Whether and How Social Work Could Address the Long-Term Socio-environmental Risks Caused by the Mining Industry in Northern Finland

Abstract

Despite underlining the importance of the commitment of states and international organizations, the discourse on human security is seldom explicit about who the actors or frontline workers are that operationalize the framework. One such group of practitioners that is possibly involved, but largely unacknowledged, is social workers, especially as social work as a discipline, profession and social movement has a value base and overall goals that are very similar to the human security approach. In social work, the categories of economic, food, environmental and community security fall within the discourse of human security, particularly with the currently evolving ecosocial (ecological/environmental/green) approach. The paradigm of social work thus exemplifies an important holistic orientation. Based on the understanding that social and environmental vulnerabilities are interlinked and that the extractive model of development often eats away and alters the land and ecosystems, this article discusses mineral extraction and its consequences from a social work perspective in the context of northern Finland. Of particular interest is the long-term socio-environmental risks associated with metal mining and the actual and possible roles of social work in relation to them. The article rests upon thematically analyzed semistructured interviews and participant observation conducted in one mining region in Northern Finland.