Future Directions in Social Development

This book invites readers to think about future directions in social development. The book succinctly presents the historical context and progress of social development. By reflecting on the Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals, it discusses the increasing global relevance of several critical themes and issues such as human rights and good governance, participation, peace, gender, environment, religion and spirituality, aging, social protection and partnership. It appreciates the importance of goals and targets, but calls to look beyond them to visualise future directions in social development. The book argues that values-driven social development need to focus on knowledge creation, dissemination and training, draw on multidisciplinary knowledge and professionals, promote conscientious consumption, creating less unequal societies and engage in innovation that brings happiness to everyone.

James Midgley Ph.D. is Harry and Riva Specht Professor of Public Social Services and former Dean of the School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, USA. He previously taught at the University of Cape Town, the London School of Economics and Louisiana State University. Among his best known books are: Professional Imperialism: Social Work in the Third World (1981); Comparative Social Policy and the Third World (with Stewart MacPherson, 1987); Social Development: The Developmental Perspective in Social Welfare (1995); Social Policy for Development (with Anthony Hall, 2004) and Social Development: Theory and Practice (2014)

Manohar Pawar Ph.D. is?Professor of Social Work at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Australia, and?is President of the Asia-Pacific branch of the International Consortium for Social Development. His publications include: Reflective Social Work Practice: Thinking, doing and being (2015); Water and Social Policy ( Palgrave Macmillan, 2014); Social and Community Development Practice (2014); International Social Work: Issues, strategies and programs (2013); Sage Handbook of International Social Work (Ed., 2012); Social Development; Critical themes and perspectives (Eds., Routledge, 2010); and Community Development in Asia and the Pacific (2010).