Ecology and Social Justice: A Course Designed for Environmental Social Work in Rural Spaces

This article describes a course developed by the author that responds to the stated social justice aims of the social work profession. If social workers are to advocate successfully for environments conducive to the general welfare of all people, promote social justice, equitable distribution of resources, and just environmental management, environmental social work scholarship needs to move beyond theorizing and suggestions itemizing broad responses, and provide instead illustrative examples of interventions and alternative practices. The trend in very recent years of environmental social work scholarship has done just this. Education, in particular in the classroom setting, provides an opportunity to explore and share experiments with social work praxis. This article is one such example

Safety in the Classroom: Safeguarding Liberal Arts Education from the Neo-Liberal Threat

This article examines the elusive concept of safety in liberal arts classrooms which are often contoured by a plurality of social, cultural, political, psychological, historical, and discursive forces and performances. Using select principles from adult education and social work with groups as an organizing metaphor, the article discusses the classroom as a large group, the changing student body, and, especially, the impact of diversity and inclusivity in liberal arts settings. Because the aim of liberal arts education is usually to promote independent and critical thinking, open-mindedness, and greater communication and decision-making skills, its goals foster, to a great degree, citizen engagement that empowers persons to participate in collective actions toward greater equality and justice in communities both locally and globally. Classroom safety is essential to these aims because it increases opportunity for free, critical, and independent thought necessary for progressive, egalitarian, and justice pursuits. The article explores safety, including dialogic practices and reflection on relations of power within the classroom, for its significant role in fulfilling liberal arts aspirations.  Cet article examine le concept problématique de la sûreté dans les classes où se donnent des cours de formation générale, souvent entourées d’une pluralité de performances et de forces sociales, culturelles, politiques, psychologiques, historiques et discursives. En utilisant des principes de choix de l’éducation aux adultes et du travail social en groupes comme métaphone organisationnelle, définissant ainsi la salle de classe comme un grand groupe, nous discutons de l’évolution de la population étudiante et, surtout, de l’effet de la diversité et de l’inclusivité dans des installations où l’on dispense la formation générale. Puisque l’objectif principal d’une formation générale consiste habituellement à promouvoir la pensée indépendante et critique, l’ouverture d’esprit et de meilleures aptitudes en communication et en prise de décision, ces objectifs intermédiaires encouragent, jusqu’à une certaine mesure, la gestion du citoyen qui autorise les gens à participer à des actions collectives qui mènent à une plus grande égalité et justice au sein de communautés, tant à l’échelle locale que planétaire. La sûreté des salles de classe est essentielle pour réaliser ces objectifs, car elle augmente la possibilité de générer une pensée libre, critique et indépendante, nécessaire aux activités progressives, égalitaires et justes. Cet article explore la sûreté, incluant les pratiques dialogiques et les réflexions sur les relations de pouvoir dans la salle de classe, pour son important rôle qui consiste à réaliser les aspirations d’une formation générale

Observation of three-state nematicity in the triangular lattice antiferromagnet Fe1/3_{1/3} NbS2_2

Nematic order is the breaking of rotational symmetry in the presence of translational invariance. While originally defined in the context of liquid crystals, the concept of nematic order has arisen in crystalline matter with discrete rotational symmetry, most prominently in the tetragonal Fe-based superconductors where the parent state is four-fold symmetric. In this case the nematic director takes on only two directions, and the order parameter in such "Ising-nematic" systems is a simple scalar. Here, using a novel spatially-resolved optical polarimetry technique, we show that a qualitatively distinct nematic state arises in the triangular lattice antiferromagnet Fe$_{1/3}$NbS$_2$. The crucial difference is that the nematic order on the triangular lattice is a Z$_3$, or three-state Potts-nematic order parameter. As a consequence, the anisotropy axes of response functions such as the resistivity tensor can be continuously re-oriented by external perturbations. This discovery provides insight into realizing devices that exploit analogies with nematic liquid crystals.Comment: The main text is 16 pages, including 5 figures and references. Supplementary information is appended at the end of the articl

Correspondence Between Perceived Pubertal Development and Hormone Levels in 9-10 Year-Olds From the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study.

Aim: To examine individual variability between perceived physical features and hormones of pubertal maturation in 9-10-year-old children as a function of sociodemographic characteristics. Methods: Cross-sectional metrics of puberty were utilized from the baseline assessment of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study—a multi-site sample of 9–10 year-olds (n = 11,875)—and included perceived physical features via the pubertal development scale (PDS) and child salivary hormone levels (dehydroepiandrosterone and testosterone in all, and estradiol in females). Multi-level models examined the relationships among sociodemographic measures, physical features, and hormone levels. A group factor analysis (GFA) was implemented to extract latent variables of pubertal maturation that integrated both measures of perceived physical features and hormone levels. Results: PDS summary scores indicated more males (70%) than females (31%) were prepubertal. Perceived physical features and hormone levels were significantly associated with child\u27s weight status and income, such that more mature scores were observed among children that were overweight/obese or from households with low-income. Results from the GFA identified two latent factors that described individual differences in pubertal maturation among both females and males, with factor 1 driven by higher hormone levels, and factor 2 driven by perceived physical maturation. The correspondence between latent factor 1 scores (hormones) and latent factor 2 scores (perceived physical maturation) revealed synchronous and asynchronous relationships between hormones and concomitant physical features in this large young adolescent sample. Conclusions: Sociodemographic measures were associated with both objective hormone and self-report physical measures of pubertal maturation in a large, diverse sample of 9-10 year-olds. The latent variables of pubertal maturation described a complex interplay between perceived physical changes and hormone levels that hallmark sexual maturation, which future studies can examine in relation to trajectories of brain maturation, risk/resilience to substance use, and other mental health outcomes

"Three Hundred Leagues Further into the Wilderness" Conceptualizations of the Nonhuman during Wendat-French Culture Contact, 1609-1649: Implications for Environmental Social Work and Social Justice

This study concerns an essential but, until recent years, little explored area of social work: environmental social work. The social work profession has long considered persons in their environment; however, use of the term environment has typically referred to social rather than nonhuman physical dimensions of space and place. It is common knowledge that we face today a number of serious environmental challenges, but less common is an understanding of how things came to be as they are. Why, for example, did things not develop differently? Why is our human-nonhuman relationship so strained? This research asserts human conceptualisations of the nonhuman other influence treatment of not only the nonhuman but also other human beings. Having an interdisciplinary focus involving social work, environmental studies and early Canadian history, Wendat and French conceptualisations of the nonhuman are explored through an ecofeminist framework in a culture-contact context to initiate consideration of, and in due course attending to, the uneasy intersection of the human and the nonhuman, social work and environmental issues, and current Aboriginal-non-Aboriginal relations. Through locating our environmental crisis within a historical context, it is possible to unsettle some contemporary assumptions about the human-nonhuman relationship, drawing attention to the fact that things could have been otherwise, that the environmental challenges experienced today were not inescapable. While there are certainly many ways to approach a history of our present environmental crisis, this investigation in the Canadian context involving a clearly defined case of culture contact between the Wendat and French in the early seventeenth century offers a variety of advantages deriving, in part, from the comparable but different complexities belonging to each group and the opportunity to explore two highly dissimilar cultural practices and belief systems from the time of initial contact. This study examines in detail how the two cultures understood and interacted with the nonhuman, and each other, through a forty-year period from 1609-1649. From this historical exploration of Wendat and French worldviews and land-use practices implications for social work are described and a model for place-based social work is generated.Ph

Rethinking Sustainability on Planet Earth: A Time for New Framings

Sustainable development and sustainability have been key terms in environmental thought and practice since the time of the Brundtland Report. Because of being firmly situated in the humanist tradition, these terms and their associated approaches have been appealing to social workers tackling environmental concerns. Given the significant and inexorable changes being wrought by global warming and the lack of similitude between Earth prior to anthropogenic warming and the incipient Eaarth introduced by global warming, examining the continued relevance of the terms sustainable development and sustainability is warranted. This chapter explores these terms in the context of climate change and points toward a responsibility approach based on environmental and social justice principles consistent with social work strengths and values

Safety in the Classroom: Safeguarding Liberal Arts Education from the Neo-Liberal Threat

This article examines the elusive concept of safety in liberal arts classrooms which are often contoured by a plurality of social, cultural, political, psychological, historical, and discursive forces and performances. Using select principles from adult education and social work with groups as an organizing metaphor, the article discusses the classroom as a large group, the changing student body, and, especially, the impact of diversity and inclusivity in liberal arts settings. Because the aim of liberal arts education is usually to promote independent and critical thinking, open-mindedness, and greater communication and decision-making skills, its goals foster, to a great degree, citizen engagement that empowers persons to participate in collective actions toward greater equality and justice in communities both locally and globally. Classroom safety is essential to these aims because it increases opportunity for free, critical, and independent thought necessary for progressive, egalitarian, and justice pursuits. The article explores safety, including dialogic practices and reflection on relations of power within the classroom, for its significant role in fulfilling liberal arts aspirations.&#x0D;  </jats:p

"Three Hundred Leagues Further into the Wilderness" Conceptualizations of the Nonhuman during Wendat-French Culture Contact, 1609-1649: Implications for Environmental Social Work and Social Justice

This study concerns an essential but, until recent years, little explored area of social work: environmental social work. The social work profession has long considered persons in their environment; however, use of the term environment has typically referred to social rather than nonhuman physical dimensions of space and place. It is common knowledge that we face today a number of serious environmental challenges, but less common is an understanding of how things came to be as they are. Why, for example, did things not develop differently? Why is our human-nonhuman relationship so strained? This research asserts human conceptualisations of the nonhuman other influence treatment of not only the nonhuman but also other human beings. Having an interdisciplinary focus involving social work, environmental studies and early Canadian history, Wendat and French conceptualisations of the nonhuman are explored through an ecofeminist framework in a culture-contact context to initiate consideration of, and in due course attending to, the uneasy intersection of the human and the nonhuman, social work and environmental issues, and current Aboriginal-non-Aboriginal relations. Through locating our environmental crisis within a historical context, it is possible to unsettle some contemporary assumptions about the human-nonhuman relationship, drawing attention to the fact that things could have been otherwise, that the environmental challenges experienced today were not inescapable. While there are certainly many ways to approach a history of our present environmental crisis, this investigation in the Canadian context involving a clearly defined case of culture contact between the Wendat and French in the early seventeenth century offers a variety of advantages deriving, in part, from the comparable but different complexities belonging to each group and the opportunity to explore two highly dissimilar cultural practices and belief systems from the time of initial contact. This study examines in detail how the two cultures understood and interacted with the nonhuman, and each other, through a forty-year period from 1609-1649. From this historical exploration of Wendat and French worldviews and land-use practices implications for social work are described and a model for place-based social work is generated.Ph