Purpose
The purpose of this collaboration café is for you to reflect on the impact globalization has on marginalized, oppressed, and disenfranchised populations. It is also an opportunity to consider the impact of globalization on the environment.
Course Outcomes
This collaboration café enables the student to meet the following course outcomes:
CO 6: Students will explain how social work organizations can employ new strategies to overcome racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, and harm to the environment caused by current policies and practices (Competency 3, 5, 8).
Collaboration Café: Reflect on Knowledge
Step 1: In Chapter 2 of the Healy and Thomas (2021) text, the authors pose the question: “Does globalization truly matter to the individual social worker in North America?” (p. 29). They argue that the answer is yes, citing the following reasons:
Social workers, as both professionals and citizens, have a vested interest in personal health and security.
Globalization significantly influences the economy and culture.
Many social problems are shared across countries worldwide.
Certain challenges are too vast for individual nations to address on their own.
Countries are interconnected and accountable to one another through treaties and other agreements.
Step 2: Answer all questions below with explanations and detail. No scholarly sources are required.
Question 1: How do the “Dimensions of Globalization and Interdependence” discussed in the first two chapters impact your role as a social worker? Provide an example from your current practice experience or a scenario you anticipate encountering in your future professional career.
Question 2: Provide a brief, but clear, description of the circumstances and challenges you face (or are likely to face) in abiding by globalist social work ethics and values.
Question 3 : Which specific skills will you have to learn and apply to meet your clients’ needs in the context you describe? Identify at least two and explain why.
This collaboration café asks you to reflect on globalization’s impact on marginalized, oppressed, and disenfranchised populations and the environment, engaging Healy and Thomas’s question of whether globalization matters to the individual social worker in North America. Argue that it does, with examples.
Key takeaways
- Globalization affects marginalized populations and the environment, locally and globally.
- Engage Healy & Thomas: yes, it matters to the individual North American social worker.
- Give concrete examples (migration, labor, inequality, environmental harm).
- Connect to new strategies for addressing racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, and environmental harm.
- Tie to social-work competencies and values.
Does globalization matter to the individual social worker?
Argue that it does, as Healy and Thomas contend: global forces shape the clients and communities North American social workers serve — migration and refugees, global labor and economic inequality, and transnational issues that show up in local practice.
Impact on marginalized populations and the environment
Give examples: how globalization can deepen inequality and displacement for oppressed groups, and how global economic practices drive environmental harm that falls hardest on vulnerable communities.
New strategies
Connect to the course outcome: how social work organizations can adopt new strategies to confront racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, and environmental harm caused by current policies — advocacy, culturally responsive practice, and environmental/social justice.
Format
Reflect genuinely, use examples, and cite Healy and Thomas (2021) and other sources.