Spirituality And Social Justice Spirit In The Political Quest For A Just World

Spirituality and Social Justice explores how critically informed spirituality can serve as an inspiration and a political force in the quest for social and ecological justice. Writing from various spiritual and religious worldviews, including Indigenous, Islamic, Wicca/Witchcraft, Jewish, Buddhist, and Christian, the authors—practitioners and academics of social work—draw on lived experience, research, and literature to illuminate how relationship with spirit can orient ways of being and acting to build a more just society. In Part One, the authors foreground Indigenous spirituality as resistance and decolonization. Part Two examines the complex ethical and political dimensions of spirituality, including the ecological destruction of the Earth and the influence of contemporary neoliberalism. Lastly, Part Three explores spirituality in teaching and learning contexts, both inside and beyond the classroom. Engaging and well-written, Spirituality and Social Justice challenges the notion that practitioners must put aside their critical spirituality in teaching, learning, healing, and practice. Students, practitioners, and academics of social work and other helping professions will benefit from the unique insights into spirituality and religion and how they inform social justice activism.

The thoroughly updated third edition of Strong Helpers’ Teachings skillfully illustrates the importance of Indigenous knowledges in the human services. Making space for the voices of many Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, practitioners, and service users, Cyndy Baskin’s text models possible pathways toward relationship building and allyship. With practical examples and case studies, Baskin places Indigenous perspectives at the centre of the social work disciplines and covers topics such as spirituality, research, justice, and healing. Robust updates include new chapters on decolonization and reconciliation, as well as expanded content on holistic healing implementation, skill building, land-based practice, and child welfare. With concise theoretical content, illustrative practical applications, rich pedagogical features, and a focus on centering Indigenous worldviews, knowledge, and helping practices, this text is foundational for educators, practitioners, and students of human services, social work, child and youth care, and more. FEATURES: - Centres Indigenous knowledge for social work practice - Supplements practical applications with case studies, encouraging critical reflection and discussion - Each chapter includes an introduction and conclusion to outline objectives and summarize the chapter’s content

Written from a critical theory, de-colonizing, and transformative lens, Re-Search Methods in Social Work: Linking Ways of Knowing to Knowledge Creation brings together in one space an introduction to four worldviews that inform what we call knowledge gathering, knowledge construction, knowledge co-creation, or re-search (depending on the worldview). This text presents a broad range of methods that are commonly used to inform social work practice across Turtle Island/Kanata/Canada, including the steps from inception to knowledge mobilization that are typically followed to acquire knowledge across Indigenous, (post)positivist, interpretivist, and transformative worldviews. This engaging text features reader-friendly language; integrated authorship that spans the four worldviews; discussions of various challenges, strengths, and limitations in bringing together multiple ways of knowing and associated methods; chapter learning outcomes; and discussion questions. With a focus on anti-oppressive practice, social justice, social action, collaboration, and inclusion, Re-Search Methods in Social Work is essential for college and university social work courses, and for social work practitioner-researchers across Turtle Island/Kanata/Canada who are interested in opening their mind to a more wholistic and respectful way of engaging in dialogue about and advancing knowledge that leads to social change.

A Sacred Duty sets out the Kingdom's policy toward the global issue of migrants and refugees, with special emphasis directed toward Muslim societies. Discussion focuses on refugee communities currently living in Saudi Arabia, some of which migrated due to war, forced displacement, environmental catastrophe, and economic hardship. Some migrants have come from bordering countries such as Iraq and Yemen; others reached the Arabian Peninsula from Africa and Asia. All have been welcomed and cared for, though settlement conditions, repatriation and deportation circumstances were not always ideal. Inevitably, and mirroring experience elsewhere in the world, there are undeniable gulfs between policies and practices. Policy shortcomings are measured against the substantive assistance planks that Riyadh espouses, including providing financial aid to refugees in third countries, over and above United Nations appeals. These acts are done without prejudice and mostly without publicity. Aid to the needy is justified by religious obligations, as well as on humanitarian grounds. Saudi Arabia's aid contributions have generally been either overlooked or dismissed, and the religious foundations of their commitment to displaced populations has been negatively contrasted against human-rights based commitments espoused by Western states and institutions. Sa'udi Policies Towards Migrants and Refugees addresses these concerns, filling a key gap in the literature on a vital policy topic. The book refutes notions that the country discourages open research on sensitive topics and further dispels the prejudiced idea of a society closed to any kind of external influence. Saudi Arabia's granting of hospitality to refugees reinforces historic, tribal and universal norms in contrast to misplaced notions of hostility toward Western standards, which in the case of migrants and refugees has seen the application of confused and alarming standards of behaviour by a plethora of Western states. Published in conjunction with the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS).

Career Narratives and Academic Womanhood is a collection of essays in which life writing scholars theorize their early-career, mid-career, and late-career experiences with the documents that shape their professional lives as women: the institutional auto/biography of employment letters, curriculum vitae, tenure portfolios, promotion applications, publication and conference bios, academic website profiles, and other self-authored narratives required by institutions to compete for opportunities and resources. The essays explore the privacy laws, peer review, disciplinary standards, digital media, and other standardizing tools, practices and policies that impact women’s self-construction at pivotal junctures at which they promote themselves in the spaces of academic careers.

Founded in a perspective that speaks to the diversity of contexts and processes used across Canada, this work is nevertheless firmly grounded in theory, offering an in-depth analysis geared toward advanced study in community practice. This depth is further strengthened by the diversity of topics represented in this collective work: community work in various regions of the country exploring issues of poverty and environmental activism; community work with immigrants and refugees, and with trans communities; feminist community organizing as well as organizing with persons with disabilities and with members of linguistic communities; and, finally, artsbased community work with the elderly. This book is published in English. - S’il reflète une diversité de contextes et de processus mis en oeuvre partout au Canada, cet ouvrage est toutefois fermement ancré dans la théorie, convenant aux études avancées en pratique communautaire. La diversité des sujets que propose cet ouvrage collectif est d’un intérêt particulier, qu’il s’agisse du travail communautaire dans diverses régions du pays explorant les questions de la pauvreté et de l’activisme environnemental; le travail communautaire auprès des immigrants et des réfugiés et avec les communautés de personnes trans; l’organisation de la communauté féministe ainsi que celle des personnes handicapées ou celle des membres de communautés linguistiques, et enfin, le travail communautaire axé sur les arts auprès des personnes âgées. Ce livre est publié en anglais.

Named one of the Fifty Best Spiritual Books of 2013 by SPIRITUALITY & PRACTICE in the JUSTICE category! The Occupy Wall Street movement and protest movements around the world are evidence of a new era of intergenerational activists seeking deeper spiritual meaning in their quest for peace and justice. This book is a call to action for a new era of spirituality-infused activism. Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to use our talents in service of compassion and justice and to move beyond our broken systems--economic, political, educational, and religious--discovering a spirituality that not only helps us to get along, but also encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, transforming them and in the process building a more sacred and just world. Incorporating the words of young activist leaders culled from interviews and surveys, the book provides a framework that is deliberately interfaith and speaks to our profound yearning for a life with spiritual purpose and for a better world. Each chapter is construed as a dialogue between Fox, a 72-year-old theologian, and Bucko, a 37-year-old spiritual activist and mentor to homeless youth. As we listen in on these familiar yet profound conversations, we learn about Fox and Bucko's own spiritual journeys and discover a radical spirituality that is inclusive, democratic, and relevant to the world we live in today. Table of Contents Foreword by Mona Eltahawy Foreword by Andrew Harvey Introduction: Invitation to Occupy Your Conscience 1. Is It Time to Replace the God of Religion with the God of Life? 2. Radical Spirituality for a Radical Generation 3. Adam's Story 4. Matthew's Story 5. What's Your Calling? Are You Living in Service of Compassion and Justice? 6. Spiritual Practice: Touch Life and Be Changed by It 7. No Generation Has All the Answers: Elders and Youth Working Together 8. Birthing New Economics, New Communities, and New Monasticism Conclusion: Occupy Generation and the Practice of Spiritual Democracy Afterword by Lama Surya Das From the Trade Paperback edition.

Mae Elise Cannon opens the annals of activist history to see if there is a correlation between great acts of compassion and advocacy and great depths of prayer. Looking at the lives of Mother Teresa, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr. and others, Cannon finds a depth of spiritual practice at the root of courageous social action.