Summary

Background: By point of departure in two research projects, Urban SOS and URGE, this workshop focuses on how educational activities and methods can be developed to improve training of future social workers to enhance their competences to become agents of change in a post-growth future. As researchers and educators, we maintain that the environmental crisis is not a technical hard-science problem to be solved, but a political and power related issue. We share the concern promoted by UN-Habitat that we are facing a global environmental crisis, which to a large extent is related to new waves of urbanization and unjust economic growth driven mainly by the Global North. As much social policy in the Global North has turned from a society/community focus to an individual/family focus, the curricular focus on common values and sustainability has become sporadic. Thus, the ability of educators to implement a more holistic and post-growth based understanding of urban sustainability in the social work curriculum is impaired. Workshop: The growth of cities is followed by widespread marketization and financialization of the urban landscape. Vulnerable citizens who are not included in co-producing the city are being pushed to the margins, both geographically and socially. At the same time, both social workers and vulnerable urban populations lack access to the spaces where decisions about urban planning and development are being made. The workshop presents a method that is being developed to change this. Thus, in the workshop, participants will address the questions: What are the values that the social work profession must promote to produce sustainable cities? What are the ethical dilemmas involved in promoting a sustainable post-growth urban development agenda? Participants will be guided by a method for dialogue developed as part of our research. Through the dialogue, SDG’s no 4, 11, and 12 will be addressed.

Keywords (separate with commas)

Social Work Education, Sustainable Urban development, Common values and ethics, post growth urban development, dialogue, social action against urban financialization.