In memory of Anne Liebing
whose passion for international work on ethics
inspired many students and teachers
“I feel that I have become a rich woman now. When I come home, I
shall still have this group inside my head. After this I shall not act
immediately, when I meet a difficult situation or an ethical dilemma
in my practice. Instead I shall discuss the situation with my group
inside my head. I shall say to myself:
∂ What would the Finnish
student say or do in this situation? And what would be the point of
view of the Belgian student? How would the Danish student react to
this problem, and what would the German student consider
important? In this way I would be able to think of many important
aspects and many different alternatives, before I decide how to act
in practice”. (Portuguese student)
(Liebing and Møller, 2003, ‘Teaching ethics in an international
context’, p. 156)
l
Social work as ‘ethics work’
SARAH BANKS
s.j.banks@durham.ac.uk
∂
Ethics work
The effort people put in to seeing ethically
salient aspects of situations, developing
themselves as good practitioners, working
out the right course of action and
∂
justifying who they are and what they
have done.
Banks, S. (2012) ‘Negotiating personal engagement
and professional accountability: professional wisdom
and ethics work’, European Journal of Social Work,
DOI: 10.1080/13691457.2012.732931
Professional ethics
Traditional textbook accounts:
Ethics as decision-making – resolving
dilemmas through rational argument.
Ethics as regulation – following rules of
∂
right conduct.
Ethics in professional life
Expanding the account of the work professional
practitioners do in being ethical and acting ethically
beyond rational decision-making and following rules:
Everyday ethics – ethics as embedded in
∂ by practitioners;
practice and embodied
professionals’ attitudes, characters,
motivations, ways of working, relationships;
organisational ethos.
Using cases from ‘Practising Social Work
Ethics Around the World’
Ethics work
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Ethical framing work
∂
Ethical
role work
Ethical emotion work
Ethical identity work
Ethical reason work
Ethical performance work
Case 1 – Written by a social worker who works for a
government health insurance office in Peru. The office deals
with standards and difficult cases in relation to claims for
health insurance. Only those in poverty and who are not
covered by any other form of health care insurance are
eligible for assistance. She is faced with a claim from a
woman whose child is sick and needs (non-urgent) medical
care. However, her estranged husband has health care
insurance, so her claim has been turned down as she is not
∂ an account of her reasoning,
eligible. The social worker gives
decision and actions in relation to making a case to her boss
for this woman to be given assistance for her child’s health
care. She presents herself as working to improve and change
policies and practices that affect many families adversely and
acting in accordance with social work values and principles
(particularly a child’s right to health). (from Banks, S. and Nøhr,
K. eds (2012) Practising social work ethics around the world, Routledge)
Case 2 – Is an account given by the head of a child
protection department in Bulgaria about a nine-year girl
with whose family the department has worked for five
years. The girl is now living in a child protection village as
first her mother and then her grandmother were unable to
look after her. The social workers put in much effort to
support the family in staying together, valuing the loving
relationship between mother and daughter. Latterly they
∂ gifts, going on walks and
visit the girl regularly, bringing
also taking up a legal case relating to the ownership of
her grandmother’s flat. The head of the child protection
department says that she has written the account to
highlight the ‘heart’ of the department, rather than the
laws and official requirements that also form part of their
work. (From Banks, S. (2012) Ethics and Values in Social Work,
4th edition, Palgrave)
Ethics work
1. Ethical framing work – identifying and focusing on the ethically
salient ethical features of a situation; placing oneself and the
situations encountered in political and social contexts.
2. Ethical role work – playing a role in relation to others (advocate,
carer, critic); taking a position (partial/impartial; close/distant).
3. Ethical emotion work – being caring, compassionate, empathic;
managing emotions.
∂
4. Ethical identity work – working on one’s ethical self; creating an
identity as an ethically good professional; maintaining professional
integrity.
5. Ethical reason work – making moral judgements and decisions;
justifying judgments and decisions.
6. Ethical performance work – making visible aspects of this work
to others; demonstrating oneself at work (accountability work).
9
Question
What are the conditions
for ethically∂ good social
work practice?