Between transition and transformation: A corpus analysis of environmental social work scholarship

Abstract

Environmental social work (ESW) has engaged increasingly with the ecological dimensions of social problems yet debates on the nature of change required to address environmental concerns persist. Ecosocial work scholars frequently frame the environmental challenge as requiring a radical transformation in the profession’s understanding of human–nature relations. They advocate a shift toward ecocentric values that recognize the inextricable connection between social and ecological justice and call for transformative practice to address the underlying structural causes of inequality, oppression, and environmental destruction. Most, however, emphasize incremental processes of ecosocial transition through multilevel ecosystems practice frameworks. This study combines theoretical insights with corpus-based analysis to gain a clearer understanding of the intellectual landscape of ecosocial work scholarship. Using text-mining techniques, including term frequency analysis, bigram extraction, conceptual network analysis, and topic modelling, the study identifies dominant concepts and thematic clusters within the field. The results reveal a heterogeneous intellectual landscape organized around sustainability, climate adaptation, disaster response, environmental justice, and ecological worldviews. While transformation-oriented perspectives are clearly present, a substantial literature focuses on practical strategies for integrating environmental concerns into existing social work practice. Ultimately, ESW scholarship encompasses multiple theoretical orientations and change pathways rather than a single transformative trajectory.