This book offers an ecological foundation for social work and for care provision in general. It presents the ecosocial approach according to its origins, distinguishing it from other theoretical social work approaches and applying it to various areas of care for welfare. The ecological anchoring of social welfare and common care is an emerging topic in political, organisational, and person-related development of human services and social work. In an era of crisis, this anchoring is an essential contribution to the study of sustainable social provision. The book embeds the dispositions about it in the ecology of the protection and securing of common life.

Ecology of Common Care: The Ecosocial Approach as a Theory of Social Work and Human Service is an essential text that should engage the academic community of educators and researchers in social work and other human services professions, as well as students in bachelor's and master's programmes in these professions.

Prof. Dr. phil. Wolf Rainer Wendt studied philosophy, psychology, and sociology and then practiced in youth welfare. Since 1978 he has been professor and Head of the Department of Social Work at the Berufsakademie Stuttgart, now the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) Stuttgart in Germany. He was co-founder and chairman (1993 to 2009) of the German Association of Social Work (DGSA), and also was chairman (2004 to 2015) of the German Society for Care and Case Management (DGCC). In 2003 he received an honorary professorship at the University of Tübingen in Germany. He has written a number of books (in German) on the theory and history of social work, the social economy and care and case management.

1 Introduction.- 2 What to Think of in the Ecosocial Concept.- 3 The Genesis of the Ecosocial Paradigm.- 4 The Scope of the Theory.- 5 The Central Concept of the Household and the Principle of Householding.- 6 A Comprehensive Field of Study.- 7 Differentiations Are Necessary: Domestic and External Relations.- 8 A Multilevel Construct.- 9 An Ecological Orientation for Human Services and the Social Profession.- 10 The Ethical Underpinning.- 11 The Turn of Ecological Thinking in the Anthropocene.-12 Back to Care and Social Work.- 13 Working in Stewardship.-14 Conclusion.