed and undeveloped nations of the world. A consensual definition of globalization is offered here. Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment, and aided by information technology. This process has profound effects on the environment, culture, economic development, prosperity, and human physical well-being in societies around the world (SUNY Levin Institute, 2013). Although neoliberalism and globalization were presented separately earlier, given their similar economic growth and trade imperative, in the past 15–20 years, these concepts have become inextricably braided (Holosko & Barner, 2013). In short, globalization is the reigning sociohistorical reconfiguration of social space, and neoliberalism is the policy approach to it. The term now used to promote their interrelationship is “neoliberal globalization” (Scholte, 2005). When examining the extant literature about the so-called pluses and minuses of neoliberal globalization over time, as these policies have evolved, the minuses have far outweighed the pluses of this movement. This is particularly true in the area of social welfare policy, as in the past 25 years we have seen more poverty worldwide than ever before, greater discrepancies between economic and social groups, more income inequality between the rich and the poor, less human security and fewer human rights, less social justice, poorer environmental health, and poorer safety and employment policies (SUNY Levin Institute, 2013).

Neoliberalism and globalization  23 However, during this same period, there have been some noteworthy gains made in commerce, trade, finance, investment, technology, international law, military alliances, transportation, banking, and energy (Holosko & Barner, 2013). But a closer look at who has made these gains clearly reveals that it is almost always the wealthier and dominant countries and corporations of the world, from which observers have now coined the phrase “economic colonialism.” Unfortunately, such concerns pose very real challenges to practicing effective sustainable social work practice.

Trends that shape global sustainable social work practice Often, many entry-level and/or newly minted Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) or Master’s of Social Work (MSW) practitioners are rather naïve about how external trends in the world, far removed from their agency walls such as neoliberal globalization, affect their day-to-day practice (­Reisch, 2013). Holosko and Barner (2013) used a hierarchal client, ­organizational, national, and international matrix to examine how neoliberal globalization adversely impacted these various levels of social work policy and practice. In short, they concluded that social work has not fared well at all under the umbrella of neoliberal globalization. ­Using another framework, this chapter focuses more on how various trends perpetuated by neoliberal globalization “trickle down” to practitioners working daily in face-to-face interactions with their clients (Holosko, 2017). Figure 2.1 further distills these paradigm (neoliberal globalization) shifts at the local levels of sustainable social work practice.

Community devolution: federal → state → local Holosko (2009) documented the omnipresent globalization of the devolution revolution phenomenon in the countries of Canada, the US, Great Britain, and Sweden. He demonstrated how: (a) the devolution revolution is relatively immune to the political ideology of the country; (b) it always shifts both funding and authority for social welfare service provision downward from federal → state → local levels; and (c) often, local human service organizations (HSOs) \infrastructures or their resource-­a llocating systems are inadequately prepared to assume such responsibilities, which are now plunked squarely at the feet of the local community agencies (Holosko, 2009, 2017). In turn, the resultant effects of more locally administered but underresourced care impact significantly our definitions of what “community care” really means. Selected Trends 1. Community Devolution: Federal →State→ Local 2. Community ‘Problem Reconfiguration’ 3. Community ‘Capacity-Building’ 4. Integrative Approaches to Service Delivery 5. ‘Era of Legitimacy’

Figure 2.1   Five selected neoliberal globalization trends influencing sustainable social work practice.

24  Michael J. Holosko and Joelle A. Pettus The story behind this trend includes, first, the fact that more local accountability is accrued to the community’s actual system of care, which, if reframed from a strengths-based perspective, may not be such a bad or negative thing. The devolution revolution at local levels, therefore, provides sustainable social work with a unique opportunity to build on its history of providing ethical, effective, and humane services to the vulnerable populations in the very communities in which they reside. In order to continue providing the necessary services and practices, the sustainability of social work depends on redefining our communities of care and understanding the importance of the devolution from federal to state to local community involvement and concern. The sustainability of social work, particularly on the local level, depends on focusing on our core ethics and values, the underpinning anchors of social work practice from its onset. Continuing to focus on a strengths-based perspective at all levels of this evolving devolution will increase sustainability and align past, current, and future goals and aims of the social work profession (Mosher, 2010).

Community “problem” reconfiguration There has been a decided shift in the quiet devolution revolution toward developing social welfare programs, interventions, and services in communities, not from a population or demographic imperative but from a “problem reconfiguration” one. Here, the community’s problems are prioritized based on the so-called “problems of individuals in the community.” So, depending on “the problems the community has” and the existing infrastructures – if one is fortunate enough to end up with a problem that this community “has identified” – care can be accessed. Conversely, if one’s problems do not match up with “the community problems,” clients must travel (if they can), usually to an adjacent community, to receive care (Feit & Holosko, 2013). For example, in Canada’s universal health-care system, smaller towns and cities cannot afford highly specialized health care for all citizens. As a result, many Canadians are accustomed to driving to, or being airlifted to, adjacent communities that have the specialized care that they require and have come to expect (Holosko, 1997). Communities clearly lag behind this concept, and they have difficulties matching their infrastructures and mandates to the ever-changing “problems of the community.” To exemplify this, Brown and Stevens (2006) studied seven U.S. communities aiming to expand health coverage to the uninsured and improve their care (the previous political agenda of President Obama). Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Communities in Charge (CIC) program, when these communities (with identified community problems) were evaluated, these authors concluded that “despite solid leadership and carefully crafted plans, political, economic, and organizational obstacles precluded much expansion of coverage and constrained reforms … CIC’s record offers little evidence that communities are better equipped than are other sectors of U.S. society to solve the problems of un-insurance” (Brown & Stevens, 2006, p. W150).

Neoliberalism and globalization  25 Many sustainable social workers become acutely aware of the limited resources available for clients in their own communities. This forces them, by default, to expand on their definition of just what “local community care” is – to a more expansive one involving a greater geographic area beyond the local community. This, in turn, presents a new set of resource challenges for sustainable social workers, such as networking with these new service providers, new wait-list protocols, service availability, access to services, cost, formal and informal support for clients in these new geographic areas, referrals, and transportation to services (Holosko, 2017). The social work profession, governed by the notion of the “person-in-­ environment” principle, has neglected the environment-in-person relationship and its effects (Dewane, 2011). The outside environmental context, which is one of the main cornerstones of sustainable social work practice, must now be more seriously considered for problem assessment and focused intervention. How one’s environment, including formal and informal support, affects their mental, physical, and/or social issues needs to be processed in problem reconfiguration and sustainable practices. Practitioners in this context must consider not only individuals’ problems but also large-scale community issues and align efforts to negotiate and work toward both subsets (Feit & Holosko, 2013; Holosko, 2017).

Community capacity building Although it’s a rather noble idea, the concept of community capacity building has seen renewed interest in the health and human service field in general, and sustainable social work practice in particular. Similarly, some researchers have asserted that the “community has gained increasing prominence as the central locus for the search for collaborative approaches to policy development, service delivery, and research” (Masuda, Creighton, Nixon, & Frankish, 2010, p. 280). Community capacity building refers to the ability and will of the people ­residing in a community to participate in actions based on community i­nterests, both as individuals and as group organizations and networks (Williams, 2004, p. 730). The definition itself is not problematic, but it is fraught with two ­underpinning and rather questionable assumptions. The first is that ­community-based groups are synonymous with capacity building. Indeed, this is the dominant and traditional way that capacity building is described in the literature (Abdul et al., 2012; Suwanbamrung, 2010). However, Williams (2004) demonstrated how informal one-to-one groups and engagement are a more popular form of community involvement. They are also more characteristic of the participatory culture of less affluent populations, such as the vulnerable clients whom we routinely see in our social work caseloads. Similarly, Shirlow and Murtagh (2004) concluded their analysis of communities in Ireland by stating that if capacity building is ever to take hold, it will have to change the assumption of affiliation of community members with community groups and reach deeper into the concerns of local citizenry, rather than the priorities of statutory funders, as a basis for meaningful service provision and local planning.

26  Michael J. Holosko and Joelle A. Pettus Capacity building has been an area of concern for sustainable practitioners as individuals who do not meet the community problems are left without representation or adequate, aligned efforts to alleviate such issues. This trend r­ eflects the notion that intervention efforts are evolving from a focus on funding tied to the programs offered to funding connected to the populations it aims to serve (Pires, 1996). While this aspires to increase community capacity by aligning with particular issues the majority of the community faces, it does not take into consideration the importance of the strengths-based perspective emphasized in sustainable social work practice. Nor does this shift fully reflect the notion that capacity building can exclude important aspects and neglected subsets of a community’s population. To achieve this camaraderie sense of community capacity building, and increase the sustainability of this concept, practitioners must consider what a sense of community actually implies and what will occur in an area lacking such a principle (Kruk, 2012).

Integrative approaches to service delivery Due to the previously noted trends of devolution and fiscal cutbacks in North ­A merican HSOs, services and providers have become collaboratively bundled together, with multiple agencies offering a defined system of care in their respective communities (Cook, Michener, Lyn, Lobach, & Johnson, 2010; Pires, 1996). These are often referred to as cross-sectional collaborations – networks, alliances, or partnerships among public, secular, and faith-based nonprofits and for-profit organizations. They either consist of distinct organizations that ­develop relationships with each other to meet client needs called “self-organizing networks,” or they are community organizations subcontracted by a lead organization, which is expected to create a mandated community-based network of service providers (Alexander, 1995; Provan & Milward, 1995; Whelan, 2011). The latter (lead organization model) is the preferred approach as frankly, it is cheaper. But ideally, both arrangements are expected to yield the benefits of increased efficiency, innovation, local adaptation, increased flexibility, and enhanced community ties (Graddy & Chen, 2006, p. 534). This idea is certainly tenable and required for an HSO to survive in today’s reality, but again (like Trend 3, Figure 2.1, earlier), the concept is ahead of the community’s ability to implement it. The previously noted proverbial “clouds of uncertainty” about integrative service approaches loom large over issues of costs; organizational, programmatic, and community influences; democratic and consensual accountability; efficiency and effectiveness, integrative models that are viable and ones that are not; organizational and community care constraints and contingencies; community capacities; access; outcomes; policy considerations; and network size and scope (Bryson, Crosby, & Stone, 2006; Dunlop & Holosko, 2004; Graddy & Chen, 2006; Knitzer & Cooper, 2006). Despite such uncertainty, HSOs continue to move forward with this seemingly altruistic ­community-spirited ideal. The neoliberal deficit reduction strategies of federal, state, and local governments have led to a resurgence of interest in community collaboration (Foreman Kready, 2011). Increasingly, mandates for collaboration are linked to conditions of funding. As governments mandate collaborative networks as an implementation mechanism for integrating social welfare services, empirical studies about

Neoliberalism and globalization  27 how interorganizational collaboration is implemented among community partners is an emerging research, policy, and practice problem ­(Babiak, 2009; Bryson et al., 2006; Dunlop & Holosko, 2004; Sytch, Tatarynowicz, & Gulati, 2011). This idea of a more integrated approach implies more than coordinated efforts aimed at sustainable service delivery. Organizations must incorporate community efforts and concerns and align such coordination at the individual and community level simultaneously. While the shift may start on the federal level, such efforts must trickle down to the community and individual level without losing sight of segmented needs and concerns. Again, the sustainable emphasis on a strengths-based perspective is imperative to uphold practitioner standards and assist in coordinating efforts that will actually work toward progress and sustainability. Even the highest-quality, most expensive coordinated services will be a waste of effort and energy if tailoring to issues (federal, state, or local) is not taking place. Sustainable social work practitioners view integrative community networks as interactions that build trust among their members in sharing community care openly and more freely with community partners.

Era of legitimacy Never before in our North American social welfare history has evaluation and its focus on outcomes been “ part and parcel” of the mandated delivery of HSO programs and services (Reisch, 2013). Indeed, we are no longer at the frontier of program and practice evaluation activities, but in the midst of a groundswell of such activities becoming mainstream in federal and state social welfare initiatives, programs, and services (Holosko, 2009). Thus, public scrutiny of the financing and efficiency of HSOs is more apparent than it ever was before. We have evolved from offering social welfare programs directed by the rather noble motives of altruism and case wisdom, or “a need for such services,” to much more legitimizing and sustainable ways of providing educational, health, and social services. These include the empirical testing of interventions, developing more empirically defined protocols for our interventions, developing pilot projects to justify larger initiatives, ensuring that interventions are tied to frameworks (i.e., logic models) and outcomes, developing organizational and community capacities to ensure the success of interventions, funding initiatives with the assurance of self-sustainability over a shorter time period, ensuring that funded social welfare initiatives include timely best and/or promising practices, and ensuring that funded programs/services are both effective and efficient. Finally, here, all interventions require a traditional focus not just on inputs and outputs but also (now) on outcomes and sustainable impacts (W. K. Kellogg Foundation, 2006). And these must be assessed empirically with a view to what it costs to provide such interventions. Clements, Chianca, and Sasaki (2008) put it succinctly when they stated, “… evaluations should estimate the total impacts that can be attributed to an intervention and also estimate the intervention’s cost-­ effectiveness … Also, evaluations of this nature are likely to be more helpful for program managers” (p. 196). Given that the current social work model is driven by costs, it appears that soon, the cost-benefit or cost-effectiveness of all social work interventions will need to be tabled as a bona fide agenda for all HSOs.

28  Michael J. Holosko and Joelle A. Pettus Social work, as a profession, is expected to expand and increase its efforts and workforce (U.S. Department of Labor Statistics Occupational Handbook, 2012–13 Edition, Social Workers) to combat future trends of mental health and provide an increased focus on human and health organizational services and practices in North America (Holosko, 2017). The profession itself aims to be seen in a more genuine and respected light than in the past. In order to achieve this standard and continue to withstand the sustainability of the profession, current trends in shifting from segmented to more encompassing and expansive practices and methods that treat a variety of issues are necessary and expected. With such expectations comes the responsibility to continue to provide aligned yet wide-ranging services for all subsets of populations and groups seeking any form of social service assistance (Epstein, 2008).

Concluding remarks With the Affordable Care Act (2013) emerging in the American political landscape, despite the newly elected American President, Donald Trump, a rethinking and retooling about how social welfare, health, and social services will be provided, financed, and configured for all Americans is required. The issues presented herein, about external trends emanating from neoliberal globalization, become important for all service providers in general, and sustainable social workers in particular. This chapter sought to highlight such trends as they are now squarely placed at the feet of both politicians in the U.S. and sustainable frontline practitioners working in our communities of care. The very real challenges of providing effective, efficient, and sustainable care for our clients will require the profession to think more deeply about not only how to provide such care, but how to educate our BSW and MSW students to do so appropriately (Reisch, 2013).

Web resources Another Angry Voice. (2012, September 23). What is neoliberalism? From http://­ anotherangryvoice.blogspot.com/2012/09/what-is-­neoliberalism-explained.html Clune, M. W. (2013, March 9). When neoliberalism exploded. Salon Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.salon.com/2013/03/09/the_world_according_to_milton_ friedman_partner/ von-Werlholf. (2008, February). The Consequences of Globalization of Neoliberal Practices. Retrieved from https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-consequences-of-­globalization-andneoliberal-policies-what-are-the-alternatives/7973 Monbiot, G. (2013, January 14). If you think we’re done with neoliberalism, think again. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/ 14/neoliberal-theory-economic-failure World Economic Forum. (2011, January 20). News Release: New report identifies most important global issues for 2011. Geneva, Switzerland. Retrieved from http://www.business insider.com/the-10-biggest-problems-in-the-world-according-to-the-eu-2011-10

Neoliberalism and globalization  29

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30  Michael J. Holosko and Joelle A. Pettus Kellogg, W. K. (2006). W. K. Kellogg foundation program logic model. Retrieved from ht tp://w w w.wk k f.org/ k nowledge-center/resou rces/20 06/02/wk-kel loggfoundation-logic-model-development-guide.aspx Knitzer, J., & Cooper, J. (2006). Beyond integration: Challenges for children’s mental health. Health Affairs, 25(3), 670–679. Kruk, M. E. (2012). Globalisation and global health governance: Implications for public health. Global Public Health, 7(51), S54–S62. Larner, W. (2005). Neoliberalism in (regional) theory and practice: The stronger communities action fund in New Zealand. Geographical Research, 43(1), 9–18. Martinez, E., & Garcia, A. (1997). What is neoliberalism?: A brief definition for activists. CORP Watch: Holding corporations accountable. Retrieved from http://www.­ corpwatch.org/article.php?id=376 Masuda, J. R., Creighton, G., Nixon, S., & Frankish, J. (2010). Building capacity for community-based participatory research for health disparities in Canada: The case of “Partnerships in Community Health Research.” Health Promotion Practice, 12(2), 280–292. Mosher, C. R. (2010). Holistic paradigm for sustainability. Are social workers experts or partners? Critical Social Work, 11(3). Retrieved from http://www1.uwindsor.ca/ criticalsocialwork/a-wholistic-paradigm-for-sustainability-are-social-workers-­expertsor-partners Nilep, C. (2012). On socialism, liberalism, and neo-liberalism. Society for Linguistic Anthropology. Retrieved from http://linguisticanthropology.org/blog/2012/02/16/ on-socialism-liberalism-and-neo-liberalism/ Peck, J., & Tickell, A. (2002). Neoliberalizing space. Antipode. Oxford, England: Blackwell Publishers. Pires, S. (1996). Characteristics of a systems of care as systems reform initiatives. Washington, DC: Human Service Collaborative. Provan, K., & Milward, H. (1995). A preliminary theory of interorganizational network effectiveness: A comparative study of four community mental health systems. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40, 1–33. doi:10.2307/2393698 Reisch, M. (2013). Social work education and the neoliberal challenge: The U.S. response to increasing global inequality. Social Work Education, 32(6), 217–233. Scholte, J. A. (2005). The sources of neoliberal globalization. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. Retrieved from http://www.unrisd.org/­80256B3C005BCCF9/ (httpAuxPages)/9E1C54CEEB19A314C12570B4004D0881/$file/scholte.pdf Shirlow, P., & Murtagh, B. (2004). Capacity-building, representation and intra-­community conflict. Urban Studies, 41(1), 57–70. SUNY Levin Institute. (2013). What is globalization? Retrieved from http://www.­ globalization101.org/what-is-globalization Suwanbamrung, C. (2010). Community capacity for sustainable community-based dengue prevention and control: Domain, assessment tool and capacity building model. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Medicine, 3(6), 499–504. Sytch, M., Tatarynowicz, A., & Gulati, R. (2011). Toward a theory of extended contact: The incentives and opportunities for bridging across network communities. Organization Science, 23(6), 1658–1681. Whelan, C. (2011). Network dynamics and network effectiveness: A methodological framework for public sector networks in the field of national security. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 70(3), 275–286. Williams, C. (2004). Community capacity-building: A critical evaluation of the third sector approach. Review of Social Policy Research, 21(5), 729–739.

3 Social sustainability and global climate change A new challenge for social work Lawrence A. Palinkas and Marleen Wong

Introduction Maintaining social sustainability in the context of global climate change is among the most pressing challenges facing contemporary societies in the Asia-Pacific Rim. These societies are increasingly being confronted with a host of changes in the physical environment, ranging from natural disasters, rising air and water temperatures, rising sea levels and ocean acidification, prolonged droughts and scarcity of fresh water in some regions, and extensive flooding in other regions. All of these changes are contributing to the wholesale destruction of natural ecosystems on land and sea. They also have profound social implications, threatening human health and well-being, destabilizing assets, coping capacities, and response infrastructures, and substantially increasing the number of socially, economically, and psychologically vulnerable individuals and communities. Moreover, these impacts will not affect everyone equally, leading to new social inequities with significant social justice implications. In this chapter, we summarize the human impacts of global climate change with a focus on the sustainability of individuals, families, and communities. We then address strategies for promoting sustainability in the face of two specific impacts: population displacement and disaster response and recovery. These strategies adhere to a three-tier model of climate change impact and response, and include microlevel interventions designed to prevent and mitigate behavioral and mental health impacts; mezzo-level interventions to prevent and mitigate social conflict within families and communities; and macro-level policies and programs designed to build and support individual, family, and community resilience, assets, and action.

Global climate change and sustainability Climate-related changes in the physical and social landscape are largely due to human-induced emissions resulting from the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas), with important contributions from the clearing of forests, agricultural practices, and other activities (Karl, Melillo, & Peterson, 2009, p. 9). The future climate will depend on warming caused by past anthropogenic emissions, as

32  Lawrence A. Palinkas and Marleen Wong well as future anthropogenic emissions and natural climate variability (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2014). The global mean surface temperature change for the period 2016–2035 will likely be in the range 0.3– 0.7°C. By the end of the 21st century, average surface temperatures worldwide are projected to increase by 1.5–4.8°C (IPCC, 2013). Average sea levels during this period are projected to increase by 0.26–0.82 m. In many midlatitude and subtropical dry regions, the mean precipitation will likely decrease, while in many midlatitude wet regions, the mean precipitation will likely increase. Extreme precipitation events over most of the midlatitude land masses and over wet tropical regions will very likely become more intense and more frequent. Different models have forecast a decrease in ocean pH levels between 0.06 and 0.32 (IPCC, 2014). The Asia-Pacific region is considered to be among the most vulnerable to the impacts of global climate change. People in coastal regions of Asia, particularly those living in cities, could face some of the worst effects of global climate change. Hundreds of millions of people are likely to lose their homes as flooding, famine, and rising sea levels sweep the region. A mean sea level rise will contribute to upward trends in extreme coastal high-water levels, thereby inundating low-lying areas and developing nations such as Tuvalu, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, the Marshall Islands, and the Maldives. Asia accounts for seven of the world’s ten countries most vulnerable to rising sea levels: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam (Wheeler, 2011). Rising sea levels are also expected to cause increased rates of coastal erosion, leading to a decline in mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass beds, and saltwater intrusion into coastal freshwater swamps and marshes. Widespread damage to coral reefs correlated with episodes of high sea surface temperature has been reported in recent decades, and there is high confidence that damage to reefs will increase during the 21st century as a result of both warming and ocean acidification. Natural disasters will occur with greater frequency and severity. Climate change is expected to adversely affect the sustainable development capabilities of most Asian developing countries by aggravating pressures on natural resources and the environment. The loss of terrestrial and inland water ecosystems and associated biodiversity will adversely impact economic activity throughout the region. Increases in floods and droughts will exacerbate rural poverty in parts of Asia as a result of negative impacts on the rice crop and resulting increases in food prices and the cost of living. The IPCC report also notes the risk of loss of livelihoods and income due to insufficient access to drinking and irrigation water, particularly for farmers and pastoralists with minimal capital in semi-arid regions, and the risk of loss of marine and coastal ecosystems, biodiversity, and the ecosystem goods, functions, and services they provide for coastal livelihoods, especially for fishing communities (IPCC, 2014). Another physical impact of climate change in the Asia-Pacific region likely to impact sustainability is increased exposure to more severe natural disasters. For instance, Bangladesh has had 70 climate-related natural disasters in the past 10 years. Such events disrupt physical, social, and communication infrastructures,

Social sustainability and global climate change  33 diminish coping resources and social supports, drain or deplete household assets, and pose temporary and long-term threats to physical and mental health and safety (Caruana, 2010; Moser & Satterthwaite, 2010; Wells, Springgate, Lizaola, Jones, & Plough, 2013). Across the globe, economic losses from natural disasters rose from $50 billion each year in the 1980s to just under $200 billion each year in the last decade. Total reported losses from disasters were estimated at $3.8 trillion in this period with 74% due to extreme weather (Munich Re, 2013; World Bank, 2013). Global climate change will also result in profound changes in human morbidity and mortality throughout the Asia-Pacific region, changes that also have implications for individual, family, and community sustainability. These changes include: • •

•

•

•

•

Increased heat-related morbidity and mortality in adults, associated with rising ambient temperatures (Basu, 2009). Increased risk of diarrheal disease and cholera due to increased ambient temperatures and heavy precipitation and drought events (Zhang, Bi, Sun, & Hiller, 2012). Increased risk of vector-borne diseases, including malaria, dengue fever, West Nile virus, Chikungunya, Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, plague, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, and Chagas disease due to increased temperatures and precipitation (Banu, Hu, Guo, Hurst, & Tong, 2014). Impaired physical development (stunting) related to undernutrition associated with drought (Hagos, Kunde, Mariam, Woldehanna, & Lindtjørn, 2014), flooding (Rodriguez-Llanes, Shishir Ranjan-Dash, Mukhopadhyay, & Guha-Sapir, 2016), and ocean acidification. Increased risk of physical trauma, malnutrition, and infectious and psychiatric diseases associated with displacement (Lustig et al., 2004; Toole & Waldman, 1993). Increased prevalence and severity of asthma due to a rise in air pollutants, including ozone and elevated pollen counts (Kim, Lim, & Kim, 2014).

Children will be especially vulnerable to these health impacts due to their immature physiology and metabolism, incomplete development, higher exposure to air, food, and water per unit body weight, and dependence on caregivers (­Sheffield & Landrigan, 2011). It has been estimated that 88% of the existing global burden of disease attributable to climate change occurs in children under five years of age (Zhang, Bi, & Hiller, 2007). Children in the world’s poorest countries are most affected by climate change (Haines, Kovats, Campbell-­ Lendrum, & Corcalan, 2010). Finally, global climate change is already a major contributor to the massive displacement of populations. Disasters, increased droughts, desertification, sea level rises, the disruption of seasonal weather patterns such as monsoons, and civil conflicts resulting from the depletion of natural resources have produced a new group of ecological or climate refugees who are forced to migrate due to

34  Lawrence A. Palinkas and Marleen Wong sudden or long-term changes to their local environment that compromise their well-being or livelihood (Myers, 1993). In just two years, 2010 and 2011, 42 million people in the Asia-Pacific region were displaced due to disasters caused by climate change. Large parts of cities, such as Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Manila, and Bangkok, are at risk of flooding and water scarcity challenges as saltwater intrusion contaminates freshwater supplies. Moreover, the number of people at risk in Asian coastal cities could rise from 300 million in 2015 to 410 million by 2025 (Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, 2016). There are five “hot spots” in the Pacific that are likely to become source areas for climate change-related migrants: (a) urban areas; (b) urban atolls; (c) nonurban atolls; (d) coastal, delta, and riverine communities; and (e) communities prone to drought (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, 2014). While displacement is most likely to occur within countries, international migration, especially from island states, is also underway and is likely to increase, especially as low- and middle-income nations in particular lack the resources for relocation and resettlement of their own citizens. Whether internal or transnational, these population shifts will have significant implications for the Asia-Pacific region, straining infrastructure capacities and economic resources and creating new social challenges associated with changing community demographics (IPCC, 2014). While all humans are impacted by climate change, these challenges disproportionately affect those of less economic privilege or social status (Mearns & Norton, 2010; Preston et al., 2014; World Bank, 2013). These groups include minorities, women, children, older adults, rural and urban poor, and individuals with a history of mental or behavioral health problems, as well as low-­income and geographically vulnerable individual communities and entire nations. Disproportionate impacts include climate-related disruptions in subsistence-­ dependent ecosystems, employment and income, escalating food insecurity, and the destruction of homes and community infrastructure and institutions in low-­ income communities and nations (Leichenko & Silva, 2014). The poorest and most marginalized populations are especially vulnerable to high-­intensity events like natural disasters. Therefore, climate and related environmental changes “have social justice implications that demand consideration” (Doherty & ­Clayton, 2011, p. 265).

Creating social responses to climate change Social workers are well positioned to play a leading role in addressing the human impacts of environmental change in four major areas: (a) disaster preparedness and response; (b) population dislocation; (c) community-level organization and development aimed at strengthening the local and regional capacity to respond to the impacts of global environmental change, particularly in urban settings; and (d) mitigation, or targeted policy, advocacy, and practice engagement in ­efforts to address the underlying causes of environmental change. In this chapter, we focus on the first three of these four areas; the fourth is addressed in a separate publication (Kemp & Palinkas, 2015).

Social sustainability and global climate change  35 Disaster preparedness and response Palinkas (2012, 2015) proposed a conceptual model of disaster impacts and response that identifies three levels or tiers of impacts of both natural and technological disasters: biopsychosocial impacts that are direct consequences of the destruction of the physical environment (Tier I); interpersonal impacts that are both direct consequences of the biopsychosocial impacts and mediators of the relationship between the biopsychosocial and intrapersonal impacts (Tier II); and intrapersonal or behavioral health impacts that are consequences of both the biopsychosocial and the interpersonal impacts (Tier III). These impacts are illustrated in Figure 3.1. Tier I impacts include damage to ecosystems and biodiversity, organization and management of cleanup activities, short-term and long-term economic and cultural impacts, impacts on services and infrastructure, health effects related to exposure to environmental hazards, and litigation related to compensation for damages. Tier II impacts include a reduction in the levels of social support, an increase in the levels of social conflict, and an increase in collective uncertainty about the future and long-term consequences of the disaster event. Tier III impacts include increases in the incidence of psychiatric disorders, drug and alcohol abuse and dependence, stress-related physical and mental health symptoms, domestic violence, and child behavioral problems. Although this model was designed to account for impacts of acute events such as disasters, it may also apply to longer-term changes in climate. Tier I Environmental

Tier II Community

Tier III Intrapersonal

Cleanup

Reduced social support

Psychiatric disorder

Economic Impacts Cultural Impacts Health Impacts

Increased social conflict

Uncertainty

Litigation Risk and resilience characteristics

Substance abuse Physical symptoms Domestic violence

Child behavior

Figure 3.1  T  hree-tier model of prevention and mitigation of climate change human impacts.

36  Lawrence A. Palinkas and Marleen Wong Associated with each of these tiers of impacts are tiers of disaster preparedness and response. Programs and practices designed to build behavioral resilience in individuals, families, and communities may serve to prevent or reduce the incidence and magnitude of biopsychosocial impacts in the aftermath of a disaster. Over the past 10 years, community-based disaster management and participatory disaster planning have emerged as broad strategies for building such resilience (Pelling, 2007). As a further innovation warranting new empirical study, social work is uniquely positioned to integrate these broad approaches with more specific interventions that could be applied to disaster planning and prevention. Existing interventions such as the Strengthening Families Program (SFP) (Kumpfer, Molgaard, & Spoth, 1996), a family skills training program designed to increase resilience and reduce risk factors for behavioral, emotional, academic, and social problems in children aged 3–16, Coping with Work and Family Stress (Snow, Swan, & Wilton, 2002), a workplace preventive intervention designed to teach employees aged 18 and older how to deal with stressors at work and at home, and the Communities That Care (CTC) program (Hawkins & Catalano, 2002), a community-based manualized prevention intervention that mobilizes and empowers communities to adopt an evidence-based framework for the implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) to prevent adolescent substance use and other behavioral health problems, may serve as models for the development of interventions that build resilience in families and communities before a disaster strikes. Climate change-specific versions of these interventions could potentially address Tier II interpersonal and Tier III intrapersonal impacts simultaneously. While these activities are intended to prevent adverse behavioral health impacts, there exist numerous evidence-based treatments (EBTs) for these impacts once they have occurred. Examples of such treatments include Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) (Cohen, Mannarino, & Deblinger, 2006), a 12-session individual or conjoint intervention that includes both child and parent, and is typically delivered in clinics, and Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) (Jaycox, 2004), a 10-group session and 1–3 individual session interventions designed specifically for use in schools. These interventions have been found to be effective in improving post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other symptoms in children experiencing disaster (Cohen, Deblinger, Mannarino, & Steer, 2004; Kataoka et al., 2003; Stein et al., 2003). By reducing adverse intrapersonal health outcomes during the post-disaster period, treatments like TF-CBT and CBITS have the potential for addressing interpersonal Tier II impacts as well. Another intervention that has been increasingly used post-­disaster is Psychological First Aid (PFA) (Forbes et al., 2011). PFA includes the provision of information, comfort, emotional support, and instrumental support to those exposed to an event, with assistance provided in a stepwise fashion tailored to the person’s needs. PFA may also be used to address Tier I and Tier II impacts by serving as a form of risk assessment and referral to health services during a disaster and by providing social support and facilitating connections to social support networks (North & Pfefferbaum, 2013; Palinkas, 2015).

Social sustainability and global climate change  37 However, the evidence supporting the use of these interventions in both shortterm and long-term disaster recovery and addressing the psychosocial impacts of other manifestations of climate change is limited. Research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of existing EBPs in these contexts. Given the robust evidence of socioeconomic and cultural differences in both the vulnerability to the impacts of climate change in general and to the impacts and responses to disasters and disaster-related interventions in particular (Norris, 1992; Palinkas, 2012), an important cross-cutting dimension in these efforts will be contributions to adapting interventions to ensure they are responsive to both structured inequities and cultural and ethnic differences. Research is also needed to develop an evidence-based strategy or strategies for the implementation of these interventions by social workers and other disaster responders. Moreover, behavioral mental health interventions are but one of many “interventions” that are essential in developing adequate responses to disasters. Particularly critical are community- and policy-level efforts to strengthen the “safety net” of response structures and actions that local and national governments might or might not have in place. In many low- and middle-income countries, a largely uncoordinated patchwork of in-country foundations and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) is often the only resource available to mount a sufficient disaster response and recovery effort. Social work knowledge and skills are relevant to building response capacity: for example, by training NGOs or federal or regional officials responsible for preserving the lives of disaster victims or helping to coordinate and integrate services provided by the government, private foundations, NGOs, and religious institutions.

Population dislocation Social workers can begin to anticipate and address the needs of climate refugees in a tiered approach similar to that proposed for disaster preparedness and response. Tier I efforts would include services designed to assist with relocation and resettlement, either in countries of origin or in other countries less impacted by climate change. These efforts include designing and coordinating community support programs, advocating for stronger refugee resettlement services, and providing assistance in locating housing and employment opportunities. Most importantly, social workers can serve as advocates for changes in policies that provide legal status and benefit entitlement as refugees to those forced to migrate for environmental reasons. At the present time, the international legal definition of the term ‘refugee’ also excludes those who move not as a result of persecution, but as a consequence of natural disasters (such as drought, floods, or earthquakes), environmental factors, or famine. They are excluded even though they may need international protection and assistance because their home country cannot or will not provide these things. The terms ‘forced migrants’ or ‘forced displacement’ are used to describe people in these circumstances. (Russell, 2002)

38  Lawrence A. Palinkas and Marleen Wong Tier II efforts would address the potential social conflicts arising from population movement of refugees in general, including cultural and ethnic differences and competition for limited resources and employment opportunities. From the moment of arrival, refugees may compete with local citizens for scarce resources such as water, food, housing, and medical services. Their presence increases the demands for education, health services, infrastructure such as water supply, sanitation, and transportation, and also in some cases, for natural resources such as grazing and firewood. (World Bank, 2013) Conflict resolution, team-building activities, and efforts to reduce uncertainty among both migrating populations and host communities would be critical to reducing the potential for conflicts resulting from such impacts. Tier III efforts would be focused on the delivery of EBPs designed to address the physical, mental, and behavioral health needs of climate refugees. Unfortunately, the use of evidence-based methods has yet to substantially affect the field of migration medicine (Pottie et al., 2011). The Canadian Collaboration on Immigrant and Refugee Health established a series of clinical guidelines for immigrant and refugee populations targeting infectious diseases, mental health and maltreatment, noncommunicable diseases, and women’s health that could be easily adapted to working with climate refugee populations (Pottie et al., 2011).

Community sustainability Social sustainability does not occur in isolation but is intimately linked to environmental and economic sustainability. It is assumed that the responsibility for, and benefits of, capacity building and empowerment, resilience building, social innovations and social enterprise, education, and advocacy are available to all members of society, and do not contribute to further disparities in climate change impacts. Because “understandings of, and responses to, climate change will be influenced by worldviews, cultures, and social identities” (Swim, Clayton, & Howard, 2011, p. 248), efforts to promote social sustainability must take into consideration existing patterns of knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to climate change causes and consequences, and foster the development of new sets of shared understandings, values, and expectations that fit the changing ecological realities. Integral to climate change adaptation is the development of resilient communities (National Research Council, 2011). As with disaster preparedness and response, building social sustainability requires efforts at all three tiers of climate change impacts. Such an approach involves the use of microlevel interventions to promote individual well-being and prevent or treat the occurrence of mental and behavioral health problems that impede the capacity of individuals to participate in, and contribute to, social sustainability (Tier III); mezzo-level interventions designed to promote social inclusion and connectedness (Aldrich &

Social sustainability and global climate change  39 Meyer, 2015), enhance community and neighborhood social capital (Aldrich & Meyer, 2015) and social assets (Delgado & Humm-Delgado, 2013), minimize social conflict and fragmentation, meaningfully involve community residents and stakeholders in proactive planning and participatory development, and build environments that encourage social interaction and collaboration and integrate informal and formal support systems (Tier II); and macro-level interventions designed to foster social development and address underlying sociostructural vulnerabilities, including economic inequality and chronic poverty (Tier I). One well-tested community-based intervention designed to foster individual, family, and community sustainability and resilience is asset building, a social development strategy aimed at reducing economic inequality around the world (Sherraden, 2014). The human ability to absorb economic shocks associated with environmental changes depends largely on the household asset base. Environmental disasters often lead to partial or total loss of household assets and reduced potential for income generation, resulting in low coping capacity and further vulnerability (De la Fuente, 2007; World Bank, 2008). However, despite the increasing attention being given to asset accumulation as a risk mitigation strategy, there are few empirical studies on asset-based strategies for the purpose of climate adaptation (Moser & Satterthwaite, 2010).

Case study: Typhoon Haiyan and sustainability in the Philippines The University of Southern California (USC) Humanitarian Mission was developed in response to the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan. Also known as Typhoon Yolanda, it is reported to be the deadliest Philippine typhoon on record. Just weeks after the central Philippines was hit by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake, the even more destructive Category 5 typhoon ravaged the southern islands of Leyte and Samar on 8 November 2013. According to the Philippine National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, 6,183 were reported dead, and hundreds of individuals were reported missing. UN officials reported that 16 million people were affected by the typhoon and about 4.1 million people were displaced. More than 1.5 million of these individuals were under the age of five. The USC Humanitarian Mission to the Philippines was inspired by the traditional Philippine concept of Bayanihan, the Tagalog/Filipino word for “collective spirit.” It also refers to the traditional collaborative method of building communities and moving houses. The Mission members were faculty members and staff from the USC School of Social Work. Each member of the Mission was personally and professionally committed to helping rebuild stronger communities in typhoon-ravaged areas by strengthening the knowledge, skills, and recovery capacity of existing “in-country” organizations, institutions, and ­Philippine-based NGOs. A fact-finding trip was made by USC team members to Tacloban and Samar (the hardest hit areas) to interview local residents, NGOs, community-based organizations, and governmental institutions, using local guides, to observe

40  Lawrence A. Palinkas and Marleen Wong firsthand the current situation and needs, the support systems in place, and the existing gaps in services. Public schools not completely destroyed by the typhoon were used as evacuation centers. Classes in these schools did not resume for more than two months after the typhoon. The USC visited two tent schools operated by UNICEF. The elementary school conducted classes for Grades 1–3 in the morning and Grades 4–6 in the afternoon. The day care program operated throughout the day. Caregivers were not equipped to deal with emotional and psychosocial issues. They were victims and not getting the support they needed. Caregivers and teachers expressed the need for training and more intensive psychosocial support for themselves and for the students. Other support services operating in the region at the time included professors and students from the University of the Philippines, who conducted psychosocial debriefings of elementary-aged children in a house made into makeshift classrooms. This group of volunteers expressed a strong interest in partnering/ collaborating and getting technical support and training to address the longterm needs of the patients, students, and the immediate community. Services were also provided by the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, a Taiwanese NGO completely manned by volunteers. The Foundation initiated the local “cash for work” program in which local residents were hired to clear their communities of debris, especially that blocking roads, thereby significantly jump-starting trade, commerce, and relief efforts in the area. The organization gave out 500 pesos a day to about 300,000 individuals, providing local residents with a means of livelihood. The outcome of the fact-finding trip led to further understanding of the longterm post-disaster needs and lack of consistent knowledge and skills. It helped the team develop more realistic and culturally informed modifications to the training, which would need to be provided in several phases over the next several years. Invitations were extended to NGOs, institutions, private foundations, and governmental organizations for a two-day training workshop on different topics with the goal of building participants’ knowledge and skills in the recovery and community-rebuilding process. The capacity-building training included the following topics in one-hour-long presentations with interactive planning, participant discussion, and practice activities infused throughout: • • • • • • • • •

Overview of the Phases of Disaster Response and Recovery The Post-Disaster Needs of the Elderly Orphans of the Storm and International Adoptions Child Trafficking – Increased Risks for Child Victims Building School Wellness Centers After Disasters The Spectrum of Human Psychosocial Services Post Disaster and the Core Concepts of Psychological First Aid Compassion Fatigue, Responder Trauma, and the Importance of Self-Care Collective Impact and Social Innovation Planning for the Future Phases of Disaster / Developing New Partnerships / Working in Small Groups

Social sustainability and global climate change  41 Our original invitation was to 20 individuals, but in a matter of a few days, 104 RSVPs were received. Eighty participants registered for each day of the event. Participants commented positively on the rare opportunity to work with ­individuals with differing points of view and from diverse geographic and ­socioeconomic backgrounds. They also noted the lack of an integrated local, regional, and national process and infrastructure for disaster response and recovery. Larger, more established institutions and organizations expressed strong interest in continued collaboration and consultation with USC. USC team members also held meetings with USC alumni involved in social responsibility and corporate giving programs who revealed a strong commitment to supporting future USC humanitarian efforts. The feedback provided by participants showed positive responses to the training as well as further requests for more knowledge, technical support, and specific intervention skill building. In February 2014, the Undersecretary of the Federal Department of Education of the Philippine Islands asked Dr. Wong and Professor Villaverde for their assistance in creating a training program that would help build a new infrastructure of disaster response and recovery for the country. Schools were the focal point of services and response and recovery efforts. The work with the Department of Education (DepED) was to train social workers, counselors, teachers, psychologists, and other “in-country” professionals in specific evidence-based and evidence-informed interventions, including Psychological First Aid/Listen Protect Connect (PFA/LPC), Support for Students Exposed to Trauma (SSET), Healing After Trauma Skills (HATS), and CBITS, which could be used with children and adult survivors. There were also discussions about how to build wellness centers in schools. Dr. Wong and Professor Vivien Villaverde were involved in the planning for the training with the DepED, requested for December 2014 during the typhoon’s anniversary period. Planning meetings were held in May in Manila to refine the training topics to reflect the cultural sensitivity and current resources in the 17 regions and 81 provinces. In 2016, Drs. Wong and Villaverde returned to the Philippines to conduct a similar training program with members of the Philippines Peace Corps.

Conclusion There is a need for social work leadership in three sets of activities related to global climate change: (a) individual-, group-, and community-level i­nterventions to facilitate emotional expression and collective dialogue, enhance self- and collective efficacy, and foster effective mitigation and adaptation behaviors; (b) efforts to promote the understanding of, and response to, the large-scale psychosocial impacts resulting from regional environmental degradation, scarcity of ­resources, increased intergroup conflicts, forced migrations, loss of homeland, and threats to cultural practices impacting the health and relationships of the earth’s most vulnerable individuals and communities; and (c) addressing factors contributing to the social and economic disparities of climate change ­impacts (Doherty & Clayton, 2011). Building sustainable lives affected by global climate

42  Lawrence A. Palinkas and Marleen Wong change will require the implementation of microlevel interventions designed to ­ ezzo-level foster resilience and the ability to cope with environmental changes, m interventions designed to build support networks and manage conflict within social groups resulting from the unequal distribution of impacts, and macro-level interventions designed to foster social development in a changing ecological setting. Building sustainable societies will require the development of cultures or sets of shared understandings with the causes and consequences of environmental degradation associated with values and expectations that fit the changing ecological reality. While the science of disaster response, refugee resettlement, resilience building, and the prevention of, and adaptation to, environmental change has made substantial advances in the past decade, the translation of effective, evidence-based interventions, policies, and programs requires additional efforts aimed at developing a new subdiscipline of “ecosocial work.” Such a development requires an understanding of the barriers and facilitators entailed in reorienting tested social, community, and behavioral strategies to address environmental challenges, the development and evaluation of new interventions, and the development of evidence-based strategies to facilitate the implementation, scaling up, and sustainment of these interventions.

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4 Operationalizing and measuring social, economic, and environmental sustainability Current efforts and future directions Mary L. Ohmer What is social, economic, and environmental sustainability? What indicators are the most relevant and helpful for measuring progress toward addressing global environmental, social, and economic challenges? What can social workers learn from other fields regarding how to define and measure efforts to sustain the Earth’s resources? Social workers must be able to answer these questions if we want to make an impact in advancing social, economic, and environmental sustainability strategies in our own communities and countries, and across the globe. This chapter describes efforts to operationalize and measure social and environmental sustainability. While social workers are becoming increasingly engaged in environmental and social sustainability and environmental justice (e.g., Global Definition of Social Work [IFSW, n.d.; IASSW, n.d.]; the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development [The Authors, 2014]; Dominelli’s [2014] promotion of green social work), they have not been at the forefront of operationalizing, measuring, or developing sustainability indicators. In fact, the majority of global sustainability indicators come from ecological economists as well as environmental and international development organizations, including the United Nations. There have also been more recent efforts to assess regional and local sustainability, including developing indicators and assessing local programs and policies. This chapter begins by discussing various approaches for conceptualizing and operationalizing sustainability. This is followed by a description of some of the most widely used global sustainability indicators, including an illustration of these indicators for selected Asian countries. Regional approaches for assessing progress toward sustainability are then discussed, along with tools and resources that social workers can use to examine global, regional, and local sustainability indicators and issues. Finally, implications for social work are presented, including enhancing social work research and collaborations with other disciplines to advance regional and global social, economic, and environmental sustainability.

Measuring social, economic and environmental sustainability  47

Operationalizing and measuring sustainability The term “sustainability” was first introduced in the book The World Conservation Strategy in 1980 (International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), & World Wildlife Fund (WWF), 1980) and then further defined in terms of sustainable development in the Brundtland Report in 1987 (World Commission on Environment and Development [WCED], 1987) as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (as cited in Siche, Agostinho, Ortega, & Romeiro, 2008, p. 3). Indicators for measuring sustainability were initially discussed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992 (United ­Nations, 1992a, 1992b), which also introduced the idea of the triple bottom line: environmental, economic, and social sustainability (Elkington, 1997). The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development that resulted from the UNCED stated that “human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature” (United Nations, 1992b). The UNCED report argued that: Commonly used indicators of individual resources or pollution flows do not provide adequate indications of sustainability. Methods for assessing interactions between different parameters (environmental, demographic, social and developmental) are not sufficiently developed or applied. Indicators of sustainable development need to be developed to provide solid bases for decision-making at all levels and to contribute to a self-regulating sustainability of integrated environment and development systems. (Chapter 40, United Nations, 1992a) The development of sustainability indicators exploded after the UNCED, with some estimates exceeding 500 measures (Parris & Kates, 2003, as cited in Magee, Scerri, & James, 2012). The proliferation of indicators “stems from the many divergent views and corresponding definitions of sustainability,” including strong and weak definitions (Atkinson, 2000, as cited in Magee et al., 2012), top-down (expert) vs. bottom-up (community) indicators (Fraser et al., 2006 as cited in Magee et al., 2012), and economic, ecological, and holistic measures (Bramley & Power, 2009; Singh, Murty, Gupta, & Dikshit, 2009 as cited in Magee et al., 2012, p. 243). So, how are the triple bottom-line concepts of environmental, economic, and social sustainability defined? Two social work scholars, Gamble and Weil (2010), offer the following definitions: Environmental sustainability includes the ability to have access to finite resources in the biosphere and natural capital (e.g., water, food, minerals, fisheries, fertile soil, and oxygen), economic sustainability includes the ability to have opportunities to achieve a wide variety of livelihoods and wages that meet a family’s basic needs (e.g., infrastructure and information), and social sustainability includes the ability to have access to supportive social institutions and relationships (e.g., families, neighbors, the arts, governments, education, and culture).

48  Mary L. Ohmer However, there has been considerable global debate over how sustainability is defined and measured. Some scholars argue that the Brundtland Commission (WCED, 1987) and UNCED (1992a, 1992b) definition of sustainability is “so all embracing that it is impossible not to agree with it.” The vagueness of the sustainability concept has led to controversy and the lack of a generally accepted global definition of sustainability (Daly, 1996; Novacek & Mederly, 2015). An examination of over 78 sustainability tools found that few came close to being holistic, inclusive, and multidimensional, or capable of accurately examining social, environmental, and economic issues together with other factors that influence sustainability, such as political, technical, or legal issues (Levett-Therivel, 2004, as cited in Scerri, 2010). Levett-Therivel (2004), therefore, argues that those using and/or developing sustainability measures should examine the tool’s “fitness for purpose” so that the tool actually measures what one is intending to measure. That being said, there are several global sustainability indicators that are more widely used and accepted. The development of these global indicators was also a response to the inadequacy of the gross domestic product (GDP) in illustrating progress toward not only sustainability but also quality of life. The following section begins by discussing some of the major arguments regarding the inadequacies of the GDP and the rationale for more comprehensive measures. This is followed by a description of the most widely used global sustainability indicators, along with a review and comparison of these indicators for several Asian countries.

The inadequacy of the GDP as a measure of sustainability One of the most widely used indicators of economic development and prosperity is the GDP. However, there are many limitations regarding the ability of the GDP to illustrate sustainability and quality of life. Ecological economists argue that “the continued growth of macroeconomic systems is both ecologically unsustainable and existentially undesirable” (Lawn, 2003, p. 105). The threshold hypothesis espoused by ecological economists states that “when macroeconomic systems expand beyond a certain size, the additional benefits of growth are exceeded by the attendant costs” (Max-Neef, 1995 as cited in Lawn, 2003, p. 105). In other words, “up to a point, the growth of macroeconomic systems is beneficial to human well-­ being; beyond this point, growth appears to be detrimental” (Lawn, 2003, p. 106). The GDP is a measure of the state’s economic performance based on the monetary value of domestically located goods and services on an annual basis, while the gross national product, or GNP, measures domestically owned goods and services (Lawn, 2003; Novacek & Mederly, 2015). The GDP is often used to measure quality of life; however, it leaves other important indicators of prosperity, including services people conduct outside the official market (e.g., housework), as well as unreported earnings, and activity in the underground or gray economy (Novacek & Mederly, 2015, p. 8). The GDP does not take into account environmental sustainability issues, including environmental damage, or the long-term damage caused by using nonrenewable resources (Novacek & Mederly, 2015).

Measuring social, economic and environmental sustainability  49 Therefore, there is a need to focus on sustainability or sustainable economic and social development rather than solely on economic growth (Lawn, 2003).

Global sustainability indicators Table 4.1 presents alternatives to the GDP that are used to measure social, economic, and/or environmental sustainability, which are described in greater detail later, including the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW), the Human Development Index (HDI), the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), the Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI), and the Ecological Footprint. Table 4.2 provides a comparison of several of these indicators for selected Asian countries, including the HDI, EPI, EVI, and Ecological Footprint. Table 4.1  Summary of Major Global Sustainability Indicators Index/Indicator

Purpose

Measures/Areas

• Long-term An aggregated indicator Index of Sustainable consequences of of economic personal Economic Welfare environmental damage: consumption, which also (ISEW); Genuine cost of air, water, includes social welfare Progress Indicator (GPI) and noise pollution, and environmental (Daly & Cobb, 1989) lost farmland, lost quality. Takes into wetlands, ozone account quality of life. depletion, drawing of Primary focus: social and nonrenewable resources economic sustainability • Changes in income distribution • Value of housework, volunteering, and education • Crime • Changes in leisure time • Dependence on foreign assets • Lifespan of consumer durables and public infrastructure • Chances of a long and Measures quality of life in Human Development healthy life three overall areas: a long Index (HDI) • Life expectancy and healthy life, being (UNDP, n.d.) • Access to resources for a knowledgeable, and dignified life having a decent standard • Gross national of living. income (GNI) per Primary focus: social and capita economic sustainability • Access to knowledge • Expected years of schooling • Mean years of schooling (Continued)

50  Mary L. Ohmer Index/Indicator

Purpose

Ranks countries’ Environmental performance on highPerformance Index (EPI) priority environmental (YCELP & WEF, 2014) issues in nine policy areas to assess two overall areas: protection of human health and protection of ecosystems. Primary focus: environmental sustainability, and social sustainability related to health Utilizes 50 “smart Environmental indicators” to measure Vulnerability Index the key elements (EVI) of environmental vulnerability: captures a large number of elements in a complex interactive system while simultaneously showing how the value obtained relates to some ideal conditions. Primary focus: environmental sustainability and social sustainability related to health Ecological Footprint Measures the demand for natural resources: how fast we consume resources and generate waste compared to how fast nature can absorb our waste and generate new resources. Primary focus: environmental sustainability

Measures/Areas • • • • • • • • •

Health impacts Air quality Water and sanitation Water resources Agriculture Forests Fisheries Biodiversity and habitat Climate and energy

• • • • • • •

Climate change Biodiversity Water Agriculture and fisheries Human health Desertification Exposure to natural disasters

• Consumption of resources: settlement, timber and paper, energy, food and fiber, and seafood • Absorption and generation: carbon footprint (CO2 absorption), built-up land, forest, cropland and pasture, fisheries

Sources: Hsu (2016); Novacek and Mederly (2015); Redefining Progress (n.d.); Siche et al. (2008); UNDP (n.d.)

Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare, also called the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), and the Sustainable Net Benefit Index (SNBI) The ISEW measures the sustainable economic welfare or progress of a nation’s citizens at a specific point in time, taking into account past and present activities

Measuring social, economic and environmental sustainability  51 (Lawn, 2003). The ISEW includes data from “the national accounts of the transactions deemed directly relevant to human well-being” (Redefining Progress, 1995, as cited in Lawn, 2003, p. 107). The ISEW also includes adjustments “to account for the benefits and costs of economic activity that the GDP ignores” (Lawn, 2003, p. 108). The ISEW, or GPI (more recent name), approximates sustainable economic welfare. For example, a nation that made historical structural adjustments to operate sustainability and equitably would have a lower ISEW in the past but a higher ISEW “in the present to reflect the ensuring benefits and the deceleration of increasing social and environmental costs” (Lawn, 2005, p. 188). In his research, Lawn (2003, 2005) demonstrates the theoretical validity and valuation methods of the ISEW and its adaptations, arguing that it is more theoretically sound than conventional measures of national income such as the GDP. Redefining Progress (n.d.) states that the “GPI is one of the first alternatives to the GDP to be vetted by the scientific community and used regularly by governmental and nongovernmental organizations worldwide.” They advocate “for the adoption of the GPI as a tool for sustainable development and planning.” However, N ­ ovacek and Mederly (2015) argue that while the ISEW or GPI is an improvement over the GDP, it still has not earned as widespread recognition or use as the GDP. The HDI was developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and has been regularly used and published to measure quality of life since 1990 (Novacek & Mederly, 2015). The UNDP states that “the HDI was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone” (UNDP, n.d.). The HDI is a “summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living” (UNDP, n.d.). Socialist countries often score higher on the HDI than the GDP because of their focus on universal education, literacy, and medicine, while countries exporting oil, including the Near East, score lower because of the unequal position and literacy rates of women (Novacek & Mederly, 2015). Table 4.2 shows the HDI for selected Asian countries. The HDI ranges from 0 to 0.100, with higher values and rankings demonstrating more advanced progress in human development. So for example, Hong Kong has a high human development global ranking (12) and score (0.910), while Myanmar has much lower human development, and is ranked 148 with a score of 0.536. The UNDP (n.d.) has also prepared regional and local human development reports since 1992. These reports allow stakeholders to examine regional differences in human development within their own countries, which helps with benchmarking, planning, and policy development, as well as with raising public awareness and resources to assist the most vulnerable members of their societies (UNDP, n.d.). For example, the reports can be used to develop goals and benchmarks for poverty reduction and human development, as well as plans and approaches for national, regional, and international action (UNDP, n.d.). The HDI data and resources allow you to create country- and regional-level human development reports and are accessible via their tool kit on the UNDP website (http://hdr.undp.org/en/country-reports).

52  Mary L. Ohmer Table 4.2  Sustainability Indicators for Selected Asian Countries Ecological Footprint Per Capita (2012) Global Hectares (GHA) (Rank)

Country

Human Development Index (2014) Number (Rank)

Environmental Performance Index (2016) Number (Rank)

Environmental Vulnerability Index (2005) (Country Classification)

Cambodia China Hong Kong (China) Japan

0.555 (143) 0.727 (90) 0.910 (12)

51.24 (146) 65.1 (109) N/A

Vulnerable 1.2 GHA (122) Highly Vulnerable 3.4 GHA (52) Vulnerable N/A

0.891 (20)

80.59 (39)

Korea, Dem Republic Malaysia Myanmar Philippines

0.898 (17)

70.61 (80)

Extremely 5.0 GHA (30) Vulnerable Highly Vulnerable 1.2 GHA (124)

0.779 (62) 0.536 (148) 0.668 (115)

74.23 (63) 48.98 (153) 73.7 (66)

Thailand Vietnam

0.726 (93) 0.666 (116)

69.54 (91) 58.5 (131)

Vulnerable Vulnerable Extremely Vulnerable Vulnerable Highly Vulnerable

3.7 GHA (46) 1.4 GHA (106) 1.1 GHA (129) 2.7 GHA (72) 1.7 GHA (97)

Sources: EVI Country Classification (n.d.); Hsu (2016); National Footprint Accounts (2016); UNDP (n.d.)

The EPI was developed by Yale University at their Center for Environmental Law and Policy in cooperation with Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network at the 2000 World Economic Forum (Siche et al., 2008). The EPI views environmental sustainability as a multidimensional phenomenon that reflects “the ability to maintain valued environmental assets over the next several decades and to manage problems that emerge from changing environmental conditions” (Esty et al., 2005, as cited in Siche et al., 2008). The purpose of the EPI is “to provide quantitative metrics for evaluating a country’s environmental performance in different policy categories relative to clearly defined targets” (YCELP & WEF, 2014). According to the EPI website, the index ranks 178 countries on 20 performance indicators in nine policy categories that track performance and progress on two broad policy objectives: environmental health and ecosystem vitality. The “EPI indicators measure country proximity to meeting internationally established targets or, in the absence of agreed targets, how nations compare to one another” (Hsu, 2016, p. 11). The EPI is also aligned with the United Nations’ new Sustainable Development Goals adopted in September 2015, providing a baseline for evaluating national performance against global targets (Hsu, 2016). The EPI is also a useful “diagnostic tool for countries to look internally for areas of weakness and strength” (Hsu, 2016, p. 11). The EPI report provides insights into global environmental performance, identifying key trends and high-priority sustainability and environmental issues (Hsu,

Measuring social, economic and environmental sustainability  53 2016). Hsu and colleagues (2016) state that the EPI measures environmental health by “reflecting global synergies among environmental issues as well as areas where the world’s nations show little improvement or, worse, are regressing” (p. 21). The EPI allows nations to follow their own progress, but also the progress of other nations, their region, and the rest of the world. The EPI’s wide popularity is due in part to the promotion by the powerful World Economic Forum (Siche et al., 2008). Table 4.2 provides the EPI values and rankings for selected Asian countries. The EPI ranges from 0 to 100, with higher values indicating greater environmental sustainability. Japan has an EPI of 80.59 out of 100 and is ranked 39 globally, while Myanmar is ranked lower, with an EPI of 48.98 and a global ranking of 153. The EVI was developed by the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to complement current evaluations of economic and social vulnerability by measuring environmental vulnerability (Novacek & Mederly, 2015). The purpose of the EVI is to provide a rapid and standardised method for characterising vulnerability in an overall sense, and identifying issues that may need to be addressed within each of the three pillars of sustainability, namely environmental, economic and social aspects of a country’s development. (UNEP & SOPAC, 2005, p. 2) The EVI defines vulnerability in the following way: Vulnerability can be defined as the potential for attributes of any system, human or natural, to respond adversely to events. Hazardous events are those that can lead to loss of diversity, extent, quality and function of ecosystems. These changes are often described as damage to the biological integrity or health of ecosystems, and therefore their ability to keep supporting humans. These may include natural hazards as well as human pressures. Vulnerability to damage arises from a combination of the inherent characteristics of a country, the forces of nature and human use, including the special case of climate change. (UNEP & SOPAC, 2005, p. 4) The EVI measures how vulnerable each aspect of sustainability is and identifies ways to build resilience (UNEP & SPOAC, 2005). It simultaneously examines how current levels of risk and social, economic, and environmental conditions predict “how the environment is likely to cope with future events” (UNEP & SOPAC, 2005, p. 4). Then, “based on this information, measures for increasing the resistance of endangered components may be proposed. In the case of environmental vulnerability it involves mainly an increase in the ecosystems’ resistance” (Novacek & Mederly, 2015, p. 11). Countries are not given numerical scores but are classified according to their level of vulnerability as extremely vulnerable, highly vulnerable, vulnerable, or resilient. Interestingly, while Japan’s scores were fairly high on the HDI and EPI, it is classified as extremely vulnerable

54  Mary L. Ohmer on the EVI, and while Myanmar scored lower on the HDI and EPI, it is classified as vulnerable on the EVI. Japan may have scored higher on the EVI because its environment has been severely damaged in the more recent past and therefore the country is more likely to be at risk of damage from future environmental events. The Ecological Footprint was introduced by several scholars in the early to mid1990s to “calculate the necessary land area for the production and maintenance of goods and services consumed by a determined community” (Rees, 1992; Wackernagel & Rees, 1996, 1997, as cited in Siche et al., 2008, p. 629). The Ecological Footprint “expresses the consumption of natural resources by global hectares per capita, which are a comparative unit of the consumption of natural resources and the actual capacity of biologically productive areas of the earth” (Rees, 1992, as cited in Novacek & Mederly, 2015, p. 12). The advantage of the Ecological Footprint is that “it can be assessed at the global, national, local and even at the individual level” (Novacek & Mederly, 2015, p. 12). According to the Global Footprint Network (n.d.), the Ecological Footprint measures the “supply of and demand on nature.” The biocapacity (supply side) includes biologically productive land areas (forests, pastures, cropland, and fisheries), which, if left unharvested, can absorb the waste we generate, especially carbon emissions. Biocapacity is then compared with humanity’s demand on nature. The Ecological Footprint “represents the productive area required to provide the renewable resources humanity is using and to absorb its waste, (and) the productive area currently occupied by human infrastructure … since built-up land is not available for resource regeneration” (Global Footprint Network, n.d.). According to the Global Footprint Network (n.d.), “Since the 1970s, humanity has been in ecological overshoot with annual demand on resources exceeding what Earth can regenerate each year.” Table 4.2 presents the Ecological Footprint scores per capita for selected Asian nations, which is “a nation’s total Ecological Footprint divided by the total population of the nation.” According to National Footprint Accounts (2016), To live within the means of our planet’s resources, the world’s Ecological Footprint would have to equal the available biocapacity per person on our planet, which is currently 1.7 global hectares. So if a nation’s Ecological Footprint per capita is 6.8 global hectares, its citizens are demanding four times the resources and waste products that our planet can regenerate and absorb in the atmosphere. Table 4.2 illustrates that Japan, which also scores worse on the EVI, also has a worse Ecological Footprint per capita of 5.0 GHA (global hectares), and is ranked at 30, while the Philippines’ score is 1.1 with a ranking of 129. Using this analysis, Japan’s citizens are demanding 3.3 times the resources and waste that our planet can regenerate and absorb in the atmosphere, while the Philippines is actually demanding 0.6 times less. In summary, the Ecological Footprint, the EVI, and the EPI are more comparable because they focus on environmental and human health indicators of sustainability, while the GPI and HDI focus more on social sustainability because of their focus on social and human development. This illustrates the importance

Measuring social, economic and environmental sustainability  55 of not only understanding the overall scores, rankings, and/or classifications of countries on each of these indices but also the nature of measures used in the overall calculation of each of these global indicators (which are described in Table 4.1).

Tools and regional indicators for examining sustainability While global indicators of sustainability are mainly used at a national level, regional and local efforts at measuring and tracking sustainability are also increasing. Many local areas, including cities throughout the U.S. and Europe, have organizations dedicated to advancing sustainability, particularly environmental sustainability (e.g., green workplaces, clean water and air). For example, an organization in southwestern Pennsylvania in the US called Sustainable Pittsburgh (www.sustainablepittsburgh.org) works to “affect decision-making in the Pittsburgh region to integrate economic prosperity, social equity, and environmental quality as the enduring accountability, bringing sustainable solutions for communities and businesses” (Sustainable Pittsburgh, n.d.). Moreover, several online websites provide information on sustainability measurement and indicators that could be helpful for social workers who are engaged in sustainability initiatives and research, including: (1) Sustainable Communities Online (http://www.sustainable.org/): Formerly known as the Sustainable Communities Network (SCN), this website was originally developed by a broad coalition of organizations around the US in the mid-1990s to pool information on sustainability to make it more readily accessible to the public, including information on community engagement in sustainability, government policies, and also environmental, social, and economic sustainability; (2) Sustainable Measures (http://www.sustainablemeasures.com/): This website was created by Maureen Hart (Hart Sustainable Development Measures) in 1993 when she became the Executive Director of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP). The website provides training materials and a searchable database of indicators, as well as other information and resources on sustainability. Several efforts have also been made to measure sustainability at the local or regional level in Europe and the US. Zanella, Camanho, and Dias (2015) developed a tool, the Livability Tool, to assess the sustainability and livability of European cities covering two areas: human well-being and environmental impact. Their assessment of livability takes into account several dimensions that allow cities to benchmark their progress and identify and compare their own strengths and weaknesses with those of other cities in Europe. The tool consists of 24 livability indicators in the following categories: (a) human well-being: housing quality, accessibility and transportation, human health, economic and social development, education and culture, and leisure; and (b) environmental impact: solid waste and air (Zanella et al., 2015). The Livability Tool enables an assessment of the performance of cities over time by categorizing them into four groups from the two best performers, star and rising star cities, to the two worst performers, falling star and problem cities (Zanella et al., 2015, p. 697).

56  Mary L. Ohmer Some scholars have also used global sustainability indicators to measure regional progress. For example, Italian scholars (Gigliarano, Balducci, Ciommi, & Chelli, 2014) developed an empirical method for measuring the global ISEW in macro and regional areas in Italy, providing the first empirical analysis in the literature of estimates and comparisons of the ISEW at these smaller geographic levels over time. In their analysis, they compared the GDP and the ISEW at regional levels, and compared local and regional areas with the nation as a whole. This research extends the measurement methods of the global ISEW by providing a time series of the ISEW for Italy, its regions, and macro areas compared to the GDP (Gigliarano et al., 2014). In addition to using the Gini Index of Inequality in their measure, the researchers also “introduce a weighting scheme for private consumption based on poverty indices” (Gigliarano et al., 2014, p. 64). Gigliarano et al. (2014) argue that to take into account the unequal distribution of income, the original version of the ISEW uses the Gini index of inequality. However, also poverty is negatively related with well-being, but this is not considered in the standard ISEW methodology. In fact, inequality and poverty, though sometimes related, are not the same concept (consider, for example, countries with low levels of poverty but high levels of inequality). We propose, therefore, a further adjustment for the private consumptions that takes into account … the percentage of individuals below the poverty line, in such a way that a greater degree of poverty induces a lower level of the ISEW. (pp. 64–65) The refinements made to the ISEW by Gigliarano et al. (2014) allow researchers to assess and compare sustainability at local and regional levels and to more accurately capture and target sustainability for planning and policy development. Cities and regions in the US have also become increasingly engaged in promoting and measuring progress toward sustainability. Svara, Watt, and Takai (2015) report on a national survey of U.S. local governments to assess their efforts in promoting sustainability, particularly social equity. The Local Government Sustainability Policies and Programs Survey, which was conducted by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) in 2010, “found that most local governments were still in the early stages of addressing sustainability” (Svara et al., 2015, p. 140). The survey assessed 109 sustainability activities in 12 major categories: recycling, water conservation, transportation improvements, energy use in transportation and lighting, social inclusion, building energy use, local production and green purchasing, land conservation and development rights, greenhouse gas reduction and air quality, building and land use regulations, workplace alternatives to reduce commuting, and alternative energy generation (Svara et al., 2015, p. 142). The social inclusion category relates directly to social equity, which is defined as “redressing injustices and remediating damages that were previously incurred, fully incorporating all segments of the community in the political decision-­ making process, and establishing measures to prevent future inequities from occurring” (Johnson & Svara, 2011, as cited in Svara et al., 2015, p. 140). It also “refers to how burdens and benefits of different policy actions are distributed in

Measuring social, economic and environmental sustainability  57 a community” (Svara et al., 2015, p. 140). Local government efforts to promote social equity include “expanding opportunity and promoting equal access to public services, providing equal service quality, ensuring procedural fairness, and striving for equal opportunity in such areas as education, health, and employment” (Svara et al., 2015, p. 140). The survey results showed that while most local governments were committed to recycling and environmental issues, such as energy conservation, very few had developed comprehensive sustainability programs or measures to promote social equity (Svara et al., 2015).

Conclusion and implications for social work Few of the previous measures incorporate holistic and comprehensive indicators of all three dimensions of sustainability, particularly the global and more widely used indicators, as Levett-Therivel’s (2004) analysis of sustainability indicators confirmed. The ISEW (or GPI) and the HDI focus primarily on economic and social sustainability, while the EPI, the EVI, and the Ecological Footprint focus primarily on environmental sustainability. Relying on a single indicator to inform a country or region’s sustainability progress can also be problematic, as illustrated by the comparison of various global indicators among the selected Asian countries in Table 4.2. Using the HDI and EPI, Japan seems to be doing well; however, when taking into account the EVI and the Ecological Footprint, their progress toward sustainability, particularly environmental sustainability, is more mixed. When analyzed together, social workers can gain a better understanding of progress toward all three dimensions of sustainability. Scholars have argued that “a more comprehensive indicator would consolidate economic, environmental, and social elements into a common framework to show net progress” (Costanza et al., 2004, as cited in Kubiszewski et al., 2013). Kubiszewski et al. (2013) synthesized estimates of the GPI from 1950 to 2003 for 17 countries, comparing them with the GDP, HDI, Ecological Footprint, and several other measures (GINI coefficient, Life Satisfaction). Their research demonstrates how combining these indicators can present a much more comprehensive analysis of overall progress toward sustainability for individual countries as well as global progress. For example, the results for Japan illustrate how combining these indicators can present a more thorough analysis of sustainability progress over time. The results demonstrated that Japan was “the only developed country in which GPI/capita continues to follow GDP/capita” (Kubiszewski et al., 2013, p. 64). Kubiszewski and colleagues (2013) point out that Japan saw a relatively quick increase in GPI/capita after World War II until 1973, when the oil crisis hit and GPI/capita became stagnant during a widespread recession. The Japanese government, however, created financial measures to overcome the recession, which produced economic growth from 1987 to 1990. After this growth period, Japan faced another recession; however, GPI/capita did not decrease because Japan had shifted towards importing the majority of its natural resources and toward oil and nuclear energy. Through this strategy, Japan decreased “their pollution and use of domestic natural resources, allowing GPI/ capita to retain some of its growth” (Kubiszewski et al., 2013, p. 64).

58  Mary L. Ohmer The overall results of Kubiszewski et al.’s (2013) research demonstrated significant variation in progress toward sustainability among the countries they studied; however, there were some global trends. They note that “GPI/capita peaked in 1978, about the same time that the global Ecological Footprint exceeded global biocapacity, and life satisfaction in almost all countries has also not improved significantly since 1975” (Kubiszewski et al., 2013, p. 57). Social workers can develop a better understanding of progress toward sustainability in the local communities in which they work by analyzing and utilizing regional and local sustainability indicators. The regional and local sustainability indicators and tools discussed in this paper appear to be the most inclusive and comprehensive measures of social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Moreover, several global indicators enable a reasonably easy comparison of ­regional- and local-level progress in social, economic, and environmental sustainability, particularly the HDI and Ecological Footprint. The sustainability goals espoused by environmental scientists, ecological economists, and scholars align with many of the sustainability goals advocated by social workers, including shifting from economic growth to “maximizing production and consumption (GDP) towards improving genuine human well-being (GPI or something similar),” including adopting policies to protect the environment and advance full employment, social equity, and more efficient use of the Earth’s resources (Kubiszewski et al., 2013, p. 67). These goals and policies complement the “green social work” espoused by Dominelli (2014) and the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development (2011). Green social work focuses on enhancing people’s well-being by engaging in and promoting environmental justice (Dominelli, 2014), while the Global Agenda calls on social workers to address the challenges of globalization by promoting “equitable standards of decent wellbeing for the whole of the world’s population” (The Authors, 2014, p. 3). The agenda focuses on promoting social and economic equalities, the dignity and worth of peoples, and environmental and community sustainability, and strengthening human relationships (The Authors, 2014). Social workers are not fully engaged in research that utilizes sustainability indicators, even though several are easily accessible through online websites (e.g., the UNDP’s HDI, the EPI, and the Ecological Footprint). Moreover, social workers could examine progress toward sustainability in their own communities by engaging with local sustainability organizations or utilizing measures similar to those examined by Svara et al. (2015). Historically, social workers, particularly settlement house workers, played significant roles in the promotion of sustainable living and a better quality of life by addressing the urban environmental, social, and economic problems that resulted from the industrial revolution (Phillip & Reisch, 2015). These social workers “recognized the relationship between the physical environment and human well-being” (Phillip & Reish, 2015, p. 473). Often social workers view the “environment as the context for practice instead of a dynamic component of people’s lives” (Jani & Reisch, 2011, as cited in Phillip & Reisch, 2015, p. 473). However, social workers also recognize that unfettered economic growth and global capitalism have negative consequences, including human rights violations, environmental

Measuring social, economic and environmental sustainability  59 degradation, poor health, and inequality (Phillip & Reisch, 2015). Therefore, social workers can more fully contribute to promoting sustainability by not only better utilizing global and regional indicators to examine local, regional, and global progress toward sustainability, but also by developing stronger collaborations with other disciplines that share our goals and values regarding sustainability and social justice.

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Part II

Case studies in Asia

5 Global grassroots green movement driven by Tzu Chi Foundation’s recycling volunteers A multifaceted model of environmental sustainability with transformative social changes Hsin-Yi Hsiao, Hsun-Ta Hsu, Debra Boudreaux, and Alice Ting Introduction Due to the rapid climate change in recent years, global communities have seen an increased frequency of large-scale natural and man-made disasters. These disasters have caused extensive damage, destroying thousands of homes, scattering families, and leading to the loss of many human lives. These disasters have been especially severe in the Asia-Pacific region. In response to this great challenge, environmental protection alliances formed by nonprofit organizations, governmental institutions, emergency response systems, and social service agencies across nations have sought to provide collective interventions and resources to address the immediate needs of disaster survivors and assist them during the recovery process. Featuring more than 10 million members in more than 50 countries, the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation (Tzu Chi) is a faith-based nonprofit organization formed in 1966 (InterAction, 2016; Tzu Chi USA, 2016). In recent years, Tzu Chi has adopted preventive environmental protection approaches to reduce the likelihood of future natural disasters by promoting environmental sustainability and has been recognized for its sustainability stewardship in international disaster relief service. Tzu Chi has held a special consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council since 2010 and was selected as member of the year at the 21st National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster Conference in 2013 (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2013b). Acknowledging extravagant lifestyles and wasteful consumption of energy and natural resources as prominent factors leading to intensified stress placed on the biosphere and ecosystems, the founder of Tzu Chi, Dharma Master Cheng Yen, called on the public to voluntarily recycle to promote environmental sustainability and mitigate climate change during a public event in Taiwan in August 1990 (Buddhist Tzu Chi Merits Society Malaysia, 2013; Tzu Chi Foundation, 2010). In response to this call and driven by the belief of environmental

64  Hsin-Yi Hsiao et al. unity – that every aspect of the environment is connected to one another in a global society – Tzu Chi volunteers initiated a recycling program to educate local community members and demonstrate the interconnectedness among humanity, the environment, and sustainable lifestyles. To sustain the recycling program and promote its global impact, DA.AI Technology, a nonprofit Taiwanese company founded by Dharma Master Cheng Yen’s disciples, who are for-profit entrepreneurs, partners with Tzu Chi’s recycling stations and employs innovative technology to regenerate recycled bottles into raw textile materials that are used to produce eco-friendly blankets, which have been distributed to more than 810,000 disaster survivors globally (DA.AI Technology, 2015). Via its sustainable recycling program supplemented by Da Ai TV, a social media station, Tzu Chi is able to overcome geographical boundaries to promote awareness of environmental sustainability among local recycling volunteers throughout the world. Tzu Chi’s grassroots recycling programs run by volunteers have become a worldwide green movement. Multilevel impacts of this green movement include positive behavioral and psychological changes that have occurred among volunteers themselves at the individual level (e.g., improvement of mental health status and self-esteem); enhancement of sustainable awareness among various stakeholder groups with diverse professions at the local community level (e.g., undergraduate students and faculty members); and empowerment of disaster-hit communities with capacity building across countries at the national level, such as China (e.g., turning Sichuan’s mah-jongg-oriented community culture into an environmentally sustainable community), Indonesia (e.g., reconstructing the Angke River to promote racial and social inclusion and environmental justice), and the Philippines (e.g., developing a cash-for-work program and eco-friendly portable classrooms during rebuilding efforts in communities affected by Typhoon Haiyan). This chapter describes how a recycling program initiated by the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation in Taiwan has expanded to become a global grassroots model of environmental sustainability that empowers individuals, communities, and countries, as well as fostering transformative social changes. In line with the ecological model (Boon, Cottrell, King, Stevenson, & Millar, 2012; Bronfenbrenner, 1979), this movement, centered on human beings as critical change agents in ecosystems, has revolutionized collaborative efforts related to emergency response among local governments, nongovernmental organizations, business entrepreneurs, and social service organizations in different countries. Using innovative technology driven by compassion for the Earth and social media, this grassroots movement has empowered community resilience and capacity building at multiple levels and improved quality of life, specifically in the Asia-Pacific region.

Social cause of Tzu Chi’s 20-year recycling program In the 1980s and 1990s, Taiwan experienced an industrial boom as the socalled Asian Tiger’s economy diversified and matured. But the Taiwan Miracle

Tzu Chi global grassroots green movement  65 had a dark side – mountains of trash lined the streets and open spaces that weren’t snatched up by manufacturing developers often became landfills or toxic waste dumps. Each person in Taiwan created 1.14 kilograms of trash each day, totaling 21 million tons annually (Da Ai News, 2010a). Disgruntled citizens protested, calling on government officials to develop strategies to mitigate the side effects of rapid industrialization. Throughout Taiwan, fights between local governments and community members regarding garbage disposal broke out, making waste removal the most urgent environmental issue in the country (Da Ai News, 2010a). The founder of Tzu Chi, Master Cheng Yen, acknowledged the public’s overconsumption of finite natural resources and the severity of environmental degradation. At an open speech at a high school in Taichung on 23 August 1990, she made a public appeal for environmental protection by calling on the audience to recycle voluntarily (Da Ai News, 2010a; Shih, 2008; Tzu Chi Foundation, 2010). Shun-ling Yang, an audience member and the first individual to initiate Tzu Chi’s recycling program, began to recycle waste in her daily life and donated all the money she received from the sale of the recyclables to charity (Da Ai News, 2010a; Tzu Chi Foundation, 2010). Through her advocacy and recruitment in the local community, the recycling program expanded from her neighborhood to throughout the country. During the past 20 years, numerous program participants have donated their houses, garages, and land to Tzu Chi to build more recycling stations in Taiwanese communities (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2010). At recycling stations with poster exhibitions of environmental sustainability for educational purposes, all Tzu Chi volunteers receive intensive orientation training on environmental justice and protection and how to live a sustainable life. Volunteers share their unconditional regard, compassion, and dedicated motivation for this program and empower one another to accomplish positive behavioral and psychological changes in their lives. Many recycling program volunteers are retired older adults or people with chronic medical conditions or disabilities (Innovation Seeds, 2016; Tzu Chi Humanitarian Center, 2010; see Pictures 5.1 and 5.2 in the Appendix). By collecting, sorting, and reclaiming reusable resources, not only are they advocating environmental justice in their communities, but they also gain a sense of achievement through the program (Tzu Chi Humanitarian Center, 2010). Furthermore, volunteers are trained in strategies and skills to promote a sustainable lifestyle and environmental protection among their local community members (see Picture 5.3 in the Appendix). Recycling stations are set up manually and operated entirely by volunteers, who are local residents, in any space available in their local community or neighborhood, which characterizes uniqueness and diversity of location (e.g., a front yard of a volunteer’s house or building, a garage, donated land, or an abandoned lot) and culture (see Picture 5.4 in the Appendix). Finally, each local recycling station promotes a sense of collective community belongingness and develops unique local strategies that reflect the specific community’s cultural contexts in achieving the common goal of promoting environmental sustainability.

66  Hsin-Yi Hsiao et al. During the past 26 years, Tzu Chi recycling program volunteers have collaborated with local communities and governmental agencies to actively advocate environmental sustainability by practicing and promoting sustainable lifestyles through the implementation and demonstration of reducing, reusing, and recycling resources in their daily lives. Currently, there are more than 87,000 volunteers participating in the recycling program at 8,925 recycling stations in Taiwan. Globally, there are 10,753 recycling stations (including 8,925 recycling stations in Taiwan) with 105,457 recycling volunteers (Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, 2017). Tzu Chi’s grassroots green movement has positively affected Taiwan’s recycling rate, with an increase from 3% to 38.6% between 1990 and 2009 (Tzu Chi Humanitarian Center, 2010). Proceeds derived from the recycling program are used to promote environmental justice or give back to the communities. For instance, part of the proceeds from the Tzu Chi recycling program are used to fund the foundation’s Da Ai TV, which aims to inspire change beyond the local community level by producing programs that advocate social and environmental sustainability. In Malaysia, proceeds generated through the recycling program also helped develop the Tzu Chi Dialysis Center, which helps local patients with kidney disease (Buddhist Tzu Chi ­Merits Society Malaysia, 2013).

Sustainable partnership between DA.AI technology and Tzu Chi recycling stations Although Tzu Chi’s recycling programs are locally based, to use recycled resources better and further demonstrate the potential impact and practicality of the program, Tzu Chi leaders decided to supplement the recycling program with innovative technologies. Inspired by the mission and goal of Tzu Chi’s recycling program to protect the environment, five of Master Cheng Yen’s disciples and for-profit entrepreneurs founded DA.AI Technology in 2008 with the mission of promoting environmental stewardship by producing eco-friendly products from recycled materials, thereby reducing waste and minimizing harm to the people and environment. In collaboration with Tzu Chi recycling stations, DA.AI Technology purchases and collects approximately 2,000 tons of postconsumer plastic bottles annually from 5,637 stations (DA.AI Technology, 2015; Her, Lai, & Huang, 2014). These recycled materials are regenerated into raw textile materials such as recycled poly chips, polyester fibers, and fabrics, which are used to produce eco-friendly products such as clothing, bedding, and blankets (DA. AI Technology, 2015) (see Pictures 5.5 and 5.6 in the Appendix). Products derived from recycled resources (e.g., water bottles and blankets) are used in disaster relief efforts. Thus far, more than 810,000 disaster survivors in 30 countries have received materials produced by DA.AI Technology (DA.AI Technology, 2015) (see Picture 5.7 in the Appendix). Furthermore, the dissemination of these products also creates a teachable moment for the public to understand the potentially significant effects of recycling. The company donates 100% of its net profits from the sale of green products to charitable

Tzu Chi global grassroots green movement  67 services provided by Tzu Chi to underprivileged populations globally, such as Syrian refugees in Jordan, Turkey, and Germany, tsunami survivors in Japan and Indonesia, and homeless people in the US (DA.AI Technology, 2015). By developing this innovative and sustainable partnership with DA.AI Technology, the Tzu Chi recycling program has expanded its influence in terms of promoting environmental sustainability from individuals and communities to the international level.

Multilevel impact of Tzu Chi recycling program Ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) highlights the interdependence of micro (individual), mezzo (community), and macro (society or nation) systems. Bronfenbrenner (1979) proposed that individuals can have influences that ripple outward to affect larger surrounding environments (e.g., community and society), and vice versa. In line with this theory, Tzu Chi’s recycling programs are developed based on the belief that individuals and the environment are closely connected, and that achieving harmony between the two can benefit both sides. This section illustrates Tzu Chi’s global recycling efforts related to promoting environmental sustainability through technological innovation and social enterprise to empower individuals and community resilience and capacity building at multiple levels, including individual, community, and national.

Individual (micro level) Mrs. Ou, a 54-year-old married woman who lives in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, had severe depression for 10 years. She was a successful businesswoman prior to her diagnosis of depression. Due to multiple psychiatric hospitalizations, she socially isolated herself and was unable to function at work or at home. Her husband and family were concerned about her well-being and asked her to take time off from work in the hope that this would help her to recover (Huang & Chen, 2010). Through a referral from local Tzu Chi volunteers, Mrs. Ou began volunteering at a local recycling station, where she folded newspapers and organized recycled materials into stacks – a simple and repetitive daily task. Mrs. Ou focused on her assigned duty and celebrated incremental success when completing each task, helping her regain her self-worth and confidence without focusing on negative, self-defeating thoughts (Huang & Chen, 2010). She stated that her change and recovery was the result of positive social support and companionship from volunteers at the recycling station. By witnessing the resources she recycled being transformed into eco-friendly blankets and then disseminated to people in need worldwide, Mrs. Ou had developed a sense of purpose in her life again by being a committed environmental advocate seeking to make positive changes to the environment (Huang & Chen, 2010). Mr. Chen, a 55-year-old Chinese immigrant from Lashio, Myanmar, had been drinking since he was 15. Chronic alcoholism had led to many negative

68  Hsin-Yi Hsiao et al. consequences, including loss of employment, poor family relationships, financial problems, divorce, and poor health. Chen was referred to a social worker at a Tzu Chi hospital due to his frequent emergency room admissions (Lin, 2015). The initial intake assessment suggested that Chen’s alcohol abuse might be the result of self-medication related to his inability to cope with stress and hardships encountered on a daily basis. In addition to medical treatment, the social worker decided to refer Chen to Tzu Chi’s recycling program, where he was put in charge of sorting recycled materials and preparing them to be processed (e.g. crushing bottles and disassembling paper boxes; Lin, 2015). These activities served as an alternative emotional outlet to binge drinking when Chen faced stress. Other volunteers and the social worker gave Chen positive feedback on his work in the recycling program, which helped build his confidence in his ability to overcome hardships and stay sober. Chen has now abstained from alcohol for years and is working in an emergency room as a mentor to individuals who are admitted due to alcohol abuse (Lin, 2015). By performing routine recycling tasks, receiving social support from peer volunteers, and developing a sense of belongingness at recycling stations, volunteers can be empowered to accomplish positive behavioral and psychological changes in their lives and gain a sense of achievement through the program.

Community (mezzo level) Sustainable awareness enhancement among undergraduate students through hands-on experience at recycling stations and social media A group of Tzu Chi volunteer college students at Kun Shan University in southern Taiwan recognized that significant amounts of food and reusable resources were being wasted on campus (Lin & Xu, 2010). They decided to take a leading role in initiating a weekly recycling program in their on-campus dormitory. These undergraduate volunteers set up a temporary recycling station at the front entrance of the campus dormitory and promoted recycling through activities such as demonstrating to other students how to collect, sort, and organize recyclables. Student participants became engaged through hands-on experiences of learning how to be more environmentally sustainable. For example, by sorting waste from trash cans, students learned that many materials could be recycled and reused to preserve finite natural resources (Lin & Xu, 2010). Because of these undergraduate volunteers, students’ awareness of environmental sustainability was enhanced and the whole dormitory responded positively to the campaign. Furthermore, as more students became engaged, the recycling program expanded throughout the campus and even to surrounding neighborhoods. Faculty members and college students at Shih Hsin University in Muzha, Taipei, visited a recycling station in their local community, where Tzu Chi volunteers provided an educational workshop on the current environmental crisis facing the world as a result of humankind’s unsustainable lifestyle (Wang, 2011).

Tzu Chi global grassroots green movement  69 They then learned how the Tzu Chi recycling program tackles this issue and about the process of using Tzu Chi’s innovative technology to transform recycled resources into daily usable products. They learned about the adverse environmental and health effects of Styrofoam, plastic packages, and disposable chopsticks, three of the most hazardous waste materials in the world (Wang, 2011). The students put on masks and gloves and started sorting different types of garbage. Through this hands-on recycling exercise, these students were able to distinguish between iron and aluminum cans, plastic bottles and iron cans, and white newspapers and magazines. Students were emotionally affected and made a commitment to be change agents in their communities in terms of advocating environmental sustainability by making recycling a habit in their daily lives, using reusable utensils, and decreasing their tendency to litter on campus. Furthermore, they also expressed positive attitudes toward living a minimalist lifestyle and fulfilling their responsibilities as students and global citizens of the Earth (Wang, 2011). In motivating members of younger generations to understand the grave consequences of global warming, Da Ai TV Indonesia collaborated with the Department of Environment to host a global warming-themed public service announcement competition in Indonesia in February 2009 (Da Ai News, 2009). Candidates were required to create 30-second or 60-second creative campaigns within four months. The grand prizewinner’s campaign was broadcast by Da Ai TV Indonesia. The winner of this competition used creativity and animation to show that “the fate of the forest is the same as Mother Nature,” arguing that if the forests disappear, then the Earth will be gone as well. This suggests the interconnected relationship between people and the environment. This campaign influenced many young people to take action related to environmental protection in local communities in Indonesia. Even on their days off from school, they recycled garbage on the streets to give their surroundings a cleaner appearance (Da Ai News, 2009). At the community level in Indonesia, educational workshops that introduced various recyclable materials being regenerated by innovative technology at Tzu Chi recycling stations and an environmental awareness advertising campaign on social media-inspired undergraduate students to take the immediate action of practicing a sustainable lifestyle to better their communities and environment.

National (macro level) By integrating Da Ai TV and DA.AI Technology, Tzu Chi is able to disseminate information on the influence of the recycling programs beyond local communities to promote environmental sustainability in other countries. Products transformed from recycled resources are used for emergency disaster relief to meet the subsistence needs of disaster survivors. With volunteers and Da Ai TV providing information regarding how such relief materials are regenerated, a teaching opportunity is created for the public and local government agencies

70  Hsin-Yi Hsiao et al. to learn about environmental justice and practice recycling for environmental sustainability. Some examples of national impacts will be given in the following paragraphs.

Recycling movement initiated by Sichuan earthquake disaster survivors, turning mah-jongg-oriented community culture into an environmentally sustainable community On 12 May 2008, the Sichuan province of China was severely damaged by a massive earthquake, measuring 8 on the Richter magnitude scale. More than 46 million people were affected, including 80,000 missing or dead, nearly 300,000 injured, and 5 million whose homes were destroyed (Chen & Zhang, 2011; Tzu Chi Foundation, 2013a). Within two days of the earthquake, 40,000 eco-friendly blankets made of recycled bottles for disaster survivors were prepared by hundreds of volunteers at a recycling station in Neihu, Taipei (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2009). Departing from Taiwan, Tzu Chi disaster relief teams arrived in affected areas of Sichuan and set up five service centers to provide eco-friendly blankets, medical outreach, needs assessment, and meal services for more than 810,000 survivors in Luoshui and Wangzhen (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2009). Deeply touched by the giving spirit, selfless gestures, psychological comfort, and companionship provided by Tzu Chi volunteers, many survivors joined the team of volunteers to serve hot meals to other victims as a way to repay the efforts of Tzu Chi’s three-month emergency relief plan (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2013a). Survivors who received eco-friendly blankets also provided support during the reconstruction of 13 local schools and residential complexes using earthquake-resistant materials, projects led by Tzu Chi in helping communities rebuild and recover from the earthquake (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2013a). By reaching out and connecting with others who had experienced the same stressful event, disaster survivors coped with the trauma of losing family members, houses, and belongings (Chen & Zhang, 2011). During outreach efforts, these earthquake survivors learned from Tzu Chi volunteers how climate change can increase the frequency of natural disasters and the importance of environmental sustainability for the Earth. They were motivated to promote environmental sustainability. Tzu Chi began establishing local recycling stations in disaster-affected communities (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2013a). Moved by testimonials of volunteers regarding the usefulness and impact of transforming recycled resources into environmentally friendly products made by community members, more disaster survivors joined the recycling program. New recycling volunteers actively advocated recycling activities in the community. These volunteers reached out to their community members daily and recycled waste and trash that had piled up on the streets using baskets hung on their backs or carts (Da Ai News, 2010b). All recycled resources were then delivered to Tzu Chi’s 20 local recycling stations (Chen & Zhang, 2011). Many recycling volunteers even donated the money they collected from the sale of recycled waste

Tzu Chi global grassroots green movement  71 to Tzu Chi to help people who had gone through a similar traumatic experience (Da Ai News, 2010b). One volunteer, Mr. Yulan Wang, stated: I am from Sichuan. During the earthquake disaster, I was moved by the work done by Tzu Chi volunteers and inspired to become a volunteer myself. Doing good doesn’t always mean donating money. The bottles and cans we toss away pollute our environment. If we recycle bottles and cans into blankets and sell other recyclable materials, we can turn them into an act of love and money, which can be used to help families that are in need. I used to love playing mah-jongg1 but stopped because ever since I started to participate in recycling, I have discovered that recycling can save the Earth, so I will continue to help out. (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2013a) Ms. Xiao-Yen Wang, a volunteer at a recycling station in the town of Luoshui, Sichuan, said: I finally understand what Master Cheng Yen, the founder of Tzu Chi foundation, meant by “gaining from doing.” It’s not what we could physically gain from doing, but by doing and letting our fellow residents know the importance of environmental sustainability, we are able to understand the urgency of recycling. From our efforts we hope to give our children a cleaner Earth in the future, and I also hope that Luoshui City can become a clean city, both physically and spiritually. (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2013a) The environmental sustainability movement initiated by disaster survivors had turned local communities once well known for their mah-jongg culture into environmentally sustainable ones. These previous disaster survivors became forerunners who proactively promoted sustainable lifestyles among local residents through their daily practices. Through these collective efforts, they created change by rebuilding their communities in an environmentally sustainable way.

Reconstruction of Angke River in Indonesia for racial and social inclusion and environmental justice The Angke River is a major river in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. Over the years, impoverished individuals and families in the city have lived in illegally built wooden homes on stilts above the river, discharging their personal and household waste directly into the river. In addition, toxic waste from factories is disposed of in the river, shrinking it from 75 m to 25 m wide because it is constantly being filled with garbage and sludge (Pan, 2003; Shih, 2003; Tzu Chi Foundation, 2012). These residents were mostly undocumented individuals from rural villages who came to the capital for better job opportunities and

72  Hsin-Yi Hsiao et al. quality of life (Pan, 2003; Shih, 2003; Tzu Chi Foundation, 2012). These undocumented residents used the river water for their daily activities (e.g., cleansing their bodies and cooking). Twice a month, the tidal river flooded, bringing polluted water with garbage into homes on both riverbanks, damaging houses and spreading diseases (O’Neill, 2010; Pan, 2003). Unfortunately, the issue of pollution surrounding impoverished communities has been overlooked by the government over the years. On 29 January 2002, the flood of the century hit Jakarta. The low-lying village of Kapuk Murua, situated near the mouth of the Angke River, was flooded for four weeks (O’Neill, 2010; Pan, 2003). A Tzu Chi international relief team rowed into the disaster zone using rubber boats to provide relief supplies and free medical care to survivors. After conducting needs assessments following the disaster and gaining insight from local community leaders and officials, Tzu Chi leaders developed a five-stage reconstruction plan for the river and surrounding communities – pump out the water; clean the river by removing waste and garbage with the support of the recycling program; eliminate toxins from the river; provide medical care to residents, especially for infectious disease; and construct a new village (Shih, 2003; Tzu Chi Foundation, 2012). On 24 March 2002, Tzu Chi volunteers mobilized Chinese Indonesian entrepreneurs to invest both manpower and resources to work with the government in launching a major cleanup movement on both sides of the river; more than 1,000 people participated, including local Tzu Chi volunteers with diverse ethnic backgrounds, soldiers from the government, and local residents (Shih, 2003). Participants used long poles to remove mobile telephones, electric batteries, animal bodies, plastic bottles, and other rubbish from the river. In just one day, 12 trucks collected and recycled resources weighing 96 tons (Qiu, 2003; Shih, 2003). To sustain and expand the cleanup initiative, the Chinese Indonesian ­entrepreneurs provided funds and mobilized their employees to advocate this environmental movement. Volunteers with diverse ethnic backgrounds (e.g., Muslim, Chinese Indonesians, Indonesians) and socioeconomic statuses (e.g., white-collar workers who previously had no contact with households living below the poverty line) worked together by going door to door to help residents living along the river to move to a newly reconstructed community called Da Ai Village (Shih, 2003). This new village was developed in collaboration with the local government, Tzu Chi volunteers, and local community members. Volunteers had to assess the eligibility of residents to gain full ownership of a house and property and assist them with becoming registered residents of the local area. They also established a resident management committee and invited local village chiefs to help communicate with residents regarding relocation. On 25 August 2003, Da Ai Village, featuring 1,100 households, officially opened (Qiu, 2003; Shih, 2003). The village contains a primary and secondary school, a clinic, a community center, and a 30-bed nursing home. Because more than 90% of the residents are Muslim, Tzu Chi also designed a prayer room and larger purification rooms (Qiu, 2003; Shih, 2003).

Tzu Chi global grassroots green movement  73 Da Ai Village and the recycling program implemented in the surrounding communities have transformed the lives of 3,000 people, who now live in clean and well-built apartments with a comfortable and hygienic environment they never had before. Ma Shani, a 27-year-old man who previously lived near the river with his parents and two sisters before his house was destroyed, stated: Since my grandfather’s time, we had been living in a horrible environment. We would have never guessed that one day we would own such a wonderful house. When Da Ai Village was built, I would come here every day. All this time I thought I was dreaming. It wasn’t until I received my keys that I believed that this was real. (Qiu, 2003; Shih, 2003) The Angke R iver’s name, meaning “red stream,” originated during Dutch rule in the 1740s and referred to 10,000 massacred Chinese residents of Jakarta, whose bodies were dumped in the river during a rebellion after they lost their monopoly on trade to the European colonists (O’Neill, 2010; Pan, 2003; Shih, 2003). Due to Dutch ethnic segregation policies, conflicts among Chinese Indonesians and Indonesians have persisted throughout the history of Indonesia. This green movement to restore the Angke R iver and construct Da Ai Village, with partnerships involving Tzu Chi volunteers, Chinese Indonesian entrepreneurs, local government officials, and local community members, resolved the root issue of racial hatred between Chinese and Indonesian residents and improved the quality of life of undocumented Indonesians who had experienced social and environmental injustice for years.

“Cash-for-work” program to rebuild communities destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan and construct eco-friendly portable classrooms in the Philippines On 8 November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan devastated the central part of the Philippines, leading to nearly 8,000 people dead or missing and one million households damaged or destroyed (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2014). Haiyan also left the affected area littered with damaged houses, garbage, and an intense odor. After the disaster, survivors who had lost everything were filled with despair and helplessness. Meeting subsistence needs became the top priority of survivors. In the two months following the typhoon, 6,000 Tzu Chi volunteers from 13 countries arrived in the Philippines, providing emergency relief resources, medical outreach, and disaster relief funds donated by members around the globe to more than 65,000 households in affected communities (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2014). Driven by compassion for disaster survivors, Tzu Chi used innovative technology with a social purpose to promote environmental sustainability and improve health. Eco-friendly blankets made by DA.AI Technology were distributed to more than

74  Hsin-Yi Hsiao et al. 75,000 survivors. Moreover, to ensure water safety, Q water purifiers jointly developed by the Industrial Technology Research Institute and the Water Resources Agency in Taiwan were provided to survivors in disaster-affected communities to produce clean water (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2014). When conducting needs assessments in the Philippines, Tzu Chi volunteers observed that many children continued their education in damaged classrooms without roofs to shelter them from the weather. To address this issue, Tzu Chi leaders collaborated with Taiwanese business entrepreneurs to develop portable classrooms made of recycled resources such as polypropylene corrugated board. These portable classrooms were constructed with features including impact resistance, high durability, waterproofing, and easy assembly and disassembly (Ye, 2014) (see Picture 5.8 in the Appendix). In all, 128 portable classrooms were delivered from Taiwan to the Philippines and assembled in disaster zones by Tzu Chi volunteers to serve as shelters and schools for local children (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2014) (see Picture 5.9 in the Appendix). Based on the results of needs assessments in the hardest-hit disaster zones, Tzu Chi leaders decided to initiate a “cash-for-work” program involving debris removal and resource recycling to provide cash for survivors while simultaneously cleaning up their homes and the surrounding areas. Partnering with Metrobank in the Philippines in this cash-for-work program, Tzu Chi provided each participant with 500 pesos a day (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2014). To encourage and lower barriers to participation, the bank sent cashiers to every emergency response site and set up temporary counters so survivor participants could easily exchange checks for cash. The debris-removal and resource-recycling project was considered part of an early recovery plan to rebuild communities. Equipment including trucks and excavators was also provided by Tzu Chi (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2014). The cash and materials provided through this project helped survivors address their subsistence needs (e.g., food, shelter, and clothes), while their participation also empowered them to rebuild their confidence and their communities. Furthermore, during this project, local survivors also developed some understanding of the importance of environmental sustainability. Finally, the cash allocated to participants was used locally, which helped the local economy recover and expedited reconstruction. In 19 days, more than 280,000 people joined this home cleanup and recycling project (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2014). Removal of rubble and proper disposal of waste reduced the risk of disease, and the recycled resources were also used to produce environmentally friendly materials to be used in local communities. The once-damaged communities were now clean and filled with hope and vitality. Lou Lunsi, a resident of the city of Tacloban, said, “We originally lost all hope, but because of the help of Tzu Chi, we found hope again. It’s because of Tzu Chi, we, Taclobanians, were able to stand up again and continue living” (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2014). Disaster survivors were also moved by Tzu Chi volunteers’ unconditional love and spirit. After receiving donated money, they, in turn donated, a portion to help other survivors. One survivor said, “Money will one day be spent, but what Tzu Chi brought is trust and hope, and that will

Tzu Chi global grassroots green movement  75 always be in our hearts” (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2014). A touching letter from the disaster zone read: Although we are different in many ways, you show us and allow us to feel your love and care. I know helping us is not an easy task, especially during a disaster like this. No matter how much time has passed, even if we have rebuilt our homes, we would never forget the love that Tzu Chi gave us. (Tzu Chi Foundation, 2014) When Tzu Chi volunteers left the Philippines’ Haiyan disaster zones, many ­local volunteers who stepped in were survivors from the 2009 Typhoon Ketsana. These individuals expressed gratitude for the support that Tzu Chi gave them, allowing these survivors to rebuild their communities after the disaster and encouraging them to become local volunteers. They expressed hope that the Typhoon Haiyan victims they were helping would volunteer to help others in the future, to pass the love forward for a better world.

Conclusion With a strong belief in the interconnection between human lifestyle and natural disasters, and efforts to better the environment, Tzu Chi recycling volunteers in Taiwan proactively participated in recycling programs, empowering them to create and foster positive behavioral and psychological changes in their lives. The partnership between DA.AI Technology and recycling stations, with an emphasis on reflecting the local community’s cultural context, became a sustainable model that drove the recycling program as a green movement that first ignited in Taiwan and now has spread worldwide via campaigns and programs provided by Da Ai TV with the collective goal of promoting environmental sustainability. Inspired by Master Cheng Yen’s teaching – “we are all part of the same family regardless of nationality, language, religion, ethnic, or socioeconomic status” – and driven by compassion, Tzu Chi volunteers from diverse ethnic backgrounds, such as Christians, Catholics, Muslims, and Buddhists, devote themselves to relieving all suffering. Tzu Chi’s grassroots green movement uses innovative models and partnerships from nonprofit and for-profit sectors to transform lives and strengthen communities, creating individual well-being and fostering transformative social changes, including ethnic and social inclusion and environmental justice, especially in Asia-Pacific countries such as China, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Acknowledgment We wish to acknowledge the invaluable contribution of Dr. Suh Chen Hsiao, Ms. Lucy Tian, and Ms. Li Hua (Jenny) Huang for data collection and translation. Special thanks go to Dharma Master Cheng Yen, all recycling volunteers worldwide of the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, and Mr. James Lee and Mr. I-Ter Lu at DA.AI Technology.

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Appendix

Picture 5.1  T  wo older volunteers sorting reusable resources among trash. Source: DA.AI Technology.

Picture 5.2  A group of older volunteers sorting reusable plastic bags at a local recycling station. Source: DA.AI Technology.

Picture 5.3  A female volunteer in China educating local residents on plastic recycling symbols, such as the numbers on the bottom of plastic bottles. Source: DA.AI Technology.

Picture 5.4  A local recycling station with poster exhibitions educating the public on how to differentiate reusable resources from nonrecyclable materials, knowledge of reuse/recycle plastic bottles, and the impact of recycled bottles on the environment. Source: DA.AI Technology.

Picture 5.5  Eco-friendly blankets manufactured by DA.AI Technology. Source: DA.AI Technology.

Picture 5.6  Eco-friendly T-shirts for males and females manufactured by DA.AI Technology. Source: DA.AI Technology.

Picture 5.7  V  olunteers providing eco-friendly blankets to disaster survivors. Source: DA.AI Technology.

Picture 5.8  Volunteers constructing a portable classroom. Source: Tzu Chi Foundation.

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Picture 5.9  Schoolchildren showing their handmade “Thank you” card, appreciating Tzu Chi Foundation’s completion of portable classrooms in time for them to resume their study. Source: Tzu Chi Foundation.

Note 1 Mah-jongg (also spelled majiang, and numerous other variants) is a game that originated in China during the Qing Dynasty. The game is commonly played by four players with a set of 144 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols and involves skills, strategy, calculation, and a degree of chance (retrieved from https://en.­w ikipedia. org/wiki/Mahjong).

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82  Hsin-Yi Hsiao et al. Shih, C. H. (2003). Fo jiao ci shan shi ye de yi ge fan li—Tzu Chi zheng zhi yin ni hong xi he zhi cheng xiao yu yi yi [One example of Buddhist charitable organizations—The success and meaning of Tzu Chi’s work in Indonesia]. Dharma Light Lyceum, 7, 1–26. Retrieved from http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-BJ013/bj112027.htm Shih, D. F. (2008). Yong guzhang de shuangshou zuo huanbao [Using the hands for applause to engage in environmental protection]. Daily Journal of Dharma Master Cheng Yen, Winter Collection, 368–374. Retrieved from www.tzuchi.org.tw/index.php?option= com_content&view=article&catid=63%3Amaster-footprint&id=10299%3A2012-1121-03-34-57&Itemid=349&lang=zh Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation. (2017). Tzu-Chi Almanac: Charity—Medicine— Education—Humanity 2016. Hualien County: Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation. Retrieved from www.tzuchi-org.tw/index.php?option=com_content&view= article&id=11668&Itemid=199&lang=zh Tzu Chi Foundation. (2009, May 9). Sichuan 512 zhenzai nianbiao [Chronological list of outreach for Sichuan earthquake 512]. Retrieved from www.tzuchi.org.tw/index. php?option=com_content&view=article&id=600%3A512-&catid=126%3A2009-0509-05-20-41&Itemid=450&lang=zh Tzu Chi Foundation. (2010, August 23). San cao er mu, puti wei cheng lin [Grassroots Bodhi from all over the world]. Retrieved from tw.tzuchi.org/index.php? opt ion=com _content& view=art icle& id= 4069%3A 2010-08-23-03-26 -24&ca tid=59%3Adaily-speech&Itemid=576&lang=zh Tzu Chi Foundation. (2012). Chong sheng de yu shui yin ni hong xi he [The rebirth of Kali Angke in Indonesia]. Tzu Chi Monthly, 548, 6–7. Retrieved from www.tzuchi.org. tw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10823%3A2013-01-23-07-1432&catid=62%3Amaster-other-speeches&Itemid=186 Tzu Chi Foundation. (2013a). Wen chuan di zhen jian zhen chong sheng [A monument on the 5th anniversary of Wenchuan earthquake]. Retrieved from http://tw.tzuchi. org/html/gallery/2013/20131016/index.html Tzu Chi Foundation. (2013b, May 17). Tzu Chi named NVOAD member of the year. Retrieved from http://tw.tzuchi.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view= art icle& id=1102%3Atzu-chi-named-nvoad-member-of-t he-year&cat id=76%3 Aamerica&Itemid=205&lang=en Tzu Chi Foundation. (2014). Hai yan zhen zai kan jian ai yu xi wang [Typhoon Haiyan Relief let us witness love and hope]. Retrieved from http://tw.tzuchi.org/html/­ Haiyan/20140423/index.html Tzu Chi Humanitarian Center. (2010, August 20). Jingyan kafeisha, Da Ai jilupian “huanbao ershinian” [Da Ai’s documentary film: Twentieth anniversary of environmental protection]. Retrieved from www.tzuchi.org.tw/index.php?option=com_content&view= a r t icle&cat id=93%3Acu lt u re-project& id= 4065%3A 2010 - 08-21- 08-15-10& Itemid=386&lang=zh Tzu Chi USA. (2016). Global Tzu Chi history. Retrieved from www.tzuchi.us/history/ Wang, Q. P. (2011, January 23). Shi xin da xue sheng hui shou bu wei di wen [Students from Shih Hsin University volunteered for recycling regardless of cold weather]. Retrieved from www.tzuchi.org.tw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id= 5176%3A 2011-01-23-07-52-04&catid=112%3A 2009-01-14-07-09-50& Itemid=414&lang=zh Ye, Z. H. (2014, July 25). Jian yi jiao shi bu jian dan tai wan zhi zao pin zhi bao zheng [Building portable classroom is not easy, “made in Taiwan” ensures high quality]. Tzu Chi Monthly, 572, 44–55. Retrieved from http://web.tzuchiculture.org.tw/ ?book=572&mp=3793#.Vvy5PvkrLIV

6 Apocalyptic learning for sustainability in aged Japan positive reciprocities and social innovations in the information age On-Kwok Lai Nature’s calling for apocalyptic learning The Japanese live in a highly hypermodernized yet advanced aged society, but they have had to cope with natural disasters throughout history. Yet there are more challenges ahead for sustainable development, not least global warming and climate change. Confronting these challenges, Japan has recently been actively engaging in global multilateral initiatives of the United Nations (UN) for the climate change (United Nations, 2016) for sustainable development, as represented by first, the Kyoto Protocol (1997–2015) – extending the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, 2016), which commits state parties to reducing greenhouse gas emissions – to limit global warming; second, the 2010 Nagoya Protocol for the Convention on Biological Diversity 2011–2020 (CBD, 2010) to conserve global biodiversity, promote sustainable resource use, and facilitate fair and equitable sharing of resource benefits by all stakeholders; and most recently by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, 2015) to achieve substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives and livelihoods. Juxtaposing natural disasters of earthquakes, tsunamis, and typhoons alike, the developmental challenges are within the realm of Japan’s hypermodernized society: its advanced aged population (over 27% aged 65 or above as of 2016) and industrial technology disasters, such as chemical industry pollution, mercury poisoning, Minamata disease between the 1950s and 1980s, and the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant on 11 March 2011 (Funabashi & Kushner, 2015; Mullins & Nakano, 2016). In the face of an uncertain future, this chapter examines recent policy initiatives and social innovations in Japan, an advanced aged society in the supra-­ information age, with focus on the role of social agencies, social practices in confronting environmental disasters, and positioning social intervention aimed at bringing together the harmony of nature and people, toward sus­ etherington, tainable development (Cabinet Office, 2015c; Gray, Coates, & H 2013; Kingston, 2013).

84  On-Kwok Lai Gifted with its culturally blessed wa (和) (harmony with peace; people act politely with good consideration for others and related reciprocities for eternal harmony) and kizuna (絆) (positive bonds and connections between people, with enduring social relationships ready to help each other for mutual help), Japan has been learning not just from its contradictory pro-growth hypermodernization processes but also the apocalypse of natural disasters of seasonal typhoons, unpredictable earthquakes, and tsunamis, as well as climate change-driven ­extreme weather. The most recent ones – the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake (17  January 1995) and the Great East Japan earthquake (9 on the Richter scale on 11 March 2011: Tohoku’s earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear catastrophe ­t riple disaster) – epitomize the dynamism and spread of civic activism, social innovations, and policy initiatives for sustainable development in an advanced ageing society. Thanks to two decades of volunteer activism since the earthquake of 17 J­ anuary 1995, civic progressive forces have borne fruit, as shown in the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake (14 April 2016, followed by one with a magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter scale on 16 April 2016) when many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), along with numerous volunteers, spontaneously traveled long distances from different parts of Japan to take part in disaster relief works and the related long-term post-disaster recovery and reconstruction works (Cabinet Office, 2015a, 2015b; Mullins & Nakano, 2016; Nippon.com, 2016). Life, however, goes on, during and after natural calamities, such as seasonal typhoons, earthquakes, and tsunamis, and people have been living under the shadow of industrial high-tech disasters for decades, as seen during the 2011 meltdown of the Tokyo Electrical Power Company’s (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Confronting these crises, Japanese political parties, like the Communists and the Social Democrats, have been calling for the phasing out of nuclear power, which is much in line with Germany’s renewable energy security future: the so-called Energiewende (Energy Transition for Regime Change) (Heinrich Böll Foundation, 2016). For Japanese society, the new consensus for the widespread greening of public policy highlights the contesting and emergence of new learning from high-tech disasters such as the nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima. This is juxtaposing the unprecedented economic reform of “Abenomics” (undertaken by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe since ­December 2012) with new policies for fiscal stimulus, monetary quantitative easing, and structural reform for efficiency, and increasing consumption tax from 5% to 8% and eventually to 10%, as scheduled for 2017. Yet the social consensus for development is still Japanese wa and kizuna: While taking good care of ­biological diversity, both in terms of harmony and coexistence with nature and biological species, positive actions echoing the social virtues of love, caring for each other, and intergenerational respect and reciprocities (e.g., filial piety) are of the utmost importance for good humanity in the future (see Funabashi & Kushner, 2015; Lai, 2008, 2012a; Sharp, 2016, August; Takeuchi, Ichikawa, & Elmqvist, 2016 for details). Historically, Japanese society has actively engaged in the challenge of apocalyptic learning from natural disasters and technology-related accidents, as

Apocalyptic learning for sustainability in Japan  85 demonstrated by the growth of volunteerism, the reactivation of societal reciprocities for progressive community(-care) dynamics during and beyond the “displaced” experience, and the reincarnation of positive human values from the embedded (or the forgotten) social virtues for sustainable development. The key is the rediscovery of humanity and values for life toward global sustainability. Social learning from every disaster, or apocalypse, is taken seriously in every corner of Japan. It exemplifies that, all without exception, there is every ­reconstruction-cum-redevelopment plan for regional, local, and municipality governments, plus revisions of safety standards and a legal framework to ensure a safer Japanese society: as in the case of the Hyogo Phoenix Plan for the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake (1995–2004) and the 10-year recovery and reconstruction plan for the Great East Japan earthquake (11 March 2011), when the Japanese central government promptly formulated budgets, modified laws and orders, and established the Reconstruction Agency in 2012 to oversee and coordinate reconstruction works. With social consensus, good planning, and mobilization of resources, the post-disaster recovery and rebuilding works have been starting within three months, as shown in the case of the recent Kumamoto (April 2016) earthquake (Nippon.com, 2016). For people generally, the apocalyptic experience of suffering a triple disaster, as occurred on 11 March 2011, is more than surreal, and it is hardly surprising that the traumatic experience made many feel the presence of an abyss in our contemporary history. Whereas enjoyment of economic prosperity assumes continuity of history, the Japanese people were suddenly, yet repeatedly in many disasters throughout history, forced to face destructive discontinuity between life and death. (Shimada, 2014, p. 122) Hence, the apocalyptic learning is embedded in, yet attempts to transcend beyond, historic Japanese calamities – as a response toward the coming of, and to embrace, the risk society (Beck, 1986, 1992; PMCSA, 2016), which has been full of uncertainties since the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986. Indeed, the Fukushima nuclear disaster defined the risk society for many generations of ­Japanese, as the first-ever-attempted (experimentation for) learning-by-doing decommission work for the meltdown of the nuclear power plant will last for at least 40 years (TEPCO, 2016).

Rejuvenation of volunteer activism in the information age The scale and impact of the damage following disasters are apocalyptic, as shown by the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear fallouts, when basic infrastructures and lifelines were almost completely destroyed, resulting in over 15,894 deaths, 6,152 injured, and 2,561 persons missing, causing

86  On-Kwok Lai severe hardship for everyday life (National Policy Agency, 2016; Reconstruction Agency, 2016). Yet humanity prevails, in the shape of love for one’s family and neighbors, extending toward nature, as well as kizuna (bonds and connections between people); they are part and parcel of the Japanese social virtue of wa (harmony and peace with others). Historically, social virtue had been withering away during mega-urbanization and the postwar economic miracle of the 1950s–1980s, but disasters bring back the essence of humanity when social virtue is rejuvenated in the form of active social reciprocities aimed at “helping others” – the essence of not just volunteerism per se but the proactive and substantial participatory mode for volunteer activism. Retrospectively, the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake (17 ­January 1995) marks the rediscovery of civic forces for self-help and mutual help “by the people, with the people, and for the people” – in fact, it is not just the reincarnation of Japanese active citizenship but the birth of nongovernmental (nonprofit) organization movements in Japanese postwar history: All the related initiatives and social activism had been facilitating lawmaking for nonprofit organizations (NPOs), gaining legal status as a legal body, vis-à-vis government agencies and business firms in Japan (Avenell, 2016a; JNPOC, 2016a). Thanks to experiential learning from the previous mobilization of volunteers for natural disasters like the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake (1995) and the Mid-­ Niigata Prefecture earthquake (2004), with the exponential growth of volunteer activism and NGOs (in Japan, mostly identified as NPOs), in both individual consciousness and organizational terms, many volunteers rushed to help others during the Great East Japan triple disaster and other disasters. Social mobilization of many Japanese outside and in the disaster areas was speedy and timely – far more responsive than the intergovernmental efforts to organize emergency and health professionals from other nonaffected areas, despite the difficulties in coordinating relief activities as a result of poor logistics due to broken infrastructure (Harada & Nishikido, 2016; Hayashi & Tomita, 2014; JNPOC, 2016b; Reconstruction Agency, 2016). The disaster learning from, with, and for volunteer activism, in the form of NPOs, has been positively demonstrated in, and has dramatically contributed to, disaster relief works since the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji earthquake. Furthermore, the volunteer activism has been questing for the Japanese government’s multiple reforms to liberalize and recognize the NGOs/NPOs. More specifically, the new 1998 Law to Promote Specified Nonprofit Activities (SNPC Law) created a new legal status in the “public interest” of a specified nonprofit corporation (SNPC). Later, in December 2008, it was consolidated into a new set of three laws: NPOs can now be general incorporated associations, SNPC, or special public benefit organizations (under special laws derived from Article 34 of the Civil Code). Both domestic and international activities by national and foreign NGOs are treated equally in these laws (Bloodgood, Tremblay-Boire, & Prakash, 2014, pp. 729–730; JNPOC, 2016a). More specifically for Japanese society, the new mode of mobilization of volunteer activism is characterized by a more robust and long-term commitment for

Apocalyptic learning for sustainability in Japan  87 individuals, contributing to larger movement of social activism for sustainability (as distinguished from ad hoc and spontaneous volunteerism). The new movement has a deep embeddedness with social networks and experience to live beyond one’s comfort zone – to act out and be ready to be helpful to others. Social capital, such as contact with friends, faith, and religiosity, and interaction with foreigners, is strongly attached to volunteerism, compared to other demographic and socioeconomic variables (Taniguchi, 2010). Both faith (and belief) in humanity and trust toward each other are social virtues embedded in the Japanese culture of wa and kizuna. For instance, the 11 March disasters prompted NPOs to make door-to-door visits to the people affected to disseminate information – ranging from newly published local/community newspapers to the use of social media via mobile phones, to holding meetings with the victims, and evacuees at large, to help them cope with the crises (Avenell, 2016b; Harada & Nishikido, 2016; Slater, Kindstrand, & Nishimura, 2016). What volunteer activism offers is a rejuvenated solidarity for common goods and a social future – a rejuvenation of the social virtue of kizuna. The positive impetus of the dynamic-cum-progressive growth of NGOs/NPOs is obviously that they not only offer new and more welfare services since the enactment of the 1998 NPOs law but also that, more importantly, they extend the horizon of hope for humanity. The new law derived from disaster volunteerism (since the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji earthquake) has not just created a legal framework, but offers a new universe for civic forces and new ways of achieving social innovations, by expanding and strengthening nongovernmental services and advocacies, such as human rights and alternative social development (Haddad, 2011; JNPOC, 2016a, 2016b; Lai, 2012b; Mullins & Nakano, 2016). For Japanese society at large, volunteer activism will be the strategic social innovation to cope with crises and calamities in the risk society (Beck 1986, 1992) whilst pursuing its course for sustainability. Coupled with a strong sense of charity relief work, volunteer activism goes well with the advanced application of information and communication technologies (ICT), such as e-mail and ICT-social media of Twitter, Facebook, LINE, and Instagram. The community’s sense of belonging and the feeling of being supported by social solidarity are enriched by new media as well. Juxtaposing old media of printed materials, radio, television, and snail mail, new ICT-enhanced social media normally achieve good mobile intimacy, real-time connectivity, and a sense of presence in another locality (Hjorth & Kim, 2011; Lai, 2008). But ICT also contributes to the confusion and missing of responses, in terms of no timely contact or no instant response as new social media are supposed to work, as the ICT system broke down in the disaster (Aizu, 2011; Ida, Fukushima, ­O yabo-Mathis, & Mathis, 2015; Lai, 2008). Yet social networking is empowered by the timely new social media in the information age. Positive communication in disaster and humanitarian relief work has strengthened and amplified one’s identity as Japanese, both within and outside Japan. And through various virtual and actual participation (e.g., donations and social media support) in the relief work, a sense of world citizenship-cum-global solidarity is emerging for

88  On-Kwok Lai both donors and recipients (Avenell, 2016a; Ida et al., 2015; Lai, 2008, 2012b). Hence, volunteer activism, coupled with new media, is critical in confronting natural and technological disasters. The Japanese apocalyptic learning confirms that, first, the difficult conditions for providing, delivering, and accepting emergency services and relief can be improved through more preparation work before the disaster by learning from previous mistakes and shortcomings. Second, timely emergency rescue and relief for disaster victims is of the utmost importance and in fact can be readily available with good experiential learning in order to reduce the number of casualties and helping all victims back to normal living conditions during the reconstruction. Third, the maximal use of new media, social media in particular, has enhanced the quality of disaster prevention, mitigation, and recovery work. Last but not least is the capacity building for local communities, social groups, and volunteers within and beyond the work of volunteer activism-driven NGO and NPO movements for sustainability. Hence, continuing and ongoing learning from disaster experience – preparing for and reducing disaster risks at large – is critical, and not just for social innovations, but also for individuals, social groups, and communities concerned about charting a sustainable course for the future (Cabinet Office, 2015a; Harada & Nishikido, 2016; METI, 2016; Mullins & Nakano, 2016; Reconstruction Agency, 2016; Siu, 2016).

Activating social reciprocities for better social well-being Contrasting rapid and hypereconomic growth with “money-making for a better life” for every individual (during the Japanese postwar economic miracle between the 1960s and 1980s), disasters of all kinds remind the Japanese of the vulnerability in the risk society and what money cannot buy (Sandel, 2012): to say the least, safety, security, and humanity. The challenge is how to cope with the contradictions of developmentalism – the survival of humanity versus economic profit making. For survivors encountering life and death fault lines in the risk society, new worldviews twinning hope and fear for the Japanese are emerging: There is “apocalyptic learning” for individuals’ survival and societal reciprocities, fostering the sustainability of human species. The disaster-driven apocalyptic learning enshrines not just the antithesis to pro-growth economic developmentalism, but also a new rediscovery of relearning for people’s happiness, sense of security, and social well-being (Graf, 2016a, 2016b; OECD, 2016; Suter, 2016; UNDP, 2015). One such key normative attribute beyond economic calculation is the trust in each other-cum-faith in spirituality – obviously, the essence of one’s faith or belief is important in shaping one’s resilience. Social reciprocities reflect one’s faith and belief and trust in others, as well as one’s worldview in general (Taniguchi, 2010, p. 161). More specifically, faith is one of the most significant facilitators, along with frequent face-to-face contact with friends, of volunteerism. Historically, Japanese resilience, their volunteer activism, and active social reciprocities

Apocalyptic learning for sustainability in Japan  89 for humanity during and beyond disasters are self-evident of new paradigmatic change toward new ideas and ideals for sustainability (Avenell, 2016b; Bloodgood et al., 2014; Mullins & Nakano, 2016). Religious and faith-based organizations have extended their missionary activities (not following the market pricing and government law-defined welfare rights) to reach out to affected victims and families. Faith leadership offers not just the spirituality of faith and hope, but safe shelters for victims in need in disasters. Many Buddhist temples and Christian churches opened themselves up as evacuation shelters during the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake triple disaster. Obviously, the Buddhist temples and Christian churches alike have taken up a long-forgotten role to provide not just spiritual support but many of the things needed to cope with the basic needs of the people during disasters and for the post-disaster recovery work (Graf, 2016a, 2016b; Graf & Montrasio, 2012; cf. JNPOC, 2016b). Another example of helping survivors to cope with tragic experiences is that during the 2011 triple disaster, there was a project aimed at creating a relaxing yet active listening place called the Café de Monk – a mobile truck used by a monk to enable survivors to share their sorrow and suffering through faithbased holistic exchanges. Accordingly, the offer of actively listening to survivors helped them to face tragedy with hope and spirit (Kaneta, 2015). Furthermore, interfaith chaplains from different parts of Japan have held worship and spiritual exercises at different places in the disaster area. Learning from these experiences, an interfaith chaplain training program, for religious practitioners only, was established at Tohoku University in 2012, the year after the 11 March disasters, emphasizing the interfaith chaplains’ offer of nondenominational religious services to help survivors, as well as the deceased, of the disasters (Okada, 2016). Obviously, this is an extended apocalyptic learning from the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake when faith-based organizations (Buddhist temples in particular) offered compassionate or free funeral services for the dead and follow-up religious services for their surviving family. For the last 500 years, the majority of Japanese families have followed the Buddhist tradition of funeral services. The practice of free funeral services has broken the social ritual that the surviving family members were expected to make offerings/donations (in money terms, constituting the key income) to the Buddhist temple (Graf, 2016a, 2016b; Graf & Montrasio, 2012; Lai, 2012a; Suzuki, 2000). Likewise, learning from the 2011 triple disaster, faith-based organizations offered both traditional and innovative services to the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake victims. Obviously, these new modi operandi will be the rejuvenation of faith (belief)-based activities for disaster relief and recovery work. Hence, there is also a new rediscovery, if not rejuvenation, of the positive “faith,” juxtaposing volunteer activism and NGO/NPO movements. Many post-disaster initiatives are promoted to leverage the experience gained and lessons learned from the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake: Faith and trust building among all stakeholders with volunteer activism is therefore encouraged.

90  On-Kwok Lai In June 2013, the government also revised its disaster management rules to build the capacity for local government and NGOs in disaster prevention, rescue, and relief, as well as in post-disaster reconstruction: Since 2013, the revised Disaster Countermeasures Basic Act (DCBA) has attempted to strengthen the capacity (of local communities and municipalities) for disaster risk reduction, disaster mitigation, and reconstruction at different levels of government, community groups, and NGOs, while emphasis is placed on the front lines, the actual sites for the rescue and relief works, juxtaposing the promotion of new technologies and new media being available for all (Cabinet Office, 2015a, 2015b; Reconstruction Agency, 2016). More specifically, there is intergovernmental agency and intermunicipality coordination of training exercises for local and municipal authorities to familiarize themselves with, and build up the capacity to deal with, different kinds of disasters, on the one hand, and the active involvement of local community NGOs, volunteers, and other social institutions, on the other. From the disaster learning, it is clear that targeting the vulnerability of individuals and social groups is critical in providing disaster prevention, rescue, and relief works, as well as for coping with the vulnerability of the aged and disabled/handicapped when exposed to disasters. The missing of such targeting resulted in casualties on the scale of the 11 March Great East Japan earthquake: Nearly 60% of the dead were aged 65 or over and the death rate for the disabled/ handicapped was double the average of the total death toll of 15,894 people (National Policy Agency, 2016; Reconstruction Agency, 2016). More specifically, the newly revised 2015 law includes an initiative to bring maximum support to vulnerable (high-risk, special needs) individuals and social groups (aged and the disabled/handicapped alike) whenever necessary, with a consolidated (household and special needs) registry for vulnerable individuals, with each individual’s consent (to protect one’s privacy). The aim of making the registry available to licensed public bodies and NGOs is to offer a comprehensive set of proactive measures before, during, and after the disaster (Article 49 of DCBA, Japanese Law 11 September 2015, No. 66; Cabinet Office, 2015b). The new attempt is to make good preparation for helping vulnerable groups. The revisions of the DCBA since its adoption in 1961 reflect the need for critical vigilance and ongoing learning from the calling of Mother Nature. Indeed, at the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, such a registry was instrumental in identifying those in need and offering them timely relief services. To recapitulate, social activism for apocalyptic learning in Japan is critical for shaping the rediscovery and rejuvenation of civic and faith-based agencies; all these have shaped the course of public policy initiatives to chart the course for sustainability in the risk society. The Japanese government’s Disaster Management Plan (http://www.bousai.go.jp) puts the utmost emphasis on social learning from disasters, within the wider context of global risks, such as climate change, not least the dissemination of know-how to future generations. Hence, all stakeholders should actively participate in disaster prevention/preparedness education, training for emergency services, and engagement in disaster works using mass media and new social media. All emphasize the diverse entities in the

Apocalyptic learning for sustainability in Japan  91 process of formulating a regional/local disaster management plan, including targeting the aged, children, females, and disabled people (Cabinet Office, 2015a, 2015b; Slater et al., 2016; UNWCDRR, 2015).

Rejuvenating humanity in the risk society with hope The reality of the 21st century is that we are in a risk society with many risks embedded in our world that could easily be turned into disasters (Beck, 1986, 1992; PMCSA, 2016). With good disaster learning, hope and faith in humanity are the only resources we have to face an uncertain future. In transient moments in this living world, life and death matter. Displaced people are the norm in disasters. The twinning of the “lost,” “displaced,” and/ or loneliness experience for disaster victims is still common in terms of days, months, years, or permanence – like those displaced by radioactive contamination during the 11 March Fukushima nuclear disaster: The number of displaced residents amounted to 75,000 as of September 2015, yet less than a third of the affected residents will have a chance to resettle back in their own community before 2017 (Fukushima Prefecture, 2016; METI, 2016). Some communities affected by radioactive contamination are still inaccessible for or have a ban against any resettlement. Some cities’ eviction order is lifted after five years: For example, the 17,000 displaced residents (26% of the total population) from Minamisoma city in Fukushima Prefecture were able to go back to their homes in July 2016 as the radioactive level had recently dropped back to a new normality accepted by the local government (Hasegawa, Ohira, Maeda, Yasumura, & Tanigawa, 2016). The worst experience of being lost and displaced is detrimental to one’s health and survival, as the post-traumatic experience leads to bad health, suicide attempts, and/or higher mortality. For instance, the standardized suicide mortality ratio decreased during the first two years after the disaster in each affected prefecture compared with 2010, but then rose in 2014 to the pre-disaster level in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures and exceeded it in the Fukushima Prefecture (Ohto, Maeda, Hirooki, Yasumura, & Bromet, 2015). Solo survivors are vulnerable to health risks, ranging from loneliness, ­fatigue, and physical and mental stress, to illness and suicide. To cope with the sole-­ survivor problem, many volunteers, NGOs/NPOs, and local municipalities have been working to offer “contacting” and building a “community network” as a safety net for those sole survivors – these networks have been the norm for all post-disaster relief and community rebuilding efforts. The most obvious are those that originated from the Hanshin-Awaji Recovery Plan after 1995 and other disaster learning, including the post-2011 disaster relief-cum-­ rebuilding activities, such as pro-community-based networking (Hikichi, Aida, Tsuboya, Kondo, & Kawachi, 2016; JNPOC, 2016b; JSSW, 2016; Mullins & Nakano, 2016). Another disaster-driven innovation is the early identification of health risks during displacement: for example, health promotion against heat stroke for

92  On-Kwok Lai temporary housing residents in hot summers, as well as preventive measures against the prolonged fixation of posturing – “economy-class syndrome” (the formation of blood clots in veins deep within the legs, causing a life-threatening condition, especially risky for the aged and frail) when people are temporarily residing in confined spaces, like automobiles and temporary housing; the latter has caused some serious illnesses and a few deaths (Kyodo-Bloomberg, 2016; Otake & Osumi, 2016; Sharp, 2016, April). Among the more than 10,000 displaced people from the Kumamoto earthquake (April 2016), the most affected are the underprivileged and aged who have to bear the loss of their home and cope with temporary-to-long-term housing inconvenience. Learning from the past, the resettlement plan for the Kumamoto earthquake is targeting the aged and needy groups. Based on the consolidated registry for the aged, the disabled, and those with special needs, Kumamoto City has surveyed, confirmed, and subsequently offered special speedy rehousing to 185 people (and their families: 116 disabled, 59 aged, and 10 women who were pregnant or had an infant) in Welfare Shelter Housing, with follow-up health and welfare services (JSSW, 2016; NHK News, 16 May 2016, June 2016). Hence, the suffering of the (high-risk, vulnerable) displaced can be mitigated by timely policy responses and social support. With holistic consideration of rebuilding after the disasters, the reconstruction program for the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake has a time frame of 10 years, the first five (2011–2015) of which were set as a “Concentrated Reconstruction Period”; 25 trillion yen (approx. US $250 billion) were allocated for this period. The last five years (2016–2020) are designated as a “Reconstruction and Revitalization Period,” with 6.5 trillion yen (approx. US $65 billion) being allocated (Reconstruction Agency, 2016). Through continuing learning, policy initiatives are innovative and pathbreaking. Efforts to rebuild communities, taking into consideration sustainability with green architecture and renewable energy resourcing, are now the new modus operandi. Taking advantage of the social capital of timely mutual help reciprocities, social work and social service professional organizations have also sent rescue teams and developed new projects to assist practice in the devastated areas – most recently for the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. From disaster learning, a more effective social welfare delivery system is proposed, responding to the diverse and changing needs of people in times of crisis. For future disasters, it is being advocated that a Disaster Welfare Assistant Team should be formed and properly trained; disaster management will be taught in the social work educational curriculum (JNPOC, 2016b; JSSW, 2016). Last but not least, human values and hope transcend national and territorial boundaries. Internationalism and solidarity for disaster relief work should not be forgotten. To cope with disasters of all kinds, international solidarity is a must. During the Great East Japan triple disaster, over 140 countries and 39 international organizations offered material and human assistance – this was the largest amount of international assistance for Japanese people since the end of World War II (Hayashi & Tomita, 2012, p. 684). Hence, the disaster-learning

Apocalyptic learning for sustainability in Japan  93 experience gained in Japan has been, and will be, shared with, and learned by, those outside Japan. Hence, Japanese apocalyptic learning contributes to transnational advocacies and learning for risk reduction and disaster preparation, as well as crisis management, plus world peace and sustainable development (Cabinet Office, 2015a, 2015b; JNPOC, 2016b; Mullins & Nakano, 2016).

Japanese resilient apocalyptic learning for global sustainable future The apocalyptic learning from disasters has transformed Japanese society in historical terms, vis-à-vis the postwar economic miracle once did for rebuilding the devastated cities along with reinvigorating the economy toward mega-urbanism. For the future, juxtaposing the building boom and dynamic developmentalism before (or the likely bust after) the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the triple disaster (related to Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station fallouts) learning clearly calls for a new urgency for a paradigmatic shift toward sustainability with safe, clean, and renewable energy to mitigate climate change in general, and for disaster risk reduction and preparedness in particular (Cabinet Office, 2015a, 2015b; Mullins & Nakano, 2016; Tamari, 2014, pp. 218–219). Historically, Japanese society has endured suffering following the natural disasters of earthquakes, tsunamis, and typhoons, and the human-made World War II – not least two atomic bombs and postwar economic miracle-driven technology calamities, ranging from Minamata disease (mercury poisoning in Kumamoto Prefecture) in the 1950s to the nuclear disaster in 2011. Disasters lead to a paradigmatic shift: Japanese worldviews regarding a peace movement with strong resilience for rebuilding its society are ever stronger (Mullins & Nakano, 2016; Suter, 2016). At this historical conjuncture of climate change and awaiting the next big earthquake in Japan (Financial Times, 17 May 2016), there is strong activism on the part of the Japanese and their government for global agenda setting for a sustainable future, striving for a safer world and global peace – as these initiatives can be seen at the G7 Summit at Ise-Shima in Japan, 26–27 May 2016, in addressing the issues for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2015–2030); renewable energy to tackle climate change; and the search for a peaceful world through the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, as epitomized and echoed by Barack Obama (first sitting US President) historic visit to the Hiroshima atomic bomb site. Thanks to Japan’s proactive policy initiatives for cleaner energy, food and water resourcing resulting from the apocalyptic learning from disasters have been more readily taken up by individuals and their families, despite being situated in an advanced aged society. The obvious challenge for Japan is to rejuvenate cultural norms, values, and virtues for intergenerational positive exchanges to strengthen familial and community capacity, juxtaposing volunteer activism (JNPOC, 2016b; Lai, 2007, 2012a). Likewise, taking advantage of new media, Japan should maximize the advanced utilization of technology to cope with the challenges of an advanced aged society (Kohlbacher & Herstatt, 2010; Lai, 2008).

94  On-Kwok Lai Furthermore, although the Japanese government has developed many post-­ disaster plans, it has yet to mend the “broken” social contract (of good science and safe technology for economic prosperity) with the Japanese as high-tech disasters have become normalized accidents since the 1960s’ economic miracle, forcing people to question the limits of science and technology: “as long as human technologies, such as nuclear power, continue to produce unforeseen events which can escalate beyond our control, the sense of living in a dystopian time will be more realistic” (Tamari, 2014, p. 219). Japanese apocalyptic learning is still idiosyncratic. There is no doubt that interactions through volunteer activism, with dynamic vibrant civic forces, as well as the return to faith, have reinforced trust among people, NGOs, and NPOs alike, but people’s trust in their government and technologists has been questioned, not just because of the historic nuclear accidents but also due to the uncertain future for the next 40 years, plus “learning-by-doing trial-and-error” decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Paradoxically, all disaster-related learning reciprocities have generated numerous and more questionable (truthful versus untruthful) discourses and different interpretations of risks related to radioactive contamination. Yet nuclear technology disasters have activated Japanese anti-nuclear and peace movements for a better and safer world (Avenell, 2016b; Lai, 2012b; Mullins & Nakano, 2016; Shimada, 2014). The Japanese realize the risks and contradictions of pro-growth development and its dualism between the haves and have-nots, and the unfair distribution of the risky/safe environment in different locations (Avenell, 2016b, p. 101). And from now on, people will search for sustainable development on their own terms: to organize themselves, as NGOs/NPOs, and volunteer activism for social well-being, to challenge the legitimacy of the administrative-scientific hegemony over the development agenda. What is historical for the apocalyptic learning in Japan is the dynamic mobilization and activism of civic forces, and rejuvenation of faith and trust, contributing to transnational advocacies for sustainability, social development, and peace movements (like Greenpeace International, Oxfam, and Médecins Sans Frontières), searching for better alternatives for global sustainability and human rights, against pro-growth ideology-driven governmental and scientific short-term solutions (Lai, 2012b; Mullins & Nakano, 2016). Obviously, Japanese apocalyptic experiential learning, and outcomes from these tragedies, demonstrate good influences in and outside Japan – all these provide the agenda setting and options for others to learn from; this is in line with the progressive policy initiatives and social innovations to end poverty and social inequalities, protect the planet, and to ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda – the 17 sustainable development goals (2015–2030) set by the UN. To conclude this brief with an interim assessment, the Japanese apocalyptic learning experience with post-disaster social activism, volunteer activism in particular, has brought long-term benefits for social development and people at large. But for the endeavors beyond its own territories, Japanese civic forces need to be in close collaboration with transnational advocacies to articulate the

Apocalyptic learning for sustainability in Japan  95 global challenges of climate change, natural disaster prevention and reduction, and biological diversity on the one hand, and global human rights and world peace on the other. All these will define global sustainability (the Armageddon) in this century and beyond.

Acknowledgment Generous funding and support from the School of Policy Studies, Kwansei Gakuin University, Honorary Professorship in Social Work & Social Administration at the University of Hong Kong, and Visiting Professorship at United Nations University – Institute of Advanced Studies, plus comments from editors and reviewers, are acknowledged. The normal disclaimers apply.

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7 Reducing the high vulnerability of the elderly to urban flooding Findings from the 2011 floods in Bangkok* Danny Marks Introduction Due in particular to climate change and environmental degradation, the number of flood events has risen significantly in the past three decades, particularly in Asia where 40% of all floods have occurred (Jha, Bloch, & Lamond, 2012). As Asian countries transit to largely urban societies, populations in low- and ­middle-income countries in that region have become more vulnerable to flooding. Cities have a higher concentration of people than rural areas, but often lack adequate housing, infrastructure, and social services (Miller & Douglass, 2015). However, as the experience from the 2011 floods in Bangkok illustrates, this vulnerability is not uniform. Some urban groups are more vulnerable than others. One of the most vulnerable groups is the elderly, which as of 2016 comprised 10% of the population and will reach 25% by 2040 (Zachau, 2016). Based on 16 months of fieldwork from 2014 to 2015 in four badly flooded communities in Bangkok, I found that during the floods, a high proportion of those most affected and those who died were elderly. After reviewing the literature on the elderly’s vulnerability to disasters, this chapter draws on findings from that fieldwork to discuss how and why the elderly were acutely vulnerable to Bangkok’s 2011 floods and to suggest what the implications of these findings are for future social work practice in the region.

Literature review: the elderly’s acute vulnerability to disasters Researchers have found that the elderly, i.e., people aged 65 and over, constitute a group especially at risk from natural disasters. This intensified risk is due to them being physically frail and having limited sensory abilities and restricted mobility (Loke, Lai, & Fung, 2012). Lee and Vink (2015) found that the elderly in the Philippines are three times more vulnerable to dying from floods. Ngo *Quotes are from interviews conducted by Danny Marks with community leaders, government officials, and activists from January 2014 to May 2015.

100  Danny Marks (2001) adds that a number of characteristics of the elderly, such as living alone, smaller social circles, and fewer resources, cause them to be more vulnerable, psychologically and physically, to disasters. In their study of the vulnerability of the elderly to hurricane hazards in Florida, Wang and Yarnal (2012) found that there is differential vulnerability within this group: The old-old (75 years and older) are more vulnerable than the young-old (65–74 years old) because on average, the old-old are less affluent, active, and independent. Post-Katrina demographic analyses found that rather than race, old age was the most accurate predictor of the likelihood of death from the hurricane (Freudenburg, Gramling, Laska, & Erikson, 2008). Vulnerability, as defined by Blaikie, Cannon, Davis, and Wisner (1994, p. 9), is the “characteristics of a person or group in terms of their capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist, and recover from the impact of a natural hazard.” Civil society organizations agree with these academics’ findings. For example, Richard Blewitt, the head of HelpAge International, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) focusing on assisting older people, stated: In an emergency, older people’s lives are affected by many factors. These include inaccessible food distribution points, rations that are too heavy to carry or too difficult to digest and a tendency to share their rations with family members. Also, relief agencies often fail to recognize the needs of older people, even when they are caring for children. (HelpAge International, 2011) Overall, academics and practitioners alike agree that those older than 65 are more vulnerable to disasters than younger-aged groups because members of this group have a “constellation of significant risk factors, such as pre-disaster health and socioeconomic status” (Ngo, 2001). Thus far, most research on how the elderly are affected by disasters has been conducted in Western countries, primarily the US and Europe. In contrast, very few studies have been carried out in Asia, particularly among middle- and low-income countries. As one of the first to study this population in this region, my research helps address this gap in the literature. Let us now turn to the case study.

The 2011 floods’ effects upon the elderly In the second half of 2011, Bangkok experienced its worst flooding in many decades. Overall in Thailand, the floods killed more than 900, affected millions, and cost the economy at least US $45 billion. Much of this devastation occurred in the city of Bangkok and its environs (Marks, 2015). Once this huge deluge of water hit Bangkok, people were affected unevenly. While some were barely flooded and others stayed dry, still others died, some were injured or became sick, and some experienced heavy financial and emotional damage. HelpAge International, which provided relief to the elderly

Findings from the 2011 floods in Bangkok  101 during the floods, found that compared to other groups, the elderly were highly vulnerable to the floods for a number of reasons. First, many elderly people decided not to evacuate because they never thought the water level would rise as high as it did. Such high-level flooding had never occurred during their lifetimes. Second, many were worried about having their property stolen if they left their houses. Third, it was physically more difficult for the elderly to venture out into flooded areas to receive relief supplies (Graham, 2011). Takeshi Komino, former Head of Emergencies of the regional Asia-­ Pacific office of Church World Service, an NGO that provided relief during the floods, agreed: “The elderly were most vulnerable, especially if they didn’t gain access to local authorities who were providing relief” (personal communication, 25 August 2014).

Data collection method My research echoes HelpAge’s findings. Over 16 months from 2014 to 2015, I conducted extensive fieldwork in four badly flooded communities (Figure 7.1) in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR): Phrom Samrit and Yucharoen

Figure 7.1  Map of the BMR and location of the four communities. Source: Google Earth.

102  Danny Marks Community in Don Muang, a northern district in Bangkok; Kukot Pattana Community in Lum Luk Ka District in Pathum Thani Province; and Bang Bua Thong (BBT) Market community in Bang Bua District of Nonthaburi Province (see Figure 7.1). In Yucharoen Community, the height of the flooding averaged 1.5 meters, whereas in the other three communities, flooding was two meters or more. In all of the communities, the flooding lasted over two months. I conducted 25 in-depth questionnaires (equaling 100 in total) with members of each community, including a number of elderly people. The average age of the interviewees was 48 and their gender mix was approximately 60% female and 40% male. I conducted interviews in two low-income communities (Phrom Samrit and Kukot Pattana), where the average household income was 25,000 baht (US $710) per month, and two middle-income communities, where the average was 48,000 baht (US $1,365). To be as representative as possible, I sought to randomly select 25 members from each community. I sought to interview a diverse sample of community members in terms of age, gender, occupation, and location. In three of the communities, I walked from house to house and requested interviews with individuals I found at home. In the BBT Market community, I walked from door to door infrequently since Siriwan, the deputy leader and a gatekeeper of that community, arranged interviews for me. I asked the interviewees how the floods had affected them, how they personally responded, and their opinions of the state’s response to the floods. I found that within these communities, members experienced differential levels of vulnerability. This unevenness was due to a number of factors, including the height of individual houses, whether or not households were insured, and the level of preparation households had made before the flood struck. One final key variable I identified was age.

Findings In all four communities, the elderly were the worst affected by the floods and a few died as a result. In Yucharoen, there were two deaths. One was a man who lived alone and had preexisting health conditions. He had been urged by his friends to evacuate, but he decided to stay. When his house became inundated, he fainted and drowned in the water. Another death in Yucharoen was a woman who also had preexisting health problems. She became seriously ill during the floods, and because floodwater blocked the road, she was unable to reach a hospital quickly. She died en route to the hospital. In nearby Phrom Samrit, a 73-year-old woman died during the floods. According to her grandson, “My grandmother died. She was probably shocked to see so much water.” While nobody died in Kukot Pattana, in the BBT Market community an elderly woman did pass away shortly after the floods subsided. Her granddaughter blamed the floods for her death: We had to evacuate during the flood. My grandmother had many health problems. We didn’t have all the equipment to take care of her because we

Findings from the 2011 floods in Bangkok  103 had to evacuate. She was very stressed about the flood and died soon after the floods in mid-January. If it hadn’t flooded, she would’ve survived. In Srigan Community, a middle-class community in Don Muang near the other two communities, the community leader, Yongyuth, told me, “An elderly woman was already sick when it flooded. She became worse mentally and physically because of the flood. So she died after the flood.” Fortunately, the vast majority of the elderly in these communities survived, but many suffered during the floods. One reason for their heightened level of vulnerability was that many of the elderly in these communities had not adequately prepared for the floods, either because they did not believe warnings or they did not receive a warning in sufficient time. For example, a 66-year-old man in Kukot Pattana stated: I didn’t believe it would flood badly. My 80-year-old friend told me that she had never experienced such big floods in her life. I kept on moving possessions according to the water level. If I had known or believed the warning, I would have bought a boat and tools. It would have been much better. A boat would have been useful to get food and supplies and to go to the medical center. In Phrom Samrit, two women in their 70s both stated that they did not receive any warning about the floods from the government. One declared, “Nobody told anybody that it would flood so badly.” One major problem was that the government’s flood center proclaimed it could handle the floods and that Bangkok would not be flooded. Although satellite imagery in late October showed that some parts of Bangkok faced severe, lengthy flooding, the Flood Relief Operations Center (FROC) incorrectly announced that the level of the water would decrease by the middle of November. Many residents, such as those in Phrom Samrit, trusted the government’s announcement. Consequently, these people did not protect their houses and possessions as they would have done had they been fully warned earlier (Marks, 2015). Another major determinant of elderly vulnerability is whether they decided to remain in their flooded houses or to evacuate. Some decided to evacuate because of preexisting health problems. For example, a woman in BBT declared, “My elderly parents were sick and needed medicine. So we evacuated to our relatives’ house in Victory Monument [a dry area].” While those elderly people who evacuated did not have to cope with floodwater, a few evacuees still encountered flood-related problems. As another woman in BBT said: After we evacuated, my grandmother was sick. But we were in another ­province – we had to get an ambulance … It was more expensive to pay for hospital and travel costs. The money we paid for our grandma was about 400,000 baht (US $11,360). As another example, a 76-year-old woman in Phrom Samrit who had moved to an evacuation center told me that during the flooding she suffered stress

104  Danny Marks worrying about her house while she was away. As a result of the stress, her blood pressure soared. While some residents of affected areas had evacuated, others decided to stay. The latter group was more vulnerable to the floods than the former. The number who stayed was higher than it might have been in other disaster-struck countries for two main reasons. First, according to a disaster specialist at the Department of Country and Town Planning, When thinking about the risk of flooding, we need to go back to basic understanding of Thai culture. Thais have a great sense of belonging – so elderly people don’t want to move. Many people didn’t want to be evacuated in 2011. (personal communication, 16 January 2014) Second, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University believed that “the government’s evacuation plan was stupid” because its plan “allowed people to evacuate but did not allow them to take their belongings. But they were worried about their belongings. So older people refused to leave without them” (personal communication, 7 February 2014). For example, the leader of Yucharoen Community told me that some people decided not to evacuate because they did not want to abandon their pets during the floods. Others, such as members of Phrom Samrit Community, decided not to evacuate because they feared their houses would be robbed while they were away. The elderly who decided not to evacuate during the flooding encountered numerous problems. First, since roads surrounding their communities were flooded, it was difficult for them to travel to receive health care. Most travel required the use of boats to reach hospitals. Boats were both slower and more expensive. As one woman in Yucharoen said: My father became stressed and so we had to move him to the hospital – the floods made his physical symptoms worse. He already had heart disease. We had to take him on a boat to the train station and take the train to Laksi [which is where the hospital is located]. It was very difficult. A 76-year-old woman in Phrom Samrit experienced similar difficulties. Her husband became sick and was transferred to a hospital nearby. But that hospital too became flooded and he had to be moved yet again to another hospital. Second, for those who stayed, the majority experienced stress and discomfort. A 69-year-old woman in Phrom Samrit complained, “I had to stay in my sisterin-law’s house on the second floor. I couldn’t go anywhere. It was not comfortable.” A man at BBT told me, “My grandmother had to live in a small apartment and couldn’t move around. She was stressed. This was the cause of her illness.” Third, compared to younger interviewees, during the floods, the elderly became sick or ill at a higher rate. As the previous quotes suggest, flood-related stress was either a trigger for their illnesses or they became sick because of the dirty stale water and difficult living conditions. Some of these elderly people died.

Findings from the 2011 floods in Bangkok  105 Lastly, compared to other countries, in Thailand, the elderly are more vulnerable because of their limited means of obtaining income. The Thai government provides only 500 baht per month (US $14) in social security per month, assuming that additional financial support will be provided by the family. The World Bank found that some elderly people and individuals with disabilities supplement their government support through small businesses, particularly as street vendors. However, many elderly people had rising debt burdens with high interest rates and limited profits (World Bank, 2012). The factors listed compounded each other to create a high degree of elderly vulnerability during the floods.

Vulnerability reduction efforts during and after the floods On a more positive note, during the 2011 floods, community members, NGOs, and government agencies did help to reduce the acute vulnerability of the elderly. Community members helped by using their boats to evacuate the elderly or to help them receive health care and supplies. For example, Jo, the leader of the BBT Market community, said, “I was a volunteer during the flood time. Around this area, the flood was very deep. There were boats to evacuate people from the area. I helped by taking elderly people out from the area.” A member of Kukot Pattana Community told me that he and other young members of the community used their boat without charge to transport the elderly during the floods. With financial support from HelpAge, local NGOs, such as the YMCA, distributed relief kits and made cash transfers to older people in Bangkok (Malhotra, 2011). The government also helped vulnerable groups, including the elderly. According to an officer from the Community Organizations Development Institute (CODI), a government social welfare agency, “we made a head count of those who are vulnerable: women, children, and the elderly. And then we made a map of places which can become evacuation centers for those people” (personal communication, 19 March 2014). A senior official from the Ministry of Social Development stated that his agency targeted the distribution of relief to children, the disabled, and the elderly (personal communication, 26 November 2014). The district office of Don Muang District in Bangkok provided medicine and medical staff to residents in the district (personal communication, 26 November 2014). After discovering that the elderly could not travel, the Paveena Foundation, a local NGO, delivered moveable toilets to them (personal communication, 7 January 2014). Since 2011, community leaders have worked to lessen the vulnerability of the elderly to future floods. For example, the new leader of Phrom Samrit, who was elected in 2012, stated, “I am working on a new disaster plan especially for children, the elderly, and the disabled. The plan says where they should be evacuated and which agencies to ask for help from.” Also, with the help of the CODI, an agency under the Ministry of Social Welfare, he and the majority of the community members hope to initiate the Baan Mankong (“Secure Housing”) program.

106  Danny Marks This program would result in the construction of new equally sized two-story houses further away from the canal. This program also helps residents negotiate with the owner of the land, the Treasury Department, to enable residents to communally rent the land from the government (Boonyabancha, 2005). If the project is successful, they will be able to not only continue to live in the area but also reduce the vulnerability of all community members to future floods: A dike will be built nearby, and their new houses will be more flood-resistant.

Recommendations The findings presented in the previous case study suggest that there are new avenues through which the vulnerability of the elderly in Thailand and elsewhere in Asia may be reduced over the longer term. First, although none of the elderly in my case study communities died from electrical shocks, a number of flood victims, including the elderly, did die from shock. Of over 900 known deaths during the 2011 floods, 128 were from electrocution. Therefore, social workers and local government agencies, with support from the national government, should initiate a campaign to teach household members, especially the elderly and children, how to use electricity safely during floods and change the configuration of household electrical systems so that they can be shut off easily. Second, while it is commendable that as an identified at-risk group, the elderly were given targeted assistance by the government during the floods, it would have been better had this assistance come beforehand. Early preparation would have improved the resilience of the elderly during the flooding. The program initiated by the local NGO the Foundation for Older Persons’ Development in Northern Thailand could be used as a model in Bangkok. This program teaches the elderly about disaster preparedness and how to look after themselves better during disasters. With this newfound knowledge, elderly people could convey information to other members of the community and enhance the resilience of the entire community (Avory, Cameron, Erickson, & Fresia, 2015). This program has thus far been limited to northern Thailand; it would be beneficial if it was spread by social workers to Bangkok and beyond. Third, social security schemes for the elderly should be ramped up in countries like Thailand. Currently, with the poverty line at THB 1,700 per day, the amount these schemes provide is inadequate to meet basic needs (World Bank, 2012). Consequently, those without additional family support are extremely vulnerable to external shocks, including disasters. Therefore, the monthly allowance given to the elderly should be increased. In the case of Thailand, it should at the very least be doubled to THB 1,000.

Conclusion This chapter highlights an important topic for future social work practice in Asia, especially given the two projected trends of (a) increased vulnerability of the elderly to disasters as a result of climate change and degrading urbanization, and

Findings from the 2011 floods in Bangkok  107 (b) an increased number of elderly people in society. These two trends are increasingly converging, as demonstrated by the 2011 floods in Bangkok. Yet thus far, little has been written on this topic in the context of Asia. My research from the floods has helped fill this gap. I found that the elderly were acutely vulnerable to the floods due to a number of factors: reluctance to evacuate; inadequate preparation; difficulty in accessing health care; and preexisting, limited physical capacity. These factors combined to create a high level of suffering among the elderly during the floods. Many died or became ill and suffered financial losses. Fortunately, community members, NGOs, and government agencies worked to somewhat reduce the vulnerability of the elderly during the flood, such as by assisting with evacuation and targeting assistance toward them. However, these actors have not done as much to reduce their vulnerability to future floods. Therefore, social workers and government agencies must do more to help this at-risk group. I have put forth suggestions that could be followed to hopefully improve the elderly’s resilience to future urban floods, which are likely to become more frequent and intense due to environmental change.

References Avory, B., Cameron, E., Erickson, C., & Fresia, P. (2015). Climate resilience and the role of the private sector in Thailand: Case studies on building resilience and adaptive capacity. Hong Kong: BSR. Retrieved from http://www.bsr.org/en/our-insights/ report-view/climate-resilience-in-thailand Blaikie, P. M., Cannon, T., Davis, I., & Wisner, B. (1994). At risk: Natural hazards, people’s vulnerability, and disasters. London, England, and New York, NY: Routledge. Boonyabancha, S. (2005). Baan Mankong: Going to scale with “slum” and squatter upgrading in Thailand. Environment and Urbanization, 17(1), 21–46. doi:10.1177/ 095624780501700104 Freudenburg, W., Gramling, R., Laska, S., & Erikson, K. (2008). Organizing hazards, engineering disasters? Improving the recognition of political-economic factors in the creation of disasters. Social Forces, 87(2), 1015–1038. doi:10.1353/sof.0.0126 Graham, C. (2011, November 10). Thailand floods: Older people stranded at home. Retrieved from http://www.helpage.org/newsroom/latest-news/thailand-floodsolder-people-stranded-in-flooded-homes/ HelpAge International. (2011, October 27). Thousands of vulnerable older people at risk as Thailand’s flood crisis forces evacuation of Bangkok. Retrieved from http:// www.helpage.org/newsroom/press-room/press-releases/helpage-internationalthousands-of-vulnerable-older-people-at-risk-as-thailands-f lood-crisis-forces-­ evacuation-of-bangkok/ Jha, A. K., Bloch, R., & Lamond, J. (2012). Cities and flooding: A guide to integrated urban flood risk management for the 21st century. Washington, DC: World Bank Publications. Lee, S., & Vink, K. (2015). Assessing the vulnerability of different age groups regarding flood fatalities: Case study in the Philippines. Water Policy, 17(6), 1045–1061. doi:10.2166/wp.2015.089 Loke, A. Y., Lai, C. K., & Fung, O. W. M. (2012). At-home disaster preparedness of elderly people in Hong Kong. Geriatrics & Gerontology International, 12(3), 524–531. doi:10.1111/j.1447-0594.2011.00778.x

108  Danny Marks Malhotra, N. (2011, December 20). Thailand floods: HelpAge distributes relief kits to older people and their families. Retrieved from http://www.helpage.org/newsroom/ latest-news/thailand-floods-helpage-distributes-relief-kits-to-older-people-affectedby-the-floods/ Marks, D. (2015). The urban political ecology of the 2011 floods in Bangkok: The creation of uneven vulnerabilities. Pacific Affairs, 88(3), 623–651. Miller, M. A., & Douglass, M. (2015). Introduction: Governing flooding in Asia’s urban transition. Pacific Affairs, 88(3), 499–515. doi:10.5509/2015883499 Ngo, E. B. (2001). When disasters and age collide: Reviewing vulnerability of the elderly. Natural Hazards Review, 2(2), 80–89. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)1527-6988(2001)2:2(80) Wang, C., & Yarnal, B. (2012). The vulnerability of the elderly to hurricane hazards in Sarasota, Florida. Natural Hazards, 63(2), 349–373. doi:10.1007/s11069-012-0151-3 World Bank. (2012). Thai flood 2011 : Rapid assessment for resilient recovery and reconstruction planning (Vol. 2 of 2) : Final report (English) (Thai flood 2011 : Rapid assessment for resilient recovery and reconstruction planning). Bangkok, Thailand: World Bank. Zachau, U. (2016, January 14). Ageing population poses development challenges. Bangkok Post. Retrieved from http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/825752/ ageing-population-poses-development-challenges

8 Humanitarian response after a complex environmental disaster A case study of Typhoon Haiyan Tara Powell and Jade Brack Background On 8 November 2013, Super Typhoon “Haiyan” made landfall in the Philippines. As one of the strongest typhoons on record, Haiyan caused mass destruction on numerous islands in the country (United States Agency for International Development, 2014). Approximately 16 million people were affected across 139 communities in 44 provinces, where over 6,000 individuals died, 28,000 were injured, and four million individuals were displaced – many of whom were unable to return (Aguirre & Cadiz, 2015). The 12.5 billion-dollar economic impact made Haiyan the sixth-costliest disaster in recorded history (Aguirre & Cadiz, 2015). Disasters such as Haiyan have become increasingly prevalent and costly: The economic burden of natural disaster response and recovery was estimated to cost 20 million dollars a year during the 1990s and substantially increased to approximately 100 billion dollars a year between 2000 and 2010, with millions of people affected (International Monetary Fund, 2012). Natural disasters can affect individuals, families, and communities on a number of levels. Those who experience disasters may lose their homes and loved ones, and experience physical injuries, which can result in short- and long-term psychological distress (Gewirtz, Forgatch, & Wieling, 2008). Initial post-disaster psychological symptoms include acute stress disorder, anxiety, and depression, which, in the long term, can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or sustained chronic health and mental health issues (Powell, 2013; Walsh, 2007). While natural disasters cannot be prevented, measures can be taken to reduce their human impact and economic costs (International Monetary Fund, 2012). This chapter provides a case study on the humanitarian response to Super ­Typhoon Haiyan, detailing specific emotional and psychological services and interventions implemented during the post-disaster response and recovery phase. The role of the international humanitarian community, and local and national government, will be discussed. Finally, cultural considerations and implications for social work will be addressed.

International disaster response Countries in Asia and the Pacific Rim are at high risk of experiencing a natural disaster and the associated devastation. The Philippines, for example, is ranked

110  Tara Powell and Jade Brack as the country with the second-highest risk in the world of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, typhoons, and volcanic eruptions (Guha-Sapir, Hoyois, & Below, 2014). Additionally, densely populated cities, such as Manila, are highly susceptible to experiencing adverse consequences after a catastrophic event. Given the high risk of these types of disasters and the human and economic toll, it is essential for governments and humanitarian agencies to have a coordinated response to support recovery. Recovery efforts after disasters such as Haiyan are complex and last far beyond the initial response phase. Many countries, such as the Philippines, have divided disaster management into four phases: (1) preparedness, (2) short-term recovery, (3) intermediate recovery, and (4) long-term recovery and rehabilitation (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2011). While these phases are implemented during different periods, the activities are interconnected and work in a continuum. During the preparedness phase, governments and disaster response agencies conduct pre-disaster recovery planning, capacity building, disaster preparedness exercises, and partnership building, and implement protocols in response to the emotional and health-care needs of survivors. During the short-term recovery phase (days after the event), services are geared at sustaining life by providing for basic needs, such as shelter, food, and emergency medical services, in addition to emotional and psychological crisis response services. Intermediate recovery (weeks to months after the event) includes the provision of short-term housing, debris removal, the reestablishment of businesses, building a network of emotional support services, and ongoing health care. Long-term recovery (months to years post-disaster) includes the development of permanent housing, infrastructure rebuilding, ongoing emotional and psychological support services, and the reestablishment of health-care facilities (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2011). While governments are generally involved in all stages of disaster management, many humanitarian organizations are involved in the immediate response and short-term recovery. In the case of Haiyan, for example, most humanitarian organizations (e.g., the Red Cross, the World Health Organization [WHO]) were funded for between four and six months (Gocotano et al., 2015). During this recovery period, international humanitarian organizations, in coordination with the government, developed a strategic plan to aid in the recovery and reconstruction of regions affected by Haiyan. The health priorities of the recovery plan included reconstruction of health facilities and support for physical and mental health care (Gocotano et al., 2015).

Mental health and psychosocial support after disasters Post-disaster mental health and psychosocial support have become increasingly pertinent over the last 20 years. A growing field of research indicates that there are both short- and long-term emotional impacts following a disaster, which can impede recovery in the affected population. Common post-disaster mental health difficulties can include depression, anxiety, or PTSD (Neria, Nandi, &

A case study of Typhoon Haiyan in Philippines  111 Galea, 2008). Symptomology of PTSD may include: (1) reexperiencing the event (i.e., distressing nightmares, intrusive recollections), (2) avoidance/numbing (i.e., avoidance of places, people, or activities associated with the stressor), and/ or (3) hyperarousal (i.e., sleep problems, hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response) (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The prevalence rates of PTSD in disaster-affected areas vary widely and have been reported to be as high as 60% based on the level of exposure and proximity to the event (Neria et al., 2008). Co-occurring symptoms associated with depression and alcohol and drug abuse are also consistently high after a disaster. Because of the emotional impact on individuals affected by a disaster, mental health and psychosocial programs have become a priority during response and recovery. To coordinate efforts related to mental health services among humanitarian disaster response workers, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), comprised of over 20 humanitarian agencies, was developed to create guidelines detailing effective service provision in post-disaster contexts. The IASC guidelines are used to establish and coordinate a set of standards for multisectoral humanitarian agency responses in an effort to improve and protect people’s psychosocial well-being and mental health during and after an emergency (IASC, 2007). Table 8.1 defines the guidelines put forth by the IASC. In addition to the guidelines for psychosocial programs, the IASC provides a tiered blueprint for service delivery in humanitarian crises, as outlined in Table 8.1  I nter-Agency Standing Committee Guidelines (IASC, 2007) Human rights and equity Participation

Do no harm

Building on available resources and capacities Integrated support systems Multilayered support

Humanitarian actors should protect and promote the rights of all people and attempt to provide equal access to mental health and psychosocial support across gender, age, and ethnic groups. Participation of local affected populations should be included in a humanitarian response. This should commence in the earliest phase of an emergency and local people should be included in all aspects of the response. Since mental health and psychosocial work is sensitive and has the potential to do harm, humanitarian actors must take steps to minimize the risk by coordinating with others to minimize duplication and gaps in services; conducting evaluations; being culturally sensitive and aware; employing evidence-based practices; and understanding human rights. Building local capacities with both government and civil society to support self-help and strengthen the resources already present is a core principle in a humanitarian response. This principle focuses on strengthening the skills and capacities of individuals, families, communities, and society. Activities should be integrated into wider systems (e.g. existing community support mechanisms, formal/nonformal school systems, general health services, general mental health services, social services, etc.) to increase sustainability. A key to organizing mental health and psychosocial support is to develop a layered system of complementary support that meets the needs of different groups. Illustrated in Figure 8.1.

112  Tara Powell and Jade Brack

Tailored psychiatric or psychological support

Basic emotional support through community health workers or

Community mobilization, community groups, cultural and

Information dissemination on available services, advocacy for culturally appropriate services

Specialized Services Focused Nonspecialized Support

Community and Family Support

Basic Services and Security

Figure 8.1  I ntervention pyramid for mental health and psychosocial support. Source: Adapted from: IASC Reference Group MHPSS, 2010.

Figure 8.1. The tiered structure describes varying levels of psychosocial support after a disaster. Psychosocial programs include interventions that support the social and psychological well-being of individuals, families, and communities affected by disasters. These interventions are designed to minimize negative psychological sequelae associated with complex emergencies, such as a natural disaster (Duncan & Arntson, 2004). The first tier of the pyramid addresses basic services such as clean water, food, health care, and shelter. Community and family supports include community educational and vocational projects, children’s projects, and social support linkages. Focused nonspecialized supports are targeted mental health or psychosocial programs for children and adults who are having difficulties coping but do not have a clinical diagnosis. These programs may consist of psycho-education on common reactions to trauma, healthy coping strategies, and/or identification of community supports. Finally, specialized services are specifically for individuals diagnosed with mental health issues such as PTSD, substance use disorders, or severe depression. These services may include individual or small-group therapeutic counseling with social workers or psychologists trained in specialized mental health interventions.

Mental health in Asia Although the IASC has put forth guidelines for mental health psychosocial support after a disaster, services are not always widely available due to the heightened need and limited resources. In the Philippines, the government allocates 2%–3% of the national budget to health care, and there are only a reported 3.47 mental health practitioners for every 100,000 Filipinos (Conde, 2004; WHO, 2006).

A case study of Typhoon Haiyan in Philippines  113 Moreover, many international humanitarian agencies do not remain in the country beyond the intermediate recovery. While these organizations can effectively meet the short-term mental health needs of disaster-affected communities, in-country capacity building is essential in order to sustain mental health services and programming. In the case of Haiyan, for example, one year after the event, recovery remained slow, many were still homeless, and most of the humanitarian agencies were no longer providing aid in disaster-affected communities (McCall, 2014). Historically, stigmatization of mental health concerns in many Asian countries has created a barrier for post-disaster recovery. Scholars have noted the prevalence of prejudice and discrimination due to public misconceptions about mental illness (Ito, Setoya, & Suzuki, 2012). These negative views have been attributed to traditional beliefs that mental illness is caused by a fragile character or spirit possession (Ito et al., 2012). Often, the stigmatization of mental health leads to underutilization of needed services. To address the issues of stigma and limited mental health services, there has been a movement to incorporate emotional support services in primary care. A number of studies have suggested that service utilization may be increased through the development of localized community mental health programs, which train and educate primary care workers (Ito et al., 2012; Saraceno et al., 2007). In the Philippines, collaborative activities have been established between universities, local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and humanitarian actors to provide education in more generalized emotional support rather than Western-style pharmacological treatment (Ito et al., 2012). Additionally, humanitarian agencies have begun to provide a set of WHO-approved training sessions that educate health professionals and the general public in how to support a person who is experiencing emotional distress.

Mental health and psychosocial support post-Haiyan After Super Typhoon Haiyan, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) was identified as one of the immediate priorities by the Department of Health and the national government (PSTCRRC, 2014). Since MHPSS was a priority in the response, the national and local government and international humanitarian agencies created a coordinated response to the disaster. Services that were provided included information dissemination, the creation of child-friendly spaces, psychosocial support in education, targeted psychological interventions, clinical management of mental health disorders by health-care providers, and general activities to support MHPSS (PSTCRRC, 2014). The most widely disseminated MHPSS activities focused on educating community members regarding mental health needs, in an effort to support long-term recovery and increase community support. Psychological first aid (PFA) and the Mental Health Gap Action Program (mhGAP), described in the subsequent sections, are examples of training that was widely implemented after Haiyan. This training was utilized in an effort to increase awareness regarding mental health concerns, and provided guidance for supporting, recognizing, and referring individuals with distress symptoms.

114  Tara Powell and Jade Brack Psychological first aid There has been a growing movement to incorporate PFA in post-disaster ­responses. PFA provides a basic framework for meeting the social and psychological needs of individuals who recently experienced a distressing or traumatizing event (WHO, 2011). PFA was primarily designed to educate non-mental-healthtrained individuals to provide nonintrusive care and support for people in the aftermath of a crisis situation. The PFA framework encourages a basic human approach in interacting with individuals in the aftermath of a traumatizing event, wherein PFA-trained individuals are encouraged to remain respectful of the ­survivors’ experiences and culture; help assess and meet basic needs and concerns; listen; provide comfort; act as a resource; connect individuals with information, services, and support; and, above all else, protect the individuals from experiencing additional trauma (WHO, 2011). Typically, PFA is implemented in response to a large-scale emergency (IASC, 2014). Due to the widespread acceptance and support of PFA, the WHO published a guide for fieldworkers in 2011 in an effort to maximize the number of individuals who received PFA support services. PFA is a widely accepted form of social and psychological support and has been publicly endorsed by organizations such as the Red Cross, UNICEF, the International Medical Corps, and the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, in addition to other distinguishable organizations. Additionally, PFA was employed as part of the humanitarian response following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the 2013 typhoon in the Philippines, amongst other national and international emergencies (IASC, 2014). In the wake of Super Typhoon Haiyan, PFA was utilized to mobilize community members, aid workers, and health-care professionals, amongst others, to increase survivors’ access to post-disaster support services (WHO, 2013). The design and nature of PFA allowed trained PFA providers to meet Haiyan survivors’ basic needs through a culturally sensitive lens and united the community by maintaining respect for the communal nature of the Philippine culture (WHO, 2013).

Mental Health Gap Action Program The mhGAP is a second program that has been widely implemented in the ­Philippines and other areas; the mhGAP was designed to equip health professionals with education in mental health issues among disaster-affected ­populations. The mhGAP was established in 2008 by the WHO in an effort to address the significant gap in service provision for individuals afflicted with mental, neurological, and substance use disorders, otherwise known as MNS (WHO, 2008). Countries with low and moderately low incomes often have a high prevalence of MNS-afflicted populations, while having a substantial gap in available social and economic resources in order to meet the needs of these individuals. The mhGAP primarily seeks to enhance the capacity of these countries to adequately respond to MNS concerns through the provision of widely accessible and evidence-based

A case study of Typhoon Haiyan in Philippines  115 intervention services, preferably referred to as the “scale-up” of mental health services (WHO, 2008). The mhGAP seeks to drastically alter the landscape of services offered to individuals with MNS disorders through the unification of key stakeholders, identification of priority conditions, and establishment of evidence-based interventions for identified priority conditions, while also recognizing and ­addressing barriers to program implementation (WHO, 2008). Other key components of the mhGAP include appropriate identification of low-income countries substantially burdened by MNS disorders, the development and implementation of country-specific legislature supporting MNS service delivery, the amalgamation of mental and primary health-care services, evidence-based training for non-mental health-care providers, mobilization of financial resources, and ­continued monitoring and evaluation to ensure successful service delivery and maximize impact (WHO, 2008). Since the establishment of the mhGAP in 2008, a host of countries have adopted the program in an effort to ameliorate the effects of MNS disorders on individuals predominately living in low-resource countries (WHO, 2016a). Most notably, the need to provide integrated and accessible evidence-based resources for individuals with MNS disorders after exposure to a natural disaster was observed in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan. After Haiyan struck the Philippines in 2013, multiple organizations, including but not limited to Save the Children, AmeriCares, the WHO, and the International Medical Corps, collaborated in an effort to train non-mental health personnel in the delivery of the mhGAP to meet the needs of traumatized individuals suffering from MNS disorders (Weintraub et al., 2016). The development and implementation of the mhGAP are fundamentally altering the provision of mental health services in countries around the world (WHO, 2016b). In addition to meeting the needs of natural disaster victims in the Philippines, the mhGAP was implemented in Guinea, in an effort to support Ebola survivors; Syria, to meet the needs of refugees; and Ethiopia, Nigeria, Mexico, and many other countries, in order to provide widely accessible mental health services in a culturally sensitive fashion through the training of nonspecialist health personnel (WHO, 2016b).

Discussion and implications for social work The upsurge in devastating natural disasters has highlighted the crucial need for countries to initiate holistic and culturally centered post-disaster response and recovery efforts. After a disaster, international humanitarian organizations work in collaboration with local and national governments to provide services and support devastated communities. In the case of the Philippines, many international humanitarian agencies partnered with governmental systems, building on the local communities’ capacity to address the psychological and physiological needs of survivors, thereby enhancing the sustainability of health and mental health services.

116  Tara Powell and Jade Brack Given the large-scale incorporation of MHPSS programming in post-disaster contexts, the IASC guidelines provide agencies with standards regarding the provision of immediate and sustained mental health services. Recent research suggests that countries may differ in terms of culture, type of disaster, and government context, yet a number of essential considerations can provide a foundation for effective disaster response efforts. These include the importance of liaising with in-country mental health experts, sharing resources and best practices, adapting mental health services to fit the cultural context, and mapping the geographical area for service delivery (Powell, 2013). Collaboration with communities to build on the available local and national resources is particularly important in countries with strong governments where established health-care systems exist. Social resources that can be used include the local government, traditional healers, community leaders, teachers, youth groups, and community health workers (IASC, 2007). By working within the existing systems, humanitarian organizations may build a capacity for sustained culturally appropriate MHPSS programming. MHPSS programming is relatively recent in disaster response and recovery. Research on post-trauma mental health has indicated the importance of helping individuals and communities to overcome the devastation of these catastrophic events. Evidence is still emerging on the efficacy of MHPSS programming; therefore, it is critical for disaster response that social workers and mental health professionals engage in continuous education in evidence-based practice. The IASC standards stress the importance of working with the communities, considering culture and protecting human rights without causing any harm. By following these guidelines and keeping continuously informed, mental health workers can mitigate the adverse psychological consequences of a disaster.

References Aguirre, Jr., D. O., & de Cadiz, G. B. (2015). The Typhoon ‘Yolanda’ experience of Leyte, Philippines and the recovery strategy of Eastern Visayas State University (EVSU). doi:10.2139/ssrn.2700849 American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Conde, B. (2004). Philippines mental health country profile. International Review of Psychiatry, 16(1–2), 159–166. Duncan, J., & Arntson, L. (2004). Children in crisis: Good practices in evaluating psychosocial programming. Westport, CT: Save the Children Federation. Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2011). National disaster recovery framework: Strengthening disaster recovery for the nation. Retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/ pdf/recoveryframework/ndrf.pdf Gewirtz, A., Forgatch, M., & Wieling, E. (2008). Parenting practices as potential mechanisms for child adjustment following mass trauma. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 34(2), 177–192. Gocotano, A., Geroy, L. S., Alcido, M. R., Dorotan, M. M., Balboa, G., & Hall, J. L. (2015). Is the response over? The transition from response to recovery in the health sector post-Typhoon Haiyan. Western Pacific Surveillance and Response, 6, 5–9.

A case study of Typhoon Haiyan in Philippines  117 Guha-Sapir, D., & Below, R. (2014). Hoyois Ph. EM-DAT: The international disaster database. Brussels, Belgium: Université catholique de Louvain. Retrieved from www. emdat.be Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC). (2007). IASC guidelines on mental health and psychosocial support in emergency settings. Geneva, Switzerland: IASC. IASC. (2010). Mental health and psychosocial support in humanitarian emergencies: What should humanitarian health actors know? Retrieved from http://www.who. int/mental_health/emergencies/what_humanitarian_health_actors_should_know. pdf?ua=1 IASC. (2014). Review of the implementation of the IASC guidelines on mental health and psychosocial support in emergency settings: How are we doing? Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/protection/f iles/IASCGuidelines_on_MHPSS_Review2014-­F INAL_(3).pdf International Monetary Fund. (2012). Natural disasters hitting more people, becoming more costly. International Monetary Fund. Retrieved from http://www.imf.org/­ external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2012/new101012a.htm. Ito, H., Setoya, Y., & Suzuki, Y. (2012). Lessons learned in developing community mental health care in East and South East Asia. World Psychiatry, 11(3), 186–190. La Greca, A., & Silverman, W. (2009). Treatment and prevention of posttraumatic stress reactions in children and adolescents exposed to disasters and terrorism: What is the evidence? Child Development Perspectives, 3(1), 4–10. doi: 10.1111/ j.1750-8606.2008.00069 McCall, C. (2014). Scars of typhoon Haiyan still run deep 1 year on. The Lancet, 384(9955), 1656. Neria, Y., Nandi, A., & Galea, S. (2008). Post-traumatic stress disorder following disasters: A systematic review. Psychological Medicine, 38(4), 467–480. Powell, T. (2013). Save the Children’s child protection and psychosocial work in middle- and high-income countries. London, England: Save the Children. Psychosocial Support and Children’s Rights Resource Center (PSTCRRC) and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Network (MHPSSN). (2014). Mental health and psychosocial support in Philippines: Minimal response matrix and mapping, Final report. Retrieved from https://mhpss.net/?get=167/MHPSS-PhilippinesMapping_final-version.pdf Saraceno, B., van Ommeren, M., Batniji, R., Cohen, A., Gureje, O., Mahoney, J., … Underhill, C. (2007). Barriers to improvement of mental health services in low-income and middle-income countries. The Lancet, 370(9593), 1164–1174. United States Agency for International Development. (2014). Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda Fact Sheet #22. Retrieved from https://www.usaid.gov/haiyan/fy14/fs22 Walsh, F. (2007). Traumatic loss and major disasters: Strengthening family and community resilience. Family Process, 46, 207–227. Weintraub, A. C., Garcia, M. G., Birri, E., Severy, N., Ferir, M. C., Ali, E., … Van Ommeren, M. (2016). Not forgetting severe mental disorders in humanitarian emergencies: a descriptive study from the Philippines. International Health, 8(5), 336–344. World Health Organization. (2006). The world health report 2006: Working together for health. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization. World Health Organization. (2008). Mental health gap action program: Scaling up care for mental, neurological, and substance use disorders. Retrieved from http://www. who.int/mental_health/mhgap_final_english.pdf

118  Tara Powell and Jade Brack World Health Organization. (2011). Psychological first aid: Guide for field workers. R ­ etrieved from http://www.who.int/mental_health/publications/guide_field_workers/en/ World Health Organization. (2013). Philippines: Health professionals learn psychological first aid to support survivors. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/features/2013/ psychological-first-aid/en/ World Health Organization. (2016a). Scale up of mhGAP across a disaster-affected region in the Philippines. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mental_health/emergencies/ mhgap_philippines/en/ World Health Organization. (2016b). WHO mental health gap action program (mhGAP). Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mental_health/mhgap/en/

9 In the Typhoon Corridor Rebuilding communities in the Philippines through empowerment and innovation Annalisa D. Enrile, Gabrielle Aquino, and Vivien Villaverde Introduction This chapter will examine the gaps in traditional responses during natural and unnatural disasters in the Republic of the Philippines. Alternative responses based on community collaborations, trauma-centered services, and empowerment will also be discussed as possible ways to address needs but also target root causes exacerbating such disasters.

Disaster in the Philippine Islands Located strategically in the Asia-Pacific, the Philippines is an archipelago of islands that number over 7,000 and is home to over 100 million people. Three large islands compose the bulk of the Philippines’ landmass: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Philippines is located in the Circum-Pacific belt of the North Pacific Basin that is better known as the “Ring of Fire.” This refers to the almost continuous volcanic belt and ocean trenches in the area, which causes about 90% of the world’s earthquakes as a result of the movement of plate tectonics (US Geological Survey, 2012). Further, the Philippines is also located within the “Typhoon Corridor” of the North Pacific Basin. The geographic location of the Philippines has meant frequent typhoons, landslides, floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and landslides. According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in 2013, the Philippines has become increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters due to climate change and extreme weather events. The intensity of these weather conditions has been exacerbated by unnatural disasters and practices, such as illegal logging and deforestation, especially of coastal mangroves (Carcella & Hipolito, 2011). The lack of infrastructure and land planning is due to a number of things, but the Philippines also suffers from extreme corruption (You, 2015). From the highest levels of the federal government to smaller institutions, such as law enforcement and even some nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), there has been a history of corruption, even in relation to disaster relief. In fact, the country has been plagued by a legacy of corruption charges leveled against them by the international

120  Annalisa D. Enrile et al. community. In the most recent typhoon, there were allegations of government officials appropriating donations to cherry-pick the “best” items and replacing them with substandard, or even expired, foodstuff (Cainghog, 2014). The more detrimental effect of corruption is the lack of infrastructure building, especially in the skimming of resources meant for disaster victims (Cainghog, 2014). Rebuilding efforts also suffer from corruption activities which have led to unsafe conditions because of substandard materials and shoddy construction. These same structures will have to withstand the next round of extreme weather (Heydarian, 2014). Corruption has been referred to as the “political disaster” of the Philippines where the division between the ultra-wealthy and the impoverished is widening. Furthermore, the distinction between the political elite and the rest of the Philippines has manifested into direct access to land and resources, which are important factors in vulnerability protection during natural disasters. Landlessness is an extremely important factor as it heightens poverty and food insecurity, and offers virtually no economic support. An already at-risk population is further aggravated by natural disasters, which may take poor families generations to recover from. Corruption and class privilege need to be considered when generating efforts to alleviate the aftermath of natural disasters, and they are issues that must be addressed given the number of natural disasters that the Philippines has and will face. In 2012, the Global Climate Risk Index (2014) identified Haiti, Pakistan, and the Philippines as the most affected countries in the world. A Philippines national mapping project identified that the provinces in Central Luzon have the highest risk. This is also the area with the highest urban centers and is north of the capital of the country. In the past 20 years, there have been over 300 natural disasters in the Philippines. Since the turn of the century, disasters have been experienced that have been the deadliest in the history of the country, even within global standards. In 2000, heavy rains caused the Payatas trash slide. Payatas, located in Quezon City, is home to one of Philippines’ largest open dump sites, known as the Payatas Dumpsite. Thousands of people, mainly waste pickers/­ “scavengers” and their families, lived there. During the rains, 288 people were killed, many of them buried alive, and almost 1,000 were displaced. Up until this disaster, there was no formal disaster response developed by the Philippine government. In fact, even in 2006, it took two major disasters – the Guinsaugon (Leyte province) Landslide and the Mt. Mayon (Bicol region) volcanic lahar flow and flash floods, where only 324 bodies were recovered, but thousands were unaccounted for and missing – for the government to begin constructing a formal policy toward disaster. The response was still being developed when, in 2009, Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy1) and Parma (Peping) hit the Philippines and resulted in over 1,200 fatalities and thousands more displacements. ­Damages during the two typhoons were estimated to be PHP 38 billion (US $852 million). These events pale in comparison to the 2013 Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) that was recorded at the time as the strongest tropical cyclone ever to hit the ground.2 Super Typhoon Haiyan killed at least 6,300 people, displaced half a million families, and affected over 16 million people (Docena, 2015; UN News Center, 2013b).

In the Typhoon Corridor  121 Disaster response of the Philippine government The Philippine government moved toward a DRR model after 2005, when the ­ 0-year plan United Nations adopted the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), a 1 to address natural hazards/disasters with the goal of reducing disaster losses by 2015 though resilience building (Matsuoka & Shaw, 2012). Until then, ­public policy was mainly reactive and focused on disaster response and some r­ ehabilitation of communities. The HFA moved its focus towards proactive actions of risk management with an emphasis on prevention. Before the HFA, a 1978 policy was most dominant in the Philippines – the Presidential Decree 1566 created the Philippine National Disaster Coordinating Council (The LAWPHiL Project, n.d.). This Council was composed of all the major Secretaries (i.e., Defense, Agriculture, Department of Health, etc.). The Republic Act No. 7160 is also known as the “Local Government Code.” It is responsible for defining the power, authority, responsibilities, and resources of the LGUs (Ecolex, n.d.). The Philippines also signed onto the Medium-term Development Plan for 2004–2010, which created the Strategic National Action Plan on DRR (2009–2018). Republic Act No. 9729, also known as the Climate Change Act of 2009 mainstreamed the reality of climate change into government policy and strategies (Columbia Law School, 2016). Perhaps the most important thing this policy did was acknowledge the reality of climate change and raise public awareness around the issue, which helped build prevention. Also of note is the language of the policy, which relies on an ecological model, moving toward recognition of systemic and structural needs for change. Republic Act No. 10121, the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction, and the Management Act of 2009 were successful in becoming the primary policies on DRR, repealing former laws and restructuring response to be more relevant to current risks affected by climate change. It is also important because it integrated risk-reduction measures, not just at a top-down framework from the executive and national levels (federal) but to the level of the barangays (the smallest administrative division in government, also known as “local government units” or LGUs). Most notable is that it expanded fund allocation to include LGUs, which greatly improved preventative measures such as training and rescue equipment. This was done through the creation of a National Disaster Risk Management plan whose target time span is 2011–2028. Republic Act No. 10121 is a distinct paradigm shift from one of a simple response to crisis to one of prevention and rehabilitation that is more holistic. This new paradigm was to include the following areas of consideration: gender, capacity building, resilience building (emphasis on vulnerable sectors), planning within LGUs, and structural interventions. Although this policy goes a long way to expand the definition of disaster risk management, especially through the local empowerment of communities, the problem remains one that has constantly plagued the Philippines and other countries – the inability to implement quality assurances. Just because the policy has mandated certain things does not mean that these aspects are carried out effectively, efficiently, or with maximized quality. There has also been some controversy that the policy has opened the door to foreign military, like the US,

122  Annalisa D. Enrile et al. which may leave these local communities susceptible to other sociopolitical machinations (Amador III & Lopez, 2013). Despite these criticisms, the trajectory that the policy has taken is a positive sign. As the Philippines and the rest of the world continue to deal with the realities of climate change, policy will evolve to accommodate political, social, and economic veracities. Over 100 billion pesos (US $2.2 billion) and almost US $250 million (cash) of foreign aid have been garnered, but this combination of vulnerability and lack of developed infrastructure has resulted in a situation whose resources, material, and community are stretched to the limit. As a developing country, the challenge of the Philippines to address natural and unnatural disasters necessitates community-based empowerment, social innovation, and social enterprise. This chapter will examine the involvement of local communities in capacity development and sustainability from a social, political, and economic perspective.

Traditional responses: rescue, relief, and relocation As Philippines’ public policy demonstrated, the response to natural disaster was a crisis model that almost always operated after the fact. In other words, the response was based on rescue and recovery. Efforts were based on addressing immediate needs, which included temporary sheltering that was often inadequate; distribution of relief goods that was also criticized as inconsistent and incomplete; and relocation to sites that were poorly developed, if developed at all (Cainghog, 2014). While the Philippines availed itself of international aid, there was no systemized way in which goods were distributed and definitely no way in which to track the charitable giving. Increased instances of corruption associated with the distribution of relief goods plagued the country enough so that the international community began to hesitate when formally giving, which gave way to a “people to people” paradigm (this paradigm means that private, small nonprofit, or volunteer groups reach out on their own to communities and mount their own “missions” to provide relief, bypassing the government). Not only was the “traditional disaster response” of the country woefully lacking, it did not include any addressing of structural and root causes of harm (Gaillard, Liamzon, & Villanueva, 2007). Being able to provide a comprehensive approach that fixes rather than just reacts to disaster must include the ability to take an intersectional approach to the social determinants and political and economic context that continue to affect most communities in the Philippines. Thus, the move from reactive actions of the government to more preemptive and preventative models is a positive one. Certainly, it is the first step towards a response that is innovative, creative, and multidisciplinary.

Psychosocial responses to natural disasters The need for psychosocial programs was previously treated as ancillary or secondary to more “urgent” issues, such as shelter; food; and, of course, rescues. Paired with this perception was the already reticent nature of the Filipinos to not engage

In the Typhoon Corridor  123 with the formal mental health system. Issues of stigma, misunderstanding, and other cultural beliefs made it difficult for mental health practitioners to practice in communities where it was seen to either be a stigma or even a weakness to have to use the services they offered. However, the discussion of trauma, as well as secondary or vicarious trauma of first responders, slowly began to gain momentum after 2005 and the shifts in policy. A number of “psychosocial” programs were carried out from educational to medical perspectives. Many were pieced together in an amalgamation of international best practices as well as long-time experiences from those in the field, mainly led by social workers and psychologists but carried out by nondegree professionals, lay professionals, and even volunteers. Although at first, there were no evidence-based interventions being practiced consistently, the international community’s embrace of Psychological First Aid (PFA) began to permeate the Philippines and change the methodology of services. PFA is the support process that assesses the needs of survivors; it was first developed in the mid-20th century and was used particularly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks (Landoy, Hechanova, Ramos, & Kintanar, 2015). This process helps connect survivors to services that promote a sense of safety, calm, and self-efficacy (World Health Organization [WHO], War Trauma Foundation, & World Vision International, 2011). This is also a nonintrusive process that increases the connections between survivors and their communities. PFA may be implemented in individual and group settings. There are five core principles within this response. They are: (a) promoting a sense of safety, (b) promoting calming, (c) promoting a sense of self- and community efficacy, (d) promoting connectedness, and (e) instilling hope (Landoy et al., 2015). This process involves listening to survivors, identifying the needs of survivors, and providing assistance to connect survivors with social support. PFA is a growing response to the frequent natural disasters that occur and has been adopted in countries with a type of cultural indigenization to make it more effective with particular populations. For instance, Landoy et al. (2015) have suggested that the use of this psychosocial response be adapted to meet the needs of survivors in the Philippines by incorporating specific, identified cultural values. One cultural value known as pakikipagkapwa, which means a sense of community where survivors rely on one another for help and support, supports the notion that group-based interventions are more effective. Pakikipagkapwa essentially is the driving value of collectivist orientation and so, the group-based interventions promote not only self-efficacy but also community efficacy. Groupbased interventions help survivors share experiences, normalize reactions, and encourage survivors to provide mutual support to one another. Another intervention that has shown to be effective is the use of mindfulness. This could be implemented in individual and group settings. Mindfulness interventions help survivors manage their stress reactions to the trauma they have experienced (Hechanova, Ramos, & Waelde, 2015). Additionally, research suggests that in crisis situations, a person’s spiritual beliefs and rituals are valuable in helping the survivor overcome the pain and suffering experienced in the natural disaster (Landoy et al., 2015; Hechanova et al., 2015). Utilized together, it is suggested

124  Annalisa D. Enrile et al. that group-based interventions that incorporate cultural values like spirituality will best support survivors of natural disasters in the Philippines. While a lot of emphasis was on PFA techniques, such as mindfulness, group process, and psycho-education on trauma, it is the latter that needs to be more refined and widespread in the Philippines. The lack of trauma-informed care has been underutilized in natural disaster responses. Trauma-informed care is a framework that takes trauma into consideration when interacting with other individuals. This perspective influences the language of the individual and the methodology one takes in order to work through the trauma. Trauma-informed care understands trauma, its effects, and the need for trauma-informed interventions. Trauma impacts the neurobiology of individuals. The pathology of victims of trauma is different from those who have not experienced trauma. Victims of trauma have a higher vulnerability to a fear response. The fear response is also known as the “fight-or-flight” response, in which the victim of trauma experiences a physiological reaction that leads to either confrontation or avoidance of the threat (Cozolino, 2010). For victims of natural disasters, the traumatic experience of losing their homes, loved ones, and their community can lead to depression, anxiety, and intense fears of loss. Victims of natural disasters are not only experiencing trauma symptoms, but they are experiencing loss. This double experience affects their functioning through feelings of helplessness and lack of trust or personal control over various areas in their lives, including relationships and belief systems (Benson, Furman, Canda, Moss, & Danbolt, 2015). For those reasons, it is essential to follow a trauma-informed methodology when working with victims of natural disasters. There are six key principles when having a trauma-informed approach: (a) safety, (b) trustworthiness and transparency, (c) peer support, (d) collaboration and mutuality, (e) empowerment, voice, and choice and (f) cultural, historical, and gender issues. Understanding these principles and applying them into the training for responders to natural disasters is essential to help promote healing and recovery among survivors. According to the American Institute for Research (2016), individuals who experience repeated trauma, like natural disasters, at an early age could have long-term effects on their health and well-being. There are also two levels of trauma: primary and secondary (Basham, 2011). Primary trauma occurs when the individual directly experiences the traumatic event. Secondary trauma, also known as vicarious trauma, is defined as the countertransference individuals experience from helping those who have experienced trauma. Secondary trauma could occur for responders and helpers of natural disaster relief. Future intervention for natural disaster response should include trauma-informed principles and practices to help decrease the likelihood of secondary trauma for responders.

Empowerment and resilience Often, when we talk about disaster, it is through the lens of victimology and how individuals have suffered. While those stories are true, a social worker’s strengths-based lens is one that may be more applicable, especially to the

In the Typhoon Corridor  125 creation of new alternatives to address natural disasters. Gutierrez (1990) defined empowerment as an increase in personal, interpersonal, or political power in a way that enabled individuals to improve their own lives. Further, this definition can be constructed at three different levels: the macro (political and systems change), the mezzo (community change), or the micro (individual or personal change). The key in terms of power and capacity was the actual belief or efficacy that a person or community felt they were in control of the process (Lord & Hutchinson, 1993). An empowerment model or practice is one where helping professionals operate within the role of facilitator and partner, as opposed to a “professional expert” that must lead the process (Peterson & Speer, 2000). In studies on reconstruction after natural disasters, the relationships which inspire and encourage empowerment are those where there is an extreme amount of trust and where rapport with the community has been built either through previous relationships or organizations embedding themselves in community institutions such as schools or churches (Dominelli, 2013). Empowerment of individuals and a community may be measured by many things, but one of the ways that empowerment is best expressed is through the concept of resiliency. Because disasters have the potential to take away everything – material and immaterial – from individuals and communities, the ability to transcend these devastating factors and maintain not just stable functioning (physical and psychological) but a positive outlook and emotions demonstrates resilience (Bonanno, 2004). Manyena and Gordon (2014) add two more characteristics of resiliency: being able to face traumatic stressors and the capacity to move beyond and salvage key aspects of their lives. Of the many definitions of community resilience, Leykin et al. (2013) identify leadership, collective decision-making, place attachment, and social trust as the basis of such resilience. A study by Docena (2015) demonstrated that in the Philippines, these aspects of community resilience were important to the ability of neighborhoods and regions (as measured at the barangay level) to recover from a disaster. The higher the measure of resiliency of an individual and a community, the less anxiety they experienced. Community resiliency was especially effective and underscores the importance of the building blocks of such resiliency. For instance, transparent dimensions of leadership, a feeling of group efficacy, the community being prepared for the disaster, place attachment, and social trust were all correlated to higher ratings of adaptive coping and community resiliency. All of these are the result of an empowered community, which is created through individuals who are empowered. It is a fitting lens to consider how to respond to disasters, given the cultural constructs of collectivism expressed through traditional values, such as pakikisama, utang ng loob, and pakikipagkapwa.3

Innovation “Innovation” has quickly become the buzzword to mean anything from creative applications of proven interventions to cutting-edge, experimental projects. The phrase is used so much that we are hard-pressed to define what exactly

126  Annalisa D. Enrile et al. “innovation” looks like. An innovation is just a new idea (Pol & Ville, 2009). The expanding breadth of knowledge in the innovation realm has made the concept and practice a necessity to understand, but the literature has been d ­ isconnected and inconsistent, usually based on case studies and anecdotal ­evidence. Even so, it is clear that this is the trajectory of addressing widespread, tenacious, wicked problems (Murray, Caulier-Grice, & Mulgan, 2010). While the role of innovation has mainly taken place in the technological sector and the creation of private market goods, in recent years, there has been a shift to apply innovation and design thinking into areas of social problems, especially those problems referred to as wicked. Wicked problems are ambiguously defined, complex, multilayered, and highly resistant to solutions (Head & Alford, 2015). Commonly, principles of design thinking were applied to engineering, computing, and other hard science disciplines. However, it was evident that this type of thinking could be transferable to other areas of research and problem-solving. Namely, we could use this way of perceiving ideas and developing solutions to create social impact and be a catalyst for social change. In fact, innovation of this type is sometimes labeled as social innovation indicating that the innovation’s purpose is to drive social change, moving from an economic or technical process. Another aspect that makes social innovation different is that there may be no technological artifacts created, but rather what may result is a social practice or intervention (Howaldt & Schwarz, 2010). It is also important to note that innovation cannot only be defined by being “brand new” or “never before tried.” Social innovation may simply be an update or a reconfiguring or reimagining of something that has already been designed or invented (even if it’s not in the direct field) and is now being applied to a particular social problem. Finally, social innovation is sought after because of the ability to bring such projects to “scale.” As with most things in the innovative world, the best evidence is actual proof of concept. In other words, a demonstration of feasibility in principle, at the very least. This type of evidence is especially well fitted to developing areas or regions where there is limited capacity because widespread, successful application does not have to be actualized.4 The following are three examples where innovative thinking led to more complex, multidisciplinary responses to natural disaster that could be brought to scale and replicated anywhere, though no technological artifacts have been created.

Geolocating and social media to report and inform disaster relief The role of social media came into the forefront with Typhoon Haiyan. It was obvious that a main form of communication occurred over social media, especially through popular sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, among all social strata in the Philippines, regardless of socioeconomic or political demographics (Gao, Barbier, & Goolsby, 2011). There have been thousands of posts regarding disasters even while they are occurring. These keep people informed

In the Typhoon Corridor  127 and in touch with their loved ones when other traditional media or methods such as landlines are down or cannot be accessed. Although social media is extremely useful in providing on-the-ground, to-the-minute information, especially in times of disaster, it has not been particularly useful in being able to help coordination or other relief activities because there is no coordination of services or even compilation and sharing of data. The processes to do this have not been created (Bedrouni, 2009). One of the methods that are being explored is the use of crowdsourcing and geotagging techniques. Crowdsourcing is when people participate by either generating information about events from several viewpoints (usually tracked through hashtags or keywords) or verifying/validating information. This could be treated as “collective wisdom” and treated as such (Surowiecki, 2007). Some small NGOs and grassroots organizations are exploring the use of social media as targeted crowdsourcing and information-generating resources. Gao et al. (2011) found that there are three main advantages to using crowdsourcing methods: (a) The information allows relief organizations to identify the most urgent situations and respond in time; (b) data can be collected from e-mails, forms, tweets, and hashtags to separate it into categories of interest; and (c) providers can geotag information. Geotagging is used in most social media sites and provides location information of where a photo was taken or where a post was written. Organizations can use geotagging to locate specific crises or other hot spots and visually see where the most assistance is needed. Later, this data can be aggregated to see if there are any patterns that will help predict future situations. There are a number of challenges to these processes that still need to be worked out. For instance, there should be some type of way to verify that what people are saying is true. This could be done through public surveillance or other types of reports or records. Geotagging could also be faulty. For instance, someone could post a tweet that has nothing to do with their actual geotagged position This is why sensemaking and understanding of social behavior must also be considered (Wang, 2007). Another consideration is perhaps the most practical one – that not everyone has access to phones or other technology where they would be able to participate. Currently, there are no programs that offer public stations to do this, other than private internet cafes. To bring these types of technology to scale, there need to be more prototypes and evaluations of projects, especially in countries such as the Philippines, which has become extremely reliant on social media for major life and historical/environmental events (Shirky, 2011).

Permanent housing: Homeless People’s Federation Philippines, Inc. and the Philippine Action for Community-led Shelter Initiatives Alliance An alliance between the Homeless People’s Federation Philippines, Inc. and the Philippine Action for Community-led Shelter Initiatives created an innovative program that reenvisioned how housing was addressed post-disaster

128  Annalisa D. Enrile et al. and built their idea out to eventually address overall issues of housing vulnerability and homelessness, structural problems identified as increasing risk of families and communities. Immediately after a disaster, housing options are usually limited to shelters or makeshift evacuation centers, neither of which are optimal options. The goal of the Alliance was to move people out of this immediate experience and into interim solutions and eventually into permanent housing. Their interim solution was for people to be able to return to their homes, if possible, or at least to return to their former barangays. Instead of relying on international aid organizations, such as the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) or United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), whose tents are good stopgap measures but not ideal in tropical settings (because tents tend to be very hot inside), the Alliance started a program of a “House Materials Loan,” which allows those affected by the typhoon to begin the process of rebuilding. The loan has a maximum amount of around 7,000 pesos (or US $150), and the loan application and terms are decided by the applicants and other community members to increase the empowerment of the community. They do this by using community-­driven procurement practices, which include teaching and then having the families canvass, negotiate prices, and handle all aspects of purchasing, delivery, and warehousing. Also, recipients attend several mandatory workshops on financial literacy, especially a savings model. A second interim solution is the creation of what the Alliance calls “transit” housing. Transit housing is different from evacuation centers because they are literally temporary structures that are built by those that will reside in them. Usually, the transit housing is taken down once the residents move into permanent housing. Transit housing is also different in that it is located within the urban limits so that people are able to be close to jobs, the rebuild of their homes, and other existing neighborhood supports. Finally, the Alliance works on long-term and permanent housing solutions. The long-term housing solution is based on earlier activities and capacity building with the communities. The Alliance works with the community to create “collective savings plans” that will allow them to purchase land. This part of the program is called their “land acquisition initiative.” In addition to actually purchasing land, the community members participate in the process of soil testing and other forms of land research, negotiations with the current landowners, and project planning to actualize a housing project. The Alliance receives donations but relies more on the use of public funding that is supposed to be allocated to communities. By understanding the appropriations and how to access them, the Alliance helps community members to tap into the funding and other support mechanisms. This accomplishes several things, the most notable of which is providing communities with a better understanding of their rights, and it also helps to hold to the government accountable. Overall, this project has shown remarkable success and the Alliance believes that it can be scaled through strong community networks, an alternative financial facility, an institute for technical support, and community-based data systems (Carcellar, 2016).

In the Typhoon Corridor  129

Case study 1  University of Southern California Humanitarian Mission to the Philippines and capacity-building partnership with the Philippines Department of Education The University of Southern California (USC) Humanitarian Mission was developed in response to the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda). The massive destruction brought on by this tragedy was unprecedented and required an unprecedented response on a long-term basis. Immediately after the typhoon, WeGovern, a grassroots organization, and the University of the Philippines contacted USC to ask for help and assistance. Although it would have been easy to send relief in the form of supplies and materials or to create a medical mission of volunteers, all parties involved wanted to create something sustainable. The USC Humanitarian Mission was created and focused on supporting the “rebuilding” of stronger communities in the aftermath of the typhoon by strengthening the knowledge, skills, and recovery services capacity of existing Philippines-based NGOs, institutions, and organizations. In an effort to contribute to and support the recovery and rebuilding of the hard-hit areas in the Philippines, the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work sent a team of experts,5 who offered training and technical support focused on social support and community rebuilding. The main thrust of the mission was to engage in capacity building by providing training on services that are known to be a deficit in the current social support infrastructure in the Philippines. The USC Humanitarian Mission aimed to do three things: respond to the recovery and the “rebuilding” efforts in the aftermath of the typhoon; share best practices and build capacity; and enhance efforts to collaborate for future capacity building partnerships. USC envisioned multiple levels of interactions and support. The immediate goal and vision of the Humanitarian Mission was to provide technical support and to establish collaborative partnerships for future work and missions. The first phase was to gain an understanding of the context of the typhoon, the devastation, and the current responses. The team visited the city of Tacloban, which was the epicenter of the typhoon, to gain understanding of all three said components. The team endeavored to shadow and interview local, national, and international responders to get a full ­understanding of the expanse of the devastation and the current response systems in place. They interacted with other teams providing direct ­services to school-aged children as well as the local Archdiocese, which primarily focused on providing aid to more rural areas that are hard to reach. The team learned how school tents were run in shifts to accommodate all students and provide relief to parents as they tried to rebuild with what was left. In addition,

130  Annalisa D. Enrile et al. there were makeshift classrooms and clinics in people’s homes with the goal of providing education and counseling services to as many children as possible. Volunteers revolved due to availability. The Archdiocese, on the other hand, was using Geographic Information ­System (GIS) mapping to better understand the current service delivery and develop a data-driven strategic plan of resource distribution. It was clear that the services were not coordinated and were reliant on volunteer agencies and the NGO systems. This presented many challenges and concerns, including the lack of a vetting process, especially of those providing services to minors. The knowledge and data gathered were used to understand the responses and contextualize the training, information exchange, and partnership building. The learned gaps in the infrastructure were utilized to initiate the conversation and stimulate the discussion for future planning and development. The team also incorporated the learned cultural nuances to enhance engagement, understanding, and applicability of the training. The second phase of the humanitarian mission was a two-day training in Manila, Philippines. It attempted to strengthen the knowledge and practice skills of current responders and providers. The team endeavored to contribute and support by sharing known best practices in multiple areas, such as crisis response and recovery, child welfare issues, and many more. What began as a grassroots-like effort grew rapidly into a huge capacity building effort that drew interest from about 100 attendees from all over the Philippines. The open invitation training drew attention from representatives of the highest levels of government (Office of the Vice President of the Philippines), federal agencies (Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Public Health, and Department of Education), large foundations, and multiple universities. The effort to train and create partnerships to address meaningful contributions to disaster response and recovery became a transnational collaboration in capacity building, community development, and innovation. The USC Humanitarian Mission was a successful initial phase in creating the foundational collaboration and capacity building work in the Republic of the Philippines, which continued even after the team’s return to California.

Case study 2 School social development in times of crisis: a grand challenge implementation Modern societies are faced with different environmental challenges as a result of different factors such as climate change and other systemic changes (Palinkas et al., 2015). According to Palinkas’s (2015) Grand Challenge proposal, a result of this is an increased need for attention in addressing the health and the psychosocial impact of environmental

In the Typhoon Corridor  131 changes including natural and man-made disasters. Disasters strike without care for the people impacted by them. Although they may take different forms (e.g., tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, floods, drought, migration, and man-made disasters), disasters strike with force in communities around the world. Just as Palinkas mentioned (2015), more than the physical damage is the effect on the social development of the communities. Addressing disaster preparedness can improve community resilience and can enhance overall social development in the face of disasters. Such an occurrence was experienced by the Republic of the Philippines on November 2013 when Typhoon ­Haiyan, the strongest typhoon ever recorded, hit the country. It prompted a USC Humanitarian Mission to the Philippines to help increase capacity through technical training and knowledge sharing as described in Case Study 1. The aforementioned mission led to an established partnership and collaboration with the Philippine Department of Education to support the disaster preparedness planning and implementation. Dr. Wong; Vivien Villaverde, Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW); Dr. Steve Hydon from USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work; and Dr. Robin Gurwitch from Duke University returned to the Philippines to conduct an evidence-informed and trauma-informed training on disaster response and recovery in schools. The collaboration focused on preparedness, response, and recovery, using a tiered approach framework guided by one of the Grand Challenges for the Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare to protect the human environment (Palinkas, 2015). This model identifies priorities at various levels to build comprehensive and integrated plans to assure resilience in communities: I Tier I priorities are environmental and must consider the policies and infrastructure in place and the existing gaps. II Tier II focuses on the community-level connection and building strong networks and collaborations. Community leadership, interventions, and sustaining gains play a major role in actions for the tier. III Tier III priorities are those at the individual level. They focus on the identification of vulnerable populations, targeted responses, evidence-­ based or informed interventions, trauma-informed service delivery, and resilience-building strategies. Within communities, the school systems serve as microcosms to the larger systems. As such, the tiered approach can be implemented to address the needs of one of the most vulnerable populations: children. Schools as a system play a pivotal role in disaster preparedness work. Schools also play a central role in responding to different community

132  Annalisa D. Enrile et al. demands, acting as shelters during disasters and local points for various community events (Jaycox, Stein, & Wong, 2014). A partnership with the Philippine Department of Education has presented USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work an opportunity to strategically align itself with a system where it can make a most needed impact and change. This collaboration has led to a second trip to the Republic of the ­Philippines to train trainers in the three-tiered model of disaster preparedness and in multiple trauma-informed interventions. The training consisted of two two-day training in each of the major regions of the Philippines. Educators, support services staff (nurses, counselors, etc.), administrators, and disaster management managers attended the training with the intent to bring back and share the information and tools with their respected local office. It is known that resilience and positive social development in children are important to a successful return to the learning environment after a disaster. The first part of the training broke down the components of the three-tiered framework of disaster preparedness, response, and recovery from a theoretical perspective into practical implementation in program planning and development. The intent was to provide planners with a model that they can use to help them put into context the work that needs to be done as they prepare for disasters and crisis, both on a national and the local scale. It also incorporated cultural nuances and local context to enhance the translation of each tier as they plans and services. The second part of the two-day training included training on two evidence-informed and trauma-informed intervention services, including: •

•

PFA Listen Protect Connect – PFA is an evidence-informed approach for assisting children, adolescents, adults, and families in the immediate aftermath of a critical incident, disaster, or terrorism. PFA is designed to reduce the initial distress caused by traumatic events and to foster short- and long-term adaptive functioning. Healing After Trauma Services (HATS) – HATS is an intervention designed to be facilitated by teachers as well as social workers, psychologists, and other counselors working with children. The goal is to enhance the sharing of experiences, ideas, and thoughts about the traumatic event(s), and to build a repertoire of coping skills to use now and in the future for any challenging situation or disaster (­Gurwitch & Messenbaugh, 2005).

Additionally, disasters can take a toll on those responding to the social and emotional needs of victims. It was imperative to focus on equipping

In the Typhoon Corridor  133 responders with the skills to recognize their own reactions and increase their capacity to engage in self-care knowledge. To this end, the third component focused on learning about Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) and its impacts on those engaged in social development and service provision. •

STS – STS is the emotional duress that results when an individual hears about firsthand trauma experiences of another as they respond and provide services during and after disasters or crisis. Its symptoms mimic those of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Crisis responders are susceptible to this. Accordingly, individuals affected by secondary stress may find themselves reexperiencing personal trauma or notice an increase in arousal and avoidance reactions related to the indirect trauma exposure thus affecting their current functioning and work performance (Cook, Blaustein, Spinazzola, & Van der Kolk, 2003).

At the end of each two-day training, representatives from common district, region, and/or province were grouped. They were tasked with developing an action plan on how they would disseminate and use the information and intervention learned. They were asked to share the plan for immediate feedback to enhance the planned utilization of the different components. The training closed with a more in-depth discussion and debriefing on the cultural relevance and modifications and the barriers and challenges. Plans were made to develop evaluation tools and provide booster training, but they were interrupted and did not come to fruition due to other department priorities that emerged after the training.

Conclusion The Philippines is a country that has always been described as strategically placed politically in the Asia-Pacific because of its proximity to China, K ­ orea, and the Middle East, but it is also a hot spot in terms of geology and climate. Being within the “Typhoon Corridor” and the “R ing of Fire” makes climate change and catastrophic natural disasters a foregone conclusion, not a guess or happenstance. The more that the Philippines can focus on engaging in empowering frameworks of innovation and systemic change, the more we will see the intersections between building their infrastructure, addressing their political struggles, preparing for natural disasters, adopting evidence-based interventions, and tackling root causes that aggravate

134  Annalisa D. Enrile et al. natural disasters (such as poverty). Social workers play a pivotal role as the profession spans the micro to macro. Within the institutional and legislational policymaking arena to the grassroots organizations who need training and support, social workers have the training and experience to be leaders in this area. As innovations are created, the clinical, technical, and overall knowledge base of social workers will be invaluable tools for the adoption and scaling of widespread solutions.

Notes 1 In 2000, the World Meteriological Organization proposed a new naming system for tropical cyclones. Names are nominated by 14 participating Asian countries, but Filipino weather forecasters wanted to keep the tradition in naming tropical storms after people (typically female) in alphabetical order. Thus, they refer to the local, Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) name (local) and the international name. 2 This would later be surpassed by Hurricane Patricia in 2015. 3 Pakikisama is the value of smooth interpersonal relationships; Utang ng loob literally translated means “debt of gratitude” and is the system of reciprocity through acts of generosity bartered between people; and as defined earlier in the chapter, Pakikipagkapwa is a sense of community. 4 However, it is important to note that this may also be a limitation. For instance, local, grassroots initiatives may be an alternative and even more effective approach to government programs, but they are often carried out with such limited capacity (due to both material and immaterial resources) that it makes it difficult to ever bring to scale. 5 Team members included: Marleen Wong, PhD, PPSC, LCSW; Annalisa Enrile, PhD, MSW; Vivien Villaverde, MSW, PPSC, LCSW, Carrie Lew, Ed.D., MSW; Charisma De Los Reyes, MSW; Ernalyn Reyes, DM, LCSW, BCC.

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10 The global climate change Necessary child protection services in Vietnam Tuyen Thi Thanh Bui, Grace M. Mishler, and Gary W. Studebaker Introduction Climate change is one of the topics that draws full attention from many countries worldwide, including Vietnam, because it affects not only the health of human beings, but also agricultural production, economics, cultural and social activities, security, and politics. It is estimated that by 2100, the global income may have decreased by over 20% if there is no climate change mitigation (Burke, 2015). On average, disasters affect the lives of 250 million people and cause about 66,000 deaths worldwide (Webster, Ginnetti, Walker, Coppard, & Kent, 2009). More importantly, children account for about 50% of the victims of climate change (Save the Children, 2007). Vietnam is considered to be one of the countries severely affected by climate change, and the obvious consequences include environmental disasters such as droughts, floods, and tropical cyclones (Schmidt-Thome, Nguyen, Pham, Jarva, & Nuottimäki, 2015; World Bank, 2013). In the last decade, the country suffered more disasters with an estimated 2,000 deaths. More than 20 million people were affected, and the total financial loss was about US $3 billion (World Bank, 2013). At a 2016 conference that aimed to review disaster management and emergency relief in Vietnam and discuss strategies to implement a disaster plan in 2017, the Steering Committee on Disaster Management and Control of Vietnam reported that there were ten tropical cyclones in the Pacific Ocean in 2016 and six of them directly affected Vietnam. This resulted in 264 deaths, about 5,500 destroyed houses, and other losses. The total loss was valued at about VND 40,000 billion or US $2 billion (Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control [CCDPC], 2017). Climate change affects all people; however, the rural poor are the most affected because they lack the information and resources needed to adapt to disasters. In addition, children are the most vulnerable population when disasters happen, especially children who live in rural areas (Chaudhry & Ruysschaert, 2007). For example, the heavy rainfall from 28 November to 12 December 2016 in the central region of Vietnam caused 27 deaths, and of these, 10 (37%) were children (Thuy An, 2016; Van Khanh, 2016). Also, UNICEF reported that more than 500,000 V ­ ietnamese children needed humanitarian assistance due to the El Niño drought in 2016 (Thuy An, 2016; UNICEF, 2017a, 2017b; Van Khanh, 2016). Children in

138  Tuyen Thi Thanh Bui et al. regions where disasters occurred are more likely to be malnourished and suffer from hand, foot, mouth, and skin diseases due to a lack of water, sanitation, and hygiene (UNICEF, 2017a).

Children with difficult circumstances in Vietnam The results of the population and housing census in Vietnam in 2009 showed that there were over 26 million children under the age of 16, accounting for about one-third of the country’s population (GSO, 2011). According to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs (MOLISA), there were over 2.5 million children with special needs nationwide by the end of 2007 (UNICEF, 2010). As defined by the Law on Protection, Care and Education of Children (2004), children with special needs include: (a) orphans and abandoned children; (b) children with disabilities; (c) children who are victims of toxic chemicals; (d) children living with HIV/AIDS; (e) children who have to work hard or in a dangerous, toxic environment; (f) children who have to work away from home; (g) street children; (h) victims of child sexual abuse; (i) drug abuse children; and (j) children in conflict with the law. However, if the law includes four other groups of children with special circumstances, namely (a) victims of child trafficking and kidnapping; (b)  victims of child abuse and violence; (c) children living in poor families; and (d) children with injuries, the total number of children with special circumstances will be higher, accounting for 18.2% of all children under 16 years of age.

Impacts of disasters on children When natural disasters occur, the most severely affected people include children, women, the elderly, people with disabilities, and especially children with special circumstances. Statistics show that most of the deaths or losses caused by disasters fall into these vulnerable groups. For example, street children who usually lack caregivers will easily contract epidemic diseases during floods or become malnourished due to food shortages from prolonged flooding. Disasters negatively impact on education, safety and living conditions, psychology, and livelihood of children. Education is of high concern because going to school means returning to normal life. Schools provide space for social interactions among children. When there are prolonged floods, the education of children in the flood area will be interrupted. Therefore, they will worry about not keeping up with their classmates, absenteeism, and missing their friends. In terms of safety and living conditions, natural disasters such as tsunamis, storms, tidal surges, floods, droughts, heavy rains, and landslides will increase the number of child deaths in this high-risk population. They are not equipped with the knowledge and skills to deal with disasters. Several newspapers carried news about sinking boats when students in remote areas went to school in the rainy season. Evacuation exposes children to a wide range of survival problems, including a lack of food, clothing, clean water, and personal equipment. Moreover,

The climate change and child protection in Vietnam  139 disasters also affect health indirectly through environmental pollution, malnutrition, and epidemic diseases. During and after a disaster, there will be an outbreak of malaria and dengue, thus increasing many types of bacteria, insects, and parasites in water and the environment. Consequently, contagious infections also increase (Phan et al., 2009). In terms of livelihood, some older children usually share the responsibility of earning a living with the family. Losses of livelihood due to disasters will lead to financial hardship after a disaster. Physical damages and losses such as human lives, homes, property, and infrastructures will be prevalent and obvious; however, mental damages that have a long-lasting impact on the lives of children receive less public attention. Save the Children International has reported that after disasters are over, surviving children are at high risk of stress, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), due to witnessing emotional separation, the death of relatives, loss of livelihoods, abuse, and exploitation (Save the Children, 2010). Therefore, mental health services should be included in the relief services. In addition, child protection against disasters should be prioritized in the context of global climate change.

Protecting children from climate change and disasters According to the Department of Child Care and Protection Services of Vietnam, child protection and support services must be organized and implemented to meet the requirements of child protection at three levels: prevention service for all children (primary service), early identification and intervention for children at risk (secondary service), and emergency protection service for children with special circumstances and vulnerabilities (tertiary service) (Figure 10.1). All three levels of childhood protection need to be taken into consideration while coping with trauma caused by natural disasters (MOLISA, 2013).

Level 3: emergency protection service for children with special circumstances and vulnerabilities (tertiary) This level is a priority when a natural disaster occurs because it requires a massive mobilization of resources to provide support services immediately for the well-being of children. Henceforth, children’s lives, health, and safety must be a priority. Other urgent actions are required, including identifying and enrolling children into childcare when their parents cannot be located or are dead to provide special protection. In addition, it is required to provide nutrition, shelter, clothing, clean water, and sanitation equipment to prevent diseases from spreading and to establish child-friendly spaces (Save the Children, 2010).

Level 2: early identification and intervention for children at risk (secondary service) This level is also known as reducing risks caused by natural disasters. At this level, it is believed that if the preparation is well in place, more children will be

140  Tuyen Thi Thanh Bui et al. rescued from a disaster, so services can focus more on minimizing the impact of the natural disaster on children and their families. Natural disaster risk reduction programs are necessary to prepare children for emergency situations. Services at this level include raising awareness of the community about the risks and vulnerabilities of children in the community hit by natural disasters. Awareness includes having access to early community-oriented warning systems, and communities working together to develop a disaster plan and to rehabilitate communities after a disaster (Save the Children, 2010).

Level 1: prevention service for all children (primary service) This level of prevention needs a long-term plan for coping with climate changes and natural disasters. Children are included in the decision-making with the goal of preparing for the long-term consequences of natural disasters. Children should be involved from the stage of assessing the situation, identifying the risks, plans, implementations, monitoring, and evaluating the implementation of this intervention program. This does not mean that adults have nothing to do in this program; rather, adults will promote, facilitate, and guide the children to bring applicable and practicable benefits. Children understand their needs and dangers to themselves better than anyone else, so their involvement will help protect them effectively from climate change and disasters. In addition, letting children participate is empowering them: They learn how to work with adults, how to make decisions, and how to solve problems. Children have the ability to apply these skills to deal with other problems in the future (Save the Children, 2010).

Prevention services for all children (Primary service) Early identification and intervention for children at risk (Secondary service) Emergency protection service (Tertiary)

Figure 10.1  Three-level child protection service system. Source: Adapted from minutes of Child Rights Working Group meeting, June 2013.

The climate change and child protection in Vietnam  141

Some examples of programs to protect children from climate change According to the minutes of a meeting of the Child Rights Working Group (2013) in Hochiminh City, currently, there are more than 500 “trusted addresses” or service providers that provide services for children. They are both public and private agencies with fees and free of charge. These agencies offer three levels of child protection. The two programs that will be presented in this chapter are samples of child protection services against climate change. These programs are very popular in the south of Vietnam, especially in Hochiminh City. They indicate how different levels of child protection services are implemented in helping children with special circumstances in Vietnam. As mentioned in Part 2, disasters affect the livelihood of millions of people in Vietnam. Hong and Ohno (2005) show that one of the main causes of street children in Vietnam is family poverty. In addition, according to their explanation, family poverty may result from natural disaster. Working at the macro level, UNICEF Vietnam cooperates with the government to develop policies and national programs to address the needs of children and people who live in the areas most affected by climate change such as the Central and Mekong Delta. Also, UNICEF worked with other international agencies to launch the Child-Centered Risk Reduction program in 2016 (UNICEF, 2017a). The following are some examples of local and international agencies that provide child protection services to mitigate the impacts of climate change in ­V ietnam. Green Bamboo Shelter and the Thao Dan Social Protection Center are two local agencies, and thus, they focus on emergency and early interventions, whereas being an international agency with more resources, Save the Children delivers services covering all three levels of the child protection system.

Green Bamboo Shelter Green Bamboo Shelter is a program illustrating level 2 and level 3 of the child protection services that targets children with emergency needs and children at risk. Historically, it is a social service agency that belongs to the Hochiminh City Child Welfare Foundation (HCWF), Vietnam. It was established in 1992 with the name Cau Muoi Street Children’s Club (HCWF, 2008). It functioned as a community center where street children came to get counseling and education. Since 1998, Cau Muoi Club has changed its approaches to street children and been named Green Bamboo Shelter.

Emergency protection service (Level 3) Most of the children who live in Green Bamboo Shelter are migrant children. Due to climate change, these children had to drop out of school and moved to Hochiminh City to earn a living with or without their family (Hong & Ohno,

142  Tuyen Thi Thanh Bui et al. 2005). These children are exposed to many risks, such as poor health, malnutrition, a lack of shelter and education, and witnessing violence when making a living on the street. Therefore, services that are currently provided by Green Bamboo Shelter, namely physical and mental health care, shelter services, meals, psychological rehabilitation, education, vocational training, job placement, legal papers, life skills training, and family reunion for street boys, are extremely necessary to protect these needy children (HCWF, 2008).

Early identification and intervention for children at risk (Level 2) In addition to providing services at the site, Green Bamboo Shelter also has community outreach activities, such as organizing workshops on life skills training, reproductive health care, and prevention of child sexual abuse; providing scholarships to children from low-income families; and providing nutrition and school supplies. These activities help its staff identify children at risk at the early stage and intervene immediately to prevent them from dropping out of school and adopting risky behaviors.

Thao Dan Social Protection Center The Thao Dan Social Protection Center is a program that also includes two levels of child protection services. It was established in 1992 by a group of volunteers to help street children and young people under 18 who earn their living on the street. These children and youths are faced with the difficulties of street life, such as a lack of proper care, the risk of drug use, HIV/AIDS, being abused and exploited, and delinquency. Thus, the goal of Thao Dan is to provide care, education, and protection for disadvantaged children in Hochiminh City, bring them opportunities to reintegrate into their families and society, and to strengthen children’s rights. Thao Dan operates its activities through two main programs: Thao Dan club and safe house. The main activities include providing information and opportunities for children to rid themselves of street life; creating the right conditions for children to study and work in a safe environment and/or to have a family reunion; teaching children life skills for their self-protection in readiness for street life; building up close cooperation with children’s parents in support of children; building up a network, cooperating with social organizations, health centers, and educational centers in support of children affected by HIV/AIDS; organizing capacity-building training for Thao Dan educators as well as social workers of other organizations working with street children (Thao Dan Social Protection Center, 2016).

Save the Children International in Vietnam Save the Children International started to provide nutrition to children in ­V ietnam in 1990 (Save the Children, n.d.). Currently, it implements programs in the following fields: Education, Health and Nutrition, Child Protection, Child

The climate change and child protection in Vietnam  143 Rights Governance, Child Poverty, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), and Emergency Response (Save the Children, n.d.). Its programs address all three levels of child protection. For example, at Level 1 (Prevention service) Save the Children cooperates with the Ministry of Education and Training and other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to include disaster preparedness guidelines in the school curriculum (Save the Children, 2016b). At Level 2 (Secondary service), through collaborating with the government and local education system, Save the Children focuses its services on improving access to education for the most disadvantaged children, such as children of minority groups and children with disabilities (Save the Children, n.d.). Also, Save the Children targets its disaster preparedness and response to at-risk children who live in flood-prone areas by increasing their awareness and preparing them to respond in a sustainable way when disasters happen (Save the Children, n.d.). At Level 3 (Emergency services), Save the Children works with the government to provide emergency relief and recovery (Save the Children, n.d.). Specifically, Save the Children teams provided emergency relief to 1,900 children in two areas that are most affected by historical drought in 2016 in the Central and Mekong Delta (Save the Children, 2016a).

Conclusion The process of global climate change has had many disastrous impacts on human life, and children are the most vulnerable and at-risk group. The magnitude and intensity of natural disasters are increasing, and it is plain to see that the consequences are linked to global climate change. Without a prevention plan, children are severely impacted regarding their access to education, health care, physical safety, spiritual lives, and general well-being when unexpected disasters occur. With one-third of the Vietnamese population comprising children under 16 and with it being a country that is severely affected by climate change, ­V ietnam needs to focus on providing security services for children to protect them from dangerous and hazardous situations caused by natural disasters and climate change. Currently, more than half a million children in Vietnam need special assistance to cope with natural disasters while only a small number of children receive support from local and international agencies, thus the country needs to mobilize more resources to support children. In addition, programs to help children should cover all three levels of services described in the child protection system: general prevention, early intervention for children and families at risk, and emergency intervention and recovery for children with special needs.

References Burke, M. (2015, December 9). The global economic costs of climate change may be worse than expected. The Brookings Institution. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/ blog/planetpolicy/2015/12/09/the-global-economic-costs-from-climate-changemay-be-worse-than-expected/

144  Tuyen Thi Thanh Bui et al. Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control (CCDPC). (2017). Conference for summarizing disaster prevention and rescuing 2016 and implementing tasks in 2017. Retrieved from http://phongchongthientai.vn/tin-tuc/hoinghi--tong-ket-cong-tac-phong-chong-thien-tai-va-tim-kiem-cuu-nan-nam-2016-trien-khai-nhiem-vu-nam-2017-/-c4296.html Chaudhry, P., & Ruysschaert, G. (2007). Climate change and human development in Vietnam. Human Development Report, 2008. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semantic scholar.org/5091/58b31e47a9272b4e7743a491d4d6b83aa20b.pdf Child Rights Working Group of Hochiminh City (CRWG). (2013, June). Second quarter meeting [Minutes]. Hochiminh City, Vietnam. General Statistics Office (GSO). (2011). Statistical yearbook of Vietnam 2010. Hanoi, ­V ietnam: Statistical Publishing House. Hochiminh City Child Welfare Foundation (HCWF). (2008). Current projects. Retrieved from www.hcwf.org.vn Hong, D. K., & Ohno, K. (2005). Street children in Vietnam: Interactions of old and new causes in a growing economy. Hanoi, Vietnam: Vietnam Development Forum. Law on Child Protection, Care, and Education. (2004). Retrieved from http://www. ilo.org/dyn/nat lex/docs/ ELECT RON IC/84243/111114/ F-1723419329/ VNM84243%20Eng2.pdf Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs (MOLISA) – Department of Child Care and Protection Services. (2013). Guidelines for the child protection system: For the Steering Committee of all levels [Internal use only]. Hanoi, Vietnam. Phan, B. M., Do, H. V., Dang, T. A., Le, T. D., Duong, H. D., Nguyen, T. H., … Nguyen, T. K. L. (2009). Climate change: Impacts of climate change. Department of Environment and Resources, University of Agriculture and Forestry-Hochiminh City. Retrieved from http://www2.hcmuaf.edu.vn/data/quoctuan/Bien%20doi%20khi% 20hau.pdf Save the Children. (2007). Child protection in emergencies: Priorities, principles and practices. Retrieved from www.savethechildren.net Save the Children. (2010). Living with disasters and changing climate. Retrieved from www.savethechildren.net Save the Children. (2016a). Save the Children steps up relief efforts amid Vietnam’s historical drought. Retrieved from www.savethechildren.net Save the Children. (2016b). Disaster risk reduction in the education sector. Save the Children’s experience in Asia: Preparing for the post-2015 agenda. In preparation for the 6th Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) in 2016. Retrieved from www.savethechildren.net Save the Children. (n.d.). Homepage. Retrieved from www.savethechildren.net Schmidt-Thome, P., Nguyen, T. H., Pham, T. L., Jarva, J., & Nuottimäki, K. (2015). Climate change in Vietnam. In Climate Change Adaptation Measures in Vietnam (pp. 7–15). Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-12346-2 Thao Dan Social Protection Center. (2016). Mission. Retrieved from http://www.vietnam causes.org/npo/index/thao-dan-social-protection-centre Thuy An. (2016, December 16). Child-centered risk reduction. Vietnam Television Online (VTV). Retrieved from http://vtv.vn/trong-nuoc/giam-nhe-rui-ro-thien-tai-laytre-em-lam-trung-tam-20161216162623478.htm United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). (2010). An analysis of the situation of children in Vietnam 2010. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/sitan/files/SitAnViet_Nam_2010_Eng.pdf

The climate change and child protection in Vietnam  145 United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). (2017a). Vietnam: Humanitarian situation report No. 15. Retrieved from http://reliefweb.int/report/viet-nam/unicef-vietnamhumanitarian-situation-report-no-15-14-march-2017 United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). (2017b). Vietnam: Humanitarian situation report No. 16. Retrieved from http://reliefweb.int/report/viet-nam/unicef-vietnamhumanitarian-situation-report-no-16-15-april-2017 Van Khanh. (2016, December 15). Children are severely affected by disasters. Dan Sinh ­Newspaper of Vietnam Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs. Retrieved from http://baodansinh.vn/tre-em-chiu-anh-huong-nang-ne-tu-rui-ro-thien-tai-d49143.html Webster, M., Ginnetti, J., Walker, P., Coppard, D., & Kent, R. (2009). The humanitarian response costs of climate change. Environmental Hazards, 8(2), 149–163. World Bank. (2013). Disaster risk management East Asia and Pacific. Retrieved from www.worldbank.org

11 Mass relocation and social sequence for the elderly in rural China Weihong Zeng, Zheng Wu, Christoph M. Schimmele, and Shuzhuo Li

Introduction and background Most studies conceptualize migration among the elderly according to personal ­ erzynski, attributes, needs, and preferences (Litwak & Longino, 1987; Longino, P & Stoller, 2002; Walters, 2002). This associates late-life migration with life course transitions such as retirement, widowhood, and the onset of functional limitations. There are also external reasons for late-life migration. In China, external forces are indeed the primary reason for the mass migration of the older rural population. Much research has examined labor migration, which is selective of younger, working-age people (Liang & Ma, 2004; Sheng, 2007). This literature includes studies on the consequences of being “left behind” for the rural elderly (Luo & Zhan, 2012; Zhang, 2009). However, few studies have considered the external factors that motivate the migration of older people themselves or the outcomes of these moves. This is a major gap in the literature considering that state policies compel the migration of many seniors in rural China. China accounts for a large proportion of the global population that has been displaced because of infrastructure development. The construction of the Three Gorges Dam alone displaced 1.3 million people (Hwang, Cao, & Xi, 2011). The state has also relocated large numbers of people as a strategy to alleviate poverty, conserve/restore ecological resources (e.g., watersheds), and depopulate disaster-prone areas. Although there are well-intentioned reasons for the mass relocation of rural residents, migration is a disruptive life event that can have negative consequences for the displaced. The literature tends to characterize state-organized relocation as a taxing process that contributes to declines in economic well-being and increases in social stress (Wilmsen, Webber, & Duan, 2011; Xi & Hwang, 2011). Most previous studies, however, are limited to the outcomes of project-induced migration and do not consider the experiences of the older population. State-organized relocation could have different consequences depending on the age of the migrant and the reason for resettlement. In general, relocation is a stressful life event, but the magnitude of its impact could depend on its timing in the life course (Xi, Hwang, & Drentea, 2013). Most elderly Chinese migrants have lived in their ancestral villages for their entire lives, and moving is a major life change for them. The migration-related disruption of social networks and

Mass relocation for the elderly in rural China  147 the added difficulties of adapting to new communities in later life justify our focus on the consequences of state-organized relocation for the older population. This study uses primary data that we collected in a rural region of central China to examine the relationship between relocation and depression among migrants aged 60 and older. The analysis assesses whether post-migration losses of social support account for this relationship. Most previous studies focus on the problems associated with involuntary, project-­induced resettlement, and few report positive post-migration outcomes. In recent years, the Chinese government has instructed local governments to ensure that people are willing to relocate and also provide them with a greater range of choices about where to resettle. Project-induced relocation (e.g., the Three Gorges Dam) has received the greatest attention in the scholarly literature and news media, but there are other important reasons for mass relocation, including the motivation to achieve sustainable levels of development, conserve sensitive ecological areas, and improve standards of living and social welfare, as well as fostering rapid economic growth (Government of Shaanxi Province, 2010). Despite the negative attention that project-induced displacement has received, China’s resettlement programs are considered to be models for other developing countries to emulate (Rogers & Wang, 2006; Zuo, 2002). These programs attempt to strike a balance between national concerns, such as economic growth, resource management, population distribution, and individual-level well-being (Government of Shaanxi Province, 2010). A key objective of resettlement is to change patterns of employment by reducing dependence on fragile ecological areas and relocating people from “uneconomic” areas to decrease the incidence of poverty. The research is sparse, but there is encouraging evidence that relocation is a potential mechanism for raising the incomes of the rural poor and improving their housing stocks and access to public services and infrastructure. Certainly, there are negative outcomes associated with relocation, given that it is a disruptive life event. To date, the literature has focused on the negative economic impact of project-induced relocation (see Webber & McDonald, 2004; Wilmsen et al., 2011), but there is also growing concern that relocation is a risk factor for depression. Using panel data, Hwang, Cao, and Xi (2010) observe that project-induced migrants have higher levels of depression than nonmigrants, after controlling for pre-migration levels of depression and other risk factors. Their study demonstrates that migration has a direct effect on depression through increasing exposure to undesirable life events and an indirect effect through eroding social support and other salutogenic resources. Using pre-migration data, Xi, Hwang, Feng, Qiao, and Cao (2007) show that levels of depression can even increase in anticipation of forced migration since individuals scheduled for migration (designated migrants) have higher levels of depression than others. They also observe that such anticipatory stress is restricted to older designated migrants.

The mass relocation project and the study site This study uses primary data that our research team collected in Ankang, China. Ankang is located in the southern Shaanxi province, at the northern base of the

148  Weihong Zeng et al. Daba Mountains and south of the Qinling Mountains on the upper stream of the Han River, which is the largest tributary of the Yangtze River. With mountains covering 92% of the region, nine of Ankang’s ten counties are designated by the state as poor or extremely poor. Ankang has 2.93 million people and a large proportion of the population is designated to be relocated from 2011 to 2020 (Government of Ankang Region, 2010). We selected the Ankang region as our study site for two reasons. First, Ankang is a target area for the Province of Shaanxi’s resettlement and development plan (Government of Shaanxi Province, 2010). Since 1998, over 100,000 rural households in Ankang have been relocated, and about one-third of the population (880,000 people) is scheduled to be resettled within the next decade (Government of Ankang Region, 2010). Relocation in Ankang has multiple objectives and reflects the government’s developmental perspective. It has historically been a disaster-prone area (mostly floods and landslides), and disaster relief and prevention is a major concern of local governments. Since 1980, the reasons for relocation have expanded to include poverty alleviation and environmental protection. Comparatively few people have been displaced because of infrastructure projects, and thus most resettlement is voluntary, even though it is a state-­organized process. Based on the aforementioned government documents, people can choose whether they move or not, when they want to move, and how to be resettled. Second, Ankang has a large proportion of elderly people aged 60+. Data from the local government indicate that the elderly account for one-third of the relocated population. Elderly nonmigrants account for 55% of the rural population (Government of Ankang Region, 2010).

Theoretical model This study uses the stress theory for investigating the correlation between mass relocation and depression among elderly Chinese people. The stress process model (SPM) is designed to uncover the relationship between social conditions and the factors that generate intergroup differences in health status (­A neshensel, 2009). The components of the stress process include stress exposure, reactions to stress, and stress outcomes (Pearlin, Lieberman, Menaghan, & Mullan, 1981). The foremost objective of the SPM is to explain how differences in exposure to stressful circumstances correspond to the distribution of depression and other forms of distress in the population. The relationship between stress exposure and depression is, however, often indirect, and psychological and coping resources can transform this relationship (Hwang et al., 2010). Since stress exposure is a crucial but insufficient explanation for group differences in distress, the SPM also considers the factors that mitigate or exacerbate how stress is experienced. Exposure to stress can be health-damaging or benign depending on a person’s psychological hardiness, social support, and coping behaviors.

Mass relocation for the elderly in rural China  149 Following previous studies, we conceptualize relocation as a source of stress that challenges the adaptive capacities of migrants (Hwang et al., 2010; Xi & Hwang, 2011; Xi et al., 2007). These studies focus on the effects of project-­ induced migration, but it is plausible to assume that migration for other reasons is also stressful, given that all migration represents a disruptive life event and requires adaption to a new environment. That said, the reason for relocation could influence the magnitude of stress. Besides examining relocation in general, our analysis considers the specific consequences of the following five types: a

b

c

d

e

Project-induced relocation, due to the construction of a reservoir, transportation, pipeline transportation, high-voltage power transmission facilities construction, mineral resources development and other construction projects, also being called for engineering migration; Poverty-alleviation relocation, to move people who live in the a living environment, with poor production and living conditions, and transportation and infrastructure construction are difficult; Disaster-management relocation, to move people who live in a threatened area with frequent geological activity, such as landslides, debris flows, collapses, ground subsidence, and other geological disasters; Ecological relocation, to move people who live in scenic spots, forest parks, water conservation areas, water resources, and ecologically sensitive areas, with a potential threat to, or negative effects on, the ecological environment; Other types of migration, including rural-to-urban migration with family members, etc., and migrations not belonging to the previous four types.

Project-induced migration is a major stressor because it involves a powerful external force (the state) displacing people from their villages and homes (Xi et al., 2013). In contrast, relocation for other reasons is primarily voluntary, and these migrants could have a greater sense of control than project-induced migrants. Moreover, poverty-alleviation and disaster-management migration could reduce stress exposure since its aim is to decrease economic hardship and relocate people to safer places. The literature provides a good rationale for conceptualizing relocation as a stressor, even when the aim is to improve people’s lives. All types of relocation involve economic and social costs but have uncertain benefits (Xi et al., 2007). Studies on project-induced relocation demonstrate that migrants are exposed to stressors that arise from post-migration declines in economic well-being (Xi & Hwang, 2011). Migration is not an age-neutral life transition. People’s adaptive capacities change with age, and the demands of adapting to a new environment coupled with the loss of social relationships could be a particularly stressful experience for older people (Angel & Angel, 1992). Xi et al. (2013) propose that the timing of relocation in the life course could affect the level of stress exposure. The life

150  Weihong Zeng et al. course perspective proposes that there is a difference between on-time and offtime events (Elder, 1985; Wingens, Windzio, de Valk, & Aybek., 2011). Ontime events (e.g., pregnancy after marriage) are seen as neutral or developmental milestones, but off-time events (e.g., teenage pregnancy) are seen as disadvantageous because these are unplanned events that violate age-related social norms and can disrupt life trajectories. Off-time events can be stressful because these events overtax a person’s abilities to adapt to situational demands and/or intrude on their life expectations. Relocation can be conceptualized as an off-time event in later life because the personal motivation to move is lowest at the oldest ages (Xi et al., 2013). Relocation could be a more stressful experience at older ages because older people are relatively entrenched in their communities and have personal issues (e.g., declining health) that affect their willingness to move and their abilities to compensate for migration-related losses. Hwang et al. (2010) observe that people’s psychosocial resources influence whether relocation is a benign or health-damaging event. Some people have insufficient psychosocial resources to offset migration-related losses or manage post-migration stress. Thus, social support could influence the relationship between relocation and depression. Our concern is whether post-migration losses of social support contribute to elevated levels of depression. In an age-­ heterogeneous sample, Hwang et al. (2010) observed that relocation has direct effects on depression but also has indirect effects because it erodes the stress-­ mitigating resources that migrants possess. Social support is a network-based resource that protects individuals from stressors and represents the informal emotional, instrumental, and financial assistance that increases their abilities to cope with stressful situations (Thoits, 2011). Previous research demonstrates that relocation is associated with declines in perceived social support among older people (Wu, Penning, Zeng, Li, & Chappell, 2013). This is especially the case for the support older people receive from family members and their levels of instrumental support. To date, there has been limited research on the consequences of relocation for the elderly. Moreover, research findings on the relationship between relocation and depression have been limited to the effects of project-induced migration (e.g., Three Gorges Dam), which accounts for a small proportion of all state-­ organized relocation. To address these gaps in the literature, this study examines several research problems. First, the study compares migrants to nonmigrants to investigate the correlation between relocation and depression. Second, given that relocation is associated with losses of social support, the analysis considers whether the gap in depression between migrants and nonmigrants is attributable to differences in perceived social support. The study also considers whether the type of social support (emotional, instrumental, financial) matters for post-­ migration outcomes. Third, the study examines whether the reason for migration influences the difference between migrants and nonmigrants. Finally, the study examines whether differences in resettlement patterns among migrants have implications for their levels of depression.

Mass relocation for the elderly in rural China  151

Methodology Data collection method This study uses primary data from the Ankang Study of Aging and Health (ASAH). Our research team at the Center for Aging and Health Research at Xi’an Jiaotong University conducted the ASAH using a structured questionnaire. A trained team of investigators collected the survey data through faceto-face interviews conducted in the households of the respondents. The target population was people aged 60 and older residing in private households in all but one (Langao) of the rural counties in Ankang, representing about 95% of the senior population. A multistage stratified PPS (probability proportional to size) sampling procedure was followed in the sample selection. As a result, Langao, a county with a relatively small population, was not selected in the study. In the second stage of sampling, each (selected) county was divided into three strata: (a) villages with no migrants, (b) villages consisting of all migrants, and (c) villages with mixed migrants and nonmigrants. Then, a random sample of villages was selected from each stratum. Finally, from the selected villages, households with at least one person aged 60 or older were randomly selected using household registration information from the local statistical bureau. Given the objectives of the study, it was designed to have equal representation of migrants and nonmigrants in the sample. The ASAH is cross-sectional in design, but the data were collected at two separate time points. The ASAH collected data on 613 respondents from 25 villages from November to December 2011 and on 507 respondents from 36 villages from March to April 2013 for a total of 1,120 respondents; the research team collected the data in two phases basically due to the budget constraints for the year we conducted the survey. Each part of the survey covers roughly half of the target population, and there were no overlaps of the two samples. The survey had a response rate of 94%. We excluded cases with missing values on the dependent variable (depression) as well as for gender and age (about 0.5%). There were a few cases with missing values on the selected covariates (mostly under 0.5%), and we used the multiple imputation procedure (Little & Rubin, 2002) to handle these. Our analysis includes 1,062 respondents and consists of 478 migrants and 584 nonmigrants. Since the survey was conducted at two different times, all regression models include a covariate to control for survey time.

Dependent variable The dependent variable is depressive symptoms. Depression was measured with a nine-item version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale, which assesses self-reported symptoms of depression in the past week (Radloff, 1997). The CES-D items include feelings of happiness, loneliness, sadness, enjoyed life, not wanting to eat, trouble sleeping, feeling less useful, having nothing to do, and having a lot of fun in life. The respondents were asked to rank

152  Weihong Zeng et al. Table 11.1  Descriptive Statistics of Variables Used in the Regression Analysis: Older Persons (Age 60+) in Rural China, 2011–2013 Years since relocation

Years of residence in the relocated area

3.97

6.00

–

5.35

5.99

6.23

8.46

6.11

8.32

6.77

9.27

5.52

6.94

5.53

7.64

52.2%

–

54.0%

68.68 53.6%

7.40 –

69.19 53.3%

6.94 –

2.24

1.31

2.18

1.45

2.88 1.04

2.43 1.75

2.49 1.38

2.25 1.94

Dummy indicator (1 = fair or better than average, 0 = otherwise) Number of chronic illnesses Activities of daily living

76.6%

–

71.1%

1.27 19.03

1.27 5.70

1.20 18.84

Dummy indicator (1 = Living with their children, 0 = otherwise) Dummy indicator (1 = Living with the third generation, 0 = otherwise)

71.1%

–

57.0%

–

53.7%

–

38.5%

–

Perceived social support Emotional Number of persons one can turn to for emotional support Instrumental Number of persons one can turn to for instrumental support Financial Number of persons one can borrow a significant amount of money if needed Demographic variables Gender Dummy indicator (1 = male, 0 = female) Age Age in years Marital status Dummy indicator (1 = married, 0 = otherwise) Children Number of children Socioeconomic variables Education Years of formal education Family income Annual family income in 10,000s (yuan) Health Self-rated health Chronic illness ADLs Living arrangement Live with children Live with grandchildren N

478

–

–

– 1.17 5.89

584

Source: The Ankang Study of Aging and Health. Note: Weighted means or percentages, unweighted N.

the frequency with which each of these symptoms was experienced as follows: rarely or never (1), some of the time (2), and most of the time (3). The positive items were reverse coded. Previous studies have used this short version of the CES-D in mainland China and demonstrated that it is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring depression in China (Guo, Aranda, & Silverstein, 2009). Table 11.1 shows that the average CES-D score for migrants is 15.86.

Mass relocation for the elderly in rural China  153 Independent variables This study examines the correlation between relocation and depressive symptoms. The analysis measures three aspects of relocation. First, the study uses a dummy variable that indicates whether or not a respondent has been relocated. Second, it uses a categorical variable to indicate the reason for relocation: (a) poverty alleviation, (b) ecological conservation, (c) disaster management, (d) project-induced, or (e) other reasons. Third, the study measures relocation type using a categorical variable: (a) centralized, (b) scattered, (c) township/­ urban, (d) other, and (e) self-determined. The analysis includes a control variable for years since relocation. Since time since relocation is unobserved for nonmigrants, the variable was centered with nonmigrants coded at the mean (zero). The study also investigates whether social support influences the relationship between relocation and depression. The study considers three measures of perceived social support: emotional support, instrumental support, and financial support. In the analysis, these measures of social support are modeled separately and then as a group to assess their influence. For emotional support, respondents were asked, “When you feel unhappy, how many family members are available to listen to you?” Family members included the respondent’s spouse, parents, children, grandchildren, and sons/daughters-in-law. This question was also asked to determine emotional support from other relatives, friends, and other informal sources. For instrumental support, the respondents were asked how many family members were available to provide help. The respondents were also asked about instrumental support from other relatives, friends, and other sources. For financial support, the respondents were asked about the number of family members from whom they could borrow a large sum of money. The same question was asked about financial support from other informal sources. The responses to these questions were summed to determine the total number of individuals available to provide emotional, instrumental, and financial support.

Control variables This study controls for demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, health, and living arrangements. The demographic variables considered are age, gender, marital status, and number of children. Age is measured in years. The socioeconomic variables include years of formal education and family income. Health is measured using variables for self-reported health (1 = fair or better than average, 0 otherwise), the number of chronic illnesses, and activities of daily living (ADLs). ADLs were assessed using the sum of the responses (1 = can perform, 2 = perform with some difficulty, 3 = cannot perform) to questions concerning 15 activities (e.g., bathing, eating, using the toilet, cooking, and managing one’s finances), which ranges from 15 to 45.

Statistical methods Our empirical analysis investigates the issue of endogeneity of mass relocation. It is well known that migration is selective. Even in the context of China’s

154  Weihong Zeng et al. government-organized migration, not everyone is willing or able to move. If the decision to migrate is correlated with mental health, the effect of migration on depression may be biased (see Greene, 2012). For instance, it is well known that migration is selective of individuals who tend to have better health, including mental health, than those who stay behind (e.g., Tong & Piotrowski, 2012). If this is the case among the seniors in the study population, then the potential negative effect of relocation on depression could be underestimated. To correct for the potential selection bias, we estimated two simultaneous equation models in which one endogenous variable is continuous (depression) and the other is dichotomous (relocation) using a two-stage probit least squares procedure as discussed in Maddala (1983, pp. 242–247). Such models typically assume that there exists an underlying relationship between the outcome variable ( y1 ) and the selection variable ( y 2 ): y1i = γ 1 y *2i + β1' x1i + u1i y 2i = 1 if y *2i > 0 y 2i = 0 otherwise

(11.1)

where y *2 is a latent dependent variable (relocation); x1 is a vector of covariates; β1 is a vector of regression coefficients associated with ; x1 and u1 is an error term. y *2 is estimated as: y *2i = γ 2 y1 + β 2'x 2i + u 2i .

(11.2)

In Equation (11.1), x1 included the explanatory variables shown in Table 11.1. In Equation (11.2), x 2 comprised a somewhat different set of covariates, including age, gender, number of children, education, ADLs, and a survey time dummy. Although not necessarily required, choosing a somewhat different set of covariates for the selection equation helps identify the effect of the “treatment” variable (relocation) in the outcome equation (Amemiya, 1985; Greene, 2012). We present the Stage 2 regression estimates from the outcome models with corrected standard errors in Tables 11.2–11.4, and the regression estimates from the selection models are available upon request. All regression models were estimated using Stata/SE 13.1.

Results The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of government-organized relocation on depression among rural Chinese people aged 60 and older. We address this problem in several respects. First, we compare migrants to nonmigrants to estimate the correlation between relocation and depression. Second, we examine whether social support explains the relationship between relocation and depression. We run separate regression models for emotional, instrumental, and financial support to observe their specific implications. We also estimate a model with all three variables included to examine whether social support

Mass relocation for the elderly in rural China  155 accounts for the difference in depression between migrants and nonmigrants. Third, we examine whether the relationship between relocation and depression (the difference between migrants and nonmigrants) changes depending on the reason for relocation. Finally, we examine the correlation between relocation type and depression among migrants. Table 11.1 shows that the average CES-D score for migrants is 15.86. The scores were coded and summed for a depression score ranging from 9 to 27, with higher scores being associated with higher levels of depression. Most migrants were relocated for poverty alleviation (34%) and disaster management (30%), and comparatively few (11%) were relocated because of infrastructure projects. Almost 70% of migrants were relocated via centralized relocation, which involves moving an entire village to a new, purpose-built village. About 14% of respondents were scattered into various preexisting villages, 7% were relocated to townships or urban areas, and 7% made their own decisions about where to relocate. Among the latter, the majority relocated to urban areas or to villages to live with relatives. The average age is about 69 years for migrants and nonmigrants. A little more than half of migrants (52%) are men and 54% of migrants are married. The average number of children is 2.18 among nonmigrants and 2.24 among migrants. The average years of education are 2.49 for nonmigrants and 2.88 for migrants. The average family income is ¥13,800 for nonmigrants and ¥10,400 for migrants. Table 11.1 shows that most of the respondents report fair or better-­t han-average health and about one chronic condition on average. Levels of ADLs are similar between migrants and nonmigrants. The study also includes dummy variables for living with children and living with grandchildren. About 57% of nonmigrants and 71% of migrants live with grandchildren. Another 39% of nonmigrants and 54% of migrants live with children. Table 11.2 presents the results from the probit least squares regressions (outcome models) of depression on relocation. The purpose of this table is to test for the effects of selection into migration. Although there are plausible reasons to assume that relocation is a stressful experience, it is also possible that the difference in depression between migrants and nonmigrants is attributable to personal attributes (e.g., demographics, socioeconomic status, and health) rather than relocation (Hwang et al., 2010). This problem can be resolved with longitudinal data, which can control for pre-migration levels of depression, and thus demonstrate the independent effect of relocation on changes in depressive symptomatology. With our cross-sectional data, it is not possible to control for pre-migration levels of depression, but it is possible to control for selection effects into relocation. Since migration is a self-selective process, especially for families with elderly members, they are likely to move due to the better ADL score of the elderly or the large family size. The attributes of migrants (not relocation) could explain the observed difference in depression between migrants and nonmigrants. Table 11.2 controls for selection effects into migration and demonstrates that relocation has an independent correlation with depression. That is, after controlling for the factors that select individuals into migration, migrants have higher levels of depression than nonmigrants.

156  Weihong Zeng et al. Table 11.2  Two-Stage Probit Least Squares Regressions of Depression with Correction for Selection into Migration: Older Persons (Age 60+) in Rural China, 2011–2013 Variables

Model 1

Model 2

Model 3

Model 4

Model 5

Relocated (1 = yes) 1.135* 1.144* 1.789** 1.692** 2.107** Years since −0.050† −0.042† −0.042 −0.032 −0.031 relocation Demographic variables Gender (1 = male) −0.030 −0.103 0.061 −0.035 Age 0.050** 0.044* 0.024 0.030† Marital status −0.971*** −0.795** −0.710** −0.669* (1 = married) Socioeconomic variables Education −0.161** −0.151** −0.185** Family income −0.007 −0.023 −0.001 Health Self-rated health −2.072*** −2.129*** (1 = fair or better) Chronic illness 0.100 0.106 Living arrangement Live with children −0.232 (1 = yes) −1.411*** Live with grandchildren (1 = yes) Intercept 16.075*** 13.114*** 13.986*** 16.602*** 17.173*** 2 0.010 0.054 0.065 0.128 0.144 R N 1062 1062 1062 1062 1062 ***p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05; †p < .10 (two-tailed test). Source: The Ankang Study of Aging and Health. Note: Stage 1 equation includes age, gender, children, education, ADLs, and a survey-cycle dummy as covariates.

Table 11.3 presents the probit least squares regressions of depression on relocation and social support. Having confirmed that migrants suffer from significantly higher levels of depression than nonmigrants, the next step is to examine whether social support explains the relationship between relocation and depression. The regression models consider emotional, instrumental, and emotional support. Given that previous studies demonstrate that people suffer relocation-related losses of social support (see Wu et al., 2013), we investigate whether social support accounts for the difference in depression between migrants and nonmigrants. All models control for demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, health, and living arrangements, which are well-established risk factors for depression. In Table 11.3, Model 1 examines whether emotional support influences the relationship between relocation and depression. The model demonstrates that migrants have significantly higher levels of depression than nonmigrants. However, compared to the findings presented in Table 11.2 (Model 4), the gap in

Mass relocation for the elderly in rural China  157 Table 11.3  Two-Stage Probit Least Squares Regressions of Depression on Social Support with Correction for Selection into Migration: Older Persons (Age 60+) in Rural China, 2011–2013 Variables

Model 1

Model 2

Model 3

Model 4

Relocated (1 = yes) Years since relocation

1.414* −0.031

1.395* −0.029

1.554** −0.030

1.421* −0.029

Demographic variables Gender (1 = male) Age Marital status (1 = married)

0.074 0.025 −0.726**

0.078 0.025 −0.725**

0.055 0.028† −0.736**

0.050 0.026† −0.744**

Socioeconomic variables Education Family income

−0.147** −0.036

−0.148** −0.040

−0.153** −0.025

−0.148** −0.034

−1.995***

−1.970***

−1.968***

−1.952***

Health Self-rated health (1 = fair or better) Chronic illness Social support Emotional Instrumental Financial Intercept R2 N

0.117 −0.030†

0.123

0.112

0.123

0.029 −0.018 −0.051** −0.054† 16.641*** 16.674*** 16.575*** 16.602*** 0.134 0.140 0.139 0.141 1,062 1,062 1,062 1,062 −0.038**

*** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05; †p < .10 (two-tailed test). Source: The Ankang Study of Aging and Health. Note: Stage 1 equation includes age, gender, children, education, ADLs, and a survey-cycle dummy as covariates.

depression between migrants and nonmigrants appears to be attenuated when emotional support is controlled. However, this does not demonstrate that relocation increases the risk of depression indirectly through decreasing levels of emotional support. The gap between migrants and nonmigrants remains significant after controlling for emotional support. The effect of social support is trivial and statistically nonsignificant. Model 2 examines whether instrumental support influences the relationship between relocation and depression. With instrumental support controlled, migrants have significantly higher levels of depression than nonmigrants. Again, the reduction in the gap in depression between migrants and nonmigrants is small, which suggests that loss of instrumental support is not a major reason for the elevated levels of depression among migrants. Model 3 demonstrates that the correlation between financial support and depression is significant. Financial support reduces the risk of depression, but it does not influence the relationship between relocation and depression. Overall, social support

158  Weihong Zeng et al. Table 11.4  T  wo-Stage Probit Least Squares Regressions of Depression with Correction for Selection into Migration by Reason for Relocation: Older Persons (Age 60+) in Rural China, 2011, 2013

Reason for relocation Poverty reduction (1 = yes) Ecological restoration (1 = yes) Disaster related (1 = yes) Infrastructure related (1 = yes) Intercept R2 N

Model 1

Model 2

Model 3

Model 4

b

b

b

b

0.444

16.036*** 0.128 744

0.765*

0.651

17.610*** 17.545*** 0.157 0.148 676 730

−1.676 12.513* 0.150 638

***p < 0.001; **p < 0.01. Source: The Ankang Study of Aging and Health. Note: Reference group is non-migration. Stage 1 equation includes age, gender, children, education, ADLs, and a survey-cycle dummy as covariates. Stage 2 equation includes all other covariates shown in Model 4 in Table 11.3.

(see Model 4) cannot account for the gap in depression between migrants and nonmigrants. Table 11.4 presents the results of the analysis that examines whether the relationship between relocation and depression changes according to the reason for relocation. The analysis compares four categories of migrants to nonmigrants. Each model considers one reason for relocation and removes migrants who moved for reasons other than those in the analysis. The table controls for the covariates in Model 4 in Table 11.3. In Table 11.4, Model 1 demonstrates that migrants who were relocated for poverty alleviation are not significantly different from nonmigrants in terms of depression. Model 2 demonstrates that migrants who were relocated because of ecological conservation have significantly higher levels of depression than nonmigrants. Model 3 demonstrates that migrants who were relocated for disaster management are not significantly different from nonmigrants in terms of depression. Model 4 demonstrates that migrants who were relocated for infrastructure projects are also not significantly different from nonmigrants. Table 11.5 presents the ordinary least squares regressions of depression on relocation type. The regressions compare five different relocation types, controlling for demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, health status, living arrangements, and social support. The purpose of this analysis is to compare migrants in terms of depression to observe whether certain types of relocation are more harmful than others. We restrict our analysis to migrants and compare all relocation types to self-determined relocation. Scattered relocation is associated with less favorable outcomes than self-determined relocation. Individuals from the scattered category have higher levels of depression than those from the

Mass relocation for the elderly in rural China  159 Table 11.5  O  rdinary Least Squares Regressions of Depression on Type of Relocation and Other Selected Variables: Relocated Older Persons (Age 60+) in Rural China, 2011–2013 Variables Type of relocation Centralized Scattered Township/Urban Other Self-determined (reference) Years since relocation Demographic variables Gender (1 = male) Age Marital status (1 = married) Children Socioeconomic variables Education Family income Health Self-rated health (1 = fair or better) Chronic illness ADLs Living arrangement Live with children (1 = yes) Live with grandchildren (1 = yes) Social support Emotional Instrumental Financial Intercept R2 N

Model 1

1.396* 1.842** 2.035** 2.432*

Model 2

1.436* 1.974** 2.107** 2.531*

Model 3

1.442* 1.908** 2.039** 2.461*

Model 4

1.448* 1.900** 2.084** 2.451*

Model 5

1.403* 1.778** 1.942* 2.326*

−0.006

−0.011

−0.009

−0.010

−0.005

0.127 −0.009 −0.910** −0.120

0.211 −0.010 −0.939** −0.106

0.217 −0.009 −0.940** −0.076

0.210 −0.008 −0.967** −0.085

0.160 −0.007 −0.918** −0.069

−0.060 −0.057

−0.052 −0.051

−0.043 −0.066

−0.041 −0.052

−0.045 −0.074

−1.192**

−1.131**

−1.087**

−1.096**

−1.117**

0.036 0.148***

0.052 0.147***

0.060 0.143***

0.061 0.143***

0.048 0.142***

0.317

0.371

−0.679*

−0.689* −0.028

0.016 −0.043 −0.040* −0.007 13.765*** 13.667*** 13.690*** 13.640*** 13.789*** 0.218 0.212 0.219 0.217 0.229 478 478 478 478 478 −0.039*

***p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05 (two-tailed test). Source: The Ankang Study of Aging and Health. Note: All models control for the survey-cycle dummy.

self-determined category. Surprisingly, centralized relocation is also associated with less favorable outcomes than self-determined relocation. All other types of relocation also have comparatively less favorable outcomes.

Conclusion This study examined the correlation between relocation and depression for older Chinese people. After controlling for factors that select people into migration, the research findings demonstrate that migrants have higher levels of depression than

160  Weihong Zeng et al. nonmigrants. This finding is consistent with previous studies that observe that project-induced migration increases the risk of depression (Hwang, Xi, Cao, Feng, & Qiao, 2007; Hwang et al., 2010; Xi et al., 2013). It is important for the policymaker to consider the trade-off of the mass relocation program between well-being improvement and negative effect, especially for vulnerable groups like the elderly. These studies demonstrate that project-induced migration is a direct source of stress because it increases exposure to negative life events. Since project-induced migration accounts for a small proportion of state-organized migration, our focus on all reasons for migration adds breadth to these findings. Given that migration is selective of people with attributes that predispose them to better health (Tong & Piotrowski, 2012), we used a two-stage model to adjust for this difference between migrants and nonmigrants. Selectivity implies that migrants have a health advantage over nonmigrants before migrating. The health-damaging effects of migration are sometimes strong enough to override this advantage and introduce a disadvantage in some cases. Our selection models are designed to capture some of this effect, but it is possible that there are unobserved variables that these models do not account for. Hence, our findings are perhaps conservative estimates of the effect of relocation on depression, since we cannot fully control for endogeneity. As Hwang et al. (2010) argue, the adverse effects of relocation have different consequences for migrants, depending on their abilities to manage stress. Since social support is an important coping resource, our analysis considered whether differences in social support account for the gap in depression between migrants and nonmigrants. Relocation often requires villages to be broken up and co-­ villagers dispersed into different areas (Hwang et al., 2011). Thus, relocation results in the dissolution of long-standing social relationships and social support networks. There is evidence that relocation has an indirect effect on depression through reducing social support and other salutogenic resources (Hwang et al., 2010). Previous studies also observe that relocation leaves older people vulnerable because it decreases access to family-based support as well as important types of support for the elderly (Wu et al., 2013). Our findings, however, suggest that social support does not influence the relationship between relocation and depression for the elderly. Social support has significant effects, but it does not explain much of the gap between migrants and nonmigrants. Most previous studies focus on the health-damaging effects of project-induced migration (Hwang et al., 2007, 2010; Xi et al., 2013). This type of migration is involuntary and involves a powerful state actor imposing itself on individuals. This situation is especially conducive to stress because it deprives people of their sense of control (Xi et al., 2013). In our study sample, project-induced migration accounts for 11% of the displaced. Most people are relocated on a voluntary basis for poverty alleviation, ecological conservation, disaster management, and other reasons. Since these reasons for migration are aimed at improving people’s lives and giving them agency in the choice of migration, we compared how the reason for relocation influences the difference in depression between migrants and nonmigrants. Our findings demonstrate that project-induced migrants do not have

Mass relocation for the elderly in rural China  161 higher levels of depression than nonmigrants. Though this is inconsistent with previous studies, it could reflect the life stage needs of older migrants. The main problems of project-induced migration are landlessness and joblessness (Hwang et al., 2010), which appear to be lesser concerns for people past working age. Poverty-alleviation and disaster-management migrants are also no different from nonmigrants. Only relocation aimed at ecological conservation seems to matter for the elderly, although there might be some obvious benefits for well-being improvement to counteract negative effects on mental health as individuals move due to poverty alleviation and disaster management. Our analysis also considered whether the type of relocation matters for differences in depression among migrants. We compared five categories of relocation: centralized, scattered, township/urban, self-determined, and other. These are important considerations given that these correspond to the location of migration, the effects on social networks, and personal agency. In cases where entire villages were moved to a new site, the effects (especially on social networks) should be minimal compared to the effects where former co-villagers were scattered into different places. In comparison to self-determined place of migration, migrants from all other relocation categories have higher levels of depression. This finding is noteworthy in two respects. First, it suggests that centralized relocation does not appear to have benefits for the mental health of the elderly. At least, migrants who are displaced from their co-villages are not worse off than migrants who relocated with their entire village. This is not surprising given that our results suggest that social support does not influence the relationship between relocation and depression. The benefits of centralized migration would otherwise be associated with keeping villagers together to preserve their social networks. Second, the comparative benefits of self-­determined migration presumably accrue from having a greater range of choices about where to relocate. To some extent, our conclusions must be interpreted with caution because of the cross-sectional nature of our data. Without longitudinal data, it is not possible to observe pre- and post-migration changes in depression. However, longitudinal data also have limitations, bearing in mind that migration is selective (Hwang et al., 2010). Hence, comparing within-person changes in depression is not necessarily a major improvement over our approach, which uses a two-stage model (a selection model and an outcome model) to compare migrants to nonmigrants to estimate the correlation between relocation and depression. Future research should employ panel data to compare migrants and nonmigrants over time, which could jointly address the issues of selectivity and causality. This would provide a clearer understanding of the differences between migrants and nonmigrants in the trajectories of depression. Our analysis is also limited in that it could not provide a reason for the ill-consequences of relocation. Future studies should consider including comprehensive inventories of stressors to address this issue. Despite these limitations, our findings provide new insights into the consequences of relocation for the elderly and suggest that losses of social support are not the primary explanation for the gap in depression between elderly migrants and nonmigrants.

162  Weihong Zeng et al.

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12 Maximizing impact in Hong Kong Economic, social, and environmental sustainability among nongovernmental organizations Elaine Suk Ching Liu and Paul Vinod Khiatani Introduction The rise of “sustainability” in academia and policy Sustainability, a concept now commonly used in most development-based rhetoric sung by governments and international organizations, was first conceived in the early 19th century by Thomas Malthus, famed for the “­Malthusian ­Catastrophe,” and later popularized in the late 20th century in response to concerns of an increasingly populous world with finite, nonrenewable natural resources. With the rapid industrialization and modernization of societies in the 20th ­century, significant economic growth and societal development came at a cost that threatened the long-term health of its citizens and the biosphere for generations to come. Out of the need for new approaches to address these concerns, i.e., to meet the material needs of a rapidly growing population, while at the same time minimizing environmental damage (Bridger & ­Luloff, 1999; Goodland, 2002; Khan, 1995), the concepts of “sustainability” and “sustainable development” found increasing relevance in local and international ­decision-making circles, and became best defined as “… development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). In 1992, the United Nation’s Conference on Environment and Development, simply known as the Earth Summit, brought together delegates from over 120 nations to frame “sustainable development” as an overarching policy of the 21st century (Basiago, 1999). To date, the Earth Summit has had the largest number of attendees of any international conference. With the increased dissemination of the sustainability concept in policymaking circles, contestations and heated debates abounded. The interpretation of sustainability, especially with regard to how it can be achieved, was challenged in

Maximizing NGO impact in Hong Kong  165 the 1990s, and two thought camps emerged (Bridger & Luloff, 1999): (a) the Constrained Growth Camp and (b) the Resource Maintenance Camp. The two camps, while advocating ecological considerations and intergenerational equity, disagreed on the core definition and interpretation of sustainability, which thus led to contrasting proposed methods of application and recommendations for policy and the private industry (Bridger & Luloff, 1999; Naess, 1995; Yanarella & Levine, 1992). For the Constrained Growth Camp, sustainable development depends on continued economic growth. In this thought camp, development still adheres to the utilitarian model, and growth is still the primary objective; the only difference is that it is now “constrained” by established ecological criteria (Bridger & Luloff, 1999). In contrast, the Resource Maintenance Camp champions an entire revision of our relationship with the environment (Bridger & Luloff, 1999; Naess, 1995). In this way of thinking, because current demands exceed what the biosphere can sustain, we ought to limit our use of natural resources and should not pursue continued growth at the expense of depleting existing and future resources (Bridger & Luloff, 1999; Yanarella & Levine, 1992). Rather, protection of natural resources equates with economic considerations. Meeting the needs of the people is important, but resource maintenance is just as important and, thus, we should adopt new consumption patterns and standards of living that do not rely too much on the use of natural resources (Bridger & Luloff, 1999). Drawing from this debate and others of the 1990s, two insights relevant to this chapter are presented. First, sustainable development does not equate to environmental sustainability alone; rather, “sustainable development” as a concept is exhaustive beyond environmental concerns (Khan, 1995; Mary, 2008). In the late 1990s, the intellectual paradigm of “sustainable development” developed further to accommodate social sustainability and economic sustainability as interlinked, pertinent concepts with environmental sustainability. As Khan (1995) clearly outlines in his theoretical formulation of sustainable development: The achievement of economic and social sustainability must go hand in hand and, further, it should also be noted that one particular aspect cannot be achieved at the cost of the other … it is also not possible to achieve environmental sustainability without achieving social and economic sustainability. (Khan, 1995, p. 65) Indeed, the main objectives of each sustainability pillar cannot be achieved without achieving those of the other; for example, economic growth without equity arrangements may result in social inequality, which limits the accessibility of benefits and thus allows room for the exploitation of natural capital (e.g., wood) in lieu of material capital (e.g., money; purchasing power) to satisfy basic needs. Thus, the social, environmental, and economic pillars are interlinked and sustainability in all three yields the most promise for the pressing problems of today (Khan, 1995).

166  Elaine Suk Ching Liu and Paul Vinod Khiatani Second, in noticing the complexities of societies, with their diverse political and cultural units, scholars realized that constructing a global or national agenda to achieve sustainable development was impractical because “at such macro levels, the scale of change required is so great that problems of coordination and cooperation across political units are bound to be enormous” (Bridger & Luloff, 1999, p. 380). Indeed, considering the differences between countries in terms of their characteristics (e.g., social, economic, and environmental as well as political landscape and population), problems faced, and level of development, it would be impractical to think that any one solution to a looming threat of a social, economic, or environmental nature can be applied globally and the same positive results expected (Bridger & Luloff, 1999; Yanarella & Levine, 1992). One size does not fit all.

Sustainable community development: opportunities and challenges With the aforementioned approach not being tenable, it thus begs the question, what is? Yanarella and Levine (1992) suggested that we focus on narrowing down the scope to communities and thus strive to promote “sustainable community development.” From sustainable development grew the concept of sustainable community development, a more localized concept that focused on “striking a balance between environmental concerns and development objectives while simultaneously enhancing local social relationships” (Bridger & Luloff, 1999, p.  381). In communities that have adopted and practiced the sustainable community development concept, often called “sustainable communities,” “(the) sustainable communities meet the economic needs of their residents, enhance and protect the environment, and promote more humane local societies” (Bridger & Luloff, 1999, p. 381). According to the interactive concept of community proposed by Kaufman (1959), “sustainable communities” is an active conception of community that assumes that actors, groups, associations, institutions, and other constituent parts mobilize for collective, long-term actions that promote economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Yet, to this novel conception of community as being interactional in nature, Khan (1995) and Bridger and Luloff (1999) raised compelling concerns regarding the reality of such a practice of “sustainable community development.” One of the central concerns posed by Khan (1995) in his seminal piece was how the practice of sustainable development can reach people in a way that changes their behavior permanently. Dominated by a “culture of maxima,” Khan (1995) questioned the feasibility of practicing sustainable development in the society of the day as most, if not all, institutions were geared toward “maximizing” consumerism and materialism. Bridger and Luloff (1999) echoed this concern as well when inquiring how communities and their constituent actors, groups, associations, and institutions could mobilize for collective, long-term action that adheres to the central tenets of the integrated sustainability development model. For the prospect of having a society that is active in sustainable community developments, there have to be viable communities that locally control

Maximizing NGO impact in Hong Kong  167 and coordinate actions that correspond to the linking of sustainability concepts (Bridger & Luloff, 1999). This is further complicated by critics who argue that nonstate and state elites, especially those who exist outside of the locality in question (i.e., extra-local), stand in the way of a cohesive, autonomous community and sustainable community development (see Bridger & Luloff, 1999, p. 382 for more information on the criticisms of sustainable communities). While they may seem compelling, the arguments of Khan (1995) and Bridger and Luloff (1999) do not examine institutions beyond the parameters of state control, and the arguments fall under the assumption that communities lack self-determination in a world that is largely structured around local and extra-­ local state and nonstate forces. In this case, using nongovernmental organizations from the nonprofit sector (henceforth abbreviated as NGOs) for a comprehensive discussion and analysis of the new trends in community sustainability efforts is appropriate for three reasons: 1 NGOs are not governed under state control; this is both recognized in practice and in academia, where they are termed “nonstate actors.” They are entirely or largely (albeit not directly affiliated) independent of the government in their organization and operation. 2 NGOs have been found to be able to influence behavior permanently by helping social action become social attitudes. NGOs and nonprofit organizations are often concerned with upholding humanitarian, benevolent, and cooperative objectives and thus focus on achieving public welfare goals through their community-engagement activities. 3 NGOs advocate causes that mirror one of the three pillars, if not all three. It is in their interest to support them and coordinate public action in a direction that matches their mission statement.

A brief history of NGOs in Hong Kong In Hong Kong, NGOs are established and avoid any strict restrictions or regulations by the state, yet they are influenced by and influence state policies, and enjoy widespread support from the public and private sector as well as strong public trust (Lam & Perry, 2000). Locally, the trend of registrations of NGOs observable under the Society Ordinance (Chapter 151), as well as through the Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS), have seen strong upward surges as well as steady declines over the decades (HKCSS, 2015; Lam & Perry, 2000). As recorded by the Social Indicators of Hong Kong, the upward trend was observed from 1997, with 8,695 registered NGOs. Since then, as of 2012, the number of registered NGOs in Hong Kong has skyrocketed to 30,531 (HKCSS, 2015). This steady proliferation in the number of NGOs registered not only reflects the favorable environment for establishing an NGO but also indicates the plethora of identified issues in society over the years that require services from international organizations (Lam & Perry, 2000). For more than a century now,

168  Elaine Suk Ching Liu and Paul Vinod Khiatani the voluntary sector in Hong Kong has occupied an essential role between the market and state, with the function of filling voids in the social welfare sector and responding to unmet public needs (Chow, 1986; Lam & Perry, 2000). During the pre-World War II (WWII) period, this was especially evident as religious institutions, predominantly Catholic and Protestant churches, filled the role of caring for the poor and deprived in Hong Kong while the government opted for passivity regarding social welfare issues and related services (Chow, 1986). Even after the end of WWII, the voluntary sector in Hong Kong grew with organizations, agencies, and associations that largely serviced social needs in society. For example, with the large influx of immigrants during the period from the 1940s to the 1960s, the voluntary sector saw a large variety of established indigenous associations, religion-backed international organizations, and domestic voluntary organizations that geared their service toward meeting their needs (Chow, 1986). It was only during the late 1960s that the government assumed a more active role in social welfare issues. Largely connected through subvention schemes, voluntary organizations today operate interdependently with the government, enjoying autonomy while also being subject to scrutiny from the state (Lam & Perry, 2000). Yet, amidst the mass support for NGOs, no case-based research has been conducted to date with regard to their functional roles in the larger community and the values and objectives shared among them in Hong Kong. The complexities of their functioning, organizations, and relations within and with the larger society have yet to be understood, not just in the local context, but also globally. In general, not much is understood about the organizational structures and strategies used by these NGOs in carrying out their social missions, which, more often than not, involve relations with public and private sectors, and civil society (Lehtonen, 2004; Ogliastri, Jäger, & Prado, 2016). Specifically, given the paradigmatic shift to the three pillars of sustainability, the profiles, conditions, and roles of post-1995 NGOs in the local community are virtually unknown academically. In defining NGOs for the local context, Lam and Perry (2000) advocated the use of a structural-operational definition, as follows: The nonprofit sector is defined as a collection of organizations that are (1)  institutionalized to a certain extent, (2) institutionally separate from the government, (3) not profit-seeking in purpose, (4) self-governing, and (5) voluntary. (Lam & Perry, 2000, p. 357) In line with the reality today, the aforementioned definition takes into account Hong Kong’s loose legal framework, the state’s nonintervention stance, and its interdependent nature and role in society. With no major changes in the regulatory framework and the relationship between the state, market, and nonprofit sectors, the general definition put forth by Lam and Perry (2000) will be followed in this study due to its relevance to the current local context and ability to encompass multipolar NGOs.

Maximizing NGO impact in Hong Kong  169 About the study Drawing on the aforementioned tradition of inquiry and question posed by ­Basiago (1999), this study asks, “How does the new integrated paradigm of social, economic, and environmental sustainability inform practice?” Pushing the inquiry further, we add the following to Basiago’s question: “… inform practice in a community through NGOs?” As mentioned previously, NGOs as nonprofit institutions are unique as they are not limited by the same structural limitations of public or private institutions (see Lam & Perry, 2000 for the case in Hong Kong). Moreover, previous scholars studying the impact of NGOs on enduring altruistic behavior and personal development have found that it supports enduring behavior and does help concert problem-solving collective action (e.g., Lam & Perry, 2000). All in all, we see that it is appropriate to use NGOs in the context of our investigation and within the framework of an interactional concept of community (Kaufman, 1959). Being able to analyze dynamics and changes within the community arena, the interactional and process perspective proposed by Kaufman’s interactional concept of community (1959) would be able to provide an appropriate lens for exploring the actors and associations within the community field, both old social fields and newly created social fields, by describing what the community is, investigating the community actions and its constituent parts, investigating the ends of the community actions, and unearthing the “assumptions/ideological basis” on which the community field is built (Kaufman, 1959, p. 16). Exploring post-1995 NGOs, with the assumption that they mimicked the new wave of community sustainability thought 20 years ago, this lens provides an excellent opportunity to analyze and document the action processes and interactions of this new community field that is problem-solving and change-­ oriented for economic, social, and environmental sustainability issues. In terms of layers of analysis in this study, emphasis is placed on community groups as this conceptualization of an actor in Kaufman’s framework best fits NGOs (see Kaufman, 1959 for more information). With respect to the outlined theory, and in line with the aim of this paper to explore NGOs that focus on the three pillars of sustainability in their practice, either directly or indirectly, in-depth interviews with representatives of the NGOs were conducted to elucidate the present social, economic, and environmental sustainability efforts of NGOs in Hong Kong. The significance of this case-based study lies in elucidating how interlocking sustainability efforts are strategized, organized, applied, and maintained in today’s society. Moreover, the present study’s direction also corresponds to increasing calls for understanding the relational aspects of multidimensional sustainability efforts: for example, how the public and nonprofit sectors work together toward social-environmental sustainability efforts (Lehtonen, 2004). Given that Kaufman’s (1959) framework allows for the “opportunity for treatment of both descriptive and normative data in the same context” (p. 16), the use of in-depth interviews will aid in examining how the strategic

170  Elaine Suk Ching Liu and Paul Vinod Khiatani organization and management of “programs, projects, and participants” (p. 16) by community improvement organizations reflect the needs of the locality.

Methodology Constructing the database This qualitative study aimed to analyze new NGOs – “new” implying those established within the last 20 years (i.e., since 1995) – that have focus points on all three sustainability concepts, be it directly or indirectly, in Hong Kong. In this respect, the distinction between direct and indirect lies in analyzing the mission and goals of the organization, the nature of its activities, the intended beneficiaries, and the anticipated outcomes. As social, economic, and environmental sustainability concepts and efforts are interlinked with one another, it is understandable that NGOs that focus on direct influence on any one or two efforts may have an indirect influence on the third. In accordance with Uvin, Jain, and Brown (2000), understanding the distinction between an NGO’s direct and indirect impact involves understanding the difference between activities that “work directly with beneficiaries, seeking to have a direct impact on their lives” (p. 1411) and unintended spillover effects from those activities that “change the behavior of … actors in ways that further the goals of the NGOs” (pp. 1411–1412), respectively. As there is no centralized NGO database in Hong Kong that keeps track of all the NGOs in the city, and no complete list of established NGOs in the nonprofit sector is systematically checked by any governmental agencies (Center for Civil Society and Governance, 2005; Lam & Perry, 2000), the authors had to systematically form a list of NGOs by searching online databases and directories of NGOs in Hong Kong. The HKCSS does keep a database of listed NGOs; however, its coverage is not wide enough to include all NGOs in Hong Kong that have overlapping (e.g., environmental, economic, and social) or targeted (e.g., environmental) focus points, which are of interest in this study. Therefore, although their online publications were consulted during the online search, the researchers perused many other directories and databases. The online search was conducted from October to December 2014. The database and directory search involved scanning through the following outlets online: 1 2 3 4

Government departments and related agencies International and local research institutions, associations, and centers Educational institutions Other NGOs

The second author of this study and two tertiary students at the City University of Hong Kong categorized the NGOs by consulting: (a) their mission and goals, (b) the nature of their activities, (c) the intended beneficiaries, and (d) the anticipated

Maximizing NGO impact in Hong Kong  171 outcomes. Moreover, the authors also consulted a typology of voluntary organizations provided by Lam and Perry (2000, see p. 358). Taking into consideration both the unique characteristics of the NGOs and a broader framework for conceptualizing local NGOs, this study sought to categorize them into social, environmental, economic, any mixtures of two (e.g., social-environmental or ­social-economic), or a culmination of all three classifications. All three researchers perused the websites of the NGOs and contacted them when information on their web pages lacked the sought content. Thereafter, the three researchers compiled the data into a single database and together examined the entries and rationales for the classification of NGOs. The final decisions on the classification of NGOs were made based on a consensus of the whole research team. Forming a single database based on all the information collected from the aforementioned sources, the compiled list of NGOs included 280 NGOs that were registered under the Companies/Societies Ordinance and the Inland Revenue Ordinance of Hong Kong. Of the 280, 50 of the NGOs collected were established prior to the 1950s, 158 were formed between the 1950s and 1995, and 72 were formed after 1995 (see Figure 12.1 for a graph of NGO establishments over time). With reference to Figure 12.2, the majority of the NGOs were multipolar in their sustainability goals. In the collected pool of post-1995 NGOs in Hong Kong, a focus on social and environmental sustainability was dominant. The yielded results confirm the landscape of Hong Kong posited by early scholars looking at the nonprofit, voluntary sector (e.g., Cho-Bun, 1986; Lam & Perry, 2000). Indeed, before the 1990s, a large majority of locally established voluntary organizations served social purposes; for example, for mutual aid and for organizing collective action (Cho-Bun, 1986; Chow, 1986). Yet, with the perils of global warming, among other pressing environmental issues, looming, the Hong Kong government issued its first environment-centric white paper, Pollution in Hong Kong: A Time to Act (Hong Kong Government, 1989), signaling 60

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Figure 12.1  Number of NGOs registered in Hong Kong per decade (1950s–2010s).

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172  Elaine Suk Ching Liu and Paul Vinod Khiatani 45 40

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Figure 12.2  S  ustainability focuses of post-1995 NGOs in Hong Kong.

an era of local concern over environmental issues. With the set of policies issued, and new subvention schemes established for encouraging pro-environment efforts, especially for business-NGO partnerships (Studer, Tsang, Welford, & Hills, 2008), the local NGO scene began to welcome environmental sustainability issues as its own, and grew thus not only toward issues of social and/or economic sustainability but also toward environmental sustainability. Therefore, based on the results, the constructed database does mimic the NGO space and trends portrayed by local literature. After accounting for the year of establishment, the list of NGOs was further screened based on: (a) comprehensive home websites; (b) websites in English; and (c) NGOs with a discernible local focus on all three sustainability concepts, whether directly or indirectly. Based on these three screening procedures, from the list of 72 NGOs established after 1995, 50 remained. Invitation e-mails for an in-depth interview, attached with a copy of the interview questions and the consent form with a brief description of the research proposal, were sent to all 50 NGOs. Those that did not respond within two weeks were screened out from further solicitation. NGOs that did respond, via phone call or e-mail replies, were followed up with to arrange a convenient date/time/place for the interview. Although eight NGOs responded, only five were able to successfully arrange an interview for the present study.

Data collection Over the course of three months, from January 2015 to March 2015, representatives from five NGOs (HandsOn Hong Kong, Asian Charity Services, Hong

Maximizing NGO impact in Hong Kong  173 Kong Cleanup, Plastic Free Seas, and Kids4Kids Limited) in Hong Kong were interviewed in-depth in English. The venues chosen for the interviews were either at the agency premises or at a local coffee shop nearby. The second author of this study conducted all of the interviews. They lasted for approximately one and a half hours and were mostly one-on-one interviews (only one interview involved two interviewees from the same agency). With their permission, all the interviews were audio-recorded for later transcription. The interviews were transcribed by the second author of this study and then the transcriptions were double-checked by both researchers and the interviewees. The following are the interview questions: 1 Please describe the organization you work for: For example, what is the name of the organization? When was the organization established? What was the reason for its establishment? What are its goals and objectives? How is it organized and operated? 2 Please describe the activities the organization conducts in Hong Kong: For example, what are the different types of activities? What are the purposes of the activities? How do they further the organization’s goals and values? What impact do they have on sustainability efforts? 3 The outcomes: For example, what are the outcomes of the activities in Hong Kong? What impact have the activities brought to the intended audience? What changes have been observed? After the interviews, the second author asked for annual reports and additional information regarding their structure, programs, and financing. All requested materials were successfully collected either from the representatives themselves or by accessing the organization’s websites.

Overview of the participating post-1995 NGOs Asian Charity Services (ACS) was established in 2007 in response to the lack of a support network for the capacity-building efforts of NGOs in Hong Kong. With the primary target audience being NGO leaders, ACS aims to raise the standards of professionalism and provide capacity-building services to the NGO sector of Asia, enabling them to be more effective, efficient, and sustainable. ACS does this by providing strategic training programs and hosting expert workshops for NGO leaders. To date, ACS has reached over 300 NGOs locally, generally small to medium-sized NGOs that focus on various issues, and a number of NGOs overseas in Thailand, Malaysia, and China. ACS utilizes volunteers, who largely hail from the corporate sector, to help facilitate the programs. HandsOn Hong Kong was established in 2007 based on an evident need to bridge the gap between hopeful, eager volunteers and struggling, grassroots organizations – a gap between those who want to serve and organizations that need people to serve in Hong Kong. The participating NGOs, which, although

174  Elaine Suk Ching Liu and Paul Vinod Khiatani wide-ranging in their focuses, typically serve populations that live under the poverty line, benefit from the steady flow of volunteers; and prospective volunteers benefit too in terms of gaining an understanding of the social issues in Hong Kong and empowering them to take further action through activities that enable them to be directly involved in the local community. Now, due to an increasing number of volunteers signing up on the database (in the thousands), and partnering NGOs (more than 50), the number of programs has increased, volunteer hours have increased, and the goal of achieving a greater social awareness of the many problems that different age/social groups and the environment face is being realized. For example, in 2011, HandsOn Hong Kong recorded 5,100 volunteer hours contributed by 3,200 registered volunteers across 24 different programs with partner institutions. Fast forward to 2014, and the volunteer hours have increased to 17,470, registered volunteers have increased to 9,403, and programs have increased to 56. Hong Kong Cleanup, which started as a grassroots effort in 2000, has its roots grounded in 2001 under the name of Hong Kong Coastal Cleanup. Hong Kong Coastal Cleanup officially changed to Hong Kong Cleanup in 2012 in order, as the name implies, to provide more ways for people to participate beyond just beach cleanups, make the issues more local, and give the people of Hong Kong a sense of ownership. With the mission to raise awareness, empower more people, and advocate environmental protection on a local and international platform, Hong Kong Cleanup hosts various activities throughout the year, with the quintessential activity being the 16-week “Hong Kong Cleanup” event, beginning in the third week of September and continuing until the beginning of November. Starting with just 40 volunteers in 2000, the participation rate in the local event has since skyrocketed, reaching 51,000 participants in the 2014 “Hong Kong Cleanup.” Ultimately, while the participation continues to increase, Hong Kong Cleanup hopes to realize its overarching mission and vision of rendering itself obsolete because there is no more trash to clean up in country parks and coastlines. Kids4Kids was established in 2010 and started with the basic questions of “How can you encourage kids who want to help others but may or may not have the material resources to do so?,” “What skills do they have?,” and “How can they help with the skills and abilities they already have?” With this basic concern in mind, Kids4Kids established itself with the belief that more could be done to encourage children to be familiar with the various social issues faced by other children, empathize, and help out as agents of change. Kids4Kids believes in a world where young people can make a difference through the power of their own thoughts and actions, and thus all the activities are geared toward inspiring, enabling, and engaging young people to make a difference. Through the various programs in Kids4Kids, which are organized and conducted primarily by volunteers who are students in Hong Kong, aged from 9 to 18, the end beneficiaries of the program, i.e., children from impoverished backgrounds in Hong Kong, benefit and the volunteers also benefit by achieving a sense of belonging, kindredship, ownership, and pride.

Maximizing NGO impact in Hong Kong  175 Plastic Free Seas was first created in response to the massive pellet spill in Hong Kong in 2012. Registering as a charitable organization in Hong Kong in 2013, Plastic Free Seas, in all its endeavors, remains true to the reason for its inception – to respond to the issues of environmental degradation, particularly plastic marine pollution, through awareness-raising and empowerment of the young. Seeing the need to bring the message of plastic marine pollution, waste, excessive consumption, and related topics to schools, Plastic Free Seas focuses largely on schools in Hong Kong and sees students in Hong Kong as the agents of change. To date, Plastic Free Seas, with the help of volunteers, has reached over 17,000 students in over 70 schools with its beach cleanups, seminars/conferences/talks, Sea Classroom trips, and related community engagements.

Data analysis The study followed an exploratory case-based methodology, which is appropriate to the aim of elucidating undocumented phenomena, analyzing in-depth specific processes or features of the phenomena, and drawing insights or learning from them (Yin, 1994). First, verbatim transcription was carried out by the second author. All completed transcriptions were sent out to the respective interviewees to solicit their comments, if any, concerning their content. For instance, if the interviewees wanted to elaborate on some parts of their narrative, they could do so by directly writing on the verbatim transcript. The interviewees were instructed to highlight all changes made. Then, annual reports, program-related reports, and the NGOs’ website content were analyzed to triangulate the interview data, as well as to contribute to gaps in the knowledge base (Bowen, 2009). The documentary analysis of pertinent documents helped with (a) providing supplementary data to form the case studies, (b) tracking relevant organizational changes and developments in their programs over time, and (c) verifying interview narratives (Bowen, 2009, p. 30). The second author delved through numerous key documents and a range of website content to identify “meaningful and relevant passages of text or other data” (Bowen, 2009, p. 32). This was an iterative and reflexive process that involved going back and forth between the interview transcripts and organizational documents. Following Bowen’s (2009) suggestion, codes used in the transcripts guided the identification and interpretation processes of the documentary analysis. Thematic analysis, following Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-phase guidelines, was conducted to systematically elucidate the themes emerging from the collected data. The codebook was developed a priori based on the research questions and theoretical framework of the study (Crabtree & Miller, 1999). Based on the codes, intratextual and then intertextual analyses of the interview transcripts were conducted in order to capture emergent themes that highlighted unique as well as shared features of the case-based data. Previous scholars examining NGOs using case-based methodologies have also utilized thematic analysis to elucidate themes emerging from collected data in order to form their case studies (e.g., Mukasa, 1999; O’Dwyer & Unerman, 2008).

176  Elaine Suk Ching Liu and Paul Vinod Khiatani In the interest of preserving confidentiality, anonymity was provided for all interviewees. Moreover, with the consent of the interviewees, the agency names are reported in this study. It is important to note that the interviewees, who all held different management and/or governance positions in their respective agencies, were only able to speak about the agency to the best of their capacities, experience, and knowledge. Therefore, despite using a semi-structured interview technique and controlling this by using probing questions and asking for objective facts, it is possible that limitations exist in terms of delivering a complete picture of the NGO.

Findings Research Question 1: what are the general profile, organizational structure, and operation of the NGOs? As reported, two of the NGOs (Plastic Free Seas and Hong Kong Cleanup) can be considered as having a general profile characteristic of addressing an environmental need in Hong Kong, and the remaining three NGOs (HandsOn, Asian Charity Services, and Kids4Kids) can be considered as having a general profile characteristic of addressing a social need in Hong Kong. Apolitical and driven by donations through fundraising efforts or corporate sponsorship, all five organizations are autonomous in function and self-driven for the goals they see fit to pursue. For these five NGOs, the recorded revenue, through donations, fundraising activities or events, corporate sponsorship, and/or selling products that promote environmental protection and awareness, have increased year on year. For example, according to the annual reports, HandsOn Hong Kong recorded yearly total revenues of HK $990,431 in 2011, HK $2,072,816 in 2012, HK $3,325,421 in 2013, and HK $3,992,768 in 2014. The increase in funding, and therefore increased expenditures toward existing and new programs, helped HandsOn Hong Kong raise their NGO partnership base from 24 to 56, and volunteer programs from 480 to 1,091, during the period 2011–2014. Although HandsOn Hong Kong is the only NGO among the five to have other branch institutions around the world, it has proven to be self-sustaining and independent in its local operations. That said, none of the NGOs interviewed faced pressures, dilemmas, or scrutiny from other institutions that attempted to intervene in their operations. As such, most, if not all, of the five interviewed post-1995 NGOs operate dynamically and consistently seek to evolve via internal performance measures, feedback loops with key stakeholders, exchange of practices and cooperation with other like-minded NGOs, and similar activities geared toward goal-aligned organizational and operational change. In operation, their organization and activities are designed with the aims of raising awareness, bringing people and organizations together, and empowering the local community and other NGOs, thereby promoting and maximizing the impact of three-pronged sustainability efforts in the society. It is no surprise that, boasting such operational and structural similarities, the five NGOs are

Maximizing NGO impact in Hong Kong  177 familiar with one another and the larger NGO space in Hong Kong. Frequent engagements with one another, and with other NGOs, have enabled the exchange of practices and occasional collaborations to maximize their impacts. In terms of the workforce, all five NGOs rely on a mix of volunteers and full-time staff, with more of the former than the latter. Also, all five NGOs’ staff workforce, in particular, were found to be primarily responsible for administrative duties and key organizational operations, while the volunteers helped with executing, if not also preparing, the programs and activities. This allows most, if not all, of the NGOs to run lean operations with a staff workforce of ten full-time employees or fewer.

Research Question 2: how do the end goals, activities, impact, and direction of the NGOs reflect the social, economic, and environmental needs of the locality? Based on the analyzed data of the five post-1995 NGOs interviews, three types of organizational orientations emerged to fit into the needs of the locality: environmental integrity orientation, social and economic justice orientation, and social capacity-building orientation.

a.  Environmental integrity orientation Born out of a stark realization that environmental degradation occurs in leaps and bounds in Hong Kong, which is particularly evident on, and affects, the beaches, both Plastic Free Seas and Hong Kong Cleanup, which started in 2012, are organized around raising awareness, mobilizing, and empowering the local Hong Kong community to act and live in “green-conscious” ways. Plastic Free Seas found its calling in plastic marine pollution during the pellet spill of 2012 in Hong Kong (South China Morning Post, 2012, August 19), and, since then, it has geared its activities and programs toward doing something about environmental degradation, especially on the shorelines of Hong Kong: for example, by organizing regular community beach cleanups, corporate beach cleanups, trips on their Sea Classroom, and school awareness talks and workshops with kids. Plastic Free Seas conducts at least 40 beach cleanups per year, including scheduled community cleanups (usually 10 per year), ad hoc cleanups, school cleanups, and corporate cleanups. Hong Kong Cleanup, taking a broader yet further step forward, expands its scope to clearing waste from shorelines, hiking trails, city outskirts, parks, and more, wherever there is a lack of environmental protection and attention from the Hong Kong government. Hong Kong Cleanup does not focus specifically on the younger generation as Plastic Free Seas does, but it aims to empower all and, with its year-round activities ranging from short-term campaigns to the six-week Hong Kong Cleanup event, foster an environmentally sensitive community. Over the years, with increasing offshoots of environmentally focused NGOs and enhanced government action toward environmental protection, for example,

178  Elaine Suk Ching Liu and Paul Vinod Khiatani implementation of the “Clean Shorelines” program since 2012, it is clear that both Plastic Free Seas and Hong Kong Cleanup are directing their efforts in a way that maximizes impact – to the community, to the state, and to the environment.

b.  Social and economic justice orientation Inspired by a more latent concern, albeit as important as environmental degradation, Kids4Kids started in 2010 to do more to encourage kids to be familiar with the various issues and social problems facing other children, for example, economic, emotional, and social poverty; empathize with them; and find solutions to help them out. With this social sustainability vision, i.e., encouraging kids to help other kids, Kids4Kids organizes itself around the child, designing its outreach activities, programs, and related components with the child in mind. For example, they mobilized children with reading skills in the “Buddy Reading” program to read to children in Hong Kong who could not read; they mobilized kids with writing skills in the “Writing For a Cause” program to help raise funds for other children through sales of their published work; and they mobilized kids with neither skill who still wanted to help to participate in the “Sharing for a Cause” program and the “Action for a Cause” program, which do not require any specific skills to help other children. The aforementioned programs are participated in and organized by children. Although it did not start with the child in the driving seat, over time, Kids4Kids encouraged young volunteers to assume the main driving force in its efforts – from organizing activities to designing new programs. Ultimately, cultivating leadership skills and empathy, Kids4Kids, with adults as the supporters, orients itself and delivers impact in a way that children, no matter whether they are beneficiaries or volunteers, can benefit from. For example, under the “Sharing for a Cause” program, in collaboration with the NGO Crossroads Foundation, Kids4Kids volunteers collected 36,000 stationery items in 2012, 2,175 items of sporting equipment in 2013, and 7,301 home appliances in 2014 from different households across Hong Kong who did not need the material goods anymore. These secondhand materials were then redistributed through Crossroads Foundation to underprivileged families in Hong Kong who could not afford to purchase these goods for their children. Not only does this used goods scheme help economically struggling families, but it also indirectly helps with environmental protection efforts.

c.  Social capacity-building orientation Mirroring the social sustainability efforts of Kids4Kids, HandsOn Hong Kong and ACS, both starting off in 2007, grew out of the need to provide social ­capacity-building efforts for struggling NGOs, empowering them, and helping them maximize their impact in Hong Kong, especially those NGOs struggling to maintain a steady flow of volunteers, and suffering from an unsteady flow of funds from fundraising efforts, an unmotivated leadership, and a variety of other

Maximizing NGO impact in Hong Kong  179 factors that result in internal turmoil and, ultimately, closures of NGOs. As such, similarly to Kids4Kids, the empowerment efforts of the two NGOs are aimed at both self-development of the NGOs and at serving others, i.e., the beneficiaries. HandsOn Hong Kong participates with over 50 NGOs to provide a mix of over 100 social, economic, and environmental activities for volunteers to choose from. Thus, the burden of attracting a steady flow of volunteers and spending time and money on reaching out to volunteers is taken up by HandsOn, so that the NGOs can solely focus on providing the volunteers with the opportunity to directly benefit the beneficiaries. For example, in order to respond to the needs for better sanitation in Asia’s underdeveloped countries, as well as the urgency to reduce landfill waste in Hong Kong, HandsOn Hong Kong connects volunteers with an NGO called Soap Cycling to help recycle slightly used soap, which would otherwise be disposed of immediately, from hotels in Hong Kong. In contrast to the operational capacity-building efforts of HandsOn, albeit as helpful, ACS focuses on more strategic capacity-building efforts of board governance, fundraising, and strategic planning. Offering nine-hour workshops (over a six-week period) on the aforementioned focus areas and expert-led seminars on topics of interest, for example, volunteer management and public relations, ACS responds to the needs of NGOs that struggle to grow further and reach out to more beneficiaries. In the workshop series, by incorporating experienced volunteers, largely from the corporate sector, to work with the leadership of the NGOs under a fixed curriculum, the modulated workshops serve as a c­ apacity-building effort to help the NGOs come up with a blueprint that they can work toward for the next year; at a later date, ACS will follow up to assess the NGO’s progress with respect to the blueprint. Reaching already over 300 NGOs, ACS, like HandsOn, “serves those who serve” and, via feedback loops at the end of all its programs, aims to help NGOs overcome their internal turmoil and transform with a view to helping more beneficiaries effectively and efficiently. In 2015, ACS was able to provide pro bono services to 110 NGOs, which would otherwise cost the equivalent of 16.7 million Hong Kong dollars, with the help of 1,250 registered experienced volunteers from relevant industries. According to their annual report 2015, 96% of their NGO clients responded favorably to the training and seminars provided by ACS. Over the years, among other categories of NGOs, ACS was able to help with the capacity-building efforts of NGOs that focus on animals (e.g., Animals Asia Foundation), the environment (e.g., Friends of the Earth), poverty issues (e.g., Foodlink Foundation), and disaster relief (e.g., Feed the Hungry). For example, a representative from Green2Greener, an environmental NGO that is focused on sustainable living, joined ACS’s sixweek strategic planning workshop in 2010. As with all other NGOs that are selected for the signature program, the NGO faced challenges that undermined its long-term impact and sustainability. After joining the program with ACS, the NGO changed its organizational mission, name, and decision-making capacities and infrastructure to be more focused on the environmental sustainability of fashion. Today, it is known as “Redress,” an environmental NGO that aims to promote sustainable practices and awareness of the consumption, design, and

180  Elaine Suk Ching Liu and Paul Vinod Khiatani management of fashion in Hong Kong. In 2017, Redress celebrated its tenth anniversary and is recognized internationally and locally in Hong Kong for its impact on promoting environmental awareness of textile waste.

Research Question 3: how do the interviewed NGOs coordinate, integrate, and unify efforts with the locality and larger community in problem-solving and make their endeavors sustainable? All five NGOs reported that the most important ingredient in making their organizational goals sustainable in the community is the recruitment and encouragement of volunteer participation in their organizational work. Strategic use of new media proved invaluable in recruiting and managing volunteers. Moreover, making available training sessions and flexible service-providing opportunities helped with concerting problem-solving efforts with the locality.

a.  Reaching out through new media Framed within their respective dynamic nature, all five post-1995 NGOs interviewed were found to be active in their volunteer management and recruitment approach, although they did not feel the need to actively court the local populations of interest. Rather, all five NGOs actively used social media, such as Facebook and YouTube, as a means to establish a widespread presence among today’s “tech-savvy” population. As a result, they largely received more offers of service than they could ask for, and this was evident in the increasing participation rates of all five aforementioned NGOs. For example, Kids4Kids, alongside approaching schools to encourage students in Hong Kong, actively utilizes Facebook, YouTube, blogs, and more social media platforms that children and younger adults would be familiar with. Plastic Free Seas, in a similar vein, utilizes Facebook, community blogs and forums, and their own website to disseminate newsletters and spread creative photos with strong awareness-raising messages. Hong Kong Cleanup found that its way of engaging the public through print, television, and digital social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, was very effective. The organization has been widely recognized throughout Hong Kong and among international NGO networks, especially among those who align themselves with the shoreline protection movement, as occupying a clear leadership role in issues of environmental protection.

b.  Motivating and maximizing individuals’ capacity to volunteer In cultivating the potential impact of the volunteers, all five NGOs, except ACS, managed group-oriented programs that required little-to-no specialist skills, experience, and/or advanced training prior to participation. This not only opened a wider window of opportunity for eager volunteers that hail from different backgrounds and with different capacities, but it also enabled collective direct action

Maximizing NGO impact in Hong Kong  181 and exposure with the end beneficiaries. For example, throughout the list of over 100 social, economic, and environment-related activities posted on their online calendar every month for volunteers to sign up for, HandsOn Hong Kong makes it a point to promote flexibility and accessibility for the volunteers, so that all volunteers, irrespective of ability, can participate in and commit to their activity, lasting anywhere from one and a half hours to a full day’s activity that directly benefits the beneficiary. Briefing, training, and other pre-service arrangements are kept to a minimum so that the volunteers and participating NGOs can directly benefit each other through direct engagement. Another notable example, Kids4Kids, promotes direct-action programs among kids; irrespective of background or skills, Kids4Kids has activities that can encourage kids to directly benefit other kids. This approach to directing the potential of the volunteers corresponds to an inherent assumption found in the five interviewed NGOs – the volunteers are agents of change, and the role of the NGO is to empower the locality to the extent that the NGOs should cease to exist because the locality, by its own self-­ determination, takes matters into their own hands. In short, the five NGOs mirror each other in their advocacy for, and maximizing of, the social sustainability of the volunteers to promote social, economic, and environmental sustainability of our society.

Discussion Based on the aforementioned results, a number of insights are gained with respect to the post-1995 NGOs’ community field in Hong Kong. First, the findings suggest that this sample of the post-1995 NGO community field is ideologically based on the concept of social justice, growth, ecosystem integrity, and empowerment, that is, not to simply meet the needs of the society unmet by the state (Lam & Perry, 2000) but also to work alongside and empower the masses to do something about the problems they face, grow together, and respect the integrity of the ecosystem in the process. What we learned from the five interviewed NGOs is that they direct themselves toward being a “scaffold” that will detach when the object under construction can stand for itself. For example, consider the mission and working operations of Kids4Kids, ACS, and Plastic Free Seas in empowering the community to take up sustainability efforts as their own and work independently of the organization. The focus for empowerment is on both individual and structural levels, grounded on principles of social justice rather than managerialism (Dominelli, 2012). Not being heavily institutionalized by any rigid arrangement of institutions, for example, by the state and related agencies, enables the NGOs to reach larger masses, create a community, and not face any undue pressures, dilemmas, and/or challenges to their self-determined commitment to community development, social justice, and similar prosocial values (Kaufman, 1959). In a world that sees the breakdown of collective identity and promotion of individualism and the culture of maxima (Khan, 1995), the post1995 NGOs interviewed in this study are oriented toward creating communities and empowering those communities; for example, ACS creates and empowers

182  Elaine Suk Ching Liu and Paul Vinod Khiatani communities of NGOs – getting them connected together, developing together, merging together, sharing practices, and more – and Kids4Kids allows room for children to create their own activities and encourages students to create their own mini-communities in their schools, i.e., “Kids4Kids” school chapters. Second, while not strictly formulating programs that explicitly address economic, social, or environmental sustainability issues, it is clear that the problem-­ solving approach of these five post-1995 NGOs is multipolar in nature, meaning that they have touch points and impacts on all three pillars in their efforts. For example, HandsOn Hong Kong was able to promote social, economic, and environmental sustainability by creating a “virtual bridge” to support Soap Cycling with a steady flow of volunteers, enabling a consistent operation of recycling leftover soap and giving it to the needy in underprivileged regions. Similarly, voluntary participation in community actions organized by Plastic Free Seas or Hong Kong Cleanup facilitates fundamental changes in one’s way of thinking and behaving toward the use of single-use plastics, throwing waste on hiking trails or beaches, accommodating nonenvironmentally protective installations in one’s workplace or school, and more. Similar to the landscape portrayed by Lam and Perry (2000), these five post-1995 NGOs all actively problem-solve with volunteers, other NGOs, and the state on issues that matter and, more importantly, work together with the various stakeholders to build a community that is economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable. For example, both Kids4Kids and ACS gear their actions toward maximizing potential impact and empowering the primary target population and volunteers from other sectors, for example, the education or corporate sector, to take action on issues that matter in society, be they economic, environmental, or social. Looking at the elaborated paradigm of sustainable development by Khan (1995), we find that all three elements were met and arguments for a fourth pillar, human sustainability, which focuses on human capital and intrapersonal capacity development (Goodland, 2002), were supported. Therefore, it is clear that our sketch of the post-1995 NGO community field, through documentary study and in-depth interviews with five post-1995 NGOs who are part of this community, is one that elucidates the centrality of an integrated model of three pillars of sustainability and the cornerstones of social justice, growth, ecosystem integrity, and empowerment in their activities, approach, design, and rationale of operations in Hong Kong. They act in society as “igniters,” that is, they enkindle the actors of change among us to take action and address issues that plague our society today. In this sense, the practice and direction of these post-1995 NGOs are in line with the conception of sustainable development put forth by the Brundtland Commission in 1987, wherein it is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, p. 54). Collaboration with stakeholders, strong identification with the locality, maintaining an operational and organizational dynamism, creating communities, and a general perception that the volunteers are “actors of change” characterize the post-1995 NGO space in Hong Kong.

Maximizing NGO impact in Hong Kong  183 Limitations of the study This study has a number of limitations. First, because of time limitations, the sample size was small, and the extent to which the sketch of the post-1995 NGO community field, with interviews from only five NGOs, reflects the true growing field of post-1995 NGOs may be debatable. Second, because no central database of NGOs in Hong Kong exists, the authors had to create their own databases by consulting and compiling the results of various other preexisting databases available online. Thus, the picture presented here about the post-1995 NGOs may not reflect the situation for startup, struggling, or strictly offline post-1995 NGOs without a presence on the consulted preexisting databases. Finally, in a similar vein with the second limitation, because only NGOs with English-­ translated websites were selected, NGOs with only Chinese-worded websites available were excluded. The extent to which the results yielded from this study resonates with them, therefore, is debatable.

Implications of the study Future studies, especially those based on actual cases of NGOs, are recommended to build on the results of this study to provide a more comprehensive picture of the functionality of the post-1995 NGOs in their communities for driving sustainability efforts. Moreover, it is recommended that future studies analyze the implications of the ends and goals of the post-1995 NGOs for the society through the opinion and thought of the volunteers, average citizens, and leaders of the community. In other words, a multi-stakeholder perspective surrounding the actions of NGOs would prove beneficial for understanding the larger picture of the sustainability movement and its impact on society. Lastly, an analysis of the interactions and action processes involved in bringing about economic, social, and environmental sustainability may prove invaluable in advancing and disseminating effective community improvement and development programs: for example, through a focus on social capital (Lehtonen, 2004). In other words, more case-based research on the relations between the nonprofit sector and private or public sectors around the world would prove invaluable for understanding the real conditions, opportunities, and challenges that underpin today’s sustainability efforts.

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13 Collaboration and innovation for inclusive green growth at a community level in Suzhou, China Wanxin Li, Eric Zusman, and Jining Chen Introduction Along with the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, municipal solid waste (MSW) management is a basic municipal service that offers the potential for delivering environmental, economic, and social benefits (Hoornweg & ­Bhada-Tata, 2012; Sicular, 1991). Recycling can help reduce waste volume from the source and conserve natural resources and thus has been promoted in many societies. Even though municipal governments also play a role, scavengers, itinerant waste pickers, or itinerant waste buyers, and illegal workshops extract valuable materials from waste on streets, from residential establishments, waste transfer centers, and landfills. Usually, marginalized social groups engage in informal waste recycling under questionable working conditions and with instable incomes. Thus, recycling, especially in developing countries, also has implications for the livelihoods of the poor, economic efficiency, and social equity (­Hoornweg & Bhada-Tata, 2012; Scarlet Do Carmo & Puppim de Oliveira, 2010; Sicular, 1991; Wilson, Velis, & Cheeseman, 2006). China is faced with mounting waste and a large informal sector engaged in recycling. According to the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) 2005 report “Report on Circular Economy,” among China’s 660 cities, 52 of the big and medium cities (with populations of over 500,000) produce 60% of the country’s total garbage, but few of these cities have adopted comprehensive municipal waste reduction and recycling programs (Wang & Bilitewski, 2005). It estimated that the garbage pileup in 2020 would reach 400 million tons, i.e., the volume generated by the entire world in 1997. The landfills have already rendered 50,000 hectares of land around cities. Moreover, in another 13 years, the landfills in China’s urban areas will reach capacity (Sun, 2007). Furthermore, there already exists an informal recycling industry with about 5,000 enterprises, 160,000 waste collection centers, and a labor force of nearly 10 million (China Recycling Resource Network, 2006). While their recovery rates are fairly high, a large portion of the industry consists of small enterprises that rely on large numbers of informal laborers and waste collectors that operate with outdated and environmentally unsafe technologies, with attendant pollution and health and safety hazards (World Bank, 2009).

Inclusive green growth in Suzhou, China  187 The top-down approach normally adopted by the Chinese government has not successfully engaged societal actors in promoting recycling and green growth. After reviewing the evolvement of the institutional setup for recycling, this chapter examines the collaboration and innovation for recycling that is in line with inclusive green growth and has emerged from the bottom up at a community level in Suzhou, China.

Evolving institutional arrangements for regulating recycling waste in China The Chinese central government started to regulate waste recycling, especially in relation to metals, in 1955, when China embarked on the journey toward industrialization. Then the All China Federation of Supply and Marketing ­Cooperatives and the State Commodities Bureau together with their local branches were charged with collecting valuable waste materials and distributing recovered metals, among other materials, to different state-owned entities. The government financed the whole operation (Zhou, 2008). The year 1984 saw the start of the market liberation of the state-controlled economy, including the waste-recycling sector in China. In 1994, waste metals were classified into two categories according to the purpose of their use: for production and for consumption. Only the former category was regulated. Since then, private entities engaged in the collection, disposal, and distribution of waste metals have boomed. Furthermore, in 2002, even the permitting requirements for handling waste metals for production were lifted. By then, the state-operated waste collection network had been completely phased out (Zhou, 2008). But it coincided with an even faster increase in the disposable income of the Chinese people than before. Thus, in the unregulated waste-recycling sector, especially in relation to the rapidly increasing MSW,1 there have emerged numerous private individuals and businesses that rely on extracting valuable materials from waste for their income and livelihood. Both news reports and scholars have uncovered some of the illegal workshops and reported on their poor working conditions and serious pollution (Chi, Streicher-Porte, Wang, & Reuter, 2011). Consequently, since 2003, the Chinese leadership has been contemplating the idea of a circular economy with the aim of reducing, reusing, and recycling waste. The Chinese central government made it a priority during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period (2006–2010), and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) provided a total funding of 4 billion yuan RMB for promoting a circular economy within the first three years (from 2006 to 2008) (Zou, 2008). Suzhou and Qingdao were the first pilot cities selected by the MOST to advance technology and formulate policies for promoting a circular economy during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period.

MSW management and waste recycling in Suzhou Suzhou is an important manufacturing base located on the Yangtze River Delta. Its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has been ranked among the top

188  Wanxin Li et al. ten cities in the country and the disposable income of its urban residents has far exceeded the national average. Embedded in the national policy changes, the Suzhou Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives (SFSMC) and Suzhou Commodities Bureau gradually shrank their waste-recycling operations after 1984. A vacuum existed after 1994 in Suzhou where neither the government nor civil society took responsibility for regulating the market. In 2009, there were a total of 3,380 waste buyers who had physical establishments such as a shop in the five most populated districts in Suzhou, of which only 560 held official permits and 2,820 did not (He, 2009). Presumably, the number would have been bigger before because the Suzhou municipal government carried out a campaign against illegal waste buyers in 2008.2 Those waste buyers purchase recyclable materials from scavengers and itinerant waste pickers and sell to dealers or waste processors at a higher price. The scavengers and itinerant waste pickers either find recyclable materials from waste containers on the street or ride their three-wheeled cycles into urban residential communities to buy recyclables. At the same time, unwanted waste is usually left unattended by scavengers. When poor scavengers go into rich urban communities to sort through waste containers, the community residents become concerned about their safety and wealth being compromised by those poor people. Furthermore, waste disposal plants with advanced technologies (certified by the government) were built during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period to promote a circular economy, but they did not have enough raw materials for processing. The Chinese public still prefers trading recyclable waste for cash or payment in kind. But unlike illegal workshops that rely on manual labor, those certified waste disposal plants incur a much larger upfront capital cost and cannot afford to pay for waste. For example, in 2007, within the realm of the MOST-funded Suzhou circular economy project, a private investor started to build the Suzhou Weixiang Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Disposal Company Ltd., with a design capacity of processing 5,000 tons of WEEE annually. However, the CEO of the company was very concerned about the results from a market survey that said they could only get for free from public organizations an average of 1 ton per day of raw materials for processing. In fact, this only accounted for less than 1% of the WEEE generated in the city. By 2008, when the company could operate to its full capacity, it could only obtain 650 tons of WEEE per year.3 Thus, there has been a strong push by both the government and concerned private parties to formalize waste collection and recycling in Suzhou. In this context, to promote a circular economy and also to stimulate domestic consumption, the Chinese central government (Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Environmental Protection, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine) initiated the subsidized trading in of used household electronic appliances in 2009. From 1 June 2009 to 31 May 2010, residents with a local household registration in the nine specified regions/

Inclusive green growth in Suzhou, China  189 cities were subsidized if they traded in their used home electronic appliances and purchased new ones at a designated shopping center. Waste disposal plants that won contracts in those regions, if they won the bid, would receive for free the collected electrical and electronic waste and be subsidized for processing it. Transporting the waste from shopping centers to those winning disposal plants was also subsidized by the government (Ministry of Finance et al., 2009). Starting on 1 June 2010, the Ministry of Commerce expanded the policy to cover 19 more provinces, and the execution period would end on 31 December 2011 (Ministry of Commerce et al., 2010). The idea was to mobilize public funds to channel the flow of valuable MSW from the informal sector to entities under state control.

Local innovations from the bottom up in the City Garden Estate, Suzhou In lieu of the international policy transfer and government-funded experiments, local innovations emerged from the bottom up in the City Garden Estate, Suzhou. The City Garden Estate is located in the Suzhou Industrial Park, a collaborative development project started in 1994 between the Singaporean and Chinese governments, then handed over completely to the Suzhou municipal government in 2001. It is a district characterized by good urban planning and a strong economy.4 The City Garden Estate is a district featuring good urban planning and a strong economy. Phase one was developed by Huaxin International Co. Ltd. in 2001, and all five phases were completed in 2004. Altogether there are 84 residential buildings with 1,517 apartments in the neighborhood. When the average housing price in Suzhou reached 10,000 yuan per square meter in 2015, the list prices of the apartments in the City Garden Estate averaged around 29,000 yuan per square meter.5 Even though data are not available to compare the level of educational attainment and wealth of the residents in that neighborhood with that of an average resident in Suzhou, presumably those dwellers enjoy a high living standard and have at their disposal the means to afford that. Huaxin International Realty Co. Ltd. is responsible for providing community services, including street cleaning, garbage collection, gardening, and maintaining elevators, to the residents of the City Garden Estate. In exchange, each household pays 1.38 yuan/m 2/month for the services. From 2002, the manager of Huaxin International Realty Co. Ltd., Mr. Ke Huang, contracted out the waste transfer station in the City Garden Estate to a migrant worker, a peasant who had left his hometown but sought employment in urban areas, Mr. Bing Zhong. Mr. Zhong and his family paid an annual fee of 20,000 yuan to the company to be able to work in the waste transfer station. They were given the exclusive right to collect recyclable waste from residents and to extract recyclables from the garbage sent to the waste transfer station, while any outside itinerant waste buyers were not allowed to enter the neighborhood.6 By 2008, Mr. Zhong and his family had worked at the waste transfer station for six years. They earned 3,000 yuan per month by extracting recyclables from

190  Wanxin Li et al.

Photo 13.1  The waste transfer station in the City Garden Estate.

garbage and another 1,500 yuan from buying recyclables from residents and selling them at a higher price to dealers. After paying for food, rental, and other necessities, Mr. Zhong could send 1,000 yuan per month back to his parents left behind in his hometown. Prior to 2002, Mr. Zhong had taken up other jobs such as construction worker and waiter in a restaurant, earning a much lower monthly income of only 600–1,000 yuan and the employment was much less stable. As well as the increased income, the residents understood and supported their work and treated them equally. Despite the sometimes unpleasant smell, Mr. Zhong and his family were quite satisfied with their work and life (Photo 13.1 shows the waste transfer station in the City Garden Estate and the sources of income for Mr. Bing Zhong and his family).7 Furthermore, after the recyclables had been extracted, the amount of garbage transported from the waste transfer station by the Suzhou public utility bureau for final disposal from the estate was reduced by 750 tons per year. Thus, each year, Huaxin International Realty Co. Ltd. paid 50,000 yuan less to the Suzhou public utility bureau for services.8 Furthermore, it also led to an estimated reduction in CO2e emissions of 2,700–3,400 tons per month. At the same time, it was more convenient for residents to sell their recyclables and the community safety has been improved9.

Attempts to regulate waste recycling by the Suzhou municipal government In parallel but never in conversation with the recyclers, residents, and property management companies at a grassroots level, in 2008, the SFSMC persuaded the Suzhou municipal government to form a task force for establishing a recyclable

Inclusive green growth in Suzhou, China  191 waste collection network in Suzhou. The task force leading group was headed by the deputy party secretary and executive deputy mayor, and the SFSMC was charged with policy formulation and execution (Suzhou Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, 2011). More specifically, the SFSMC created a recyclable waste division and Mr. He Hong headed the new division. To materialize the vision, in May 2009, the Suzhou municipal government invested 65 million yuan to form the Suzhou Resource Recycling Investment & Development Co. Ltd., a state-owned enterprise (SOE). The SOE was charged with establishing 160 recyclable waste collection centers in communities, building an industrial park specialized in processing recyclable waste materials, and carrying out public education on garbage separation and other relevant topics. Furthermore, in 2009, the Suzhou municipal government allocated 8 million yuan to the SOE to cover its operating costs. Among other things, one important task in establishing the state-controlled recyclable waste collection network was to control the sources of recyclable waste and outlaw private waste buyers. In 2010, a total of 6,677 waste buyers with physical establishments but no permits and 965 itinerant waste buyers were closed and sanctioned (SFSMC, 2011). As a matter of fact, similar campaigns against the collection of recyclable waste by private parties have been carried out in the past. The waste buyers who were driven out of business felt helpless and frustrated and protested against the government’s decision.

Residents

Public facilities

Enterprises

Public organizations

Sell to

State-owned Recyclable Waste Exchange Centers

Sell to

Certified waste disposal companies

Companies that use recycled materials

Figure 13.1  The state-owned recyclable waste collection network envisioned by Mr. He for Suzhou. Source: Suzhou Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, 2011.

192  Wanxin Li et al. Mr. Lin Chang and his wife managed a small shop buying recyclable waste. They could make a monthly income of 4,000–6,000 yuan by selling the waste to dealers at a higher price. Although they had to work hard, the income was quite stable. After being forced to close the shop, they could only do part-time jobs that gave them a monthly income of about 1,500–2,000 yuan per month, which was not stable at all. They had three children at school and the registration fee alone was 2,000 yuan per semester. Mr. Chang had no idea where the future was leading and was wishing that the government would be more tolerant and helpful.10 Obviously, urban households, property management companies, and waste recyclers, including buyers, have formed a collaborative coalition at a grassroots level. They have been able to work together successfully extracting recyclable waste, reducing the amount of waste for final disposal, and generating employment and livelihood for the usually stigmatized and vulnerable migrant workers. Unfortunately, the efforts were siphoned by government intervention.

Discussion and conclusion As mentioned before, waste recycling has grown into a large industry in China that involves thousands of migrant workers and their families. The collected recyclable waste has been mainly handled by manual labor and destined for workshops operating without permits and causing serious secondhand pollution. However, the recovered resources are of value for industrial development in the country. Thus, recycling waste in China is a political economy issue.

Insufficient political space for collaborative civil society coalitions to address recycling of waste in China Civil society in China has been underdeveloped. Even so, the waste buyers still organized themselves to protest against government decisions. Although Mr.  Chang did not join the protests, government officials were well aware of the resistance from the waste buyers who were forced to close their businesses. The government facilitated concerted actions organized by civil organizations for performing social welfare functions. For example, Mr. He of the SFSMC gradually changed his mind: I don’t want to carry out the campaigns any more. Just like food and drug safety administration, it needs systematic changes and it takes a long time to improve the current situation. I am now putting more emphasis on the role that could be played by the Recyclable Waste Industrial Association. For example, they can train the private recyclable waste buyers and help regulate the industry.11 Having said that, the situation did not change until now. The Chinese local government officials were able to learn and improve policies along the way. For example, they came to understand that industrial

Inclusive green growth in Suzhou, China  193 associations may have a potential role to play in regulation. Even so, only medium and large businesses would join the associations, and the numerous waste collectors, waste buyers, and small waste processing workshop owners would be left unattended. Furthermore, the officers who work in the associations may be more interested in getting contracted work from the government instead of mobilizing members to exercise self-regulation. Thus, there is a lack of political space for collaborative civil society coalitions to address the recycling of waste in China.

State competed with civil society for livelihoods and regulating individual environmental behaviors The Suzhou case also illustrated that the powerful state, both politically and financially, competed with civil society for livelihoods and the regulation of individual environmental behaviors. Fiscal revenue has been mobilized to develop technology, form an SOE for collecting and processing recyclable waste, and build an industrial park specialized in waste processing. At the same time, political power has been mobilized to outlaw private waste recyclers operating without permits, usually by those stigmatized and vulnerable migrant workers who depend on waste recycling as their only source of income. Being deprived of the opportunity to work on waste as an ore, those migrant workers and their families lost their livelihoods, and an urban life (not to mention rural-urban integration) became totally unaffordable. Thus, there is an urgent need to train social workers who can identify at-risk populations and establish a platform for social mobilization and empowerment. In that way, disadvantaged individuals and groups can exchange information, articulate their interests, and jointly find approaches to address the challenges that they are facing. Furthermore, even though waste separation is a great idea deserving promotion, there have been established practices in China where urban households, property management companies, and waste recyclers worked together to achieve a high recycling rate in society. Previous and ongoing experiments with waste separation by households have largely failed in China. The low level of public environmental awareness and low commitment to environmental protection is an important factor. But even in a developed country such as Switzerland, where garbage separation has been well established, social aspects of waste management cannot be ignored. For example, Joos, Carabias, Winistoerfer, and Stuecheli (1999) pointed out that both the personal time and effort required to collect different types of waste separately and locate a disposal facility in the near vicinity are crucial for successfully promoting garbage separation by households. Thus, instead of imposing garbage separation from above to regulate individual environmental behaviors, which of course is costly and prone to fail, civil society coalitions have a role to play in public environmental education and mobilizing public support for garbage separation. For example, the Taiwan-based Tzu Chi Foundation extended its operation to mainland China in 2004, and by 2010 it

194  Wanxin Li et al. had established five waste separation and recycling centers in Suzhou. A faithbased organization, the Tzu Chi Foundation preaches Buddhist compassionate religion to the Suzhou residents. Being called to convert garbage into gold and convert gold into love, the Suzhou residents volunteered to work at those centers and donated sales generated from the recyclable and recovered materials to the Tzu Chi Foundation for charitable activities.12 Similarly, by reaching out to the public and innovatively designing programs, social workers in China can engage in community education to help increase public environmental awareness and promote environmentally friendly behaviors. Social workers can also empower local residents to speak up and express their views. This study could also have implications for inclusive green growth in and beyond China. At the international level, for instance, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) draw the link more explicitly between poverty alleviation, social inclusion, and environmental protection. In a related development, the World Bank advocated inclusive green growth, and many countries are contemplating green growth strategies that aim to strengthen links between economic, social, and environmental benefits. Last but not least, since the 13th Conference of the Parties (COP 13) to the United Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), countries have been developing “national appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) in the context of sustainable development” that may qualify for financial, technological, and capacity-building support from the climate regime (Davies, 2007; Fay & World Bank, 2012). Both the formulation and delivery of NAMAs will necessarily require a good understanding of local conditions and effective collective actions. Thus, social inclusion makes a precondition for economic and environmental sustainability and can never be overlooked by policymakers in and beyond China.

Acknowledgments Financial support from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (Project 9042115) and the MOST of China (Project number 2006BAC02A18) is gratefully acknowledged. Advice and comments by Jose Antonio Puppim de Oliveira and Tonni Agustiono Kurniawan have been invaluable. The authors also thank Jianhong Chen, Hong He, Sheng He, Ke Huang, Shichang Li, Min Liu, and Weizhong Yin for facilitating the fieldwork.

Notes 1 Handling industrial solid waste, especially in large quantities, is usually contracted by a firm that generates waste to another firm that is specialized in disposing of that waste. But for small and medium enterprises that do not generate a large amount of waste containing valuable materials, they can be considered similar to urban residents in their dealing with waste. 2 Interview with officials from the Suzhou Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives on 29 August 2009. 3 Interview with the CEO and Chief Operations Officer of the Suzhou Weixiang Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Disposal Company Ltd. on 27

Inclusive green growth in Suzhou, China  195 September 2008. Interview with a professor at Tsinghua University, the Technical Advisor to the Suzhou Weixiang company from 2007 to 2009. 4 The land area and population of the Suzhou Industrial Park only accounted for 3.4% and 5.2% of the city total, respectively, in 2010. But its share of gross domestic production was 15% of the city total in the same year. Available at http://www.sipac.gov.cn/. 5 List prices of apartments for sale are available at http://dushihuayuan0512.fang. com/xiangqing/. 6 Interview 20080926-01 with Mr. Ke Huang, the manager of Huaxin International Realty Co. Ltd., on 26 September 2008. 7 Interview 20080926-02 with Mr. Bing Zhong on 26 September 2008. 8 Interview 20080926-01 with Mr. Ke Huang, manager of Huaxin International ­ Realty Co. Ltd., on 26 September 2008. 9 Interview 20080926-03 with Mr. Maohu Yao, chairperson of the owners’ association of the City Garden Estate on 26 September 2008. 10 Interview 20080928-02 with Mr. Lin Chang, a private waste buyer with a shop, on 28 September 2008. 11 Telephone interview 20110504 with Mr. He Hong, head of the recyclable waste division of the SFSMC, on 4 May 2011. 12 The garbage to love model promoted by the Taiwan Tzu Chi Foundation has become popular in Suzhou – China News Net, 24 May 2010, available at http://www.chinanews. com/tw/tw-lajl/news/2010/05-22/2298670.shtml.

References Chi, X., Streicher-Porte, M., Wang, M. Y. L., & Reuter, M. A. (2011). Informal electronic waste recycling: A sector review with special focus on China. Waste Management, 31(4), 731–742. China Recycling Resource Network. (2006). “Ordinance on collection and recycling of reusable resources” will be enacted soon《再生资源回收管理办法》将于近期出台. Retrieved from http://www.bj3r.com/Front/content.jsp?id=247 Davies, A. (2007). A wasted opportunity? Civil society and waste management in Ireland. Environmental Politics, 16(1), 52–72. Fay, M., & World Bank. (2012). Inclusive green growth: The pathway to sustainable development. Washington, DC: World Bank. He, H. (2009). A survey on the waste buyers in Suzhou. Suzhou: Suzhou Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives. Hoornweg, D., & Bhada-Tata, P. (2012). What a waste: A global review of solid waste management (No. 15). Retrieved from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTURBAN DEV ELOPMENT/Resources/336387-1334852610766/ What_a_Waste2012_­ Final.pdf Joos, W., Carabias, V., Winistoerfer, H., & Stuecheli, A. (1999). Social aspects of public waste management in Switzerland. Waste Management, 19(6), 417–425. Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Finance, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Environmental Protection, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, & General Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine. (2010). Implementation guidelines for trading in used home electronic appliances (revised). (商商贸发[2010]231号). Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Environmental Protection, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, & General Administration of

196  Wanxin Li et al. Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine. (2009). Implementation guideline for trading in home electronic appliances. 家电以旧换新实施办法. (财建[2009]298号). Scarlet Do Carmo, M., & Puppim de Oliveira, J. A. (2010). The semantics of garbage and the organization of the recyclers: Implementation challenges for establishing recycling cooperatives in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 54, 1261–1268. Sicular, D. T. (1991). Pockets of peasants in Indonesian cities: The case of scavengers. World Development, 19(2–3), 137–161. Sun, X. (2007, January 9). Country faces great wall of waste. China Daily, 3. Retrieved from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-01/09/content_778032.htm Suzhou Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives. (2011). Progress report on establishing recyclable waste collection network in Suzhou. 苏州市再生资源回收利用体系建 设情况介绍及下一步工作目标, Suzhou. Wang, L., & Bilitewski, B. (2005). Report on circular economy. Retrieved from http:// www.cciced.net/cciceden/POLICY/rr/prr/2005/201205/t20120529_82760.html Wilson, D. C., Velis, C., & Cheeseman, C. (2006). Role of informal sector recycling in waste management in developing countries. Habitat International, 30(4), 797–808. World Bank. (2009). Developing a circular economy in China: Highlights and recommendations. World Bank Policy Note, 48917. Zhou, H. (2008). Turn waste into the precious: A study on waste recycling industry and policies in China. Beijing, China: Science Publishing House. Zou, S. (2008, December 19). The Ministry of Science and Technology invested a total of 4 billion yuan RMB in most recent three years for developing circular economy in China 科技部最近三年共投入４０亿元支持循环经济发展. Xinhua Net. Retrieved from http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2008-12/19/content_10528653.htm

14 Social work education in China Issues, challenges, and implications for sustainability Patrick Leung and Ashleigh Scinta Background in China China has been rapidly developing for the past three decades. This economic and industrial growth has caused significant environmental problems, including acid rain, pollution, ozone depletion, global climate change, biodiversity loss, and social dislocation due to mass migration to urban areas (Dominelli & Ku, 2017; McKinnon & Alston, 2016). It is estimated that over half of China’s surface water is polluted, making it undrinkable, and a quarter of it is deemed unsafe even for industrial purposes. Even worse, about 90% of groundwater in farmland is polluted and approximately 60% beneath metropolitan areas is severely polluted (Dominelli & Ku, 2017). Other environmental concerns regard food safety, public health, and economic development. These environmental issues have become a critical concern for the Chinese government to address. Some scholars argue that the market economy has contributed to environmental degradation, affected social networks, and changed the identity of many rural workers (Dominelli & Ku, 2017). Within the market economy, profit maximization, capital, and corporations are central, making local socioeconomic development impossible to sustain. If the promotion of local economies was favored over big cities, better forms of energy consumption could be used to reduce the impact of environmental degradation. With the mass migration of 250 million rural to urban workers (Dominelli & Ku, 2017), social progress needs to occur providing these citizens with full recognition as citizens of China. Their migration causes a shift in identity, livelihood, and social security. Full recognition of these workers would grant them rights to decent working and living conditions, promote their health and well-being, and recognize their dignity. The government has not yet made significant policy changes to address these environmental and human rights concerns (Dominelli & Ku, 2017; Nikku, 2015). The people of China cannot secure the right to basic environmental concerns such as clean air or water. They also have no voice when it comes to decisions regarding industrialization in China. As rights are being denied, justice is not being secured. Environmental justice means the physical environment is respected and people’s needs are being met with adequate resource consumption.

198  Patrick Leung and Ashleigh Scinta Wen (2013) recommended that social work intervention is needed in environmental protection. Social workers should identify and coordinate resources to prevent environmental pollution. They can sustain environmental protection through social work mediation, identification of resources and funding, and promoting technology in reducing and preventing pollution.

Development of social work education in China For social workers to be trained in environmental justice issues and to aid in the environmental landscape of China, it is important to understand the emergence of social work in China. Social work education began in China at Yanjing University (now Peking University) in 1922, based on curricula from Western nations (Xia & Guo, 2002; Yuen-Tsang & Wang, 2002). By the late 1940s, social work programs were common in Chinese universities. However, during the political turmoil of the early 1950s, social work programs were eliminated from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) until 1987 (Yuen-Tsang & Wang, 2002). Following the Forum on Professional Education in Social Work, the State Ministry of Education approved baccalaureate social work training at four universities: Peking University, Jilin University, Renmin University, and Xiamen University (Xiong & Wang, 2007; Yuen-Tsang & Wang, 2008; Zhen, 2008). At that time, the Ministry of Civil Affairs agreed to supply one million RMB (PRC currency) for Peking University’s Department of Sociology to re-establish, improve, and expand professional social work education (Xia & Guo, 2002). Following the open-door economic policy of 1979, the re-emergence of social work in China served three political functions: helping individuals and families overcome the challenges of rapid economic development, helping to resolve social problems, and maintaining social stability (Yan & Tsang, 2005; Yuen-Tsang & Wang, 2008). These economic and political changes allowed the number of social work programs to increase from 20 in 1994 to 200 in 2006 (Bai & Daley, 2014; Xiong & Wang, 2007). The China Association of Social Work Education (CASWE) was established in 1994 to coordinate and facilitate the development of social work education (Yuen-Tsang & Wang, 2002). By 2017, there were 234 Chinese universities with bachelor of social work (BSW) programs and 105 with master of social work (MSW) programs (Bdstar.org, 2017). Chinese universities annually enrolled 2,000 MSW candidates and approximately 15,000 BSW students graduated (Xu, 2011). Despite the rapid growth of social work programs in China since 2006, existing programs cannot produce enough social workers to address social issues among China’s population of 1.354 billion (Xu, 2011). In response, the Chinese government developed a strategic plan called the Outline for National Medium- & Long-term Talent Development Program (The Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China, 2010) to address social problems with goals of two million social workers by 2015 and three million by 2020. Additionally, China must develop more programs for social work education and create additional opportunities for professional training and continuing education for current social workers (Xu, 2011).

Social work education in China  199 In 2006, new guidelines for social work development were promulgated in the publications Provisional Regulations on the Assessment of the Vocational Standards of Social Workers and Measures for the Implementation of the Examination Regarding Professional Qualifications of Social Workers (Xu, 2011). These guidelines led to over 400,000 Chinese social workers passing the examination and receiving a qualification certificate, and they contributed to the professionalization and regulation of social work in China (Xu, 2011). The government’s official endorsement of social work in 2010 reflects China’s ambitious goal to develop social work as a method to sustain economic development and accomplish a harmonious society (Szto, 2013). Social workers in China are expected to help with community development in rural areas and to administer policies according to the law (The Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China, 2010). Since the emergence of social work is relatively new in China, there are gaps in education surrounding social work and environmental sustainability. The idea of “green social work” is emerging as a new area of specialty needing development and promotion, specifically within China.

Green social work The idea of green social work is a relatively new area of social work that addresses environmental sustainability. Dominelli and Ku (2017) describe green social work as a holistic practice that focuses on the interdependencies of people and their physical and socioeconomic environments, and their changes in behavior when these environments are in crisis. Green social work aims to resolve these crises by changing the way people perceive their role in their environment. With altered perceptions, systematic inequalities can be eliminated to increase equal distribution of power and resources and encourage individuals to use limited natural resources. By reforming the socioeconomic nature and fighting for environmental justice, the quality of life and well-being on the earth can be more secure. Social workers often draw upon the ecological perspective and person-in-­ environment perspective when working with clients and communities. Green social work widens the theoretical base to ensure that environmental justice is being considered a significant part of social work involvement as people are interdependent on both their physical and social environments (Dominelli & Ku, 2017). Social capital is also formed within a geographical context. When natural disasters occur and forced relocation occurs, social relationships and rituals can be transformed. (Lo & Cheung, 2016). With this interdependency in mind, creative solutions to socioeconomic development can be considered. Disaster intervention is another crucial part of green social work and requires its own set of knowledge, skills, and curriculum. When environmental disasters occur, green social work can evaluate the structural factors and consequences of the disaster (Dominelli & Ku, 2017). Social workers have been working within emergency crisis and disaster relief for years but have not had a significant role in

200  Patrick Leung and Ashleigh Scinta post-disaster efforts, specifically social recovery and rebuilding (Nikku, 2015). Current disaster relief models focus only on the immediate needs of victims. Green social work promotes long-term disaster relief management to address the needs of victims long after the disaster has taken place. Nikku (2015) cited United Nations Disaster Relief Organization’s emphasis on “collective action” to support that social workers need to be on the frontlines of this work, making significant policy changes at a crucial time (p. 605). Mental health needs during and after disasters are significant, yet currently, they are poorly managed or developed (Newnham, Cheung, Kashyap, & Leaning, 2016). China has a high risk of disaster, and with their large population, many individuals are in need of trauma-informed services when disasters take place. These services should be designed to empower individuals to use their social networks, provide them with resources to rebuild their lives, and maintain their stability. This disaster preparedness and response is crucial for engagement. Communication lines need to be open and consistent to share emergency warnings and instructions. Empowering the community and engaging them to participate in disaster relief can lead to a more sustainable path to reconstruction (Ku, Ip, & Xiong, 2009). The role of green social workers is complex as they navigate disaster management, finding resources, facilitation, coordination, community mobilization, negotiation, and education (Ku et al., 2009). Social workers’ roles during the 2008 earthquake enhanced the public’s acceptance and perception of the profession (Xu, 2011). For example, in responding to the Wenchuan 512 earthquake, social workers set up stations to support post-disaster reconstruction and the implementation of the Community Economy Project with other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in rural Qingping. In addition, social workers helped with the oral history project, ecotourism, community volunteering projects, microenterprises, and the civic square cultural and recreational project (Ting, 2013). Social workers also facilitated the setting up of microenterprises with women and households and identified resources with/for residents. The program successfully built social and cultural capital, as well as developing human capital for Qingping villagers by utilizing an asset-building model (Ting & Chen, 2012). Additionally, international NOGs helped the local government to relieve human suffering, demonstrating the effectiveness of social work interventions for improving the outcomes of people who suffer due to disasters. Furthermore, Chen (2009) analyzed the role of social work as a conflict mediator between residents and government officials in order to prevent further tensions in the post-earthquake period. Xu (2009) identified the processes of social reconstruction in post-disaster social work service in sustaining the role of social work in improving and enriching theories and practices in the curriculum. The processes include three core concepts: embedding, construction, and empowerment. These three concepts have contributed to the sustainability in social work education in dealing with post-disaster events. To advance social work in China, the country must localize social work priorities, including playing an important role in remedial interventions when natural disasters occur, as mentioned earlier. Additionally, social workers must also

Social work education in China  201 address domestic migrants and the conflicts and tensions resulting from highly condensed industrialization. For example, migrant workers in the Chinese construction industry experience difficulties such as a lack of job security, delays in payment, and poor working conditions. Guo (2012) analyzed a case study on an agency serving migrant construction workers based on a transformative social work model. In 2008, an organization serving migrant construction workers was established to improve their living and working conditions, to advocate the legalization of their employment, and to ensure their statutory rights in the suburbs of Beijing. The staff of the organization included several social workers and individuals from other disciplines. The organization helped migrant construction workers through visiting construction sites, case management services, advocacy, volunteer mobilization, providing rural community education, and supporting other workers’ organizations.

Challenges Disagreement over mission Some Chinese schools of social work feel that the social work mission should be to facilitate social reform, while others focus on social treatment (Yuen-Tsang & Wang, 2002). This disagreement over the mission makes it difficult to make unified changes regarding social work and environmental justice. Early professional social work in China focused on social treatment because this approach portrayed a professional image that the government and public could comprehend, while social reform was less supported (Yuen-Tsang & Wang, 2002). The conflict over mission continues with some schools pioneering new multilevel innovative projects by integrating social development with economic development, while others use the traditional models of group and community social work (YuenTsang & Wang, 2002).

Professionalism One of the main concerns of social workers in regard to disaster management and green social work in China is poor professional recognition. Social workers in China have continuously faced challenges as the general public and government have not viewed social work as a legitimate professional field (Ku et al., 2009). It is not clear whether the priority of social work professionals should focus on addressing social problems in society or strengthening social work as a profession because professional social work has not yet been well defined. In his article, “Attributes of a Profession,” Ernest Greenwood (1957) states that professions must possess the following attributes: “(1) systematic theory, (2) authority, (3) community sanction, (4) ethical codes, and (5) a culture” (p. 45). The social work profession in China is severely lacking in these five areas. Lu (2012) argued that the professional values and needs of clients were gradually disregarded because some social workers were assimilated and acquiesced to the

202  Patrick Leung and Ashleigh Scinta bureaucratic system. Government leaders have not previously acknowledged social work as a profession (Yuen-Tsang & Wang, 2002). Insufficient professional job opportunities and a lack of social work trained faculty exacerbate the problem (Xiong & Wang, 2007). Additionally, administrative staff of governmental organizations that lack training in social services has often managed the delivery of social service systems (Law & Gu, 2008). In a research study conducted by the China Youth Daily Research Center, Chinese citizens identified a need for social workers in China but were unable to distinguish between volunteers and social workers (Xiong & Wang, 2007). To contribute to the professionalization of social work, practitioners must increase research, prepare students for professional exams, set up pilot projects, provide training for current social workers, and publicize social work as a profession (Zhen, 2008). Yuen-Tsang and Wang (2008) recently revealed a model for the continued development of the professionalization of social work in China, describing the need for an “active agency of members of the social work community, including educators, civil affairs officials, and frontline practitioners to resist the domination of environmental constraints and to co-construct a social work profession which is appropriate to the Chinese context” (p.8). The processes of professionalization of social work in China have faced environmental constraints, including, but not limited to, a tendency to learn Western concepts directly, a lack of public understanding and recognition of the nature of the social work profession, a lack of career prospects, and a blurred role distinction between government officials and social work professionals (Yuen-Tsang, 1996).

Curriculum and lack of knowledge A standardized social work curriculum that is based on the mission, goals, and objectives of the profession and specifies the knowledge and skills needed by students to become professional social workers is crucial to the development of the social work profession (Yan & Tsang, 2005). To understand curriculum changes needed to address environmental justice, it is important to understand the context and history of social work curriculum development in China. In the 1980s, educators developed a new curriculum for Chinese social workers (Xiong & Wang, 2007). During this time, many social work educators were employed from other disciplines, such as philosophy and sociology, creating challenges to understanding the theories and practice models unique to social work (Xiong & Wang, 2007). In 2004, the CASWE published teaching guidelines for standardized social work curricula that established ten social work foundation courses, including an introduction to social work theory, casework, group work, community work, social administration, social policy, an introduction to social security, and three sociology courses (Xiong & Wang, 2007). In 2006, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Personnel published The Regulations on Evaluation of Social Work Professional Levels, which formally recognized social work as a profession. The document set rules for the regulation of social work, established a national public examination for certification,

Social work education in China  203 and formally integrated social work jobs within the government structure (Law & Gu, 2008; Xiong & Wang, 2007). The standards in this report encouraged schools of social work to strengthen their programs and recruit students. It classified social workers into three levels: assistant social worker, social worker, and senior social worker (Law & Gu, 2008; Xiong & Wang, 2007). The decision to either adopt foreign curricula or develop models specific to China has been widely discussed (Yuen-Tsang & Wang, 2002). Supporters of foreign curricula have argued that the adoption of global standards by the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) and the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) would maintain a minimum quality standard for various programs, limit irregularities and discrepancies, and allow Chinese social workers to participate in, and contribute to, dialogue in the international social work education community (Yuen-Tsang & Wang, 2002). Opponents of standardization have felt that international standards are too constricting and might not be relevant to or congruent with unique social work practices developed within a country (YuenTsang & Wang, 2002). Opponents, on the other hand, have recommended that existing standards be blended with new standards (Yuen-Tsang & Wang, 2002). Specifically, curriculum changes are needed to address environmental sustainability. The idea of green social work needs to be integrated into programs to ensure social workers are well-equipped to handle the environmental concerns and disasters endemic to China. Environmental justice needs to be taught and interventions need to be developed that address the localized needs of unique communities. Competence in public health issues, housing, and socioeconomic development are needed to understand the concerns facing China. If these issues are not addressed, infrastructures in cities will reach their limits and fail to meet the needs of its entire people (Dominelli & Ku, 2017). Yan, Ge, Cheng, and Tsang (2009) advocated for cultural indigenization of social work curricula in order for the discipline to respond effectively to the needs, cultural beliefs, and practices in China. Yan et al. (2009) suggested that the individualism and self-determination of social work in Western countries must be reconciled with traditional Chinese culture, including “familism” (or an emphasis on family) and Confucian teachings (Yan et al., 2009). Yan et al. (2009) also argued that social work curricula should conform to China’s government objectives and focus on harmony, social stability, and economic prosperity. Furthermore, the researchers also emphasized collaboration with government agencies in order to secure the requisite resources and support to serve clients and communities effectively (Yan et al., 2009). Although the Chinese government approved 105 universities to offer MSW programs, many social work educators have not been professionally trained. Thus, the IASSW developed the Capacity Building Program for Social Work Educators in China. The goals of this document were to (a) promote international standards for social work education in China; (b) maintain the development of social work practices relevant to Chinese culture; (c) provide social work educators with training workshops focused on curriculum development, workshops, and mentorship programs centered on specialized topics; and (d) visit

204  Patrick Leung and Ashleigh Scinta attachment programs for Chinese social work educators in overseas universities (Yuen-Tsang, 2011). Many of the goals were completed by social workers from Australia, the UK, the US, and Hong Kong (Yuen-Tsang, 2011).

Policy changes Policies need to reflect long-term preparedness for disasters and environmental concerns. Structures need to be developed that respond to crises before and after disasters. Policy changes should have interventions in place that will protect the lives and property of others. Insurance mandates can be put in place to ensure support and aid in governmental compensation. Policies should provide mandates to increase the number of comprehensive resources and the collaboration and coordination between the government and local agencies. These resources should include disaster preparedness plans, programs, and organizations (Tan, 2013).

Employment issues Although there is an established need for social workers promoting sustainability in China, many social workers face employment issues within the field. Despite the Chinese government’s policy to increase the number of social work professionals, few social work positions are currently available (Song, 2009; The 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, 2006; Yan & Tsang, 2005; Yan et al., 2009). A recent study by Law and Gu (2008) indicated that of the 2006 graduates from Sun Yat-sen University, “only five out of 46 received a social work-­ related job.” According to Zhen (2008), approximately 10,000 graduates from social work programs remain unable to secure employment in social welfare and service sectors. Many factors contribute to the lack of social workers entering the field, including low salaries, low social status, and few employment opportunities due to the rapid growth of social work without advances in vocationalization and professionalization. These aspects force graduates to seek employment in other fields (Law & Gu, 2008; Yan et al., 2009; Zhen, 2008). Zeng, Cheung, Leung, and He (2016) indicated that Shanghai BSW graduates do not enter a career in social work because their income would be insufficient for basic needs, they have unclear futures, and they lack the support of their peers and family. According to Song (2009), social workers in Beijing earn an average of RMB 1,400–1,500 per month, while Shenzhen – a city that recognizes social work as a profession – has drastically increased the salaries of social workers in the city to approximately RMB 3,000 per month through a collaboration with the government. The following is a list of updated information about employment issues regarding social workers in China: •

Problems of geographic disparities of social work jobs: Research has found that well-developed provinces like Beijing, Guangdong, and Shanghai all have 55% of posted social work positions, while 68% of provinces have fewer than five social work job openings (Wu et al., 2016).

Social work education in China  205 • •

Research has found that 70% of social work students do not intend to enter the field of social work upon graduation (Liu, 2013). Scholars suggested that social work graduates are unprepared for the system in China as the curriculum is based on the assumption of having developed a comprehensive social service system (Wang & Zhou, 2010).

Lack of resources for education programs China lacks an adequate number of social work training programs, teaching resources, and qualified social work educators (Law & Gu, 2008; Yan et al., 2009). Educators that come to social work from other disciplines, such as sociology and philosophy, lack a commitment to integrating social work theories into teaching and practice, which results in “a wide range of interpretations of what the social work curriculum should be and how courses should be taught” (Law & Gu, 2008). Furthermore, educators often face challenges when seeking appropriate textbooks, and many social work reference materials are not accessible in China (Xiong & Wang, 2007; Yan et al., 2009). Some schools are partnering with neighboring universities in different regions to overcome these challenges. Partnerships include the University of Hong Kong and Fudan University in Shanghai, which created a part-time MSW in the 1990s, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Department of Applied Social Sciences MSW Degree in association with Peking University in 2000 (Law & Gu, 2008).

Recommendations The China Collaborative Project is one way to address the limitations in promoting sustainability and environmental justice in China. This collaboration between the U.S. and China aims to address the challenges facing social work in China by working to combat the disagreements over the mission, struggles concerning professionalism, curriculum challenges, employment issues, and lack of resources. The benefits of the program include: (a) exposure to, and exploration of, cultural differences; (b) opportunities to identify the strengths and weaknesses of social work programs on both sides of the collaboration; and (c) the chance to learn about and research the social problems of each country while comparing and contrasting potential solutions. In response to the call for proposals issued by the US’ Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) in 2012, seven universities – Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Fordham University, the University of Alabama, the University of Chicago, the University of Houston, and the University of Southern California – were selected to participate in the China Collaborative Project. The University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work (UH-GCSW) and the East China University of Science and Technology work together to sustain social work education in China by building professional and cross-cultural connections and comparing the core competencies between their MSW programs.

206  Patrick Leung and Ashleigh Scinta The anticipated result of this collaboration is the advancement of the professionalization of social work in China. This will be taken as a case study later. Fordham University has partnered with Jilin University, North East Normal University, Shenyang Normal University, and China Youth University of Political Science in China. Their research will provide examinations of regional needs within the community, as well as solutions regarding social work education. Their investigations look at curriculum and teaching approaches, field placement issues, research, and scholarship needs. Furthermore, they examine retention as it relates to social service professions. Arizona State University and Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics developed a study with the goal of creating a twofold social work field education model. This model will ideally meet Western society social work professional standards and fit seamlessly with the particular environment of Chinese culture. The University of Southern California and Nanjing University are proposing an initiative that will provide an understanding of MSW program needs through the comparison of foundation classes at both universities. The University of Alabama joined with Yunnan University to ascertain what social work professionals and teachers in China perceive as challenges in developing and teaching the curriculum, as well as identifying relevant research topics in social work education. Case Western Reserve University and the University of Chicago have similar goals to achieve from the research conducted. The CSWE China Collaborative Project has sponsored a project to equip social workers in China by addressing discrepancies or challenges that Chinese social workers face so that they can positively influence the lives of those in need. Additionally, there is the potential for a chain reaction of influence that will empower current and future social workers and give those of lower status the opportunity to combat the inequality and discrimination that exist in China. Historically, social work thrives on uplifting those of lower status, improving quality of life, and promoting human rights. Thus, the goals of the China Collaborative Project are to strengthen social work education in the US and China through program and curriculum improvements by discovering new perspectives through collaborations. There are three goals in the collaboration between UH-GCSW and East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST). The universities have created exchange programs for faculty and students, compared core competencies among the MSW programs in the US and China, improved the sustainability of social work education, and remodeled professional social work. The student exchange has allowed for a greater exposure to various cultures for UH-GCSW and ECUST students. The faculty exchange has promoted knowledge, fostered perspective sharing, enabled the identification of research projects with mutual interests, and led to the development of plans for joint research and publications. Students and faculties have been matched based on their research and practice interests, and are able to communicate through Skype and e-mail. The China Social Work Research Center (CSWRC) at ECUST has also implemented Skype lectures, submitted grant and research proposals, and posted research publications on their website. UH-GCSW has helped to develop accreditation criteria

Social work education in China  207 in order to increase the reputation and validity of the social work profession in China. UH-GCSW has also aspired to enhance curriculum development to cultivate more congruent social work education programs. The goal of the partnership has been to develop a system where academics meet social justice needs. Since 2012, UH-GCSW has hosted seven scholars and two doctoral students. Additionally, the dean and the faculty from ECUST have visited GCSW on two separate occasions, while the UH-GCSW dean and several faculty members have visited ECUST four times. Furthermore, UH-GCSW has conducted three student study abroad trips to ECUST, held three international conferences at ECUST, and implemented several collaborative research projects. During trips abroad, visitors from UH-GCSW visited several universities and social service organizations in the Shanghai area. These visits to China reaffirmed the challenges and issues facing Chinese social workers and educators. They also facilitated a deeper understanding and knowledge of the social problems facing each university concerning unique cultural, economic, and social backgrounds. Although a number of significant challenges faced the international partnership, a number of solutions were devised. A language tutorial through webinars and Skype conferences was developed to address the challenge of language competencies among Chinese and American educators. To prevent issues with obtaining visas, the application process was completed early to counter any potential delays or problems. Agreements were made surrounding the host university providing lodging resources to international students and professors; other stressors, such as health insurance, transportation, and child care, were sorted out between the universities. To combat the differences in the Chinese and American academic calendars, the exchanges occurred during summer school or Chinese holiday breaks. Funding was provided by the Chinese government and ECUST. Extensive workshops regarding expectations and managing cultural differences effectively were provided. These initiatives have been, and will continue to be, subject to rigorous program evaluation to determine: (a) whether such exchange programs enhance learning experiences for all concerned; (b) whether exposure to Western-style social work education, including emphasis on practice learning, improves the ­social work skills of Chinese participants; (c) whether improvement in the skill sets of Chinese participants translates into better jobs and opportunities in the social work field in China; and (d) whether exposure to Western-style social work practices impacts the mindset of Chinese social work educators without prior social work training.

Conclusion and implications To address environmental justice in China, social workers need to be trained with specific skills and knowledge. Currently, there is no curriculum on social work education sustainability. Social work education in China is relatively new and needs to adapt to prepare social workers to work within this specialized field. The China Collaborative Project can aid in reducing the limitations of

208  Patrick Leung and Ashleigh Scinta professionalism, disagreement over mission, employment issues, lack of resources, and curriculum needs. A collaborative approach between the U.S. and China can help the country progress in sustainability. The UH-GCSW will collaborate with China to determine the social work mission in order to advance the professionalization of social work in China. UH-GCSW will provide support by increasing the resources available to Chinese social work programs, and aiding in curriculum development. In conjunction with classroom support, UH-GCSW will also address field education by providing more support and training for supervisors. In addition, the CASWE and the U.S. CSWE are exploring opportunities to expand the collaborations between all the China and U.S. social work programs. As a result, social work education sustainability in environmental justice can be enhanced.

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Part III

Leadership and future development

15 Preparing social workers to advance social sustainability Transforming social work education Mary L. Ohmer Introduction The effects of globalization and environmental challenges throughout the world demonstrate the need for social workers to play a more active role in sustaining the Earth’s resources. These challenges include the depleting supply and safety of local water sources; the scarcity, loss, and desertification of land; global warming; air pollution; as well as reductions in the biodiversity of species (Hokenstad & Midgley, 2004). It is startling that much of the world is threatened by a lack of fresh water and fertile land (Kramer & Johnson, 1996). In 80 countries, comprising 40% of the world’s global population, industry, agriculture, and health are threatened by freshwater shortages, and in other countries, freshwater supplies are being depleted. Irrigated land is now decreasing due to waterlogging, salination, and population increases (Kramer & Johnson, 1996). Approximately 20% of the population in urban industrialized nations consumes 80% of the Earth’s resources (Harmony Foundation of Canada, 1989). At the present rate of consumption, both known and discoverable natural resources are rapidly drying up. The Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development challenges social workers to address the increasing challenges of globalization by promoting “equitable standards of decent wellbeing for the whole of the world’s population” (The Authors, 2014, p. 3). This newly developed Global Agenda is driven by three international organizations representing social work practitioners and educators: the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), the International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW), and the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW). The agenda, which is framed by respect for human dignity and rights, focuses on the following four themes: “promoting social and economic inequalities, promoting the dignity and worth of people, working towards environmental and community sustainability, [and] strengthening recognition of the importance of human relationships” (The Authors, 2014, p. 3). A key strategy for advancing the Global Agenda is fostering social sustainability, including sustainable development. The Brundtland Commission presented the concept of sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their

214  Mary L. Ohmer own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, p. 3). Social sustainability strategies consider environmental, social, and economic issues and focus on maintaining and securing healthy communities through equitable, diverse, connected, and democratic processes (McKenzie, 2004). The concept of social sustainability includes positive, humane, and people-oriented development, as well as dignity, equality, social justice, and equitable distribution of resources (Abrahams et al., 1994, pp. 2–4). Self-determination, and the participation and empowerment of the people, which are key concepts in social work, are central to social sustainability. Furthermore, Johnson, Korol, and Perks (1994) argue that: Sustainable development does not mean sustained economic growth. It is not just ‘business as usual.’ To have sustainable development, there must be a shift in priorities and values from the prevailing growth-centered, ­consumer-driven philosophy to one which values nature, promotes conservation, minimizes waste, reduces consumption and protects the environment. (pp. 2–4) While social work has a long tradition of empowering and engaging people in determining their own welfare, we must develop new techniques and strategies for preparing the next generation of social workers to deal with the effects of globalization and climate change. The IFSW (n.d.) recognizes that both the natural and the built environment have an impact on people’s potential to develop and achieve a healthy and sustainable life. The IFSW advocates sustainable sharing of the Earth’s resources, ensuring the passage and enforcement of environmental protection laws, and ensuring that environmental issues are increasingly incorporated into social work education. It is imperative that social work educators integrate a more global perspective into the curriculum and engage in activities that promote social sustainability. McKinnon (2008) argued that social work is clearly connected to environmental matters, particularly social and economic justice, and that a focus on social and ecological sustainability must be incorporated into the social work curriculum, as well as continuing education and professional development programs. The social work curriculum and educational programs should address “demographic, cultural, social, political, economic, environmental and psychological causes and consequences of globalization, attend to ethical responsibilities, and the necessity of inter-cultural competence” (Rotabi, Gammonley, Gamble, & Weil, 2007, p. 166). Furthermore, we must prepare future social workers to develop human and social capital, and enhance the capacity of social service agencies, ­community-based organizations, and communities themselves to create and engage in interventions that are sustainable and that make lasting changes without harming future generations (Healy, 2008; Kirst-Ashman, 2013). This chapter describes overall approaches for preparing future social workers to become global citizens who engage in green social work (Dominelli, 2013). Specific strategies are discussed for preparing social workers in Asia and across

Transforming social work education  215 the globe to respond to environmental and global challenges, including integrating content on global challenges and social sustainability into social work courses, including readings, assignments, and exercises, and developing opportunities for students to apply social sustainability strategies in the field. Examples are provided from schools of social work in the U.S. and initiatives in South Asian schools of social work as well as other disciplines.

Developing global citizens who engage in green social work It is imperative that social work educators prepare students to become active participants in the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development. Educators must prepare social work students to become “global citizens” who embrace “a moral and ethical responsibility toward human rights, economic fairness, social justice and environmental sustainability” (Demaine, 2005, as cited in Hawkins & Knox, 2014, p. 250). Hawkins and Knox (2014) present a human rights leadership framework that integrates three components of global citizenship: literacy (acquiring a fundamental knowledge of human rights), empathy (developing an equity-based value set and sense of concern for the rights of others), and responsibility (advocacy and actions to correct injustices) (p. 250). This framework can also be applied to preparing students to address the increasing global and environmental challenges around the globe. Green social work focuses on enhancing people’s well-being by engaging in and promoting environmental justice (Dominelli, 2013). Strategies for green social work include mobilizing people to deal with forms of environmental degradation and protect their environment, including affirming human rights and social justice strategies. Dominelli (2012) argues that green social workers must “reform the socio-political and economic forces that have a deleterious impact on the quality of life of poor and marginalized populations” (as cited in ­Dominelli, 2013, p. 437). Thus, green social workers must play a role in developing alternative models for social and economic development that promote environmental justice and mobilize communities with a view to meeting human needs without compromising the Earth’s resources (Dominelli, 2014).

Integrating content on global challenges and social sustainability into the social work curriculum Using the human rights leadership framework of Hawkins and Knox (2014), social work course content should first focus on increasing students’ literacy or knowledge of the effects of globalization, including the environmental, social, political, and economic impact on the well-being and quality of life of current and future generations. Content should also increase students’ awareness of human rights, starting with the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was the first international declaration of the fundamental universal and indivisible rights that all humans share. In addition, students should be

216  Mary L. Ohmer aware of subsequent United Nations (UN) agreements on human rights, including civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, rights against torture and genocide, and the rights of children and women (for a summary of UN declarations see http://www.hrweb.org/legal/undocs.html). Dominelli (2013) also argues that green social workers should be concerned about a number of issues, including environmental degradation, economic systems that perpetuate inequalities, the neglect of cultural diversity, the lack of provision for health and social services that promote well-being, and the lack of care of the physical environment (p. 437). Content should include a discussion on global issues of particular importance to social work, including global poverty, particularly among children and the most marginalized members of society, and the displacement of people because of natural and man-made disasters and conflict. Using the human rights leadership framework of Hawkins and Knox (2014), social work course content should then focus on increasing students’ empathy or concern for the rights of others, which “bridges knowledge and action” (p. 252). Segal (2011) defines social empathy as “the ability to perceive and experience people’s life situations in order to gain awareness and insight about inequalities and disparities” (as cited in Hawkins & Knox, 2014, p. 253). Strategies for fostering empathy include exposing students to real-world issues experienced by real people through short oral histories, films, and other multimedia resources, including online resources through university libraries (i.e., Films on Demand), public television (i.e., PBS), or YouTube. Connections can be made to international social work agencies that work with marginalized groups through live video feeds, Skype, or other experiential activities that facilitate emotional engagement and empathy (Hawkins & Knox, 2014). In addition, students should be introduced to the concept of globalization and its effects by analyzing their own impact on the environment. For example, students can take the Ecological Footprint quiz, which helps them to critically analyze the relationship between their own individual social and economic behavior, and the ability of the planet to provide for their needs, and how much of the Earth’s resources are needed to provide for their needs. Finally, in order to fully engage as global citizens, social workers need to take responsibility and action to address global issues and engage in green social work (Hawkins & Knox, 2014). Ife and Fiske (2006) argue that any discussion about human rights must also include a discussion on social workers’ responsibility to uphold human rights both individually and collectively. In fact, responsibility for human rights is collectively realized and acted on in interaction with others, going beyond what is codified in laws and legislation (Ife & Fiske, 2006). ­Dominelli (2013) suggests several tasks associated with taking action as a green social worker, including: supporting people in affirming their human, social and environmental rights; supporting people in protecting the environment; enhancing the well-being of humans and the ecosphere; obtaining environmental justice; mobilizing people in various partnerships and alliances to promote

Transforming social work education  217 residents’ and the earth’s well-being; and empowering marginalized individuals, communities, and groups, especially in influencing commercial and other institutional routines and policy/decision makers. (p. 437) Therefore, students should be provided with the knowledge and skills to take action on global issues, including learning about, critically analyzing, and applying social sustainability strategies, as well as the principles of sustainable and social development, which include equality, opportunity, and responsibility (Cox & Pawar, 2013). Strategies for fostering capacity and empowerment should be incorporated into the curriculum, including local-level development, which attempts to reach people and areas where macro-level development has not had the “trickle-down effect” that it was intended to have (Cox & Pawar, 2013). ­L ocal-level development strengthens local impoverished and marginalized groups so that they can advocate a share of the macro-level development, brings the needs, and often the existence, of these groups to the attention of policymakers, and puts people first by engaging them and building their capacity to address problems in the long run (Cox & Pawar, 2013). Sustainable development strategies should be discussed that integrate environmental sustainability into development that considers social, economic, and political well-being (Gamble & Weil, 2010). These strategies integrate capacity-building and empowerment approaches along with environmental sustainability and justice and expand on social work’s person-in-environment framework by including the global environment and its impact on local people. Students should also learn about the role of social work in social sustainability, including the responsibility to investigate and respond to environmental sources of ill health or social injustices, as well as people impacted by environmental issues; to engage in development focused on sustainable living, and local and regional sustainable planning; to improve the lives of children affected by environmental degradation; and to facilitate international sustainability efforts (Cox & Pawar, 2013). Dominelli (2013) defines several roles that green social workers can play, including facilitator, coordinator, community mobilizer, negotiator or broker, advocate, educator, trainer, cultural interpreter, therapist, and protector (p. 438). The social work curriculum should also include opportunities for students to critically analyze the effects of globalization as well as social sustainability strategies to prevent, minimize, and/or respond to the effects of globalization through assignments, field placements, study abroad programs, and communitybased projects. For example, students can design and teach social sustainability strategies and skills to other students in the class, such as group facilitation skills to promote progressive social change and social, economic, and sustainable development. Students can also conduct and present research on an international social problem, including current strategies used to address the problem, incorporating and reflecting on the strategies they are learning in the course. For example, projects can focus on the lack of drinking water and poor sanitation

218  Mary L. Ohmer issues, particularly among the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa, or electronic waste issues and the ramifications for community development and health issues in West Africa. Through study abroad programs, students can experience living outside of their country of origin and working on local community projects that provide an opportunity for them to gain knowledge, engender sympathy, and take responsibility for addressing global issues at a community level (Hawkins & Knox, 2014). For example, a study abroad program from one university focuses on health, social justice, and sustainability issues in Costa Rica. The three-week program is designed to increase students’ appreciation of cultural influences and awareness of policies and practices impacting health and well-being, social justice, and sustainable environmental, health, and community development issues in Costa Rica and the US. Topics include the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in development, environmental policy and sustainable development in Costa Rica and Latin America, ecotourism, the Costa Rican universal health-care system and medical tourism, human rights, organic and sustainable agriculture, children’s rights, and microlending. Students visit national and international organizations, including social service agencies, the United Nations University for Peace, the International Court of Human Rights, an organic coffee farm, a women’s agricultural cooperative, ecotourism sites, and a national English language and vocational training program for Costa Rican young adults. Students also participate in service learning projects in Costa Rica, including working with pregnant teens who are victims of abuse and the elderly in nursing homes. Students research an issue affecting marginalized populations in Costa Rica and the US, compare efforts to address the issue in both countries, and then present their findings to fellow classmates and partners in Costa Rica. Students also write self-reflections on their experiences in Costa Rica while they are in the country and when they return. These reflections demonstrated that the program had a profound impact on students, including increasing their knowledge of global issues and cultures, fostering a newly found appreciation and empathy for the experiences and rights of other people different from themselves, and giving them a sense of responsibility for acting on global issues. However, students do not have to go abroad to gain knowledge and take responsibility for addressing global challenges. They can gain this knowledge and experience through field placements with organizations addressing human trafficking, the rights of refugees and immigrants, and environmental justice organizations. Schools of social work can also provide opportunities for students to conduct community-based projects in partnership with local organizations. Community projects provide students with hands-on experiences to apply social sustainability and development skills and provide an opportunity for agencies to address critical issues. Georgia State University (GSU) School of Social Work in Atlanta, Georgia, has a unique Master of Social Work (MSW) focusing on community partnerships and collaboration (GSU, n.d.). In lieu of a thesis, MSW students conduct a community project with a local agency. A group of MSW students worked with an organization called GreenLaw on an environmental justice

Transforming social work education  219 project. GreenLaw (n.d.) is a nonprofit law firm serving Georgian communities that have been adversely impacted by pollution. Their mission is to champion the right of every Georgian “to breathe clean air, drink clean water, live in healthy communities, and enjoy [state’s] natural beauty” (GreenLaw, n.d.). The social work students researched and raised awareness about environmental, health, and economic issues within the community surrounding Fort Gillem, Georgia, a former U.S. military base where toxic materials were buried. A toxic industrial solvent, trichloroethylene (TCE), leaked from Fort Gillem’s dump site into the groundwater of the surrounding community. The students conducted research to determine whether any community members had experienced health issues due to the contamination from Fort Gillem, identified issues within the community that were of concern to residents, and empowered residents to advocate environmental justice in their community. The results of the community survey were presented at a community meeting, along with an update about the Fort Gillem cleanup from two representatives from the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) of Georgia, one of whom lived in the community. At the end of the meeting, students distributed an advocacy tool kit they had created that provided information on how community members can advocate themselves. Another example is from a community project conducted by MSW students enrolled in a community organizing class at the University of Pittsburgh. For their projects, students select a topic that they would like to organize around and then conduct research in the field on that issue. Students work together as a group to develop and implement the project, including developing a proposal that includes a review of the literature on the issue, research on how local organizations are addressing the issue, a description of the actions they will take to address and/or raise awareness about the issue, and a detailed timeline and plan for implementing the project. Students apply the concepts, skills, strategies, and tactics from the course in their project, including advocacy, planning, organizing, and community-based research. A recent class project was connected to the “Year of Sustainability Initiative” in 2014–2015, which was initiated by the Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor to promote awareness of sustainability in the areas of research and education and the value of engaging in sustainable practices in one’s daily life (Robinet, 2014). A matching funds program was also established to encourage projects to raise awareness and education around sustainability issues and strategies. The matching funds program considered requests for matching funds of as much as US $10,000 to support lectures, seminars, workshops, and colloquia related to sustainability. For their class project, the MSW students conducted research on, and raised awareness about, social issues connected to sustainability, social work’s role in sustainable development, and current sustainable community development initiatives in Pittsburgh neighborhoods. The students felt that people were not fully aware of the comprehensive definition of sustainability, including the importance of social and economic, as well as environmental, sustainability. The students also felt strongly about raising awareness of the impact we all have on sustainability and practices to create a more sustainable future. For their class

220  Mary L. Ohmer project, the students designed and implemented a Sustainability Showcase, which raised awareness about best practices in sustainable community development in the city of Pittsburgh. Students felt strongly about demonstrating a comprehensive view of sustainability by providing concrete examples of environmental, economic, and social sustainability development efforts. They worked together to develop a proposal for their project, including conducting a thorough review of sustainable community development globally, nationally, and locally, and a discussion of the roles each student would play in the project, as well as a comprehensive marketing plan and project budget. The students were successful in receiving a small grant from the Provost Fund for Sustainability, which was matched by the School of Social Work. Representatives from four local organizations participated as expert panelists in the Sustainability Showcase, and over 50 students, faculty, and community members attended the event.

The Asian context Nikku and Pulla (2014) argue that the implementation of the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development is of paramount importance to Asia because of the diversity, population, cultures, and other developmental issues in the region. Social workers in this region are faced with “socio-economic, political and cultural challenges that require a great deal of innovation and motivation” (Nikku & Pulla, 2014, p. 376). The Asia-Pacific region includes a “wide diversity of countries, regions, and socio-economic environments, including seven of the 10 most populous countries as well as the smallest, some of the poorest countries and some of the fastest growing economies in the world” (The Authors, 2014, p. 7). It is important to note that “inequality in wealth and income has increased within all countries” in the region (The Authors, 2014, p. 7). The development of social work is also very different throughout the region, with varying resources as well as the ability to engage in addressing the priorities of the Global Agenda. Nikku and Pulla (2014) point out that “social workers and social development practitioners in South Asia are active and committed to the professional values and vision and … appear to be making small but positive changes in the lives of clients and communities” (p. 376). Several schools are seeking to legitimize the profession of social work in their countries, promoting a societal value for social work services. Moreover, human rights education in South Asia has focused on a “critical awareness and consciousness in the areas of ethics, social justice, and macro-education within the practice context of people with disabilities, mental health and child protection and the areas of the frail aged” (Nikku & Pulla, 2014, p. 382). However, “some countries have opted to suppress human rights to accelerate development,” and in others, such as Nepal and Sri Lanka, democracy is lagging because of local issues (Nikku & Pulla, 2014, p. 376). Respondents in Nikku and Pulla’s study reported the “lack of international understanding about their local issues and the lack of reporting on them either in media or social work

Transforming social work education  221 discourse, culminating in their inability to gain solidarity for promoting more awareness and taking up rights-based social work” (p. 380). An important part of the Global Agenda is the development of regional strategies for sustainable communities built upon the dignity and worth of people and their relationships. Finally, “social workers are facing challenges in defining their mission and their role in fostering social development in a region which is seeking consensus amid profound differences in pursuing development goals in a fast-changing environment” (Kwok, 2008, as cited in Nikku & Pulla, 2014, p. 381).

Efforts by other disciplines: Environmental Leadership Initiatives for Asian Sustainability There are some practical examples from other disciplines in Asia that have successfully developed a curriculum and experiences for students to engage in addressing global challenges and sustainability issues. For example, the Environmental Leadership Initiatives for Asian Sustainability (ELIAS) was developed by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment to address the need for training future environmental leaders to meet the environmental challenges in Japan and overseas (for more information, see http://www.env.go.ip/policy/edu/asia). The Vision for Environmental Leadership Initiatives for Asian Sustainability in Higher Education was created and adopted in March 2008. The project focuses on developing environmental leaders who will work to ensure sustainable development by making “the socioeconomic system more in harmony with the environment through environmentally friendly products, services, businesses, technologies, and policies” (ELIAS, n.d.). The goal of ELIAS is to integrate environmental leadership training into general education programs, major degree programs, and graduate programs. Commitment to environmental leadership will be developed through general education programs designed to “provide students [with] a comprehensive experience and foster an awareness of their individual social responsibilities through required electives, learning opportunities, and general education programs” (ELIAS, n.d.). Expertise in sustainable development will be fostered through major undergraduate degree programs that will provide students with specialized knowledge and skills they can apply in the real world, including environmental education, educational opportunities to apply what they have learned outside the classroom, and training to detect problems and plan action to address those problems (ELIAS, n.d.). Finally, leadership will be fostered through graduate programs that provide students with opportunities to develop skills to chart a course for sustainable development as future corporate managers or policymakers, including the communication and social skills needed for consensus building as well as entrepreneurship and leadership skills to meet new challenges (ELIAS, n.d.). Another major focus of this initiative is to build a network of universities in Asia for environmental leadership training, working with the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies. This network consists of 15 universities and international organizations from Japan, China, the Republic

222  Mary L. Ohmer of Korea, ASEAN countries, India, and Australia. Activities of the network include sharing teaching materials and programs, joint program development and implementation through resource and knowledge sharing, faculty and student exchanges, and building an Asia-wide network of highly capable environmental human resources (ELIAS, n.d.). MacVaugh and Norton (2012) report on the efforts of one Japanese university engaged in the ELIAS initiative, including the course content, which was developed to train leaders in environmental sustainability who help make the socioeconomic system more in harmony with the environment. Shinsu University developed the Green Management of Technology Masters Degree (GMOTO) for mature learners working in regional companies and small business owners, stressing the three pillars of sustainable development: economic, social, and environmental. The sustainability foundation course emphasizes the following three areas: motivation (developing personal motivation, understanding, and empathy for the fundamental importance of sustainability and harmonizing human activity with the environment); leadership/change agents (converting existing workers into change agents by equipping them with the personal skills for interacting with stakeholders and persuading others of the need for change); and diversity of intake (applying to a variety of participants across a range of roles and circumstances) (MacVaugh & Norton, 2012). Through the course, students learn about the “underlying causes of environmental problems and their importance on the basis of their own rational analysis, not just belief or assertion of the educator” (MacVaugh & Norton, 2012). They learn about the social dimensions of sustainability, including poverty and inequality, and their combination with environmental issues, as well as how basic economic and market failures have led to current unsustainable trends. Students also undertake projects to apply the concepts they are learning, including developing personal sustainable development priorities, envisaging the future based on current personal actions, and assessing their carbon footprint. The results from an evaluation of these projects demonstrated that students gained knowledge and personal skills, and increased their motivation and personal values around sustainability throughout the course (MacVaugh & Norton, 2012). Finally, Naeem and Peach (2011) report on how a consortium of universities in the Asia-Pacific region are implementing sustainable development education programs as part of the Promotion of Sustainability in Postgraduate Education and Research Net Project, which is part of ELIAS. This network develops common sustainable development courses in business schools, collaborates on course development, creates a consortium of business schools to maintain and manage the curriculum, and builds alliances with business and industry. The authors describe several challenges related to this network, including insufficient cross-­institutional collaboration, which is needed to achieve a transformative agenda for education for sustainable development, and a lack of leadership at the discipline level across the higher-education sector both nationally and internationally. They found that conventional and traditional approaches to developing a curriculum are impeding the implementation of education for sustainable

Transforming social work education  223 development; therefore, the network is testing a new collaborative approach “across universities” that includes “building capacity, sharing knowledge and implementing new curriculum” (Naeem & Peach, 2011, p. 288). This approach includes providing discipline-oriented resources for departments, linking the initiative with broader institutional efforts focused on sustainability, and recognizing the need for research on sustainable development that supports curriculum development (Naeem & Peach, 2011).

Summary It is clear that social sustainability is becoming increasingly important in addressing the effects of globalization and environmental issues across the globe. However, the role of social workers in advancing social sustainability is often overlooked by policymakers. Social workers can make important contributions to advancing social sustainability because of their unique skills, values, and approaches that take into account the person-in-environment and a holistic view of social, economic, and environmental issues impacting sustainability, as well as their focus on advocating the human rights of marginalized populations. Therefore, it is imperative that we prepare social work students to become global citizens and leaders who can promote and engage in advancing the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development, and play a role in developing social policies that take into account the voices of marginalized populations across the globe.

References Abrahams, C., Ariyasena, K., Chandrasekere, S., Kotelawala, P., Kurundukumbura, B. Mayakaduwa, P., … Steven, L. (1994). A manual for social development practice (2nd ed.). Colombo, Sri Lanka: National Institute of Social Development. Cox, D., & Pawar, M. (2013). International social work: Issues, strategies, and programs (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Dominelli, L. (2012). Green social work. Cambridge: Polity Press. Dominelli, L. (2013). Environmental justice at the heart of social work practice: Greening the profession. International Journal of Social Welfare, 22, 431–439. Dominelli, L. (2014). Promoting environmental justice through green social work practice: A key challenge for practitioners and educators. International Social Work, 57(4), 338–345. Environmental Leadership Initiatives for Asian Sustainability (ELIAS). (n.d.). [pamphlet]. Tokyo, Japan: Ministry of the Environment. Retrieved from https://edu.env. go.jp/asia/en/pdf/kannkyousho.pdf Gamble, D. N., & Weil, M. (2010). Community practice skills: Local to global perspectives. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Georgia State University (GSU). (n.d.). School of social work: Community partnerships concentration. Retrieved from http://msw.gsu.edu/community-partnership-concentration/ GreenLaw. (n.d.). About us. Retrieved from http://GreenLaw.org/AboutUs Harmony Foundation of Canada. (1989). Our common future: A Canadian response to the challenge of sustainable development, National Forum 1988. Ottawa, Ontario: Trent University.

224  Mary L. Ohmer Hawkins, C. A., & Knox, K. (2014). Educating for international social work: Human rights leadership. International Social Work, 57(3), 248–257. Healy, L. M. (2008). International social work: Professional action in an interdependent world (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Hokenstad, M. C., & Midgley, J. (2004). Issues in international social work: Global challenges for a new century. Washington, DC: NASW Press. Ife, J., & Fiske, L. (2006). Human rights and community work: Complementary theories and practices. International Social Work, 49(3), 297–308. International Federation of Social Workers. (n.d.). International policy statement on globalization and the environment. Retrieved from http://ifsw.org/policies/ globalisation-and-the-environment/ Johnson, C., Korol, R., & Perks, A. (1994). CSCE guidelines for civil engineering practice with a commitment to a sustainable future. Proceedings of the 1994, CSCE Annual Conference, 1, 729–738. Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2013). Introduction to social work and social welfare: Critical thinking perspectives (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning. Kramer, J. M., & Johnson, C. D. (1996). Sustainable development and social development: Necessary partners for the future. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, ­X XXIII, 75–91. MacVaugh, J., & Norton, M. (2012). Introducing sustainability into business education contexts using active learning. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 13(1), 72–87. McKenzie, S. (2004). Social sustainability: Towards some definitions. Working paper series No. 27. Magill, SA: University of South Australia, Hawke Research Institute. McKinnon, J. (2008). Exploring the nexus between social work and the environment. Australian Social Work, 61(3), 256–268. Naeem, M. A., & Peach, N. W. (2011). Promotion of sustainability in postgraduate education in the Asia pacific region. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 12(3), 280–290. Nikku, B. R., & Pulla, V. (2014). Global agenda for social work and social development: Voices of the social work educators from Asia. International Social Work, 57(4), 373–385. Robinet, J. E. (2014, August 18). Provost Beeson names 2014–2015 “The Year of Sustainability,” The Pitt Chronicle. Retrieved from http://www.chronicle.pitt.edu/story/ provost-beeson-names-2014-15-%E2%80%9C-year-sustainability%E2%80%9D Rotabi, K. S., Gammonley, D., Gamble, D. N., & Weil, M. O. (2007). Integrating globalization into the social work curriculum. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, XXXIV(2), 165–185. Segal, E. (2011). Social empathy: A model built on empathy, contextual understanding, and social responsibility that promotes social justice. Journal of Social Service Research, 37, 266–277. The Author(s). (2014). Global agenda for social work and social development: First report – promoting social and economic equalities. International Social Work, 57(S4), 3–16. WCED: World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987). Our common future. Oxford, England, and New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

16 Leadership and sustainable development in the future Alice M. L. Chong, Iris Chi, and Diego Busiol

Introduction As has emerged in previous chapters, the relationship between people and the environment is complex and encompasses at least two dimensions: the ­person-in-the-environment and the environment-in-the-person. The former is well known to social workers, whereas the latter has been largely overlooked. In this final chapter, we critically analyze: (a) why social workers need to focus on environmental sustainability, (b) the goals of green social work in Asia, and (c) the directions for future development.

Why do social workers need to focus on environmental sustainability? Which environment? In August 2016, a relatively powerful earthquake hit the central area of Italy, causing the deaths of almost 300 people and leaving a few thousand homeless. This recent earthquake occurred only seven years after a much more powerful earthquake had devastated the city of Aquila, which is only 50 kilometers away. How is it possible that in these seven years nothing was done in order to prevent the effects of another earthquake? How is it possible that the entire population was caught so unprepared? In Amatrice and the other small towns where the recent earthquake had its epicenter, most of the buildings collapsed, including houses, schools, and churches (i.e., private and public constructions) that had recently been renovated. Again, how is it possible that these buildings were not built according to the most basic anti-seismic criteria? This last tragic example shows once again that no environment is purely a physical environment. From the moment that a population settles into a place, the environment is already both physical and social, because the territory will be inhabited in accordance with certain social habits, rules, and regulations, and according to some construction techniques rather than others. At the same time, some people may try to take control of the natural resources and intervene in the territory for their own profit (e.g., selling natural resources, constructing roads, cutting

226  Alice M. L. Chong et al. forests, building dams). This may lead to the exploitation of natural resources and ­people, creating not only social inequalities but also the conditions for “natural” disasters to happen. However, there is nothing like a “natural” disaster: The same earthquake may cause hundreds or even thousands of victims in one place and go almost unnoticed in another that takes preventive measures and makes emergency plans (e.g., Japan). In some cases, this might be the difference between developing and developed countries. This may be due to the different technologies and qualities of materials adopted for building infrastructures, as a result of different economic possibilities. However, the recent earthquake in Italy shows that this is not always the case. In fact, although Italy is supposed to be a developed country, the total number of deaths (300) and the devastation to buildings would more likely indicate a developing country. Thus, what really makes the difference is not only the economic resources but the attitude and the culture of the inhabitants of a place toward environmental protection and sustainability. Unsurprisingly, from the day following the earthquake in Amatrice, the media reported possible negligence in the construction of buildings, cases of corruption in avoiding controls, falsification of documents about materials used for the buildings, a lack of information given by politicians to local communities about the seismic risk, a lack of emergency plans, and a number of other malpractices that might have caused the disaster and the collapse of many structures that were supposed to resist such an earthquake. From an Asian perspective, Taiwan represents an interesting case study. On 21 September 1999, Taiwan was devastated by the Chi-Chi (or 921) earthquake, the strongest in a century to hit the country. The earthquake, which had a magnitude of 7.3 on the Richter scale, left more than 2,400 people dead and 11,000 injured, and led to the collapse of over 10,000 buildings, leaving about 100,000 people homeless (Prater & Wu, 2002). A few studies have pointed out some of the main criticalities that contributed to this outcome. First of all, it was found that many of the consequences of the earthquake could have been prevented if only the buildings and the various structures had been designed, constructed, and maintained in accordance with more rigorous criteria. This is striking, given that Taiwan is continuously exposed to environmental catastrophes; however, the lesson has not been learned, and the island seems to be taken “by surprise” every time by these repeating natural events. For example, a lack of policy and regulations and/or a rather lax application of them was noted. Prater and Wu (2002) observed that in some contexts (such as in Taiwan during the economic boom) it may be unpopular to promote prevention because this implies extra costs and a longer time for construction, whereas there is a high demand for residential space at low prices. Furthermore, Prater and Wu (2002) pointed out that often politicians are not technicians and do not work in collaboration with them, so they are not able to understand projects from an engineering perspective. In addition, it was observed that insurance was seldom an option at that time: The government did not insure structures (e.g., bridges, dams), and actually, less than 1% of citizens were covered by earthquake insurance. As a consequence, as suggested by Karalekas and Coutaz (2015), the Taiwanese government appeared

Future leadership and sustainable development  227 to be only capable of facing the problems of yesterday rather than anticipating the problems of tomorrow. In addition to this, the lack of prevention and preparation are a reflection of poor emergency management and disaster response. For example, in Taiwan, only the firemen were trained to tackle an emergency, while no other agencies had done any planning for earthquakes, and hospitals were only prepared to respond to incidents with fewer than 30 casualties (Prater & Wu, 2002). Further problems derived from the destruction of electricity and telephone lines, so disaster information could not be processed immediately, making coordination even more difficult (Yang, 2010). However, prevention, emergency management, and disaster response can be achieved if there are strong leaders and informed citizens. Sometimes, as in the two cases mentioned here, those who are in charge and should give directions (e.g., politicians, administrators) prefer solutions that give them immediate benefits (i.e., votes) to more forward-thinking strategies. This is possibly due to a conflict of interest. However, if social workers support the promotion of a prevention culture by developing initiatives to educate citizens about the environmental risks and their consequences, it is more likely that informed citizens will then be able to support like-minded politicians. In the present book, Lai presented the case of Japan, and Enrile, Aquino, and Villaverde presented the case of the Philippines. Both countries (both islands) are hot spots in terms of geology and climate and as such are exposed to the forces of nature: typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and volcanic eruptions. The two countries are also not very far from each other; however, they developed very differently in terms of culture, habits, and traditions, and today they show very different (if not opposite) attitudes toward environmental protection, prevention of environmental risks, and response to emergencies. As reported by the aforementioned contributors, the previous painful and traumatic experiences opened a debate concerning the relations between science, technology, and nature in Japanese society; people started to question the point of technological and scientific advancement if this was unable to guarantee social stability or could even be the cause of more insecurity. Apparently, the same did not happen in the Philippines, a country where the division between the ultra-wealthy and the poor is widening; this huge difference among people and among classes, together with the plague of corruption, may well indicate a lack of concern in the macro-level dynamics (large-scale social processes, such as social stability and change), which is essential for the development of an environmental consciousness (i.e., respect for the environment, respect for others, and respect for future generations) as well as the protection of infrastructures, the safeguarding of the environment, and the implementation of prevention policies. This is already an example of how badly the hand of man can shape the territory and how those apparent “natural” phenomena, such as flooding, earthquakes, weather changes, air pollution, water pollution, and shortages of natural resources, are actually “social” from the beginning (due to the intervention of men) and/or actually become “social” by leading to severe consequences, damages, and losses. Thus, it is already at this level that social workers can intervene and make their contribution, monitoring

228  Alice M. L. Chong et al. the utilization of resources and advocating a fairer resource distribution; empowering minorities and local people; helping people to develop an interest in, and a culture of, protecting the environment in which they live; spreading knowledge; and sustaining a dialogue between citizens and institutions.

Populations at risk Contamination and exploitation of the environment normally bring an immediate economic benefit to a few individuals/organizations, but is detrimental to all others, particularly in the long term. The costs of exploiting the environment are economic, social, and psychological. As revealed in many chapters in this book, most of those who suffer are children, elderly people, women, people with disabilities, and various minority groups, i.e., those most vulnerable in the society. When disasters occur, they are the weakest and thus the most exposed groups; as a result, they may incur a double victimization, as they become even more vulnerable due to a lack of knowledge, poor means of communication, health issues, insufficient social support, and/or low help-seeking skills (for example, see Marks’s chapter in this book). Vulnerable groups have always been the main service targets of social workers: for example, children from broken families and frail or hidden elderly people. However, social workers tend to focus on vulnerable individuals and groups who suffer psychosocial economic problems but seem to have neglected those who fall victim to environmental pollution or exploitation. This may become a limitation of the profession: Any attempt to improve living conditions might be in vain if people are not guaranteed drinkable water, noncontaminated air, and adequate food. Paradoxically, as observed by Muldoon (2006), if the intervention of social workers remains superficial (i.e., directed at improving people’s living conditions without changing the causes of power imbalance and oppression), social work itself can become functional in maintaining the status quo. What we cannot wish for is a profession that helps people to cope with oppressive circumstances without questioning their origins. This would mean helping people to “survive” rather than “live,” and this attitude would imply treating the oppressed as if they were the problem. Social work was born as an attempt to rebalance redistributions of power and resources (Muldoon, 2006); however, if environmental issues are not acknowledged and accounted for by social workers, social work may become a function of capitalism, by treating the victims rather than the causes of oppression. Social workers should understand that there is no middle way or a third option: Either they work for environmental justice and social sustainability, or they are against it, i.e., they implicitly support the power imbalance in society.

Social workers need to take action These disasters and crises are not unpreventable, but they require individuals and communities to become more conscious of the potential consequences of environmental exploitation and abuse. Because the profits generated by the

Future leadership and sustainable development  229 exploitation of natural resources are potentially very high, there is always the risk that some ruthless individuals/organizations will break the law and commit some unlawful act (e.g., disposal of hazardous waste in unsafe sites and/or in the water, use of shoddy materials not conforming to what is declared in the project, illegal and unregulated fishing, use of illegal chemicals in agriculture and/or farming, unregulated deforestation), maybe with the support of some corrupt politicians or local administrators as accomplices. These kinds of illegal activities generate a huge amount of money to the point that, for example, in Italian, these phenomena are called ecomafie, indicating that these environmental crimes are not isolated cases but are more likely being committed by organized criminal associations like the Mafia (see, for example, Walters, 2013). People and communities cannot delegate to institutions and rely only on the ethics of administrators, businessmen, and corporations; instead, it is essential that all citizens come to realize how environmental exploitation influences the territory, and how, in turn, the quality of the territory directly or indirectly affects their health and their way of life. This awareness may be the first step in the prevention of environmental crimes and exploitation; in fact, conscious citizens might decide not to be accomplices with those committing illegal actions if they are really clear about the possible consequences for their lives and for those of their family members, friends, and community members. Conscious and informed citizens are the most powerful and effective way of reducing environmental risk and making sure that products and goods are “eco-friendly.” Informed citizens may, for example, give their vote to those politicians and administrators who are sensitive toward environmental issues. Second, as consumers, informed citizens can influence the productive choices of companies by preferring products that are more “eco-friendly” and have a less environmental impact. Third, conscious citizens may help in monitoring respect of the rules and may communicate malpractices to the authorities and/or the media. This may become a virtuous circle in which individuals are actively engaged in protecting their interests (their territory, their health, and that of their social circles), and at the same time provide a service to their community and communicate with institutions. However, how can we ensure that individuals and communities are aware of the potential consequences of environmental exploitation? This is where social workers come in. First of all, social workers should initiate a process of community capacity building so as to inform, involve, and empower individuals and families, to connect them in formal and/or informal groups, to facilitate the dialogue among multidisciplinary collaborators (e.g., architects, dietitians, engineers, natural scientists, social scientists, medical professionals), and support their dialogue with the institutions and government. Social workers can thus become the initiators of such a virtuous circle among the three systems (i.e., micro, mezzo, and macro). They have the skill to maintain the dialogue among the various actors involved, and they can write an agenda that needs to be addressed, pointing out criticalities, threats, dangers, opportunities, and resources. Social workers do not necessarily have technical, economic, or managerial skills, but they do have, more than others, the capacity to facilitate dialogue among parties

230  Alice M. L. Chong et al. as well as to promote self-confidence, to empower, to strengthen resilience, to enhance problem-solving ability, and to rebuild a community. It is part of their mission to help those who are more vulnerable (e.g., minorities, the less educated, the poor, the frail) to raise their voice. For example, in many crisis situations and/or natural disasters in Asia-Pacific, women are those most involved in remedial work and in helping individuals as well as the community (see Palinkas & Wong in this book for more references); social workers should then identify them and initially recommend them, then empower them to stand up and voice their issues. Furthermore, social workers should help people to build their future, not just to overcome their present difficulties. The Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development describes “environmental sustainability” as the key strategy for reducing oppression and inequality among people, and therefore sets the promotion of sustainable communities and environmentally sensitive development as one of its main focuses. This means that social workers should work with broad vision and have significant goals, such as to alleviate poverty, to ensure equality (including equal access to resources), and to promote justice (including individual, social, and environmental justice).

Why taking care of the environment matters We should not simply learn how to “protect the environment” as if the environment were separate from us. On the contrary, we could say that a better environment reflects a better person. So, taking care of the environment is a sign of refinement and connection with one’s own inner world as well as with others. Why do we no longer live in caves? It is not simply an economic or logistical matter. It is a cultural matter. Culture is the style with which we do things (Busiol, 2012). Care for a place or the environment reflects a cultural attitude (indeed, different cultures develop different agri-cultures, different ways of constructing homes and inhabiting a place, different ways to farm); care for living conditions evolved together with culture and declined in times of cultural repression (Rabie, 2016). Also, today, environmental exploitation or crimes occur as a consequence of a lack of culture, not merely a lack of knowledge, but more a lack of cultivation, a lack of quality, a lack of manners, and a lack of sophistication. Furthermore, we could say that a crime toward the environment is a crime toward others, toward the community, meaning there is a disconnection between people; there is private use of public resources, to say the least, if not an open attack on the community.

Goals of social work in sustainability work in Asia The Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development, written by the three international social work organizations (International Federation of Social Workers, International Association of Schools of Social Work, and International Council on Social Welfare, 2012), identifies four areas or pillars of the social work profession: promoting social and economic equality, ensuring the dignity

Future leadership and sustainable development  231 and worth of the person, promoting sustainable communities and environmentally sensitive development, and promoting well-being through sustainable human relationships. The third area is exactly environmental sustainability. These are meant to be global objectives; however, what the Agenda does not say is actually how to achieve each of these goals locally, particularly within the Asia-Pacific region, which is an area rich in diversity. As observed by Munford and colleagues (2009), “geography, social, economic and political history, culture and religion have all played their part in determining the nature of social work practice and research in this vast region” (p. 419). Each region presents social workers with different challenges, so it is not possible to describe universal guidelines; further, social workers from within the Asia-Pacific region may have different resources in terms of formal and informal education, training, professional recognition, professional network, funding, institutional support, media support, and access to international literature, among others (Nikku & Pulla, 2014). Moreover, even though the Asia-Pacific region is immensely affected by natural disasters and environmental issues, and is very often a victim of human exploration of the physical environment, the whole region is ill-prepared to take a long-term, proactive and preventive approach to achieve environmental sustainability. As pointed out in different chapters, environmental sustainability has not received sufficient recognition in social work practice, policy, or education in the region. There are very few social work higher education programs which cover social and environmental sustainability in their curriculum, even though other disciplines are already offering such courses and even undergraduate or postgraduate programs. Most social work interventions in the region tend to be reactive and remedial, without sufficient long-term plans or preventive programs targeting social and environmental sustainability. Clearly, there is an urgent need to identify culturally sensitive goals and objectives of social work in promoting social and environmental sustainability in order to give direction for future development. A review of the literature finds that a five-tier framework developed by Bai, Roberts, and Chen (2010) after reviewing 30 projects that promoted sustainable practices in Asia may help in identifying objectives as well as the conditions that make them possible. The five factors of the model were triggers, actors, linkages, barriers, and pathways. Triggers indicate the factors that lead to the decision to take action. The main trigger among these 30 studies is public policy, followed by concerns for public health (related to drinking water, housing, and sanitation), pollution and poverty (major problems in most Asian cities), and the need for employment. Among the actors, local government normally plays the most important role in initiating the project; however, the role of community-based organizations (including welfare organizations and civic societies) becomes determinant in the project implementation phase. At this stage, the transfer of responsibility and the definition of roles are the key factors for the success of the project. Linkages describe the nature and type of collaboration that is required among various actors. Linkages can be vertical or horizontal (between or within

232  Alice M. L. Chong et al. the three levels); not all projects require collaboration among agencies, as this may be influenced by the size and scale of the project. Barriers are those factors that may limit the implementation of projects: namely, politics, economics, finance, institutional issues, and capacity. Political barriers tend to be determinant at the stage of project formulation; in addition, politics tends to be a gray area in some Asian contexts, as corruption still plays a significant role. Instead, institutional issues (i.e., lack of competence, workplace culture, and resistance to change) become more significant in the implementation phase. Finally, pathways mean that most projects do not evolve as planned but are influenced by dynamics that occur during the implementation of the project. These dynamics are largely dependent on the local culture and the actors involved; social workers should then be able to read and possibly anticipate these events and be able to redesign the projects so that these projects can be completed. These five factors also indicate at what level, and how, social workers should intervene so as to promote change. For example, with regard to the triggers, social workers should consider working at the macro level, i.e., together with policymakers, and not just with individuals and their communities (micro and mezzo levels, respectively); in fact, working at the macro level (for example, setting up a pressure group), it is possible to produce a change that impacts the lives of many at one time. Furthermore, focusing on public policy is potentially far more incisive and effective than raising concern over social problems, which probably is the way social workers traditionally operate. Finally, social workers, better than others, can contribute to policymaking because they are connected to the lives of those most impacted by policy changes, as well as to their communities (see Ohmer in this book). Second, social workers should consider referring to government first and only at a later stage to community-based organizations, being particularly mindful of the transition between the former and the latter (i.e., how projects are implemented and how roles and responsibility are transferred from the government to the community level). Third, social workers should bear in mind that the implementation of a project will be largely influenced by the size and nature (vertical or horizontal) of linkages and the network involved. Fourth, political and institutional aspects may represent the main barriers against project implementation, followed by financial and local capacity issues, meaning that social workers should follow this order when they want to promote new projects. Lastly, different pathways suggest that implementing a project not only depends on the quality of the project but largely relies on the capacity and willingness of the actors involved in promoting and receiving the project; thus, it is in this gap that social workers can make a difference in the level of involvement of suppliers (i.e., the providers) and receivers (i.e., the community and families).

A paradigm shift Social work is a complex profession because its aim is to produce changes at different levels of the social structure. The social structure can be described in terms of macro, mezzo, and micro level, meaning the relations among large groups and/

Future leadership and sustainable development  233 or institutions, the relation between one’s social network and the individual, and the norms that regulate one’s behavior in a group, respectively. It is therefore clear that producing a significant change at any of these levels (if not at both or all three levels) requires time, effort, persistence, and a clear and long-term strategy. Unfortunately, social workers are often perceived as idealistic people, good Samaritans, or people of good will, rather than paid professionals. Perhaps for this reason, it is easy to imagine, indeed expect, that they will be among the first to get involved in the response to emergency crises, for example, immediately after an earthquake or some other catastrophe. Social workers are certainly equipped to respond to emergency situations; however, this popular representation of social workers is a simplistic and reductive view of the profession. In fact, emergency situations normally require immediate responses to satisfy specific concrete needs (e.g., shelter, food, clothes, psychological support, information, logistics, and first aid); however, these are not the most favorable moments for making any substantial and long-lasting changes at the macro, mezzo, and micro level. Thus, this calls for a shift in mentality: from a perspective of the emergency to a perspective of prevention, meaning that attention toward the environment should become a regular practice.

A successful case story The wonderful work and achievements of the Tzu Chi Foundation (Hsia, Hsu, Boudreaux, & Ting, in this book) show that by promoting recycling programs, not only is it possible to promote environmental justice and a sustainable lifestyle among volunteers, but it is also possible to foster a sense of belonging to the community. In fact, in more than 20 years the Tzu Chi Foundation involved more than 84,000 volunteers in their recycling programs in Taiwan alone; further, the volunteers actively contributed to the creation of 5,637 recycling stations by donating houses, garages, and land. Finally, the massive participation of volunteers in these recycling programs revolutionized the collaboration among central government, NGOs, entrepreneurs, and the people. A number of factors may have engendered this virtuous circle. For example, this campaign has represented, for many individuals, the opportunity to give rather than take; as reported by Hsiao and colleagues, this initiative has given a purpose to many participants. One could also speculate that a “recycling program” has a symbolic value for those who decide to join; for some, it seems to have represented an opportunity to “recycle” themselves, i.e., to give themselves a new shape, a new function, a new life, and not to be a waste! As well as this individual (micro) level, environmental issues involve the community (mezzo level) and the society and the nation (macro level). In fact, sustainability implies adopting an ecological perspective, thinking about others in space (i.e., physical space, the surroundings, geographical areas) and in time (e.g., future generations), and considering the relations among various systems. This also suggests that caring for the environment, caring for the place where one lives, may be an indirect expression of humanity and thus an indirect expression of mental health and well-being. Conversely, a withdrawal from social life may be more easily associated with carelessness toward living

234  Alice M. L. Chong et al. conditions and environmental issues (reflecting in both cases a withdrawal from the external). This means that social workers should begin paying more attention to the symbolic meaning of the environment, and as well as observing how one talks or interacts with others, they should pay more attention to how one relates to one’s physical environment and the care or the negligence one shows toward it.

Collaboration with different sectors Furthermore, the Tzu Chi experience shows the importance of collaboration with different sectors, for example, technology, to turn waste into eco-friendly and usable materials, such as clothing, and the use of social media for promotion and cultural change. Collaboration among different parties is crucial for the effective implementation of such projects. Further, it fosters a sense of interconnectedness among individuals, the private sector, and institutions; it helps create a sense of “we” as a community and society, where we all work in the same direction. In addition, promoting these green companies could provide new employment opportunities, bearing in mind that they are growing much faster than the traditional industries. In fact, being relatively new fields, they are far less explored and so there is much more room for patenting new ideas and inventing new products. Needless to say, innovation and research can offer higher revenues than older technologies now and better prospects for the future. In fact, the so-called “green economy” is already a reality.

Directions for future development To promote and guide green social work, three interrelated directions for development are proposed: including proper training and education, both formal and informal; formulating appropriate intervention approaches in environmental work; and developing implementation strategies that are preventive and evidence-based.

Training and education In order to make social workers leading figures who can guide societies toward social sustainability and environmental justice, we first need to educate them. This means that we need a curriculum change in Bachelor and postgraduate education so as to incorporate social and environmental issues as part of the social work training and prepare the new generations of social workers. The importance of environmental sustainability is increasingly recognized in many societies in the Asia-Pacific region; the majority of local universities offer a wide range of academic programs, majors, minors, and general education courses for undergraduate and postgraduate students on issues related to sustainability and the environment, mostly from the departments of Science, Social Sciences, Engineering, Architecture, Business & Economics, and Law. However, to the best of our knowledge, no such courses are specifically designed or intended for social

Future leadership and sustainable development  235 workers. This imbalance is further proof that social workers in this geographic area of the world still lack understanding of the relation between social and environmental sustainability. Thus, one of the primary goals is the recognition of environmental issues as part of the scope of the social work profession, as indicated by the aforementioned Global Agenda. This implies that it is necessary to design and implement new courses on environmental issues for educating future generations of social workers. Such courses should be promoted through both formal (at Bachelor’s and Master’s degree level) and informal (e.g., NGOs, agencies, local organizations, community-based research, study abroad programs) education, and should be aimed at developing intervention approaches that are culturally sensitive and evidence-based. Applying the human rights leadership framework of Hawkins and Knox (2014), which integrates literacy, empathy, and responsibility, Ohmer (in this book) suggests that formal social work education should be aimed at: (a) increasing students’ literacy or knowledge of the effects of globalization, including the environmental, social, political, and economic impact on the well-being and quality of life of current and future generations; (b) raising students’ concern over environmental degradation, economic systems that perpetuate inequalities, the neglect of cultural diversity, the lack of provision for health and social services that promote well-being, and the lack of care of the physical environment; (c) raising awareness of global poverty, particularly among the most marginalized members of society, and the displacement of people because of natural and man-made disasters and conflict; (d) increasing students’ empathy toward, or concern over, the rights of others; (e) introducing students to the concept of globalization and its effects by analyzing their own impact on the environment; and (f) teaching students about the role of social work in social sustainability, including the responsibility to investigate and respond to environmental sources of ill health or social injustices as well as people impacted by environmental issues, to engage in development focused on sustainable living and local and regional sustainable planning, to improve the lives of children affected by environmental degradation, to foster capacity and empower, and to facilitate international sustainability efforts. Further, she also suggests that informal education may help students to gain knowledge and experience through field placements with organizations addressing human trafficking, the rights of refugees and immigrants, and environmental justice organizations. In addition, students should also be able to conduct community-based projects (with local organizations), which provide students with hands-on experience to apply social sustainability and development skills, and provide an opportunity for agencies to address critical issues. Finally, further activities may include visits to national and international organizations and participation in service learning projects (i.e., working with disadvantaged populations). But first, we need to train the trainers, specifically the faculty members who can then make curriculum changes. This implies that we also need to have textbooks specifically written on social sustainability and research that can help to identify regional needs and priorities.

236  Alice M. L. Chong et al. Second, training is effective when it is continuous and lifelong. This requires specific ethics and self-preparation; social workers need to acquire a mind-set for social sustainability and environmental justice, and should be willing to participate in forum and sharing sessions to exchange ideas with and learn from others. Both professional associations and social work schools should play a leading role in this, promoting training opportunities and supporting this paradigm change with initiatives (e.g., conferences, publications) that focus on these topics and put this new perspective at the center of social work practice.

Intervention approaches Future intervention approaches are recommended to follow six directions: building on local culture, fostering multidisciplinary and multipartite collaboration, building international networks, prevention-oriented, evidence-based, as well as making green social work a regular and sustainable part of social work practice.

Building on local culture Asian cultures and communities are generally described as more “collective” than the “individualistic” Western ones, meaning that they generally emphasize the social group (e.g., the family, the working group, or the clan) rather than individuality. So, the very conception of the “self” is better defined by relations with others (interdependency) rather than some features of the person alone (independency). This does not mean that in Asian contexts there are fewer social conflicts, as the individual does not necessarily coincide with the group (e.g., family), and the group does not necessarily coincide with the entire society. Instead, various cultures reflect different conceptions of what the relevant group is for the individual, meaning the group an individual more likely feels associated with and/or feels obliged to respond to (e.g., the family, the working unit, the company). Social work interventions should then be calibrated on the local culture and needs of each society; there are no general guidelines that can be applied indiscriminately. This is a problem that emerges both when social workers operate in a foreign cultural context (for example, when Western professionals are sent to an Asian country to respond to an emergency situation) and/or when local social workers (e.g., Asian) simply “import” intervention methods that were developed in a Western context. Social workers need to develop cultural sensitivity and intervention strategies that may help them to interact appropriately with local communities, meaning that they should be able to identify and communicate with the relevant interlocutors and support a change without imposing different values. Any intervention that is not culturally sensitive may be perceived as intrusive. The risk is that such an intervention may be “successful” in terms of its implementation but disruptive of the local culture; or, conversely, it may be perceived as a foreign body and thus rejected. Social workers should instead help local communities to make a

Future leadership and sustainable development  237 change with the tools they have and the resources from their environment, be they social, cultural, or geographical, and in the process, drawing references from the experiences of other societies.

Multidisciplinary and multipartite collaboration Social workers are neither technicians nor administrators (who only have the competence and the power to decide on and implement solutions, action plans, and regulations), but rather they are mediators or facilitators. They should develop multidisciplinary and multipartite collaboration with other discipline experts and public bodies in order to promote a culture of social sustainability and environmental justice, and bring their attention to the most relevant social issues (see Ohmer in this book). The concept of sustainability is relational by nature and should not be understood as a synonym for independence, autonomy, or self-sufficiency. On the contrary, sustainability indicates that one (person, community, state) cannot go without another (person, community, state). Sustainability is possible only in a win-win situation when both parties can give and at the same time can gain some benefits. For example, in this book, Powell and Brack show how an effective emergency response can be achieved only if the intervention is mediated by local experts and community leaders rather than imposed from outside. Similarly, the case of waste recycling in Suzhou reported by Li, Zusman and Chen (in this book) indicates how sustainability cannot be reached unilaterally, without considering the relation with others. Conversely, the case of the Tzu Chi Foundation (Hsiao et al.) shows the exponential level of involvement and participation that can be reached when a project is socially relevant, technologically advanced, properly covered by the media and communicated in a professional way, recognized and supported by institutions, promoted, and replicated over the years. To some extent, we can also interpret in light of this multidisciplinary and multipartite dialogue the different situations of Japan and the Philippines. In Japan, the debate over sustainability and environmental protection was sparked in a society involving simple citizens, as well as professionals, politicians, and community leaders; this engendered a deeper reflection on the meaning of life and the impact of lifestyles on the environment and society (see Lai in this book). Conversely, this dialogue is lacking in the Philippines, and in fact, each emergency is treated as an isolated case, where each actor involved seems to pursue different goals (sometimes very private interests, as mentioned by Enrile et al.).

Building international networks Sustainability can be achieved only if we consider its complexity and the interrelations between various systems. In fact, globalization has subverted the traditional categories of space and time; this means that the action of one person (or group of persons) may have consequences for others in a remote geographical area, today and in the future. Thus, social workers should develop a

238  Alice M. L. Chong et al. cross-national network, led by regional and international professional groups. Not only may an international network enrich social workers through the sharing of experiences and ideas, but it may also provide a platform where social workers discuss problems that are transnational. For example, a river might bring pollution from one country to another; similarly, a nuclear site is a threat to neighboring countries; and the haze caused by forest fires of a country (e.g., ­Indonesia) may cause illnesses and premature deaths in communities (e.g., Singapore) hundreds of miles away (The Guardian, 2016). All these issues can only be tackled by joint forces.

Prevention-oriented instead of remedial work Social workers can take the lead in emergency situations, but most importantly they should take the lead in designing and implementing prevention activities. When talking about environmental issues, normally the first concern is “protecting” the physical environment and the natural resources that are necessary for social development; however, this is not enough when discussing sustainability. Thus, social workers should promote proactive engagement with social, human, and ecological development; this makes the difference between being simply “users” of a place and feeling part of that place, and then not just protecting it but actively “nurturing” it and, in so doing, ensuring one’s own future. Prevention rather than cure, namely identifying the major risks for communities and individuals should be one of the main goals for social workers. Working on the prevention rather than curing of emergencies can help in achieving both longterm outcomes and sustainable social care: For example, strengthening the resilience of vulnerable groups and building social and human capital are activities that can be implemented at the community level with local resources, while at the same time, they can reduce resources spent on post-disaster relief or remedial work afterward.

Evidence-based approach Developing an evidence-based approach serves to formulate effective intervention methods, to showcase what can be done, and to convince stakeholders. Documentation of practice (or best practices) is based on an evidence-based approach and ensures that clients and target populations receive appropriate and effective services. Documentation of practice reflects three different stages of social work: assessment, intervention, and evaluation. The first stage will adopt and/or adapt validated measurement tools (i.e., with acceptable validity, reliability, sensitivity, and specificity) for assessing impacts on individuals, families, and communities, both in the short and in the long term. The second stage will be based on procedures validated through research methods for the problems and populations served (Bellamy et al., 2013) or on new intervention activities that are to be tried out in particular projects. The last stage will capture the empirical evidence about the efficacy and impacts of the intervention by formalizing questions that can be answered with numerical measures and

Future leadership and sustainable development  239 by organizing the data in a way that can be easily understood (Sheafor, 2011). These steps are also necessary for the next step, which is the dissemination of knowledge. Social workers should better utilize global and regional indicators to examine local, regional, and global progress toward sustainability. According to Ohmer (in this book), “Social workers are not fully engaged in research that utilizes sustainability indicators, even though many are easily accessible.” Social workers are recommended to combine the analysis of different tools to achieve a comprehensive assessment of the three sustainability pillars. They need to be able to make sense of the scores and be able to track the progress and change. Relying on a single indicator to inform a country or region’s sustainability progress can be problematic, as illustrated by the comparison of various global indicators among the selected Asian countries in Ohmer’s chapter. To be able to conduct evidence-based practice, it is recommended that social workers strengthen their research skills, including identifying research questions, formulating hypotheses, and making sense of research reports and findings.

Mainstreaming Instead of being responsive to emergencies or accidents, sustainability work should become a regular part of social work practice due to its critical impacts on individuals, families, groups, communities, and nations. To do so, the support and involvement of various actors and stakeholders are required, including employers of social workers, government, funding bodies, social work education institutes, and international associations. Specifically, NGOs and employers of social workers should: (a) include environmental issues as part of their scope of work; (b) expand the scope of service beyond the geographical borders, understanding that the world is a global village and that even a small (political, economic, social) change can have repercussions in one’s own community; (c) be ready to arrange for their own staff to take up these new tasks: for example, providing them with adequate training, support, and protection (e.g., insurance, survival skills in times of natural disasters); (d) tackle the resistance to change among staff, many of whom feel overworked and often operate reactively to deal with crisis situations; and (e) arrange the sharing of experiences among staff of their own agencies and others involved in related work. Piloting and mainstreaming approaches like these can only be carried out with strong leadership, long-term thinking, and meaningful incentives. Another approach to ensuring mainstreaming is to incorporate sustainability issues in social work curricula so that the new generation of social workers will be equipped with the mind-set and competence to take up environmental issues and contribute to sustainable development. The third approach is to convince funding bodies, including the government, to invest in activities that promote social and environmental sustainability: financing staff and new initiatives, and providing venues for these

240  Alice M. L. Chong et al. purposes. Many sustainability works are cross-border and cross-national, and funders should therefore remove the geographic restrictions on their funding criteria.

Concluding remarks Social workers have the skills and values to become leaders in the development of environmental and social sustainability. However, they are required to undergo a paradigm shift at two levels. First, they need to give more importance to the environment-in-the-person and not just the person-in-the-environment as traditionally has been the case. This implies that first of all social workers need to reconsider the impacts that individuals, groups, and organizations have on the physical environment and how this, in turn, affects social relations and our way of life. We do not simply live parallel to the environment; we are part of it. Thus, ecology should become part of the scope and values of social work. Second, social workers need to reconsider their role, which can no longer be at the individual (one to one) or community level only; instead, social workers may need to start engaging in a sort of political activism: For example, they should give higher priority to advocating a change at the macro level, which is in fact a social work approach that tends to receive decreasing emphasis with the trend of professionalization. If social workers want to work for human rights and the empowerment of people, environmental protection must be their priority. If social workers are able to make this paradigm change, then their contributions to society can be multiple. For example, social workers can be brokers or facilitators among various actors (e.g., citizens, politicians, technicians, agencies, NGOs, associations of volunteers, local and central administration, entrepreneurs, professionals, and media). In short, they can function as linkers among various groups of interest and between public and private sectors; they can empower local communities and minority groups; and they can ­facilitate the dialogue between different stakeholders. Further, as suggested by D ­ ominelli (2013), green social workers can also be coordinators, community mobilizers, negotiators or advocates, consultants to government or other agencies, educators, trainers in how to respond to crisis, counselors, and protectors. They can do this by assessing needs, coordinating services, helping individuals and communities to rebuild their lives, strengthening resilience, capacity building, and by doing something social workers may not have done enough in the past, which is “advocating, lobbying and mobilizing for changes that safeguard the environment and prevent future disasters” (Dominelli, 2013, p. 438). This is called “greening the profession,” and this encompasses a critique of current economic and political ideologies (e.g., globalism and neoliberalism) as well as a critique of current lifestyles and materialistic values, a commitment to protect the environment and work for vulnerable groups, and a civic and political statement of being ready to lead the change. This is the new challenge for the profession.

Future leadership and sustainable development  241

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Index

Abrahams, C. 216 altruistic behavior 171 analysis: intertextual 177; intratextual 177; thematic 177 Angke River 66, 73–5 Ankang Study of Aging and Health (ASAH) 153 apocalyptic learning 87–9, 91–6 Asia-Pacific regions 3, 5, 65, 66 association 194–5, 197 Background 111 Bangkok 102–8 benefits 188, 196 biocapacity 56, 60 bottom up 189, 191 Brundtland Commission (1987) 50 Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation 65, 66 capacity-building 12, 14, 69, 144, 175, 179–81 capacity development 124 cash-for-work program 75, 76 Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale 153–4, 157 Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) 54 charity 174–5, 178 child protection services 139, 143–4 children 176, 180, 182, 184 children with difficult circumstances 140 see also children with special needs China 175, 179; development of social work education 200–1; employment 203, 206–7, 210; field education 208, 210; mission of social work 203–4, 207, 210; open-door policy 200; professionalism 203, 207, 210;

social work curriculum 201–2, 204–5, 207–10; vocationalization 206 Chinese Indonesian entrepreneurs 74, 75 civic activism 86–8, 90–6 civil society 170, 172, 190, 194–5, 197 cleanup 175–80, 182, 184 climate change, impacts on 65, 72, 216; health 35; physical environment 33–4; population displacement 35–6; vulnerable populations 36 CO2e emissions 192 collaboration between China and US: Capacity Building Program for Social Work Educators in China 205; curriculum development 204–5, 209– 10; faculty exchange 208; international partnership 207, 209; research 204, 207–8; sustainability 201–2, 205–10 community: development 168, 183; engagement 169, 177; improvement 172, 185; sustainability 169, 171 community-based empowerment 124 community based projects 220 Community Capacity Building 25, 26 community-oriented warning systems 142 community outreach 144 community sustainability 215; resilience building programs 40–1 consequences 139–40, 142, 145 consumerism 168 corporate 175, 178–9, 181, 184 Cox, D. 219 culture 228–34, 236–7 curriculum 216–17, 219, 223–5 DA.AI Technology 66, 68, 71, 75, 77 Da Ai TV Indonesia 66, 71, 77 Da Ai Village 74, 75 Daly, H. E. 50–1

244 Index depression 152–63 development: community 168, 183; intrapersonal capacity 184; societal 166 Dharma Master Cheng Yen 65–7 disaster, impacts: behavioral and mental health 37; biopsychosocial 37; disparities 36, 40, 43; reduced levels of social support 37 disaster-learning experiences 87–9, 92–6 disaster-management relocation 151 disaster plan 139, 142 disaster preparedness and response: evidence-based treatments for trauma 38; Philippines 41–3; resilience building programs 38 disaster preparedness guidelines 145 Disaster survivors 66, 72, 73, 75 Discussion and implications for social work 117 documentary 177, 184 Dominelli, L. 48, 60, 216–19 early identification 141–2, 144 see also secondary service early intervention 141–5 see also secondary service earthquake induced landslides126–2 Earth Summit 166 eco-friendly blanket 66, 69, 72, 75 eco-friendly portable classrooms 66, 75 Ecological Footprint 51–2, 54, 56, 59–60 ecological relocation 151 ecological systems theory 69 economic sustainability 4, 8, 49, 51, 57 ecosystem 183–4; integrity 179, 183–4 elderly 101–9 electrocution 108 Elkington, J. 59 emergency protection service 141–3 see also tertiary service emergency relief 139, 145 empathy 180 empowering 176, 178–80, 184 empowerment 66, 123, 126–8128; changes 3; damage 166; degradation 177, 179–80; exploitation 5–6; impact 57; justice 67, 68, 72, 77, 217–18, 220–1; protection 176, 178–80, 182; protection laws 216; sustainability 48–52, 54–5, 57, 59–60, 65–9, 72, 73, 77, 167, 168, 171–4, 181–5, 217, 219, 221, 224, 227, 232–3, 236–7, 241 Environmental Leadership Initiatives for Asian Sustainability (ELIAS) 223

Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 51–2, 54 Environmental Protection Division of Georgia (EPD) 221 Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI) 51–2, 54 environment-in-the-person 7, 227, 242 Era of Legitimacy 23, 27–8 family reunion 144 financial loss 139 Fiske, L. 218 flooding 101–9 fundraising 178, 180–1 Gamble D. N. 49, 216, 219 Gammonley, D. 216 Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) 51–2 geolocating 128 Georgia State University 220 Gigliarano, C. 58 GINI Index of Inequality 58 Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development 48, 60, 232 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 126 global citizens 216–18, 225 Global Climate Risk Index 127 Global Footprint Network 56 globalization 22–3, 28, 60 grassroot organizations 175 Green Bamboo Shelter 143–4, 146 green growth 188–9, 196 GreenLaw 220–1 green movement 65, 66 green social work 48, 60, 216–19 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 50 growth 166–7, 183–4 Hart Sustainable Development Measures 57 Hawkins, C. A. 217–18, 220 health care 144–5 Healy, L. M. 216 Helpage International 102, 107 Hochiminh City Child Welfare Foundation 143–4 Hokenstad, M. C. 215 Hong Kong: government 173, 179; Inland Revenue Ordinance 173; NGOs 169–85 Hong Kong NGOs: Asian Charity Services (ACS) 174–5, 178, 180–4; HandsOn Hong Kong 174–6, 178, 180–1, 183–4;

Index  245 Hong Kong Cleanup 176, 178–80, 182, 184; Kids4Kids 175–6, 178, 180–4; Plastic Free Seas 175, 177–80, 182–4 Hsu, A. 52, 54–5 human capital 184 human development 50–1, 53–4, 56 Human Development Index (HDI) 51, 54 humanitarian assistance 139 human rights leadership framework 217–18 human well-being 50, 53, 57, 60 ideological basis 171 Ife, J. 218 impact 140–3, 145 in-depth interviews 171, 174, 184 Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) 51–2 information age: new media 87–91 innovation 127 institutions: educational 172; private 171; public 171 integrated model 184 International City/County Management Association (ICMA) 58 International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW) 215 international disaster relief service 65 International disaster response 111 International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) 215–16 International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP) 57 Japan: earthquake 85–7; Fukushima nuclear power plant 85–7; Great East Japan earthquake (2011.March 11) 85–7; Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) 88–9, 92–4, 96; Nonprofit Organizations (NPOs) 88–9, 92–4, 96; post-disasters social activism 87–90; Risk Society 87–8, 93–5; social innovation 90–5; social learning 87–9, 91–4; sustainability 85–6, 95–7; Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami 85–7; volunteer-activism 86–8, 90–5 Japanese Ministry of the Environment 223 job placement 144 Johnson, C. 215–16 justice 179–80, 183–4; economic 179–80; social 179–80, 183–4 Kirst-Ashman, K. K. 216 Kramer, J. M. 215 Kubiszewski, I. 59–60

Lawn, P. A. 50–1, 53 Law on Protection, Care and Education of Children 140, 146 leadership 180–2 Levett-Therivel Sustainability Consultants 50, 59 Life skills training 144 Livability Tool 57 Local Government Sustainability Policies and Programs Survey 58 local level development 219 McKenzie, S. 216 McKinnon, J. 216 MacVaugh, J. 224 Magee, L. 49 Malaysia 175 malnutrition 140–1, 144 Malthusian Catastrophe 166 Malthus, T. 166 managerialism 183 marine pollution 177, 179 mass relocation 148–9, 151, 155, 162 materialism 168 Mederly, P. 50, 52–3, 55–6 Mental health and psychosocial support after disasters 112 Mental health and psychosocial support post-Haiyan 115 Mental Health Gap Action Program (mhGAP) 116 Mental health in Asia 114 Midgley, J. 215 migrant worker 191, 194–5 Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs (MOLISA) 140–1, 146, 147 mission 232 Naeem, M. A. 224–5 National Footprint Accounts 54, 56 negative impacts: education 140, 144–5; financial hardship 141; health 139, 141, 144, 146; livelihood 140–1, 143; living conditions 140; mental damages 141; physical damages 141; psychology 140; safety 140–1, 146 Nikku, B. R 222–3 Non-Government Organizations (NGOs): operation 169–70, 178–9, 183–4; profile 170, 178; structure 169–70, 175, 178, 181 nonprofit 169–73, 185 nonrenewable natural resources 166

246 Index Norton, M. 224 Novacek, P. 50, 52–3, 55–6 participation 176, 182, 184 Pawar, M. 219 Peach, N. W. 224–5 person-in-environment 7, 9, 227, 242; framework 219 Philippines 111–18,126–9, 129–33 Phillip, D. 60–1 physical/environmental sustainability 4 plastic 175, 177–80, 182–4 policy 166–7 pollution 173, 177, 179 population displacement services 39–40 poverty 176, 180–1; economic 180; emotional 180; line 176; social 180 poverty-alleviation relocation 151 prevention service 141–2, 145 primary service 141–2 see also prevention service professionalism 175 project-induced relocation 149, 151 property management company 192, 194–5 Psychological first aid (PFA) 116, 125 psychological rehabilitation 144 Pulla, V. 222–3 qualitative study 172 raising awareness 142, 145 recycling program 188 Redefining Progress 52–3 Reisch, M. 60–1 resilience 66, 69 risk reduction program 142–3, 145–6 role of social work: industrialization 199, 203; mediator 202; migrant worker 203; in natural disaster 201–2, 205–6 Rotabi, K. S. 216 safe environment 144 Save the Children 141, 145–6 Scerri, A 49–50 secondary service 141–2, 145 see also early identification and intervention security services 145 self-esteem 66 service providers 143 shelter service 141, 144 Shinsu University 224 Siche, J. R. 49, 52, 54–6 Singh, R. 49 social capital 185

social development 215, 217, 219, 222–3, 225 social empathy 218 social equity 57–60 social inclusion 77, 196 social innovation 124, 128 social issues 176 social media 66, 69 social sustainability 4–5, 8, 11, 13, 15–6, 48–9, 52, 56, 59, 215–17, 219–20, 222 social work 3, 7–10, 12, 14–16; role of 36, 38–9 social work education 215–16 South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) 55 sponsorship 178 state 169–70, 180, 183–4; actors 169; control 169; elites 169; nonstate 169 state-organized relocation 148–9, 153 stress process model 150 sustainability 23–4, 27, 28, 166–75, 180–1, 183–5; economic 167–8, 171–2, 174, 183–5; human 184; indicators 48–51, 54, 58–60; social 167–8, 171–4, 180, 183–5 Sustainable Communities Online 57 sustainable development 3, 9–13, 15–6, 166–8, 184, 215–16, 219–21, 223–4 sustainable lifestyles 66, 68 Sustainable Measures 57 Sustainable Net Benefit Index 52 sustainable partnerships 68 Sustainable Pittsburgh 57 Sustainable Social Work Practice 22–3, 25, 27–8 Svara, J. 58–60 Taiwan 65–7, 77 technological innovation 69 tertiary service 141–2 see also emergency protection service Thailand 103–9, 175 Thao Dan 144, 146 The Brundtland Commission 215 training programs 175 transformative social work model 203 trash 176 trends 23, 26, 28 tsunamis 131 two-stage probit least squares: procedure 156; regressions 158–60 2011 Bangkok Floods 101–9 Typhoon Corridor126, 135 Tzu Chi 65–9, 72–3, 75–7; grassroots green movement 68, 77; grassroots

Index  247 recycling programs 66; recycling stations 14, 68, 71; volunteers 66–7, 69, 72–7 UNICEF 139–40, 143, 146 United Nations (UN) 48–9, 54, 166; Conference on Environment and Development 166 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development 49 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 52–3 United Nations Economic and Social Council 65 United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) 49, 55 United Nations Initiatives 85, 95 United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) 126 United Nations Universal Declarations of Human Rights 217 University of Pittsburgh 221 UN Sustainable Development Goals 54 USC Humanitarian Mission 129–33

vocational training 144 voluntary sector 170, 173 volunteerism 86–8, 90–4 volunteers 175–7, 179–5; capacity to 182; hours 176; management 181, 182; participation 182 vulnerability 52, 55 vulnerable population 139–40 waste 177, 179, 181–2, 184 Weil, M. 49, 216, 219 welfare 169–70 well-being 217–20 workshops 175, 179, 181 World Bank 139 World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) 49, 216 World Economic Forum (WEF) 54–5 Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy (YCELP) 54 Zanella, A. 57