Practising Social Work Ethics Around the World

Cases and Commentaries

Sarah Banks, Kirsten Nøhr, Sarah Banks, Kirsten Nøhr

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780415560337
• eBook ISBN: 9781136661280
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Health Care Delivery

Ethics is an increasingly important theme in social work practice. Worldwide, social workers experience common ethical challenges (how to be fair, whether to break a rule, how to act in politically tense situations) in very different contexts – from disaster relief in China to child protection work in Palestine.

This book takes as its starting point real life cases featuring ethical problems in the areas of: negotiating roles and boundaries, respecting rights, being fair, challenging and developing organisations and working with policy and politics. Each case opens with a brief introduction, is followed by two commentaries and ends with questions for reflection. The commentaries, written by authors from different countries, refer to relevant theories, concepts, practical matters, alternative courses of action and their implications. Features within the book include:

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• An introductory chapter covering issues of global ethics

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• Cases and commentaries drawn from across the world – from Peru to Finland

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• Cases based on real life situations and chapter introductions from leading authorities in social work and ethical theory

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• Questions and practical exercises to aid teaching and professional development

This book is a unique and accessible resource for stimulating ethical reflection, expanding ethical horizons and developing ethical and intercultural sensitivity. It is designed for use by undergraduate and postgraduate students and professionals in the fields of social work, social education/pedagogy, social care work, international social work, community development, community organisation, youth work and related fields.

1	Global ethics for social work? A case-based approach
	Sarah Banks

Introduction

This chapter provides an introduction to the book for readers who wish to reflect on the nature of social work in an international context and on the possibilities and problems of the concept of a ‘global ethics’. A brief overview is given of a variety of theoretical approaches to ethics, followed by a discussion of the usefulness of case-based methods in exploring ethical issues internationally. A categorisation of the varieties of cases included in the book is given, including an analytical table at the end of the chapter.

It is not necessary to read this chapter in order to use the rest of the book. It may, however, be helpful for readers who are interested in considering the usefulness of ethical theories and in engaging in debates about universalism and relativism in ethics, and for teachers wishing to use the book with students.

Rationale for the book

Ethics in social work, and indeed in public life more generally, is a topic of growing importance. There has been a rapid growth in books and articles on this theme in the last decade (for an overview, see Banks 2008). There are many reasons for this so-called ‘ethics boom’. The growing awareness of the impact of humans on the world environment and the potential for life changing bio-medical technologies are contributing to a heightened awareness of questions about the kind of world in which we want to live and the kinds of lives we should lead. The persistence of inequality, poverty and war, along with the phenomenon of global terrorism, the rise of neo-liberalism in politics, a retrenchment of traditionally strong welfare states, cutbacks in social services and a questioning of the expertise and trustworthiness of professionals bring ethical questions very much into the arena of social work. Social workers have to respond to asylum seekers fleeing zones of conflict, cuts in welfare budgets, privatising of welfare services and demands from employers that they act as gatekeepers, controllers or managers of care packages. The political and economic challenges confronting social workers vary across different parts of the world. However, there is no doubt that wherever in the world social workers practise, they face ethical challenges about how to treat and respond to people respectfully, how to ration resources fairly and whether and how to resist, ameliorate or tolerate the social injustices they see on a daily basis.

Despite the rapid growth of textbooks on social work ethics, there are relatively few that primarily comprise real-life social work ethics cases (Reamer 2009 and Rothman 2005 are examples from the USA) or that address the international dimensions of social work ethics in any detail. Specialist textbooks on social work ethics are more prevalent in the global North and West. Such textbooks usually cover ethical theories, codes of ethics and topics such as confidentiality, service user participation, rights and responsibilities, with case examples often used to illustrate different types of ethical dilemmas and problems (for example, Aadland 1998; Banks 2006; Beckett and Maynard 2005; Bowles et al. 2006; Charleton 2007; Congress et al. 2009; Dolgoff et al. 2009; Joseph and Fernandes 2006; Lingås 1992; Linzer 1999; Reamer 2006; Rouzel 1997). The aim of this book is to complement specialist texts on social work ethics, often written from a national perspective, and the growing number of books on international social work, which may have short sections or chapters on ethics (Cox and Pawar 2006; Healy 2001; Hugman 2010; Lyons et al. 2006).

Since discussion and analysis of accounts of practice in the form of cases is a well-used and very effective way of encouraging learning about ethical issues in social work, it is hoped that a book of real-life cases and commentaries will be a useful addition to the literature. The cases can be used in educational contexts to stimulate the development of skills in ethical perception and reflection and to generate dialogue about the roles, rights, responsibilities and dilemmas of professional practitioners, carers, service users, other professionals, politicians, social work agencies, governments and professional associations.

The inclusion of cases and commentaries authored by people from around the world has the added value of both enhancing understanding of differences in social work practice, policy, law, culture and ethics in different countries, whilst at the same time strengthening the solidarity of social workers across the globe. We hope the book will contribute to some of the important ongoing debates in social work about the extent to which ethical values are or should be shared internationally; and whether statements of ethical principles and standards can be valid universally, or whether they are always relative to particular contexts (Banks et al. 2008; Healy 2007; Hugman 2008).

Social work

We are using the term ‘social work’ in a broad sense to cover the work of a range of occupational groups operating in the social welfare field, including: social work; social care work; social pedagogy; social education; community work/community organising; and youth work. These occupations are configured differently in different countries, but broadly speaking they tend to work with individuals or groups of people who are judged to be in need of social services or social assistance; who may be thought to be a threat to themselves or others and therefore should be protected or controlled; or who may benefit from professional support, facilitation or informal education to take action themselves to work for individual and social change or transformation.

Even within the same country, there may be constantly shifting views of the purpose of social work, as economic, social and political conditions and regimes change over time. Payne (2000) offers a useful analysis, suggesting that the nature of social work emerges from a balance at any point in time between three shifting views of its purpose:

1 Maintaining the existing social order and providing individuals with services as part of a network of social agencies (individualist-reformist views).

2 Helping people attain personal fulfilment and power over their lives, so they feel competent to take part in social life (reflexive-therapeutic views).

3 Stimulating social change, transforming society by promoting cooperation, mutual support, emancipation and empowerment (socialist-collectivist views).

In many countries there are active professional associations of social workers, and in some countries there are state-sponsored regulatory bodies. These organisations publish documents outlining the nature of social work, the responsibilities of social workers and the values, knowledge and skills required for the work. At an international level, there is a definition of social work, international standards for practice and a statement of ethical principles (International Federation of Social Workers and International Association of Schools of Social Work 2000, 2004a, 2004b). The international definition of social work (agreed in 2000, under review in 2010–11) is as follows:

The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilising theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work.

The fact that there are internationally agreed definitions and standards may suggest that social work as practised around the world has more in common than is, in fact, the case. For how social work is practised in different countries is intrinsically linked to the nature of national and regional welfare regimes; social welfare laws and policies; the relative roles of the state, market, not-for-profit organisations and informal family and neighbourhood networks in welfare provision; prevailing cultural and religious norms about the family, gender, childhood and old age; and the value placed on equity, equality, individual and collective rights and responsibilities. This is clearly demonstrated by cases in this book. For example, Case 5.1 from Iran shows how Islamic law is embedded in the state provision of social care and influences how young women are treated in residential centres. Case 6.3 from Finland illustrates how the traditionally strong welfare state has supported care for the elderly, but this is now threatened as services are cut and privatised.

The influence of these sharp variations in the contexts in which social work is practised is especially apparent in accounts of practitioners from one country working in another. Case 3.3 is written by a Dutch social work student working in Vietnam. She questions the standard practice amongst Vietnamese physiotherapists of not discussing with service users the severity of their health problems. This very quickly leads us into the territory of ethics – raising questions about people’s rights to know the truth about their medical conditions, the circumstances in which health and social care professionals should protect individuals and families from the full truth and how much weight to give to prevailing cultural norms in cases like this.

Ethics

In English we use the term ‘ethics’ when talking about norms and standards relating to how people should treat each other, what actions are right or wrong and which qualities of character are good or bad. It is a confusing term, as it has both a plural and a singular sense.

In its plural sense, ‘ethics’ is used to refer to norms or standards relating to right/wrong conduct or good/bad qualities of character. For example, we might say of someone that ‘her ethics are very narrow’. Sometimes we use the term ‘morals’ to mean the same as ‘ethics’ in the plural sense.

‘Ethics’ in its singular sense refers to a set of norms, a theoretical system (e.g., Kantian ethics) or a subject area that covers norms of right/wrong conduct and qualities of good/bad character. In this sense, the term ‘ethics’ may be used interchangeably with ‘moral philosophy’. Sometimes we use the term ‘morality’ to mean the same as ethics in the singular sense.

A further complication is added by the fact that the terms ‘morals’ and ‘morality’ are often used to mean the same as ‘ethics’ (plural) and ‘ethics’ (singular). However, some theorists make a distinction between morals as externally imposed normative standards or prevailing societal norms, and ethics as internally generated (personal) norms. In this book we do not make this distinction, and use the terms ethics and morals interchangeably.

In some languages there is apparently no direct equivalent of the term ‘ethics’. Gyekye (2010) gives the example of sub-Saharan African languages. This does not mean, however, that there are no normative concepts of right and wrong conduct or good and bad character in those languages and societies. But it does mean that these facets of human existence and behaviour are conceptualised in different ways. The construction of ‘ethics’ as a discrete area of study, and the separation of the ethical from the practical, technical, political, cultural and religious dimensions of life is perhaps more commonly understood and accepted in the global North and West than in the South and East. On the other hand, in all parts of the world there is a recognisable normative discourse covering questions such as: ‘What kinds of people should we be?’ ‘What kinds of lives should we live?’ and ‘How should we act?’ The questions are recognisable, although the answers given will vary enormously between different societies, as will the extent to which the answers are inextricably linked with culture, religion and political ideology.

In this book we generally use the term ‘ethics’ in its singular sense to refer to a subject area that encompasses right/wrong actions (conduct), good/bad qualities of character and normative aspects of human relationships. This characterisation of ethics is deliberately broad and inclusive. For in the global South and Eastern parts of the world, and amongst some indigenous peoples (such as Native Americans or Aboriginals in Australia), normative evaluations traditionally tend to start with a focus on people’s moral character (‘she is a good person’; ‘he is dishonest’). Judgements about actions would be framed in terms of character (‘that was the act of a dishonest person’). In modern Western and Northern contexts, especially in professional ethics, the starting point is very often actions. Good/bad character would be explained in terms of right/wrong actions. These are, of course, gross generalisations. There are Eastern philosophies that place emphasis on action-based norms, and there are Western moral philosophers who argue for the primacy of character in everyday life.

Whilst the use of the term ‘ethics’ may leave us open to accusations of Western and Northern imperialism (as with the human rights discourse of the United Nations declarations), we wish to use the term in a broad, inclusive and critical sense. We acknowledge, however, that ‘ethics’ is a construction that may have more meaning in some parts of the world than others. In a social work context, just as theories, models and practices of social work have been exported from the global North and West to the South and East, so the concept of social work ethics as a separate area of study and practice is also being exported. So it will be very important for academics and practitioners across the world to take a critical approach to the subject area itself ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of cases by country
• List of Tables
• List of contributors of cases
• Notes on editors and authors of chapter introductions
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Global ethics for social work? A case-based approach
• 2 Negotiating roles and boundaries
• 3 Respecting rights
• 4 Being fair
• 5 Challenging and developing organisations
• 6 Working with policy and politics
• 7 Working with cases and commentaries Sarah Banks and Kirsten Nøhr
• Notes
• Index