Social Justice and the Global Economy: New Challenges for Social Work in the 21st Century

In the new century, social work is confronted with a global system in which the world's people are bound together in a complex web of economic relationships. People's lives are now linked to lives of distant others through the clothes that they wear, the energy that warms them, and even the food that they eat. What are the institutions of this new global economy and are they just and equitable? We are compelled to once again consider the perennial themes of social justice, exploitation, and privilege, but this time as they relate to an economic system of unprecedented scope. With regard to social justice issues, the NASW Code of Ethics (2000) leaves no doubt about a global mandate. Whereas the term "global" was not used in earlier versions, the current code states "social workers should promote the general welfare of society, from local to global levels ... [including] social, economic, political, and cultural values and institutions that ate compatible with the realization of social justice" [italics added] (pp. 26-27). This explicit extension of ethical responsibility beyond national boundaries flows naturally from the core value of "human dignity and worth" that is at the heart of our professional identity. Moreover, such a worldwide orientation is consistent with the work of numerous and often prominent social workers who have worked on peace and global social justice issues throughout the history of the profession (Van Soest, 1995). What then are the structures of privilege, exploitation, and resource distribution inherent in the new global economy? This question is best approached by first noting critical antecedents. Colonialism--Precursor of the Current Global Economy Beginning in the late 1400s and continuing until the middle of the 20th century, European countries, most notably England, Spain, Portugal, France, and the Netherlands, exploited the peoples and resources in the areas of the world now commonly referred to as the "Global South." Colonies of both expansion and exploitation were established in places such as South and Central America, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and India, and in the 19th century, Africa. Much of the current geopolitical map is actually the product of this history of European colonialism. Whether Europeans migrated to particular colonies or simply maintained control by establishing puppet governments of a local military presence, colonialism generally aimed at one goal: the movement of local commodities and resources toward the Europeans and the exploitation of indigenous people for labor or, in other cases, social marginalization or elimination. In other words, colonialism established a historical context of severe class polarization as well as a precedent for the exploitation of indigenous people and their resources in the countries of the Global South (E. Goldsmith, 1996; Magdoff, 1978; Weaver, 2000). Colonial domination was often justified through a belief in the superiority of Europeans over the indigenous populations. At its worst, this rationale, which was racist as well as ethnocentric, was used to justify the slave trade and genocide. In less severe variations, Europeans envisioned themselves as "civilizing" their subjects, who, we should note, were virtually always not white. In general, colonialism involved a powerful belief in European entitlement and superiority as well as an unabashed racist orientation that was used to justify centuries of wholesale exploitation (Moussa, 2000). Although some colonies became independent of direct European control during the 19th century, the full scope of direct domination came to an end in the years after World War II. During that time, the remaining colonized countries of the Global South experienced the emergence of military coups, dictators, and other varieties of autocratic governments. With few and fleeting exceptions, the independent governments of the Global South were undemocratic in origin and patently corrupt. …