Description
Embracing an Ecosocial Worldview for Climate Justice and Collective Healing
Sandra Engstrom (Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Stirling, UK) & Meredith C F Powers (Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work and a Sustainability Faculty Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA)
We are faced with an ongoing global climate crisis, the more recent public health crisis brought on by COVID-19, increased racial and police violence, ableism, and the intersecting injustices surrounding gender and sexuality.
From an autoethnographic perspective, it is argued that the urgent need for a shift in worldview from one that is more human-centric to an ecosocial worldview that takes into account the global connections that we can no longer ignore. An ecosocial worldview acknowledges the inextricable relationships of humans within our context of a global ecosystem.
When we embrace this worldview, we can approach and address injustice and in doing so, can prove to be beneficial to and healing for both the planet and the people living in; it has to be understood as climate justice. We reflect on our journeys to an ecosocial world view and discuss how climate justice works from an ecosocial worldview, can promote the repairing of broken relationships among individuals, communities, self, and the planet.
This paper shares reflections and perspectives for individual and collective healing, such as eco-therapy, gratitude, teaching, and adopting a sustainable, life-enhancing pace. These healing and reflective practices within the context of climate justice are also important factors in building and maintaining individual and community resilience to current and future crises.
