Spirituality, Culture, and Development: Implications for Social Work

This book explores culture, development, and spirituality from the perspective of social work. This framework serves as foundation and guides analytical deliberation through the use of case studies from around the world. With emerging trends in development, synchronistic synthesis between the inner self and interventions, it is anticipated to contribute to advancing well-being of all people. The book reflects global experiences from both the social work professions and development practitioner’s perspectives, as it pertains to economic and social development. The book serves as a guide to those who want to better understand and incorporate spirituality into successful social work interventions, practice, and research. It examines social development in the daily lives of children and families by looking at larger national and international phenomenon that can affect the well-being of communities. The book further discusses natural disasters, poverty, war, migration, human trafficking, war, violence and other factors with suggestions of innovative global interventions that have been utilized to assist diverse marginalized groups and communities.  

Table of Contents:
Foreword, Kay Hoffman Part I: Background Information Chapter 1: Introduction: Chathapuram S. Ramanathan and Srilatha Juvva Chapter 2: Religious, Spiritual Perspectives, and Development, Pius V Thomas, Chathapuram S. Ramanathan, and Pravina Ramanathan Part II: Poverty and Hunger Chapter 3: Ending Poverty and Hunger: The Global Pursuit of Human Dignity, Neil Renwick Part III: Empowering Women Chapter 4: Advancing Social Commitment towards Advancing Women in India and Globally, Subhabrata Dutta, Chathapuram S. Ramanathan, and Srilatha Juvva Chapter 5: Domestic Violence in the Asian American Community and Islamic Women, Shreya Bhandari and Khadija Khaja Part IV: Health Issues Chapter 6: Challenges Confronting Sustainable Development Goals: Learnings from Millennium Development Goals, Ruchi Sinha Chapter 7: People and Disability: Strengths and Challenges, Srilatha Juvva, Prerna Sharma, and Pravina Ramanathan Part V: Disaster Management Chapter 8: Culture and its Relevance in Provision of Psychosocial Support for Survivors of Disasters, Kasi Sekar, Elangovan Aravind Raj, Srilatha Juvva, and Chathapuram S. Ramanathan Chapter 9: Public-Private-NGO partnership and Tsunami Relief, Chathapuram S. Ramanathan, Srilatha Juvva, and Mizanur Miah Part VI: Education Chapter 10: Universal Education and Development, Rosemary J. Link Part VII: Future Considerations Chapter 11: Concluding Remarks and Futuristic Considerations: Progress, Development, and Peace, Chathapuram S. Ramanathan and Subhabrata Dutta

About the Author :
Chathapuram S. Ramanathan is chief executive of Human Service Enterprises. Srilatha Juvva is professor of social work at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Subhabrata Dutta is professor and head of the Department of Social Work and dean of students’ welfare at Assam University. Khadija Khaja is associate professor at Indiana University's School of Social Work.

Review :
This book goes far in presenting wide-ranging political, economic, social, cultural, and religious differences among nations for social work readers around the world. The authors assert that the wisdom or truth of the individual—and therefore motivating factor for social justice—is often a spiritual one. “Spirituality” is writ large here, from organized religions to a mindful connection with self, others, and the world. The book is equally valuable to global western and northern social workers in that it challenges not only the terms “first-world” and “third-world,” but also the idea of degree of a country’s “development.” The authors argue that countries are continuously creating their states, economies and civil societies within their cultures and histories and there is no single desired “developed” endpoint. In fact, the typical development measures of Gross National Product (GNP) or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rely heavily on measures of the market. These minimize the value of civil society and progressive state policies evident in the Social Progress Index (SPI) such as ecosystem sustainability, access to healthcare and education, gender equality, attitudes toward immigrants and minorities, religious freedom, and nutrition measures. Understanding “development” in this way would provide a rather different assessment of the global stage. This book is ambitious and creates an important theoretical foundation on which to build the next installment regarding global development and its relation to spirituality. The editors and contributors to this path-breaking book offer new and refreshing insights into the complex relationship between spirituality, culture and development. Social workers everywhere will benefit from the book’s insightful analysis. It deserves to be widely read.