Human Service Organizations in the Disaster Context explores the efforts of human service practitioners to support communities facing the impacts of large-scale hazardous events. Using the stories of frontline workers and managers who lived through devastating earthquakes in Canterbury, New Zealand in 2010 and 2011, and drawing on international research and sociological theory, van Heugten astutely analyses the challenges and opportunities that arise. In the immediate aftermath of disasters, there is often a surge in altruism giving rise to hope for improved social cohesion. This hope wanes...

In Social Work for Sociologists, a team of international authors with backgrounds in social work and sociology explain and illustrate how "the social work imagination" links theory and practice to interventions and outcomes. Van Heugten, Gibbs, and contributors address lingering disciplinary divisions and controversies about the appropriateness of engaging with public issues and social justice concerns, and introduce key values, ethics, and practice frameworks. Finally, they illustrate the utility of social work practice frameworks in fields including child welfare, group work, bicultural and...

Human Service Organizations in the Disaster Context explores the efforts of human service practitioners to support communities facing the impacts of large-scale hazardous events. Using the stories of frontline workers and managers who lived through devastating earthquakes in Canterbury, New Zealand in 2010 and 2011, and drawing on international research and sociological theory, van Heugten astutely analyses the challenges and opportunities that arise. In the immediate aftermath of disasters, there is often a surge in altruism giving rise to hope for improved social cohesion. This hope wanes...