Abstract
‘Working with people’ and ‘getting united’ are always the terms used in our daily social work practice. This explains why we always walk with our clients, their families, and communities for individual well-being and the common good. Here we recognize that collective well-being and togetherness has a direct relationship to individual well-being. As social workers, we always use our voice to call out the human rights of our clients and never give up on the people in need. In this way, we aim to connect the broader society to those who are separated by marginalization be it poverty, racism or discrimination. We offer a place to hear people’s troubles and trauma. This is a place of care, support, and reframing to restore their faith and hope (Boddy et al., 2018). All these efforts are defining the nature of our job and differentiating the roles and functions from other professions. To put it short, it is our mission to work for togetherness in our society. This is why the ‘Ubuntu: I am because we are’ becomes the motto of social workers as it refers the strengthening of social solidarity and global connectedness (Mayaka and Truell, 2021). Social work is a not only a job or a profession, it is also a cause and a movement. It is a place where we recognize that we or our loved ones could be in the same position of our clients, and indeed we may not be doing half as well as they are. We use not only our knowledge and skills but also ourselves in building a relationship of togetherness with our clients, within an ethical framework (O’Leary et al., 2013).
We can still remember the global definition of the social work profession stated at the International Conference on Social Work and Social development in Melbourne in July 2014:
Social work is a practice profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of the people. Principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversities are central to social work. Underpinned by theories of social work, social sciences, humanities and indigenous knowledges, social work engages people and structures to address life challenges and enhance wellbeing. The above definition may be amplified at national and/or regional levels. (International Federation of Social Workers, 2014)
Although we are so clear about goals and actions to build global togetherness among people, the challenges we face at present are heightened. The context for our practice is a divided world. Unfortunately, division in our world is increasing every day. There is no need to be an expert or a KOL, everyone on the street recognizes that there are wars, bankruptcy of governments, radicalization, extremism, dissolving civil rights and assassinations coming from different kinds of dividedness. The pandemic of COVID-19, the broken supply chains, the fallout has exposed us all to rising inflation and risks of a recession, and the tense geopolitical relations make the divided gaps wider and deeper. As we mentioned before, social work has a role to build a ‘bridge over the troubled water’ (O’Leary and Tsui, 2021); this is always a challenge for the profession. But now more than ever, we must find away to bridge the gap and bring people together.
We need to think big with eyes on global, hands on local and heart with the people. Social work is an international profession with members across the world. We have our own diversity in knowledge and skills to best respond to different people, needs and locations but we have aligned values and vision and part of this is sense of togetherness. Social work practice could be and should be a mediating process for the people to come up with consensus and consent. However, it does not mean that the mediating role is the only function of social workers or harmony is the only target. There can be areas for peaceful convergence and divergence recognizing we have more commonalities than differences. What we want to emphasize is that the togetherness should be our mind-set and attitude. When we think big, it is the ultimate values of human beings, not just a segment of interest groups. We should be conscious about our conscience. Our voice should not only follow the majority, but also take care of the suffering minority. In this manner, we need to be (1) reflective, that is, to review what we have done and how we can be better; (2) contextual, on one hand, we need to be down-to-earth, on the other hand, we have to go beyond our biases; and (3) inclusive, we need to be humble and accept diversities and differences.
We complete this editorial to acknowledge the passing of social worker John Small who tirelessly worked for togetherness in his pioneering work against racism and advocated for the rights of Black children. His work has impacted on social work in the United Kingdom and beyond. The profession is stronger for John’s incredible leadership and will miss him greatly. A tribute by former International Social Work editor Lena Dominelli is featured on the BASW website (https://www.basw.co.uk/resources/psw-magazine/psw-online/social-work-mourns-loss-pioneering-anti-racism-leader).