Key Social Work Frameworks for Sociologists ● 33in their varied social environments. Ecosystems approaches “focus on interaction
within and across multiple ‘social systems,’ which can include the interpersonal
system of family and friendship ties, neighborhood systems, organizational
systems, social policy systems and social structural systems” (Healy 2005, 132).
An important tenet of ecosystems frameworks is that a system is a holistic entity
made up of components that connect to and influence each other. If there are
changes to any part of that system, then the other parts of the system will be
affected. The assumption is that the overall system is greater than is the sum
of its parts and that the system will tend toward establishing equilibrium or
homeostasis. Current views of ecosystems have moved beyond emphasis on
equilibration and homeostasis to incorporate the idea of conflict in the system.
Ecosystems frameworks have been around for a long time and have influ-
enced social work significantly since the 1960s. General systems theories
originated in the 1930s; they posited that the problems people face are due
to the poor fit between persons and their environment and that intervention
to help people should target the transactions between people and the vari-
ous systems around them (Healy 2005). An ecosystems framework enables a
“here and now” approach to attempt to change more than just the individual,
by connecting individuals to their social and cultural contexts (Connolly and
Healy 2013). It incorporates concepts of fit and adaption, so that people’s
well-being is higher if their fit in the systems is working well and they are able
to adapt to the system stressors imposed on them (Payne 2005).
The psychologist Bronfenbrenner (1979) developed an ecological model,
which he continued to modify until his death in 2005 and which has become
widely adopted in social work. In basic terms, his model locates systems at
five levels: the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chro-
nosystem. The microsystem level refers to systems in a person’s immediate
environment. The mesosystem level refers to connections between microsys-
tems, such as the connection between parents and school. The exosystem
refers to more external systems that influence a person’s life but with which
they do not necessarily actively interact, such as welfare systems and services.
The macrosystem refers to the broad cultural and political systems in which a
person lives. The first four systems are embedded in a fifth, the chronosystem,
which refers to the dimension of time over the course of an individual’s life.
Germain and Gitterman (1980) developed ecosystems concepts into the
“life model” of social work. The life model takes the view that people are
“interdependent with each other and their environment” (Payne 2005, 151)
and that people move through their own unique life course, facing along the
way stressors, transitions, and events that will demand that they adapt or
cope. Germain and Gitterman’s life model explored three stages of a person’s
life—initial, ongoing, and ending. They identified how these stages can be
used to learn about client-environment fit and stress, to develop plans for