This book offers both an affirmation and a challenge to direct social work practice. It addresses a core but long-neglected dimension in social work and human services: accurate environmental assessment and strategic environmental intervention. The text provides a coherent critique and overview of environmental intervention congruent with the demands of such emergent areas as practice with personal social networks, empowerment practice, practice from a strengths perspective, and multicultural practice.

It draws on the work of seminal contributors in social work practice and social science. The primary audience for Person-Environment Practice is the great majority of social workers whose helping efforts extend to individuals, families, groups, and neighborhoods. Its primary aim is to examine each of these levels critically, through the prism of "environment," and to offer practical suggestions for both assessment and intervention.