Joel Izlar (born 1984) (he/him) is an American community worker, social scientist, researcher, and educator with a transdisciplinary and anti-disciplinary background rooted in ecosocial community work.
Izlar is best known for his scholarship on mutualism (mutual aid), radical social welfare and social services, and their situation within the pre and current COVID-19 period.
He began his work organizing communities in the United States’ Deep South around addressing the glocalized, ecosocial problems of pollution, waste, poverty, inequality, and community disempowerment and atomization. Izlar built upon this experience and gradually transitioned from practice to research, education, theory development, and social critique.
His doctoral work, “If We Just Plant the Seed”: Community Technology Centers, Community Organization, and Ecosocial Justice, explored how e-waste; community disempowerment and atomization; digital inequality; and poverty were addressed in a community technology center. The study also examined the challenges and accomplishments of the community technology center in organizing glocally around addressing these issues while concurrently meeting community needs. The study is freely available (open access) and may be downloaded by following this link https://esploro.libs.uga.edu/esploro/outputs/9949420829002959
While Izlar’s areas of interest are rooted in community work, they often interlink and transcend disciplines. His topic areas primarily include (1) community work; organizing communities; (2) ecosocial justice; (3) social welfare, mutualism (mutual aid), direct action, and direct services; (4) radical social theory; (5) post-social work; (6) social ecology; and (7) social critique.
Joel Izlar 