Pardee Center Director Gives Keynote at Social Work Confernce

Prof. Adil Najam, Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and Boston University Professor of International Relations and Geography and the Environment, gave the keynote address at an international symposium of the Asian Pacific Islander Social Work Educators Association (API SWEA) on October 13, 2010. The symposium was held in conjunction with with the 56th Annual meeting of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) held in Portland, Oregon.

In his keynote address Prof. Najam highlighted the need for climate change to be viewed as a development issue and stressed that for this to happen it will need to be embraced by disciplines and professions well beyond narrowly defined ‘climate science’ and ‘climate policy.’ He outlined a number of ways in which the development aspects of climate change become societal and social work challenges, especially as the focus moves from only mitigation to climatic adaptation.