《社会工作伦理》课程重要文献（英文）：Critical Commentary：Social Work Ethics

British Journal of Social Work(2008)38, 1238-1249 . dvance Access publication July 2, 200B Critical Commentary: Social Work Ethics Sarah bank Sarah Banks is Professor in the School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham Un writes and researches on ethical issues relating to the social professions, and has just completed a ook with Ann Gallagher on Ethics in Professional Life: Virtues for Health and Social Care, to Correspondence to Professor Sarah Banks, School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University, Elvet Riverside 2, New Elvet, Durham DH13JT, UK. Email: s j. banks(@durham.ac uk Summary This short article explores the expanding and contested terrain of social work ethics, considering the form and content of future areas for development. It charts the broad- ening of the field beyond a focus on professional codes of ethics, principle-based the- ories, difficult cases and decision-making models towards more embedded and situated approaches to ethics in professional life. The potential for further empirical research into ethical issues in social work, including how practitioners conceptualize and handle ethical difficulties, is noted, alongside the scope for focused studies and monographs drawing on moral, political and religious philosophy to examine particular theoretical approaches(such as virtue ethics or the ethics of care)or to develop new ways of approaching ethics in social work, drawing on its radical, critical and transforma tory traditions. 9569 Keywords: Social work ethics, professional ethics, moral philosophy Introduction This critical commentary focuses on social work ethics as an emerging subject area within the professional discipline of social work. In this context, I am using the term social work ethics as a singular term to refer to a specialist area of professional ethics comprising the study of the norms of right action, good qualities of character and values relating to the nature of the good life that are aspired to, espoused and enacted by social workers in the context of their work The body of literature on social work ethics is still relatively small com pared with that in related fields such as medical or nursing ethics, but it is C The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved

Critical Commentary: Social Work Ethics Sarah Banks Sarah Banks is Professor in the School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University, UK. She writes and researches on ethical issues relating to the social professions, and has just completed a book with Ann Gallagher on Ethics in Professional Life: Virtues for Health and Social Care, to be published by Palgrave Macmillan. Correspondence to Professor Sarah Banks, School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University, Elvet Riverside 2, New Elvet, Durham DH1 3JT, UK. Email:s.j.banks@durham.ac.uk Summary This short article explores the expanding and contested terrain of social work ethics, considering the form and content of future areas for development. It charts the broad￾ening of the field beyond a focus on professional codes of ethics, principle-based the￾ories, difficult cases and decision-making models towards more embedded and situated approaches to ethics in professional life. The potential for further empirical research into ethical issues in social work, including how practitioners conceptualize and handle ethical difficulties, is noted, alongside the scope for focused studies and monographs drawing on moral, political and religious philosophy to examine particular theoretical approaches (such as virtue ethics or the ethics of care) or to develop new ways of approaching ethics in social work, drawing on its radical, critical and transforma￾tory traditions. Keywords: Social work ethics, professional ethics, moral philosophy Introduction This critical commentary focuses on social work ethics as an emerging subject area within the professional discipline of social work.1 In this context, I am using the term ‘social work ethics’ as a singular term to refer to a specialist area of professional ethics comprising the study of the norms of right action, good qualities of character and values relating to the nature of the good life that are aspired to, espoused and enacted by social workers in the context of their work. The body of literature on social work ethics is still relatively small com￾pared with that in related fields such as medical or nursing ethics, but it is # The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved. British Journal of Social Work (2008) 38, 1238–1249 doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcn099 Advance Access publication July 2, 2008 at Fudan university on January 6, 2011 bjsw.oxfordjournals.org Downloaded from

Critical Commentary 1239 idly growing. There are several reasons for this expansion, including the continuing professionalization of social work and the establishment of new and longer higher education programmes in many countries across the world. This is resulting in a growth of social work literature generally and the emergence of specialist areas of knowledge for research, teaching and practice, of which social work ethics is one Social work ethics is also being influenced by the same global trends that are creating applied ethics'as a topical subject area. High-profile environ- mental, medical, scientific and socio-political issues such as climate change, developments in genetic technologies and global terrorism are bringing to he fore new versions of perennial ethical questions about human respons bilities, the nature and value of human and animal life and social justice in the recognition of diversity and distribution of scarce resources. These factors influence the context in which social work is practised and theorized The'postmodern turn in sociological and philosophical thinking has ributed to a questioning of universal values, all-embracing foundational g heories(including ethical theories) and the legitimacy and roles of "expert professional practitioners in relation to service users. There has also been a heightened concern to monitor and manage risk in social welfare work; a restructuring of welfare systems in many countries; the ntroduction of mechanisms for surveillance and control of citizens and service users, and increasing regulation of the work of professional practitioners. These factors are contributing to a continuing concern with professional power, legitimacy, credibility, conduct/misconduct and a questioning of the traditional professional-client relationship-all themes that fall within the scope of social work ethics This expansion in the field of social work ethics clearly involves an increase 9569 in quantity of literature published and in the amount of time spent on the a subject in professional education. There is also an expansion in the form of literature comprising the corpus of work on social work ethics-going beyond the traditional professional codes, ethical guidelines, textbooks and scholarly articles, to include empirically based articles, with signs of potential for more specialist texts and research monographs. Finally, the expansion includes a broadening of the substantive content of the social work ethics literature and teaching curricula to include not just principle based theories of ethics but also virtue. care- and narrative-based approaches; to include descriptive as well as normative ethics; and a focus on ethics in social work research as well as in social work practic In this paper, I will discuss briefly the expansion of social work ethics using the three headings identified above. I will not specifically cover ethics in social work research(although this is certainly relevant, particu- larly with the growth of practitioner research), as this is a rapidly expanding and complex area, worthy of consideration in its own right(see, e.g. Antle and Regehr, 2003; D'Cruz and Jones, 2004)

rapidly growing. There are several reasons for this expansion, including the continuing professionalization of social work and the establishment of new and longer higher education programmes in many countries across the world. This is resulting in a growth of social work literature generally and the emergence of specialist areas of knowledge for research, teaching and practice, of which social work ethics is one. Social work ethics is also being influenced by the same global trends that are creating ‘applied ethics’ as a topical subject area. High-profile environ￾mental, medical, scientific and socio-political issues such as climate change, developments in genetic technologies and global terrorism are bringing to the fore new versions of perennial ethical questions about human responsi￾bilities, the nature and value of human and animal life and social justice in the recognition of diversity and distribution of scarce resources. These factors influence the context in which social work is practised and theorized. The ‘postmodern’ turn in sociological and philosophical thinking has con￾tributed to a questioning of universal values, all-embracing foundational theories (including ethical theories) and the legitimacy and roles of ‘expert’ professional practitioners in relation to service users. There has also been a heightened concern to monitor and manage risk in social welfare work; a restructuring of welfare systems in many countries; the introduction of mechanisms for surveillance and control of citizens and service users; and increasing regulation of the work of professional practitioners. These factors are contributing to a continuing concern with professional power, legitimacy, credibility, conduct/misconduct and a questioning of the traditional professional–client relationship—all themes that fall within the scope of social work ethics. This expansion in the field of social work ethics clearly involves an increase in quantity of literature published and in the amount of time spent on the subject in professional education. There is also an expansion in the forms of literature comprising the corpus of work on social work ethics—going beyond the traditional professional codes, ethical guidelines, textbooks and scholarly articles, to include empirically based articles, with signs of potential for more specialist texts and research monographs. Finally, the expansion includes a broadening of the substantive content of the social work ethics literature and teaching curricula to include not just principle￾based theories of ethics, but also virtue-, care- and narrative-based approaches; to include descriptive as well as normative ethics; and a focus on ethics in social work research as well as in social work practice. In this paper, I will discuss briefly the expansion of social work ethics using the three headings identified above. I will not specifically cover ethics in social work research (although this is certainly relevant, particu￾larly with the growth of practitioner research), as this is a rapidly expanding and complex area, worthy of consideration in its own right (see, e.g. Antle and Regehr, 2003; D’Cruz and Jones, 2004). Critical Commentary 1239 at Fudan university on January 6, 2011 bjsw.oxfordjournals.org Downloaded from

1240 Sarah Banks Quantity: the'ethics boom'2 One indicator of the growth of interest in social work ethics is the recent introduction of two specialist journals: The Journal of Social Work values and Ethics(a USA-based electronic open access journal with a specific focus on social work launched in 2005) and Ethics and Social Welfare (a British-based subscription journal launched in 2007 with a broader focus covering ethics in social policy and the social professions, but with a strong emphasis on social work ). The small core of student text books on social work ethics, which started to develop in the 1980s grew significantly in the 1990s. Until recently, this field was dominated n the English-speaking world by North American publications, the most significant of which is the work of Frederic Reamer(e. g. Rhodes, 1986: Reamer, 1990, 1999; Loewenberg and Dolgoff, 1996; Congres 1999: Linzer, 1999). This body of work is now growing internation- ally, with revised and new texts by Australian, British and Irish authors (e.g. Beckett and Maynard, 2005: Banks, 2006: Bowles et al., 2006 Parrott, 2006: Charleton, 2007). The availability of textbooks on social work ethics in languages other than English is difficult to assess, but reports from colleagues internationally suggest a shortage, which is now ginning to be addressed(see Diekmann(2003)for an overview of some relevant European literature). Indeed, there is evidence of an emer- ging literature on social work ethics published in various languages(e.g R ouzel, 1997; Lingas, 1999: Henriksen and Vetlesen, 2001; Martin, 2001; Barroco, 2004), although sometimes this comprises translations of existing English-language publications(Banks, 1997, 1999; Mach-Zagel and Nohr, 2007). Specific modules on social work ethics are more fre quently being taught on professional qualifying programmes, and atte tion is being paid to methods and approaches to learning and teach n this area(e.g. Reamer and Abramson, 1982: Black et al. 5望9 Banks and Nohr, 2003: Banks, 2005; Gray and Gibbon, 2007). We are also seeing a proliferation of new and revised codes of ethics/ professional conduct, alongside other ethical guidance and discussion docu- ments produced by professional associations and regulatory bodies(see Banks, 2006, Chapter 4, for an international overview). In countries here social work is a relatively new profession, codes of ethics and pro- cedures for regulation and disciplining of members are being produced for the first time(e.g. Croatia Association of Social Workers, 2004: National Federation of Social Workers in Romania, 2004), whilst significant develop ments and revisions are in evidence in parts of the world where social work is longer established(e.g. General Social Care Council, 2002, Japanese Association of Social Workers et aL., 2004: Canadian Association of Social Workers, 2005). Even in some countries and communities where Western-style codes of conduct based on individual rights and duties

Quantity: the ‘ethics boom’2 One indicator of the growth of interest in social work ethics is the recent introduction of two specialist journals: The Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics (a USA-based electronic open access journal with a specific focus on social work launched in 2005) and Ethics and Social Welfare (a British-based subscription journal launched in 2007 with a broader focus covering ethics in social policy and the social professions, but with a strong emphasis on social work). The small core of student text￾books on social work ethics, which started to develop in the 1980s, grew significantly in the 1990s. Until recently, this field was dominated in the English-speaking world by North American publications, the most significant of which is the work of Frederic Reamer (e.g. Rhodes, 1986; Reamer, 1990, 1999; Loewenberg and Dolgoff, 1996; Congress, 1999; Linzer, 1999). This body of work is now growing internation￾ally, with revised and new texts by Australian, British and Irish authors (e.g. Beckett and Maynard, 2005; Banks, 2006; Bowles et al., 2006; Parrott, 2006; Charleton, 2007). The availability of textbooks on social work ethics in languages other than English is difficult to assess, but reports from colleagues internationally suggest a shortage, which is now beginning to be addressed (see Diekmann (2003) for an overview of some relevant European literature). Indeed, there is evidence of an emer￾ging literature on social work ethics published in various languages (e.g. Rouzel, 1997; Linga˚s, 1999; Henriksen and Vetlesen, 2001; Martin, 2001; Barroco, 2004), although sometimes this comprises translations of existing English-language publications (Banks, 1997, 1999; Mach-Zagel and Nøhr, 2007). Specific modules on social work ethics are more fre￾quently being taught on professional qualifying programmes, and atten￾tion is being paid to methods and approaches to learning and teaching in this area (e.g. Reamer and Abramson, 1982; Black et al., 2002; Banks and Nøhr, 2003; Banks, 2005; Gray and Gibbon, 2007). We are also seeing a proliferation of new and revised codes of ethics/ professional conduct, alongside other ethical guidance and discussion docu￾ments produced by professional associations and regulatory bodies (see Banks, 2006, Chapter 4, for an international overview). In countries where social work is a relatively new profession, codes of ethics and pro￾cedures for regulation and disciplining of members are being produced for the first time (e.g. Croatia Association of Social Workers, 2004; National Federation of Social Workers in Romania, 2004), whilst significant develop￾ments and revisions are in evidence in parts of the world where social work is longer established (e.g. General Social Care Council, 2002; Japanese Association of Social Workers et al., 2004; Canadian Association of Social Workers, 2005). Even in some countries and communities where Western-style codes of conduct based on individual rights and duties 1240 Sarah Banks at Fudan university on January 6, 2011 bjsw.oxfordjournals.org Downloaded from

Critical Commentary 1241 seem less relevant. nevertheless codes or declarations of ethics have been developed, sometimes taking the form of a pledge (e.g. South African Black Social Workers' Association, no date: Tata Institute of Social Sciences Social Work Educators' Forum, 1997), or existing codes have been modified to take account of indigenous values as in New Zealand bi-cultural and bilingual code of ethics(Aotearoa New Zealand Associ ation of Social Workers, 2008) Form: beyond the code and textbook Professional ethics is traditionally associated with codes of ethics and text books designed for use on professional education programmes. Codes of ethics usually comprise statements of purpose and lists of values, principles, standards and rules for the implementation of principles in practice. Text books vary, but the majority offer some kind of overview of ethical theories followed by analysis of difficult cases in terms of principles derived from these theories and/or from codes of ethics and sometimes structured around ethical decision-making models. This approach presents a picture ethical principles to practice, tackling difficult cases(often described as dilemmas) and making decisions. The titles of many of the North American textbooks reflect this focus(Rhodes, 1986: Reamer, 1990; Congress, 1999: Linzer, 1999; Dolgoff et aL., 2005). However, this construc tion of social work ethics is being challenged and broadened, not only by scholarly academic articles, but also by empirical studies of social workers' perceptions, attitudes and actions Rossiter et al.(2000), in their study of Canadian social workers, report that codes of ethics are not used in practice and practitioners are often only dimly aware of their existence. Similarly, they did not find social 5望9 workers using ethical decision-making models. This is not a surprising finding. For, in many cases, there is no time for the professional to consult a step-by-step model. Furthermore, despite the textbook rhetoric, hese models are not designed to be used on a daily basis mainly a way of encouraging students (often in a classroom or supervision setting) to reason and reflect systematically on ethical issues in practice, some aspects of which may then become intuitive or 'second natures they practise social work. There is, however, a surprisingly large body of literature focusing on the development, perfection and use of such decision making models, which inevitably contributes to the construction of a particular kind of discourse about social work ethics(for recent thinking on ethical decision making in social work, see McAuliffe and Chenoweth 2007: Harrington and Dolgoff, 2008) For our purposes here, the interesting feature of the study undertaken by Rossiter et al(2000)is that it comprises empirical research designed to

seem less relevant, nevertheless codes or declarations of ethics have been developed, sometimes taking the form of a pledge (e.g. South African Black Social Workers’ Association, no date; Tata Institute of Social Sciences Social Work Educators’ Forum, 1997), or existing codes have been modified to take account of indigenous values, as in New Zealand’s bi-cultural and bilingual code of ethics (Aotearoa New Zealand Associ￾ation of Social Workers, 2008). Form: beyond the code and textbook Professional ethics is traditionally associated with codes of ethics and text￾books designed for use on professional education programmes. Codes of ethics usually comprise statements of purpose and lists of values, principles, standards and rules for the implementation of principles in practice. Text￾books vary, but the majority offer some kind of overview of ethical theories, followed by analysis of difficult cases in terms of principles derived from these theories and/or from codes of ethics and sometimes structured around ethical decision-making models. This approach presents a picture of professional ethics as a rational process involving the application of ethical principles to practice, tackling difficult cases (often described as ‘dilemmas’) and making decisions. The titles of many of the North American textbooks reflect this focus (Rhodes, 1986; Reamer, 1990; Congress, 1999; Linzer, 1999; Dolgoff et al., 2005). However, this construc￾tion of social work ethics is being challenged and broadened, not only by scholarly academic articles, but also by empirical studies of social workers’ perceptions, attitudes and actions. Rossiter et al. (2000), in their study of Canadian social workers, report that codes of ethics are not used in practice and practitioners are often only dimly aware of their existence. Similarly, they did not find social workers using ethical decision-making models. This is not a surprising finding. For, in many cases, there is no time for the professional to consult a step-by-step model. Furthermore, despite the textbook rhetoric, these models are not designed to be used on a daily basis. They are mainly a way of encouraging students (often in a classroom or supervision setting) to reason and reflect systematically on ethical issues in practice, some aspects of which may then become intuitive or ‘second nature’ as they practise social work. There is, however, a surprisingly large body of literature focusing on the development, perfection and use of such decision￾making models, which inevitably contributes to the construction of a particular kind of discourse about social work ethics (for recent thinking on ethical decision making in social work, see McAuliffe and Chenoweth, 2007; Harrington and Dolgoff, 2008). For our purposes here, the interesting feature of the study undertaken by Rossiter et al. (2000) is that it comprises empirical research designed to Critical Commentary 1241 at Fudan university on January 6, 2011 bjsw.oxfordjournals.org Downloaded from

1242 Sarah Banks explore and describe how practitioners conceptualize and tackle ethical issues in their day-to-day practice and uses this to critique ' textbook accounts of ethics. It falls into the category of what philosophers call descriptive or 'empirical ethics(describing people's ethical values, beliefs and actions), as opposed to meta-ethics(conceptual analysis of ethical concepts such as'rights', responsibilities, "professional integrity or normative ethics (prescribing what people should do in terms of ethical principles, rules and specific actions) The role and validity of 'empirical ethics, and how, if at all, it relates to what has traditionally been conceived of as' philosophical ethics, is an area of debate within moral philosophy and other fields of professional ethics (Hope, 1999; Widdershoven and Van Der Scheer, 2004; Smajdov et al. 2008). The issues are complex and would benefit from further attention in relation to social work. This is particularly important, as empirical studies with a focus on aspects of social work ethics are growing(for recent examples, see BankS, 2004, pp. 125-78: McAuliffe, 2005: Strom- Gottfried, 2006: Jawad, 2007: McLaren, 2007) and look set to expand as empirical research in social work grows and a number of doctoral students are choosing research topics related to social work ethics Hitherto, there have been few specialist research monographs or advanced texts on aspects of social work ethics (either theoretic empirically based). Baptistas(1998)specialist book in Portuguese on the relevance of the moral philosophy of Levinas for social education work is one example. Books by Clark (2000), Banks(2004 )and Hugman(2005) could be regarded as advanced texts, which, although still general in cope, eschew ethical decision-making models and offer more in-depti critical analysis than introductory textbooks. We might expect and hope for more such contributions in the future as the subject area matures and develops and some of the empirically focused doctoral dissertations are written up for publication. Indeed, this is needed to broaden and deepen 9569 social work ethics as a subject area Content: taking account of character, care and context 8 The most interesting aspect of the thinking and literature on social work ethics is obviously its substantive content, and what this tells us about how the subject area is changing and developing as an academic professional discourse. Not surprisingly, developments and trends in philosophical ethics, including moral philosophical analyses and studies in cognate areas of professional and applied ethics (particularly medical, nursing and health care ethics), comprise one of the main influences on theoretical approaches to social work ethics. In philosophical ethics, there las been a challenge to the dominance of principle-based theories of ethics such as Kantianism(focusing on respect for persons and duty) and

explore and describe how practitioners conceptualize and tackle ethical issues in their day-to-day practice and uses this to critique ‘textbook’ accounts of ethics. It falls into the category of what philosophers call ‘descriptive’ or ‘empirical’ ethics (describing people’s ethical values, beliefs and actions), as opposed to meta-ethics (conceptual analysis of ethical concepts such as ‘rights’, ‘responsibilities’, ‘professional integrity’) or normative ethics (prescribing what people should do in terms of ethical principles, rules and specific actions). The role and validity of ‘empirical ethics’, and how, if at all, it relates to what has traditionally been conceived of as ‘philosophical ethics’, is an area of debate within moral philosophy and other fields of professional ethics (Hope, 1999; Widdershoven and Van Der Scheer, 2004; Smajdov et al., 2008). The issues are complex and would benefit from further attention in relation to social work. This is particularly important, as empirical studies with a focus on aspects of social work ethics are growing (for recent examples, see Banks, 2004, pp. 125–78; McAuliffe, 2005; Strom￾Gottfried, 2006; Jawad, 2007; McLaren, 2007) and look set to expand as empirical research in social work grows and a number of doctoral students are choosing research topics related to social work ethics. Hitherto, there have been few specialist research monographs or advanced texts on aspects of social work ethics (either theoretically or empirically based). Baptista’s (1998) specialist book in Portuguese on the relevance of the moral philosophy of Levinas for social education work is one example. Books by Clark (2000), Banks (2004) and Hugman (2005) could be regarded as advanced texts, which, although still general in scope, eschew ethical decision-making models and offer more in-depth critical analysis than introductory textbooks. We might expect and hope for more such contributions in the future as the subject area matures and develops and some of the empirically focused doctoral dissertations are written up for publication. Indeed, this is needed to broaden and deepen social work ethics as a subject area. Content: taking account of character, care and context The most interesting aspect of the thinking and literature on social work ethics is obviously its substantive content, and what this tells us about how the subject area is changing and developing as an academic– professional discourse. Not surprisingly, developments and trends in philosophical ethics, including moral philosophical analyses and studies in cognate areas of professional and applied ethics (particularly medical, nursing and health care ethics), comprise one of the main influences on theoretical approaches to social work ethics. In philosophical ethics, there has been a challenge to the dominance of principle-based theories of ethics such as Kantianism (focusing on respect for persons and duty) and 1242 Sarah Banks at Fudan university on January 6, 2011 bjsw.oxfordjournals.org Downloaded from