Animals in Disaster Social Work: An Intersectional Green Perspective Inclusive of Species

Heather Fraser, Nik Taylor, Damien W. Riggs

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Disasters do not just affect humans. And humans do not only live with, care for or interact with other humans. In this conceptual article, we explain how animals are relevant to green and disaster social work. Power, oppression and politics are our themes. We start the discussion by defining disasters and providing examples of how three categories of animals are affected by disasters, including in the current COVID-19 pandemic. They are: companion animals (pets), farmed animals (livestock) and free-living animals (wildlife), all of whom we classify as oppressed populations. Intersectional feminist, de-colonising and green social work ideas are discussed in relation to disaster social work. We argue that social work needs to include nonhuman animals in its consideration of person-in-environment, and offer an expanded version of feminist intersectionality inclusive of species as a way forward.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1739-1758
Number of pages20
JournalBritish Journal of Social Work
Volume51
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2021

Keywords

  • Alliances
  • animals
  • climate change
  • disasters
  • intersectionality

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