Social Work on Mars: A Narrative Foresight Analysis

Social Work on Mars employs narrative foresight to explore how social work might evolve in a post-terrestrial future shaped by technological innovation and moral adaptation. Narrative foresight uses storytelling to examine how emerging forces reshape society and professional identity, allowing readers to rehearse possibilities rather than predict outcomes. Through humor, science, and history, this speculative orientation for new Martian social workers reflects the weight of the past, push of the present, and pull of the future—revealing how enduring commitments to justice, care, and person-in-environment practice might adapt beyond Earth. The narrative imagines a society born from an “Equity Revolution,” where data ethics, equity, and self-actualization guide social systems. By critically engaging with this imagined world, the paper illustrates how narrative foresight functions as both creative method and ethical inquiry, helping the profession confront technological change and design more humane futures grounded in its core values.