round the world, the role and status of social work is under review against the background of sweeping global, regional and local changes. The contours of existing welfare regimes are dissolving and the foundations and boundaries of social solidarity are being redefined. These changes, as well as responses from those immediately affected by them, have a farreaching impact on social work to reexamine its relationship with the state and with society. For many social workers, the most challenging feature of their daily work is the growing inequality in the distribution of wealth, resources and opportunities globally and locally. As nation states everywhere come increasingly under the sway of international economic interests, the global split between poorer and wealthier countries manifests itself in exacerbated social divisions affecting users of social services and participants in social projects. 'Indigenous' social inequality is intrinsically linked to processes of globalisation and aggressive power politics, with concomitant population displacements and international forms of exploitation of vulnerable and defenceless people.
| Social Sciences | Open Access Journal |