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132 SZILVIA NYERS be aware of the impact of human activity on the environment, and vice versa (Woods 2021). The expansion of the urban way of life throughout the world has led to the devastation of natural habitats, and hence the decrease of biological diversity. It follows that it is more and more imperative to cooperate and transform the patterns of consumption so as to achieve human wellbeing and sustainable development. Green social work implies practices based on a communal approach such as communal action, communal learning, broad collaboration, and raising awareness to turn communities into indispensable resources in the fabric of society (Woods 2021). Social workers predominantly work with people in the lower social strata who are more markedly exposed to political and economic changes, or, for that matter, to climate change. (See the chapter on Environmental Justice by Gyula Nagy.) When communal resources are mobilized, poverty can be alleviated more effectively. Writing of the connections between poverty and contact capital, Fruzsina Albert (2022) argues that strengthening interpersonal relations might entail economic gain and also lessen the risk of dropping out. It is beyond doubt that specialists pursuing community-based practices are important, as they can explore the roots of problems in social relations or in their deficiencies, and they make attempts to revive society innovatively. Excellent examples are social undertakings, a form that has various definitions. “Originally, a social undertaking was created to enable those living in poverty and extreme poverty to make a living” (Illés 2021: 60). They were built on social innovations aimed at elevating the standard of living of the community and responding to challenges of humanity (Veresné — Balaton 2021). Further, this solid economic concept is aimed at reorganizing everyday life and making it sustainable in both social and ecological terms (Buda et al. 2020). On a global scale, the idea of a future in which the whole population of the Earth lives a consciously ecological way of life still appears remote. In their book published at the end of the 2010s, Sattmann-Frese and Hill (2018) already called for the elaboration of a new profession. They use the term “sustainability worker” to designate green social work. They stress that specialists engaged in questions of sustainability have highly important roles in improving individuals’ ecological knowledge and competence. Vulnerable groups are fundamentally less receptive to environment-friendly solutions. This is partially due to a lack of adequate information. They are also hard put to acquire resources. For example, burning household garbage (plastics, textile, etc.) to generate heat, or outdated heating equipment contribute heavily to the deterioration of air quality, and consequently, of individuals’ quality of life. What is therefore needed are complex communitybased services — thematic club meetings — which help people learn about unsustainable consumer patterns and create the transition from a consumerist society to a more sustainable, conservationist society. Lena Dominelli’s (2018) book on eco-social work contains several case studies in addition to the theoretical section. Their main point is the methodological knowledge imparted to the reader which may enable him/her to generate progressive processes at a local level, whether the topic is a new challenge to the urban way of life, communal gardening, a pandemic or terrorism. The example of Namibia makes the transdisciplinary character of green social work easily intelligible for ordinary people as well. Government interventions in response to the extreme drought afflicting the country only proved enough to mitigate the symptoms; finding alternative models of production and consumption became indispensable.
