Sociological Social Work by Priscilla Dunk-West Fiona Verity

Author:Priscilla Dunk-West, Fiona Verity [Priscilla Dunk-West, Fiona Verity]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781409445074
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2013-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

Global Perspectives

The International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) and the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) are two social work bodies which represent the increased connection between nations in contemporary life. Global perspectives in relation to ethics help to identify the complex ways in which social work is positioned in organisational settings. The IFSW’s Statement of Ethical Principles acknowledges these complexities in the positioning of social work and the potential for this placement to result in dilemmas and ethical conflicts:

By staying at the level of general principles, the joint IASSW and IFSW statement aims to encourage social workers across the world to reflect on the challenges and dilemmas that face them and make ethically informed decisions about how to act in each particular case. Some of these problem areas include:

• The fact that the loyalty of social workers is often in the middle of conflicting interests.

• The fact that social workers function as both helpers and controllers.

• The conflicts between the duty of social workers to protect the interests of the people with whom they work and societal demands for efficiency and utility.

• The fact that resources in society are limited. (IFSW)

It is crucial that social workers remain aware of the ethical tensions inherent in their work. Social workers in child protection, for example, can find it difficult to work towards the promotion of client autonomy when they are acting in a paternalistic way. The IFSW statement reminds the worker that as ‘helpers and controllers’ they are in a difficult situation as these roles will invariably clash. As we have argued in this chapter, ethical awareness must occur at both the everyday level as well as inform knowledge about the broader forces which create a space for social work to address social injustice. Imagine, for example, that in child protection social workers had any resource available to them, that is, that they could operate without the budgetary constraints evident in contemporary practice. This access to unlimited resources includes unlimited access to financial help, other professionals’ services, housing for clients and so on. Considering whether the practice of the social worker with unlimited resources would differ from a social worker in a contemporary child protection setting helps to flesh out how just how much policy affects the decisions we make in our professional roles which affects the ways in which we interact with our clients.

Some of the literature which we have discussed in Sociological Social Work in relation to globalisation and individualisation (Giddens 1991) points to the shift from community to the individual. Additionally, the complexities inherent in the work such as those discussed in relation to child protection, can suggest that social work ethics are difficult to use as anchors to practice. Here Jim Ife’s scholarship (2001) is helpful. Ife argues that ‘human rights have priority over other claims of right’ (p. 8). Human rights have gained prominence as a code which relies upon the connection between people regardless of nationhood, gender, sexual identity, age, disability and so on.

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