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.

The term ‘social work’ was first coined by the American economist Simon Patten in 1900. He envisaged a new profession that would address the social problems of the modern world. These problems are neither timeless nor innate to human nature, but come into being at particular points in history as a result of people’s actions and the way they organise power in society. Looking at these issues historically enables us to see the way social problems (such as extreme inequality and poverty, mass urbanisation, industrial pollution, racism, sexism and different forms of violence) have been constructed and varied over time. More importantly, this lens may provide us with clues as to how people might un-make these problems and do something better. This historical perspective is vital for practice today because it locates critical social work as part of much wider and ongoing struggles for social justice and human rights.

This book is about the potential of social work, and in particular the potential of critical social work. It is about what social work is, what social work can be and, from a critical perspective, what social work should be. We use the word ‘potential’ quite deliberately, as it implies that there are elements of uncertainty in endeavouring to make social work critical that are yet to be fully realised and never guaranteed. Yet, in the current context, the values and vision of critical social work are perhaps more relevant and important than ever before.

In Chapter 1, we invited you to consider the critical potential of social work: the potential for us as individual workers, and collectively as a profession, to question the social conditions and discourses that give rise to human suffering and what we might do about these. The critical standpoint is one that sensitises us to social injustice and the need for transformation. Being a critical practitioner is challenging: while we may decide that this is the path we wish to take, it is an ongoing process, borne out in day-to-day and week-to-week activities. Becoming a critical practitioner is not a single act of commitment, but an often-arduous journey of revelation and struggle. There are many potential setbacks along this journey. As the words of a great twentieth-century social reformer Martin Luther King remind us, ‘Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable … Every step towards the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concerns of dedicated individuals.’ Critical social workers are among those dedicated individuals with passionate concerns.

In this and the following chapter we explore the importance of context for social work practice. Ife et al. suggest that context is vital because it impacts on how social workers understand the issues they are working with and how they will respond. Social work does not exist in a vacuum. Therefore, we focus on a number of powerful social forces that shape our social contexts. These consist of far-reaching (sometimes global) social structures and discourses. Social structures, as noted in Chapter 1, are the enduring social patterns, divisions and institutional arrangements that can give rise to inequality and harm. Discourses, on the other hand, are sets of ideas or language about a particular topic with shared meanings and assumptions that reflect and reinforce particular power relations. In other words, discourses are never neutral descriptions of reality, but actively justify certain asymmetric social structures; in turn, these structures promote discourses favourable to their maintenance.

This chapter will introduce you to some of the key formal social work theories that underpin practice. We begin with the individualistic and systems-based theories that originated in psychology and conservative sociology respectively. As was evident in Chapter 5 on the history of social work, these establishment theories generally dominated social work before the emergence of critical social work theories. We then shift our attention to the development of critical theories, such as Marxist, radical, structural, feminist and anti-oppressive perspectives that aim for social justice and autonomy, and discuss the more recent contribution of poststructural and queer theories to the evolution of critical theories and to critical social work. The newer critical theories developed out of critiques of the older establishment theories, so it is necessary to have some familiarity with the principles of both. Finally, we draw on research with our first-year students to demonstrate the application of theory in relation to a case study.

In this chapter we explore concepts and practices related to diversity. This is a complex terrain to navigate as we are all ‘diverse.’ However, diversity (or our differences) have personal, social and political effects; many of which involve power and engender various forms of inequality, privilege and oppression. Critical social workers have been considering the ‘dilemma of difference’ for decades. In 1985, for example, Martha Minow observed that, rather than avoiding this dilemma, we should ‘immerse ourselves in it’, not necessarily to seek a final resolution, but to engage in a ‘more productive struggle’ for equitable processes and outcomes’. Challenging privilege and oppression is at the heart of critical social work and our journey is both personal and professional as we grapple with how to respectfully listen, learn and engage in mutual consciousness-raising across difference, while advocating for social and systemic change to address inequality.

While we have already touched on several fields of practice throughout this text, this chapter draws on our own and other authors’ research and experience to go somewhat deeper in relation to three social work practice fields: aged care and working with older people; child protection; and men’s violence against women. We consider some of the current debates that exist within these fields and contextualise them within wider social and political contexts. We acknowledge the challenges for critical practice, particularly when it seems to be at odds with the dominant discourses and associated institutional structures and cultures.

Social work practice may be conceptualised in a variety of ways. Sometimes practice is referred to as ‘methods’. Some social work texts have tended to refer to different levels of practice: micro methods, including methods for working with individuals, such as casework, counselling and case management; methods for working with couples and small groups, such as family group conferencing, mediation and group work; and macro methods, which are more collective methods of practice, such as advocacy, community development, policy development and analysis, research and social action. Practice is also sometimes referred to in terms of the processes that characterise it from beginning to end – for example, engagement, assessment, intervention, termination and evaluation. This tendency to conceptualise practice in terms of ‘processes’ is mostly relevant for micro methods, and some have argued that this conceptualisation represents the imposition of ‘corporate management techniques’ and a ‘case management approach’ onto social work.

This chapter provides an overview of some of the key practice strategies that social workers use to try to challenge and arrest the massive social inequalities we explored in the previous chapters. The theory and practices of critical social work help us to devise creative and effective ways to contest and resist the harms created by oppressive social forces. Developing our capacity for critical analysis is an important first step that underpins all other practices outlined in this chapter: social policy analysis and development; social activism, allyship and participation in social movements; critical practice in organisations; and undertaking social research. These practices connect practitioners with discretionary spaces in which they can work towards social justice and emancipatory aims.

As noted in Chapter 1, since writing the last edition of this text in 2019, the world has undergone rapid changes and continues to transform at an accelerated pace. Social work, often informed by social movements and community experience, aims to anticipate and respond to emerging social issues. Perhaps this is one of the defining hallmarks of the social work profession – its capacity to evolve to address new challenges and opportunities. Throughout this book, and especially in Chapter 2, we explore some of the global social forces and discourses that characterise the rapidly changing contexts in which social work operates. These changes have created new challenges that require critical responses, in some cases generating new fields of practice. In this chapter, our major focus will be on: (1) the increasing urgency of climate change, threats to the planet (and humanity) and the implications of climate change for social work; (2) global pandemics and their impacts for people and service delivery; and (3) increasing wealth inequality and associated poverty and homelessness.