Book contents
- Engaging with Social Work
- Acknowledgement of Country
- Engaging with Social Work
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Foreword to the second edition
- About the authors
- Acknowledgements
- Acronyms and abbreviations
- 1 The critical potential of social work
- 2 Contemporary practice contexts: Enduring social forces
- 3 The new normal: Contemporary and emerging challenges and opportunities for social work
- 4 What can we do? A critical response to social contexts
- 5 How did we get here? The history of critical social work
- 6 Values and ethics for critical practice
- 7 Theories for practice
- 8 Social work practice
- 9 Diversity, power and knowledge
- 10 Fields of practice: Challenges and opportunities
- 11 Advancing critical social work into the future
- Glossary
- References
- Index
- References
6 - Values and ethics for critical practice
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 October 2025
Book contents
- Engaging with Social Work
- Acknowledgement of Country
- Engaging with Social Work
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Foreword to the second edition
- About the authors
- Acknowledgements
- Acronyms and abbreviations
- 1 The critical potential of social work
- 2 Contemporary practice contexts: Enduring social forces
- 3 The new normal: Contemporary and emerging challenges and opportunities for social work
- 4 What can we do? A critical response to social contexts
- 5 How did we get here? The history of critical social work
- 6 Values and ethics for critical practice
- 7 Theories for practice
- 8 Social work practice
- 9 Diversity, power and knowledge
- 10 Fields of practice: Challenges and opportunities
- 11 Advancing critical social work into the future
- Glossary
- References
- Index
- References
Summary
In this chapter, we explore the concept of ethical practice from a Western perspective, beginning by introducing current codes of ethics, as well as debates about their limitations in guiding ethical practice. We examine some of the dominant assumptions and myths about supposedly objective ways of knowing and contrast these with critical understandings of knowledge, values and ethics. We also provide an overview of various approaches to decision-making in relation to ethical dilemmas and explore how a critical approach can offer an excellent guide for ethical practice. We further examine the practice of critical reflection and share a practitioner’s perspective from our research to demonstrate how they used critical reflection to inform ethical practice.Ethics is a domain of philosophy concerned with questions of what is right or wrong in human conduct. Given that social workers often work with people who are affected by poverty, unemployment, illness, violence, deprivation of liberties and other forms of social disadvantage and oppression, we are frequently faced with making complex ethical decisions that can affect the lives of others.
Keywords
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Engaging with Social WorkA Critical Introduction, pp. 161 - 193Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Further reading
Banks, S. 2021, Practical Social Work: Ethics and Values in Social Work, 5th ed., Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Banks, S. & Westoby, P., eds 2019, Ethics, Equity and Community Development, Policy Press.Google Scholar
Hölscher, D., Hugman, R. & McAuliffe, D., eds 2023, Social Work Theory and Ethics Ideas in Practice, Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyslop, I. 2018, ‘Neoliberalism and social work identity’, European Journal of Social Work, 21(1), 20–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nipperess, S. 2023, ‘Social work, human rights, and ethics’, in Hölscher, D., Hugman, R. & McAuliffe, D., eds, Social Work Theory and Ethics, Social Work, Springer.Google Scholar
Pease, B., Vreugdenhil, A. & Stanford, S., eds. 2017, Critical Ethics of Care in Social Work: Transforming the Politics and Practices of Caring, Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pullen-Sansfacon, A. & Cowden, S. 2012, The Ethical Foundations of Social Work, Pearson.Google Scholar
Robinson, K. 2023, ‘Critical social work and ethics: working with asylum seekers in Australia’, in Holscher, D. et al., eds, Social Work Theory and Ethics, Springer.Google Scholar
Rossiter, A. 2011, ‘Unsettled social work: The challenge of Levinas’s ethic’, British Journal of Social Work, 41(5), 980–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinberg, M. 2015, ‘Professional privilege, ethics and pedagogy’, Ethics and Social Welfare, 9(3), 225–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, C. & Briskman, L. 2016, ‘Reviving social work through moral outrage’, Critical and Radical Social Work, 3(1), 3–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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