Reflections on a strained relationship
Prof. Dr. Or, what does your curriculum area — social work — encompass?
Social Work is a human rights profession, particularly also in this time of climate change, marked as it is by the global call for climate justice. But in the Anthropocene era in which we find ourselves today, and in which man has become one of the primary driving factors behind the current environmental crisis, we are being confronted with questions of an altogether different and far more fundamental nature. The call for climate justice, for a reduction in CO₂ emissions and for a change in lifestyle choices is not only necessary but also essential for our survival. Yet it is at least equally important to reflect on the reasons why we ended up in this situation. Not only to describe the phenomenon as such but also to comprehend why we, as one humanity, have allowed the environmental crisis – which we are now experiencing and which was already foreseeable long ago – to reach a critical tipping point.
In view of this, does Social Work mean understanding and describing individuals as part of a broader whole in their multifaceted interrelationships?
Yes, exactly ... and then coming up with answers that can be applied to these analyses. The potential role of Social Work as it relates to the environmental crisis goes beyond the impact of global North-South relations, as well as the erosion of meaning, not to mention the alienation prevalent in modern societies. On a theoretical basis as well, I analyze the relationship between people and nature to derive from this a subject-specific reorientation for understanding human development.
So ultimately it’s about a comprehensive, deeper and even new understanding of people, their being and their interaction with nature?
Yes. Humanity has reached a stage of evolution in which it has become so technologically advanced and powerful that everything it does has an impact on all species as a whole on the planet and the planet’s entire ecosystem. Ever since the 1950s, we have been living so far beyond our means as to cause damage to many biosystems. We think of ourselves as beings of near-godlike power, but we’re not. We’ve reached the point where the logic of progress – ever more consumption, ever more production, more and more overexploitation of natural resources, more and more destruction – has arrived its natural endpoint. We must desist from pursuing the path of egocentrism and anthropocentrism that we have taken in the past. The real evolutionary challenge that humanity faces today is to adapt our power and abilities, mindful of our responsibility to protect our planetary system.
Are we capable of bringing about a fundamental change of perspective, to no longer see ourselves as creation’s crowning glory but rather as a part of nature?
The way we live and act is predicated on a conception of the world and humanity in which we, as human beings, exist independently of nature, as it were. This conception is the result of the Christian patriarchal worldview, according to which humanity perceives itself as separate from nature. Prior to that time, we viewed ourselves as one with nature, and sure enough we then wanted to elevate ourselves above nature. But this disconnect is no longer functional, assuming it ever was in the first place. Today, at any rate, the biological and social sciences teach us that human beings are part of nature and intertwined with all facets of the system as a whole – from the nano level through to our planetary environment. Once we come to realize this, we will be capable of taking action as never before and adopt a caring and regenerative attitude towards our planet.
From the way you describe your work, I would be tempted rather to place you as a scientist in the company of theologians and philosophers.
I’m an anthropologist and learning scientist with a focus on the developmental processes of adolescents. I always approach human development from a systemic perspective and pursue an interdisciplinary approach, meaning that I look both at social and at cultural belief systems, as well as biophysiological and psychological processes, in order to understand human development in its entirety. I believe that this interdisciplinary and holistic approach is necessary when it comes to a topic as complex as the impact of the environmental crisis on our lives. My job at the moment is to review the existing literature and baseline studies – especially in psychology, medicine and the neurosciences – at a high, scientifically proven, peer-reviewed level and to further extrapolate the findings for our specific faculty. One question I ask myself, for example, is: Which are the genuinely specific impacts of environmental and climate changes on the development of children and adolescents here in Germany? What negative and what positive influence does nature per se have? And what does this mean for the field of Social Work?
What as yet unimagined negative effects does traffic-related air pollution have on people — apart from respiratory disease, for example?
Traffic-related pollutants in the air we breathe are absorbed into our bodies, where they cause damage not only to our respiratory tract and lungs but also to our central nervous system. They also lead to inflammation in the brain and thus affect both our well-being and our development. We now have ample evidence that exposure to pollutants is associated with major risks to the psychological development of children and adolescents in addition to the risk of developing dementia. Environmental pollution is also perceptible on a social level as it can lead to ADHD, depression, anxiety disorders and even suicide. This close and multifaceted link between people and nature has not yet filtered through to the applied sciences such as Social Work or, for that matter, psychotherapy. When today’s children act out, we tend to search for the cause in the family, in trauma, stress or problematic family constellations.
Is there also positive influence that nature has on humans as its subsystem?
Here as well, numerous studies demonstrate that contact with nature – with what we in science call blue and green spaces, i.e., forests, parks, rivers, lakes – has the potential to regenerate the human system both physically and psychologically. Bare-skinned contact with the earth – such as doing gardening work or romping in the woods – reduces anxiety and indirectly enhances our cognitive potential via a bacterium that we absorb into our body through our skin.
In what ways does Social Work currently contribute to sustainability?
On the one hand, it puts us in the position, on a scientifically founded basis, to call for the conservation of nature as comprehensive protection of human life and as an essential global and basic indivisible human right. Therefore, it can also act directly in the service of climate justice and contribute to the urgently needed socio-ecological transformation of society. Nature-based Social Work as a sustainable field in its own right can help to reconnect people with the “rest of nature” and offer support in regaining their physical and psychological health, on the one hand, and finding meaning and strength, on the other.
What then is sustainability?
A status quo that we need to attain, where we as one humanity can live in balance with the Earth as a system.
What role do science and higher education play in conveying sustainability as a new guiding principle?
We are only in the starting blocks. Within Social Work in Germany and Europe, the first proverbial seeds are now being sown. The first enthusiasts are coming together and consulting with each other on how we as a Faculty of Social Work can address the environmental crisis. On a global scale, social and natural scientists are reexamining outdated assumptions about the relationship between humanity and nature and brainstorming on what a new understanding that regards us as part of nature may entail for their disciplines. Universities, however, are not just places of research but also places of teaching. And there is a prevailing consensus among our students: we’ve got a problem.