Abstract
As social workers, of course, we work for meaning, not for money. However, it does not mean that we do not need money or know about money. Many social workers think that the core components of social work intervention are mainly related to ‘relationships’, including intra-personal, inter-personal, intra-organizational, inter-organizational, international and even human–nature relationships. However, as everyone understands, without resources, social work probably ‘doesn’t work’. Finance provides the ‘means’ to deliver social work services. This is prerequisite for linking people to many essential resources. Without finance, our work is existentially limited because while we can engage with meaning we cannot fulfil action or even provide basic needs. Thus, social work loses capacity to deliver authentic outcomes and impacts. The principle is different from the business sector: on one hand, our entrepreneurship is to link people with resources, and on the other hand, we need money to deliver this service; our profit is the well-being and empowerment of our clients and community. To this end, social work is an essential part of the political economy; without a functioning community, the business sector cannot flourish.
In this editorial, we try to widen our horizon from service funding to the finance of our service targets, that is, the ordinary people in need. After the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, governments all over the world have spent billions of dollars to purchase tons of vaccines and medical materials for fighting against the virus and its variants. In addition, huge sums of public money have been spent stimulating the economy and protecting the basic income of vulnerable populations to ensure the security and stability of the society without real increase in the production of goods and services. Whenever the pandemic is gone, there comes a big problem – who pays the bill? Added to this, there are new challenges such as geopolitical conflict and growing implications of climate change.
There is no need to be an economist; anyone with common sense can tell us the financial problems and impacts of the pandemic. The supply chains were blocked or even broken. Four kinds of logistic flows – (1) people (visitors, business people and tourists), (2) goods and food, (3) capital, foreign exchange and investments, and (4) mail, data, information and knowledge – were in trouble. This affects the supply and distribution, especially equal distribution. The planes were idle in the airport or desert. Ships were caught in the harbour. Consequently, flights and shipments were reduced to a basic level. The cost of transport and delivery rapidly increased, resulting in increased prices. Today, inflation is rising rapidly, but in many cases, wages are stagnant. In a world of globalization, high levels of specialization and division of labour depend on complicated networks of supply chains that are connected by Internet and logistics. However, the emerging ‘de-globalization’ has increased global division. The cost of the divided world rests on the shoulders of the ordinary people.
After the pandemic, the gap between the ‘have’ and ‘have-nots’ has become larger than before in the virtual world with use of IT tools. Many manual workers have lost their jobs and maintain their lives with only a marginal living standard. Many cannot afford to pay the rent of their accommodation and become street sleepers. Meanwhile public service workers and professional practitioners found that their purchasing power is decreasing during a time of inflation. Facing the economic recession and unemployment, we earn less, but we need to pay more for necessary foods, goods and services. For retired senior citizens, their savings are decreasing every day during the times of inflation. Human rights are central to the social work purpose; we need to stand with the ‘have-nots’ because we must advocate for those who are in hungry or without shelter. This compels us to stand up for those in need without diminishing the struggles for many families that must cope with less.
Unfortunately, other than the once-in-a century pandemic, there are also geopolitical confrontations and even military conflicts on different continents. Factories were destroyed. Farmers are forced to leave their farms, and residents become refugees. Confrontations and sanctions distort free and fair trade and the complementary production between different regions. Peace has become just a blessing at birthday parties. Free trade can only be done within countries with similar ideologies.
The second questions comes: who pays the bill? The answer is obvious. It is the ‘ordinary’ people. The third question comes: what can social workers do and should do?
Let us restate the mission of social work practice. We aim at ensuring social justice and enhancing the well-being of the people, not only the clients that we serve, but the people in society. We need to reframe the boundary of our social work practice. A new sub-discipline in social work practice should be given more attention – financial social work. This intersects with social work’s engagement to shape just and progressive social policy, as well as its work in community development. Policy initiatives in these challenging financial times may include increasing skills and education of workers, especially youth, during times of unemployment; enhancing the level and benefits of income and social security benefits; mobilizing community-led initiatives such as food banks, community gardens, home visiting and care programmes; support for minority groups in areas such as disability and refugees; raise community consciousness and action on issues such as racism, child abuse and domestic and family violence. Here we recognize that in times of economic insecurity and stress, other social problems can be magnified in their occurrence and impact. Although we fully understand that the significance of finance on the well-being of individuals, families, and communities, we lack the knowledge to address the problems encountered by our clients. There is no need for us to become accountants or financial consultants. What we should do is have some basic knowledge and awareness of the financial trends. Collaboration with professionals in the finance sector should be sought to help our clients.
Social work addresses the challenges people have in their environment. Today, the aftermath of the pandemic, geopolitics, political extremism and climate stress have brought economic uncertainties across the globe. Many ‘ordinary’ people are experiencing uncertainty, inequality and injustice at this scale for the first time in their lives. This is a moment for social work to shine for ‘ordinary’ people. Social work can mobilize the collective consciousness of these people to bring about meaningful and sustainable change to economic, political and environmental issues. Never before has the contemporary relevance of social work been so acute. It will even give us an opportunity to address the endemic issues of inequality and injustice that were chronic before the pandemic. Progress is possible in times of uncertainty.