This is part of an occasional series of posts to share a few things I run across regarding the future of social work (and beyond). For people involved in foresight practice, the practice of scanning, organizing and creatively interpreting “signals of change” in the ecosystem is a primary and foundational part of the work. This blog is a place where I’m doing that “out loud” and in public to both share what I’m finding, and encouraging readers to do the same. Sometimes I turn these signals into interesting “Social Work Jobs of the Future” as another type of foresight practice (worldbuilding and artifacts from the future in the form of new job descriptions). This gathering is not meant to be exhaustive…it is a changing, evolving space. The combination of “finds” tends to be focused on five intersecting categories that my work in social work futures is increasingly oriented to:
- The future of social issues
- The future of social movements
- The future of social welfare
- The future of racism and other isms
- The future of professions
- And a good old “miscellaneous” category in case something great appears that doesn’t directly fit. Here goes!
If you’d like to see previous entries in this category – you can explore more interesting signals here.
The future of social issues.
Signals in this space are about recognizing “big changes” that may be occurring on the margins of our shared world…and imagining the challenges/opportunities that may result from related possible futures. One such signal – is news of the moving of one of the worlds first “mega cities” – Jakarta, Indonesia – and its planned efforts to relocate due to climate change. It can boggle the mind to imagine all of the multiple and overlapping social challenges that might present themselves in the moving of a whole city – and the numerous (read vast) interconnected community networks therein. In my opinion, more thought, foresight, and expertise should be developed on this topic within social work – one might consider “likely futures” of expansion of this practice. Will social work be ready to participate in a value-based way?
In the last few weeks/months – we are hearing increasing chatter/news/opinions regarding the “future of AI” in our shared world, Regular readers of this blog will note that this has been a frequent topic of consideration and exploration during the last few years. Of particular note is a recent U.S. Department of Homeland Security public briefing/hearing which explored the current state and future of uses of AI within government right now, as well as in the future. It is a worthwhile listen – though chilling. An algorithmic approach to government appears to be increasingly part of our shared world – and it poses a host of possible social/political issues that are only recently being named and analyzed comprehensively. Social work should most certainly be continuing to expand and deepen our capacity to do the same in keeping withour values, lest we find ourselves working for algorithms…rather than for people, communities and justice. (Here’s a blog post I put together on that topic.) Note – though I always approach these kinds of reports with a healthy dose of skepticism…there is no doubt that peering into “The top 10 emerging technology trends of 2023” put out by the World Economic Forum provides food for thought. Which of these might concern/interest social workers now and in the future? How might these accelerate or inhibit our practice? It is just these kinds of questions we should be considering together.
Another emerging area of interest in the “future of social issues” concerns the future of “neurorights” and the need to urgently expand and redouble efforts to create clear, durable and rigorous human rights frameworks to accommodate emerging neurotechnologies. This article does a deep dive on this topic – and suggests that the world is “behind” in being ready for what is here and what is coming. Here’s another piece called “The right not to have your mind read” on this same topic. Social workers should be playing a role in debating this issue.
Climate change is an evergreen reality of thinking about the present and the future. Thoughtful pieces like this one called “We can’t adapt our way of our climate change”, and “Earth needs a world climate crisis organization” had my attention these last few months. Event after event tests our resilience as we wonder and work together for change.
The future of social movements.
Climate litigation is emerging as an important indicator of the ways in which the public is approaching climate change issues. This is a recent report from the UN on global activity in this space. (The total number of court cases focused on climate action has more than doubled since 2017.). Another piece suggests 2023 will be an important year for this set of strategies. And perhaps you heard about the recent legal case in Montana brought by a group of youth activists that won – creating an important new landmark precident for moving forward.
This piece from Yes Magazine called “Finding Joy in the Struggle” brought me some energy – hope it does the same for you. Goodness knows we need some joy in our future (work) togehter!
Here’s an inspiring note. Five California Indigenous Tribes have reclaimed their right to manage coastal lands backed by state dollars. Worth a read and based on incredible movement work. More on this story here.
Beautiful new emerging work from the National Birth Equity Collaborative called “Visioning new futures for reproductive justice” here. This is another piece that takes a global look at the state of reproductive justice.
This piece had me thinking about the future of work in general – and how what is happening in Hollywood is a likely precursor to many “future of work” discussions in almost every type of workplace. This is a thoughtful piece and worth a look. If you really want to head down the rabbit hole…you can explore this “future of jobs” report from May/WEF. Though I’ve posted it before, I’ll also re-link to a very important national commission conducted in 2021 – The California Future of Work Commission….still very relevant, wide-reaching and important. Related – this recent piece provides an overview “who’s on strike and who’s close” by way of the continuing activities of U.S. labor unions.
The future of social welfare
The future of equitable availability of drugs purports to become a more serious issue – and one that isn’t discussed enough. There is a moral perversity to living in a time when extraordinary drugs exist to address a host of issues – only to have them differentially and inconsistently available to the people who need them most.
This visionary work of the Resonance Network is a US-based “network of over 3,000 Black, Indigenous, immigrant, women, femme, trans, and two-spirit people and their co-conspirators who are building a world beyond violence—a world rooted in mutual care, where all people live in dignity, and all beings can thrive.” Their work includes an aspect of collective governance which they describe as an essential building block to their work – and which they define as: “Collective governance begins with a choice: to commit to the ways of being that enable all beings to thrive.” Their work is beautiful and it deeply inspires – worth a look!
Great overview of the U.S. behavioral health workforce with particular attention on shortages and incomplete coverage across the country – and the implications for our already fragile and patchy social welfare system.
Excellent lecture recently given at the international Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity challenging the dominant world economic order called “The invisible heart: Postgrowth economies as care.” They seek to challenge the idea that wealth is about money – and suggest that a paradigm change is needed to view wealth and health and robust and interconnected care networks.
Gorgeous work here on “Belonging design principles” for those intentionally seeking to build belonging more intentionally into systems.
The Future of Racism, Anti-Racism and Other Isms
I gather/collect a variety of annual reports (trends, analysis and the like). These are useful scanning tools. I found this new report from the World Inequality Lab called the Climate Inequality Report to shed important light on a variety of topics relevant to the topics of how climate futures are poised to have differential impact on the world’s most vulnerable people. This is a very useful piece to identify and highlight the rapid evolution of multiple and intersecting issues: unequal contributions to climate change, unequal impacts of climate change and tackling climate inequalities. As social workers expand our own literacies and capacities to be meaningful change agents in this space – this is a reference that can be useful.
In related news, this piece specifically illuminates the the burden of recent wildfires across Canada for Indigenous peoples. Additional information here.
This piece explores how AI could perpetuate racism, sexims and other biases in society.
The 2023 State of Black America report is out including numerous important indicators, voices and aspirations for the future.
The future of professions
Interesting and creative piece on the future of filmmaking which is a launchpad to considering how much “current events” can shock new possibilities for a profession.
Here’s a piece about how AI could radically alter the practice of law in the future. Additional piece on this here.
Again, not to be taken as “fact” but more to understand how the future of AI discourses intersect with the future of work discourses – this new report from McKinsey is of interest. Alternatively, here’s an open access book called “Feminist futures of work – reimagining labor in the digital economy.”
Finally, to round out various views of AI in professions, here’s a new piece from the New England Journal of Medicine on AI in medicine.
Miscellaneous
I’ve been studying concepts of “intergenerational fairness” – and I recently discovered a lot of work going on in this area. The #OurFuture Pledge is a Unicef (with an assortment of partners) project which is an agenda built by youth. I’m very inspired. by what they’ve put together. Worth a look. In related work, check out the work the School of International Futures put together related to developing a new framework for intergenerational fairness.
This piece about the quest for “utopias” as a dangerous expression of colonialism (and neo-colonialism) is extremely thought provoking. Invoking the idea that all ideas of the future are political…sobering reminder of the power of ideas of the future when they are not democratic and focused on equity.
New article alert from our Social Work Futures Lab group. A number of us wrote a new article for Advaoces in Social Wrok using teh “Ethical OS” tool to explore as a possible way for social workers to accelerate their abilities to assess technology risks in their practice. You can check it out here.
Personal note: Honoring Dr. Mit Joyner. Just over a month ago, the social work field lost a true icon and I lost a true friend. Dr. Mit Joyner was a recent president of NASW and held leadership roles in a variety of national and local social work organizations. You can read more about here here. Most recently Dr. Joyner served on the founding Social Work Health Futures Lab National Advisory Board – and was deeply committed to the work of our group as we explored and imagined how to help social work both prepare for and co-create more equitable futures. After a brief pause, our newly re-launching Social Work Futures Lab will be honoring Mit in the coming year in a fun and creative way, but I wanted to take the opportunity to express my grief about her loss, and my gratitude for the energy, vision. and support she brought to so many. I feel extremely blessed to have worked with and learned from her. Thank you Mit.