ETHICS AND SOCIAL WORK

ETHICS AND SOCIAL WORK

Ethical values have always occupied a fundamental place in the shaping of the identity and professional priorities of social workers. Despite this long tradition, there is currently a growing need to pay attention to these ethical dimensions. This need is linked to deep transformations occurring in the field of welfare systems, with the heavy impact of neoliberal policies that reduce spaces of professional discretion and responsibility, the dramatic reduction of resources which threaten the founding values of welfare as way to guarantee rights and social justice. At the same time demographic changes, growing inequalities, globalization and scientific developments seem to many to suggest deep changes in ‘common values’ – and perhaps, to put in question whether that idea can any longer be sustained.
The international definition of social work emphasizes an orientation towards social justice, sustainable development and respect for human rights. Yet while these are principles to which all adhere in theory,they are sometimes disregarded, compromised or not sufficiently considered in everyday practice.
Ambiguities, frequent contradictions/ conflicts, paradoxical situations and complex decisions put professional practices under a constant strain. Lack of time and excessive workloads reduce the practical spaces to discuss and manage dilemmas in ethically sensitive ways. In such a climate, attention to the detail and complexity of ethical dimensions of social work may slip into the background, overcome by other pressures.
In Italy, such attention has dwindled since the 1990s. Then, seminars promoted by the Zancan Foundation and the ‘Moneta’ Foundation offered relevant and important insights and reflections which became a founding reference for the establishment of the professional Order and the deontological code. Since than there have been no significant opportunities in which professionals and researchers might share and discuss the tensions and meanings of social work ethics.
In this picture perhaps the only exception is a piece of research again conducted by the Zancan Foundation in the broader context of social professions that led to the publication in 2004 of the Ethical Chart for social professions.
It is therefore vital to return attention to the ethical dimension, both in terms of theoretical analysis as well as in research and professional practice.

1.http://www.esocsci.org.nz/event/ethics-social-work-conference/

2.http://www.ethicsandsocial.com/