Social Work Ethics

Evidence-based practice has become an important approach to social work practice. This paper highlights some of the ethical dilemmas which may be implicated by this approach, and encourages social workers and social work researchers to carefully consider these potential quandaries.

Despite decades of practice and development, social work education in India is still Western-centric. Social work in India is still not well recognised: it does not have an accrediting body or professional recognition within the country. This study gives voice to a sample of social work students regarding some of the challenges they face, including the curriculum, pedagogy, recognition of the profession and the practicum. The study is based on interviews with students from five universities in India and includes concrete recommendations for improving the professional training of social work students.

La ética es un elemento fundamental en todas las profesiones y, más aún, en las profesiones en las que la persona es el eje en torno al cual gira el quehacer profesional. Este es el caso del trabajo social, profesión que, además, actúa sobre personas y colectivos que muchas veces se encuentran en situaciones de desprotección o de vulnerabilidad. Por ello, es necesario adquirir una “mirada ética” que permita afrontar esas cuestiones éticas y mirar a los ojos de las personas usuarias con valores y principios éticos profesionales compartidos. Este es precisamente el objetivo de este libro, fruto de las valiosas aportaciones de profesorado de reconocido prestigio en el ámbito de la ética del trabajo social, tanto a nivel nacional como internacional. Esta obra pretende ser un referente, tanto para estudiantes y profesorado de trabajo social, como para las y los profesionales de la intervención social que se encuentran cada día con dilemas y cuestiones éticas. Se dirige, por tanto, no solo al ámbito académico sino también al profesional, con el objetivo de servir como guía y orientación para el abordaje de las problemáticas éticas.

It is perhaps regrettably so that one of the defining features of social work is its tendency to become embroiled in and mixed up with controversy. When social workers make the news, the news is usually bad. For publics outrage is often a dominant mode of engagement with social work. However, if controversy is prominent in perceptions of social work, it is nevertheless particular types of controversies. Cast in various guises as "crisis", "scandal", "moral panic", "failures" and "tragedy" social work is inevitably caught up in a complex set of inimical circumstances. It's a job that brings practitioners face-to-face with anger, abuse, cruelty and heartbreak. This  means social work is sometimes colloquially  referred to as "grunt work" or "dirty work" (Hughes, 1962; Flaherty, 2014).  In "A Profession Chasing its Own Tail-Again" (1990) Hartman warned that conflicts, controversy and rifts are a sad part of the professional history of social work. Alongside this emotive terms, phrases and concepts which invoke failure and controversy are often strategically deployed to manufacture doubt and suspicion about the credibility of social work as a profession. In the UK recently this has certainly been the case with the likes of parliamentarian Michael Gove and policy advisor Martin Narey casting doubt on the worthiness of social work education in preparing students for front-line practice.  Arguably, it only through a thorough investigation of controversy that we can come to understand what permits previously distant characters such as Grove and Narey access to the social work stage. For all the attention given to and preoccupation with these concerns there is no single analysis of the nature of controversy to be found in the social work literature.

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This is a unique opportunity for early career researchers to join The Alan Turing Institute. The Alan Turing Institute (ATI) is the UK’s new national institute for data science, established to bring together world-leading expertise to provide leadership in the emerging field of data science. The Institute has been founded by the universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Oxford, UCL and Warwick and the EPSRC.

This is a targeted call, by which we intend to recruit researchers in subjects currently underrepresented by our fellowship cohort. Fellowships are available for 3 years with the potential for an additional 2 years of support following interim review. Fellows will pursue research based at the Institute hub in the British Library, London. Fellowships will be awarded to individual candidates and fellows will be employed by a joint venture partner university (Cambridge, Edinburgh, Oxford, UCL or Warwick).

Little is known about newly qualified social worker (NQSW) experiences of education, employment and training in Scotland. This article reports on findings from a national online survey (n=205) and focus groups conducted with newly qualified social workers during their first year of employment. The study presented here was commissioned by the Scottish Social Service Council (SSSC) as part of a wider strategic review of social work education. Following a mixed-method design, the results of this study were analysed using quantitative and qualitative software. Findings indicate that the majority of NQSWs feel well-prepared by social work education, but less supported by employers in terms of opportunities for continuous professional development. Experiences of good quality induction, supervision and opportunities for professional development demonstrate mixed results across Scotland. This study has important implications for the forthcoming review of social work education in Scotland and builds on research from England and Wales. It provides empirical clarity on what newly qualified social workers know, value and understand about their professional role and tasks. These Scottish findings run contrary to wider UK concerns such as those raised by recent commentators suggesting that newly qualified social workers are inadequately prepared for the challenge of childcare social work.

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This exciting new book aims to engage with students, practitioners, researchers, policy makers, service-users and associated professionals to critically reflect on the importance of professional identity as a matter of concern for social work. It encourages readers to reflect on, compare and contrasts the diverse dimensions of professional identity across several international contexts. Contributing authors including leading international researchers in the field. These talented authors, along with the editor, Stephen A. Webb - one of the world’s leading writers in the field - aim to enrich your understanding of some of the central problems facing social work today and the way these are intimately bound up with matters of professional identity.

In this paper we suggest an alternative approach to ethics in social work: virtue ethics. We argue that Habermas's theory of communicative action and discourse ethics needs to be supplemented with virtue ethics to provide an account useful to social work. In these times, sensitivity to others is needed for social work to succeed as a profession interested in combating the complacency, self-interest and lack of compassion evident in cutbacks to social welfare programs and the resultant concerns with outcomes and efficiencies that have all but obliterated care and compassion. We see in Habermas a furthering of Aristotelian and Thomist philosophy, most importantly with respect to his focus on emancipatory knowingthe critically reflective knower who knows self as the person doing the knowing.

Social work can help to restore a balance towards humanity. We are and always have been critical thinking innovators with a comprehensive grasp of issues, a thorough knowledge of human situations and environments. We also possess the ability to craft policy that is meaningful while at the same time realize a moral obligation towards ourselves and to the populations we serve.

The Latino population is the fastest growing group in the United States; thus, it is imperative that social workers and other mental health practitioners be knowledgeable about the current literature on how to effectively serve this population. This article elucidates key issues and knowledge, such as immigration and migration concerns; discusses how to assess for levels of acculturation; examines cultural values; and highlights salient work issues and health disparities that Latinos experience. Recommendations on how agencies and universities can recruit and promote bilingual practitioners are introduced. Finally, culturally responsive strategies for professional use of self and fostering the therapeutic alliance are discussed.

Problem Situation: People experience ups and downs in their job satisfaction and motivation levels at different points of their work lives for various reasons. One of the outputs of low job satisfaction and motivation is defined as " withdrawal behaviors " in the literature. Withdrawal behaviors are any employee behavior of withdrawal from duties and responsibilities as a result of a distance that grows between the employee and the organization. It is an important necessity to investigate such behaviors at educational institutions. Determining teachers' withdrawal behaviors will be useful in enabling more effective and successful performance of their job. Also, considering that their withdrawal behaviors adversely affect the students' success, investigation of such behaviors is an important necessity in respect to the quality of education. Purpose: This study aims to identify teachers' withdrawal behaviors and the relationship between such behaviors and work ethics based on the views of teachers and school administrators serving in public elementary schools. Method: Designed in single and relational screening models, the study was conducted using a mixed research method. The study sample in quantitative dimension is comprised of 381 elementary school teachers and 198 elementary school administrators. Under the quantitative dimension of the study, 15 elementary school teachers and 15 school administrators were interviewed. Teachers' withdrawal behaviors were studied using the " Withdrawal Behaviors Scale " and their views on work ethics were studied using the " Work Ethics Scale. " The quantitative data was collected using a semi-structured form.

This text constructs a new way of thinking about social work based on contemporary social theory and taking into account recent changes in social work. Working in a counter-tradition that is suspicious of a number of governing ideas and practices in social work, it draws on themes in the work of theorists such as Foucault, Giddens, and Rose. It looks at risk, trust, regulation, identity, and governmentality to explore the impact of risk society and neoliberalism on social work. It draws out the way social work is constituted by the twin rationalities of security and regulation.

This descriptive article explores the uses of poetry and journaling exercises as means of helping students develop their self-reflective capacities within the context of international social work. First, self-reflection and its importance to social work practice and education is discussed. Second, the importance of self-reflection in international and cross-cultural work is highlighted. Third, the application of poetry and other journal writing exercises as a means of facilitating self-reflection is explored. Poems written in response to structured exercises by students who took part in an international experience in social work education in Leon, Nicaragua, are presented as examples. The exercises presented can be used by educators in various helping professions who seek to help their students expand their self-reflective skills and engage in cross-cultural and international practice.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the social problem of depression from a multi-theoretical perspective. It explores depression through the lens of two psychologically based theories of human behavior, existential theory and cognitive theory, as well as through the vehicle of two sociological theories, Marxist theory and the theory of oppression. By understanding how each of these theories explains depression, social workers may be helped to see the complexity of treating the problem. It is the belief of the authors that social work literature, which is often dominated by reductionist, quantitativelybased research studies, has increasingly ignored theoretical explorations of key social problems such as depression, to the determent of the profession and the disciplines which inform it.

This chapter focuses on virtue ethics, a form of ethical practice emphasizing the importance of fostering character or personality traits that cohere with the values and traditions of a given community.  The chapter first introduces he concept of 'virtue ethics' by briefly exploring the dichotomy between tow types of ethics: principle-based/ rule following ethics and character-based ethics. Following this, we discuss why virtue ethics can be an appropriate resource in the case of social work management and supervision dilemmas and explore some of the virtues that could be set forth as the basis for an ethical practice within a social development paradigm.  To illustrate how this perspective can be applied in practice, we draw on the South African context, and illustrate our discussion by drawing on the South African Council for Social Services Profession's (SACSSP) code of Ethics, and the Integrated Service Delivery Model of the Department of Social Development of South Africa.  The chapter concludes with a discussion on how virtue ethics can assist supervisors and managers to practice more ethically in contexts that are increasingly rigid and regulated.

The ethics, which is the guide of being right and good in the act of people and relations with other people, is center of social work profession of which subject is ‘human’. Social work ethics argues whichever appropriate activity of social workers makes right conduct at the professional practices. For this reason, it is important to know the main philosophical ethical approaches, which are, provide a basis for the social work ethics. Thus, it can be possible to describe the values that are adopted by social work and ethical principles, which guide to practice.
For these reasons in this article it has been tried to answer the question of ‘what ethics is’ and  handled the main philosophical ethical approaches, which are provide a basis for the social work ethics, and social work ethics.

Kişilerin eylemlerinde ve diğer insanlarla olan ilişkilerinde doğru ve iyi olana ilişkin yol gösterici olan etik, öznesi ‘insan’ olan sosyal hizmet mesleğinin merkezinde yer alır. Sosyal hizmet etiği -en yalın ifadeyle-, mesleki uygulamalarda uzmanların hangi uygun yapıp etmelerinin doğru eylemi ortaya çıkarabileceğini tartışır. Bu nedenle, sosyal hizmet etiğine kaynaklık eden temel felsefi etik yaklaşımların bilinmesi önemlidir. Böylelikle sosyal hizmetin benimsediği değerlerin ve uygulamalara rehberlik eden etik ilkelerin tanımlanabilmesi mümkün olacaktır.
Bu nedenlerden dolayı makalede, etik nedir sorusuna yanıt aranmaya çalışılmış ve sosyal hizmet etiğinin oluşturulmasında temel alınan felsefi etik yaklaşımlar ile sosyal hizmet etiği ele alınmıştır.

WASHINGTON, DC – On March 17, Social work students and early professionals will attend the first student-led Social Work Student Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill. This advocacy training for
students and emerging professionals, will complement the Congressional Social Work Caucus' “Social Work Day on the Hill.”

The day’s events will provide an opportunity for students to learn how policy is shaped and how pertinent issues are addressed the affect the profession as a whole. A major focus will be the
Social Work Reinvestment Act (SWRA), a groundbreaking initiative created to address the challenges faced by social workers and recommend strategies to maximize the services social workers provide, with recommendations spanning recruitment, research funding, educational debt, and salary inequalities.

In-person training will provide an opportunity for millennials to voice ideas and concerns to legislators and congressional staff, to speak up about the need for support for professional growth and innovation in the field, and to experience the power of getting involved in direct advocacy.

The newly-adopted Code of Ethics of the Canadian Association of Social Workers (2005a) includes in its preamble:
The Code of Ethics does not specify which values and principles are most important and which outweigh others in instances of conflict. Reasonable differences of opinion exist among social workers with respect to which values and principles should be given priority in a particular situation (p.2).
This article explores the implications of the Code’s openness to the “reasonable differences of opinion” clause with particular attention to groups of people who might be identified as “fundamentalist.” This article argues that recent trends in immigration and religion will require the social work profession to reflect on how it can remain committed to anti-oppressive practice while at the same time making room for the perspectives of those belonging to religiously orthodox groups.  A multiple pluralities approach which recognizes humans’ narrative character is suggested as one way to resolve potential conflicts.

Intended both as an introduction to the thought of the Italian philosopher Roberto Esposito and as a mapping of current biopolitical analysis, this chapter traces the contributions of recent Esposito scholarship to widen perspectives in social work education and critical pedagogy to the nuances of contemporary theory. The chapter offers a summary of Esposito's insight into the biopolitical nature of social work and its implications for pedagogy. As one colleague recently remarked to the author "social work is the biopolitical project par excellence". Social work is a striking illustration of the neoliberal biopolitical strategy of governing "from below" whereby agents of the state are intimately connected with calculation or control and direction as micro practices of self-reflection. Social work articulates neoliberalism's normative attempts of mobilising social agents as reflective instruments of control. It will be shown how adopting a critical pedagogical approach among social work educators, researchers and students can educate and strengthen tactics of resistance (Webb, 2019). Drawing on Esposito's work, this can be achieved by a pedagogy that critiques professional normalisation as a negative protection, and the way this conditions front-line power relations with service users and carers. As a part of this biopolitical regime, a primary function of social work is to safeguard (negatively) individual, family and community life. From an education standpoint biopolitical analytics can focus social workers on investigating the network of power relations, knowledge practices and modes of subjectification evident in change processes and modes of surveillance.

The aim of this chapter is to examine the concept of professional identity as it relates to social work. This will facilitate greater theoretical clarity,  map possible alternatives and refinements to the concept so that these can contribute to a better understanding of the field of social work. Despite a growing interest in matters of professional identity in social work, researchers know relatively little about how identities are formed among practitioners who carry out complex, challenging and often ambiguous  public sector functions (Baxter, 2011). Professional identity - or how a social worker thinks of herself or himself as a social worker - is often defined as a practitioners professional self-concept based on attributes, beliefs, values, motives, and experiences (Ibarra, 1999; Schein, 1978).

This paper examines how normative technologies of power are emerging in social work that depend on the hardening of a risk rationality and strategies of social insurance against dangerous, vulnerable, troubled and marginal populations. Taken together, it will be shown how these radical changes amount to a reconfiguring of social work through forms of governmentality that is referred to as actuarialism. Actuarialism refers to the suite or programme of risk calculation techniques that underpin social interventions in advanced liberal societies. This suite of techniques in social work centre on various apparatus of calculative reason, or “centre’s of calculation” as Latour  (1987) refers to them, which permit actions at a distance. They constitute a very consistent field of intervention in social work especially with groups such as sex offenders. A new pole has been constituted for social work, focusing on the activity of regulating marginal and challenging populations, characterized by the question “How do we insure ourselves against the risk of certain populations today?”

How does critical engagement with the concept of individualism as it relates to social work take on a European dimension? Is there anything specifically European about a social work which elevates a particular conception of the individual?

The common conditions within and between European societies for the emergence of social work have at least what can be called complex socio-cultural and economic dimensions resulting in two distinct organizational complexes that are significant in the development of modernity: the nation-state and systematic capitalist production (Giddens, 1991). Moreover, modernity invented not just Europe but a ‘Eurocentric Europe’, that is a Europe of exclusively Western origin, together with its own ‘European’ cultural tradition. This European tradition has significant symbolic meanings that impacted on social work, symbolizing modernity as science, civilization and citizenship, moral development and improvement, individual liberties and State welfare. In Europe, individualism provided the behavioural core of laissez faire economic theory and justification for political liberalism. It had profound implications for the way in which societies went about defining, explaining and solving social problems. And, ultimately, as will be shown, had a significant effect on shaping the culture of social work.

This article takes an in-depth look at the strengths perspective, examining its philosophical roots, its core characteristics (according to its key proponents), and its limitations. It suggests that the strengths perspective is underpinned by a mix of Aristotelianism, humanistic individualism, and communitarianism. The article highlights the synergies between the strengths perspective and contemporary neoliberalism and suggests

This article examines United States immigration policy in three states: Arizona,
Alabama, and Indiana. All three states have varying rates of Latino immigration and
a complex set of socioeconomic and cultural factors; yet nonetheless, all have
participated in the criminalization of undocumented immigrants through state-level
legislative action. First, this article explores Latino migration to the United States
and its relationship to the forces of globalization. Second, we discuss the
consequences and impacts of racialized and decentralized immigration policy. Third,
we detail the history and background of each state law and its economic and social
costs. Lastly, we conclude with implications of these policies on the lives of
undocumented immigrants, social welfare policy, social work and transnational
practice, and social work education.

The ethics of social intervention have long been among the main preoccupations of Social Work professionals, since its foundation as a theoretical-practical discipline. Moreover -and fortunately- there exist a myriad of cases which reveal exemplary professionals being guided by ethical behavior. In this occasion, we want to highlight two professionals who, in the middle of the Nazi conflict, risked their lives for the underprivileged, the Jewish people. They chose to suffer and risk their lives for others rather than make others suffer or provoke their death. Therefore, they incarnate -unbeknownst to them- the ethical proposal posed by Emmanuel Levinas. Their names are Irena Sendler and Alice Salomon. The aim of this article is to highlight that the paths taken by Sendler and Salomon respectively, happen to be the practical antecedents of Levina's ethics in Social Work.

KEYWORDS: E. Lévinas, I. Sendler, A. Salomón, social work, ethics.

RESUMEN
La ética de la intervención social ha sido una de las más importantes preocupaciones de los profesionales del Trabajo Social desde su fundación como disciplina teórico-práctica. De hecho, por suerte, son numerosos los casos de profesionales que podríamos tomar como ejemplo por la eticidad de sus conductas. En esta ocasión, destacaremos a dos profesionales que, en plena contienda nazi, arriesgaron su vida por los más desfavorecidos, los judíos, prefiriendo sufrir y arriesgar su vida por los demás a hacer sufrir y permitir la muerte de éstos, encarnando así, sin saberlo pero con una fidelidad sorprendente, la propuesta ética planteada por Emmanuel Lévinas. Ellas son Irena Sendler y Alice Salomon. Por ello, el objetivo del presente artículo consiste en señalar que las trayectorias de Sendler y Salomon resultan ser los antecedentes prácticos de la ética de Lévinas en el Trabajo Social.

PALABRAS CLAVE: E. Lévinas, I. Sendler, A. Salomón, trabajo social, ética.

The Ethical Foundations of Social Work provides an easy-to-grasp, theoretical rigorous and practice-based grounding in social work ethics. The authors first examine when, how and why principles and debates historically emerged, then explicitly map them onto everyday ethical challenges and situations in social work practice. As such, the book promotes an ethically conscious approach where principles can be flexibly and confidently applied as tools for critical problem solving.

- Result of “the Onlife Initiative,” a one-year project funded by the European Commission to study the deployment of ICTs and its effects on the human condition
- Inspires reflection on the ways in which a hyperconnected world forces the rethinking of the conceptual frameworks on which policies are built
- Draws upon the work of a group of scholars from a wide range of disciplines including, anthropology, cognitive science, computer science, law, philosophy, political science

What is the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the human condition? In order to address this question, in 2012 the European Commission organized a research project entitled The Onlife Initiative: concept reengineering for rethinking societal concerns in the digital transition. This volume collects the work of the Onlife Initiative. It explores how the development and widespread use of ICTs have a radical impact on the human condition.

ICTs are not mere tools but rather social forces that are increasingly affecting our self-conception (who we are), our mutual interactions (how we socialise); our conception of reality (our metaphysics); and our interactions with reality (our agency). In each case, ICTs have a huge ethical, legal, and political significance, yet one with which we have begun to come to terms only recently.

The impact exercised by ICTs is due to at least four major transformations: the blurring of the distinction between reality and virtuality; the blurring of the distinction between human, machine and nature; the reversal from information scarcity to information abundance; and the shift from the primacy of stand-alone things, properties, and binary relations, to the primacy of interactions, processes and networks.

Such transformations are testing the foundations of our conceptual frameworks. Our current conceptual toolbox is no longer fitted to address new ICT-related challenges. This is not only a problem in itself. It is also a risk, because the lack of a clear understanding of our present time may easily lead to negative projections about the future. The goal of The Manifesto, and of the whole book that contextualises, is therefore that of contributing to the update of our philosophy. It is a constructive goal. The book is meant to be a positive contribution to rethinking the philosophy on which policies are built in a hyperconnected world, so that we may have a better chance of understanding our ICT-related problems and solving them satisfactorily.

The Manifesto launches an open debate on the impacts of ICTs on public spaces, politics and societal expectations toward policymaking in the Digital Agenda for Europe’s remit. More broadly, it helps start a reflection on the way in which a hyperconnected world calls for rethinking the referential frameworks on which policies are built.

This article will discuss how two theoretical frameworks can be useful in the analysis of conflict situations in social work practice. By viewing situations from the perspective of competing and differing values, social workers are able to come to respect the positions of those with whom they are in conflict. The respect that emanates from being empathic and validating towards another's values is crucial for negotiating resolution to difficult conflict situations.

This paper examines the feminist ethics of care as an emergent ethical theory that casts ethical dispositions in a different way to the deontological focus on duties and rules and consequentialist-utilitarian focus on minimising harm. It is closer to, though different from, virtue ethics with its focus on moral character. The paper highlights the philosophical tensions within and between these disparate theories, suggesting nevertheless that discussions about ethics are enriched by these diverse influences. Since it is not possible within the scope of this paper to deal with all of these ethical theories in depth, following a brief overview of the more established theory of deontology, virtue ethics and the ethics of care are discussed. While the feminist ethics of care attempts to provide a more complete view of morality and ethics in social work, there are important philosophical problems with which social work needs to engage in order to discern whether it offers a better understanding of morality than existing approaches in social work ethics and whether it can address the complexities of the problems social workers deal with and the harsh practice environments in which they work where the 'practice of value' is becoming ever more difficult and strong reasons to care must be found.

Pro gradu -tutkielma käsittelee sosiaalityötä osana kotoutumista. Tutkielman tarkoituksena on lisätä ymmärrystä pakolaisasiakkaiden kanssa tehtävän työn erityispiirteistä ja tuoda esiin miten monin eri tavoin asiakkaat merkityksellistävät samaa palvelua. Tässä tutkielmassa pakolaisella tarkoitetaan oleskeluluvan kansainvälisen suojelun perusteella saanutta ihmistä. Tutkimustehtävänä on selvittää millaisia merkityksiä asiakkaat antavat kotouttavalle sosiaalityölle ja mitkä tekijät edistävät tai estävät asiakkaan valtaistumista. Tässä tutkielmassa valtaistuminen nähdään siirtymänä marginalisoidusta pakolaisesta tasavertaiseksi yhteiskunnan jäseneksi.

Tutkielma on laadullinen tapaustutkimus, jonka aineisto on kerätty haastattelemalla yhdeksää erään suuren kaupungin kotouttavan sosiaalityön asiakkaana ollutta ihmistä. Teemahaastattelut on toteutettu neljänä yksilöhaastatteluna ja kolmena ryhmähaastatteluna kevään ja kesän 2015 aikana. Aineisto on analysoitu käyttäen teoriaohjaavaa sisällönanalyysiä.

Tämän tapaustutkimuksen perusteella kotouttavan sosiaalityön organisaatiolähtöisyys ja rakenteelliset ongelmat asettuvat asiakkaan valtaistumisen esteeksi. Tällöin asiakas on passiivinen tekemisen kohde työntekijän ollessa aktiivinen toimija. Palvelu on riittämätöntä tai se ei vastaa asiakkaan tarpeisiin. Asiakkaan valtaistumista edistää asiakkaan ja työntekijän välinen toimiva vuorovaikutussuhde. Tuttuun työntekijään syntynyt luottamuksellinen suhde ja työntekijän tavoitettavuus ovat tärkeitä tekijöitä yksilön ja yhteisön välisen suhteen vahvistamisessa. Asiakkaan yksilöllisen tilanteen ottaminen työskentelyn lähtökohdaksi on asiakaslähtöisyyden perusta.

Tutkielman aihe on ajankohtainen, koska kansainvälistä suojelua saavien ihmisten määrä on kasvussa. Jokaisella ihmisellä on pakolaisuudesta huolimatta oma tarinansa ja yksilölliset tarpeensa ja tavoitteensa, jotka selvittämällä voidaan tarjota hänen tarpeisiinsa vastaavaa palvelua. Asiakasmäärien kasvaessa myös kunnan peruspalvelujen ja kolmannen sektorin tarve kotoutumisen tukena kasvaa.

Social workers face many ethical dilemmas on a daily basis, but do not always have the tools to resolve them. We analyze some of the main ethical decision-making methodologies used in social work. They are divided into two groups: those that propose a hierarchy between ethical principles, and those do not propose any specific hierarchy between them. We conclude with a succinct assessment of these methodologies and highlights some of their main features, with the aim of providing social workers with a set of tools for ethical decision making.

This article is a theory-building exercise which focuses on Baradian agential realism in the process of building a framework of key concepts and their inter-relationships to show how and why this perspective matters to social work. It makes a statement about the relevance of agential realism, in the writings of Karen Barad and other feminist posthumanist thinkers, to rethink fundamental concepts which are embedded in social work discourse, especially those humanist notions that relate to agency, subjectivity and reflection. It charts how agential realism can become foundational for social work knowledge. The article is intended both as an introduction to the thought of Barad and as a mapping of current agential realist scholarly trajectories. It guides the reader through the conceptual terrain of agential realist thought by explicating the key concepts of intra-action, entanglement, diffraction and agential cuts. In order to furnish an accessible engagement with Baradian theory the article marshals case studies, drawing on ethnographic and qualitative research, which relate to social work. It concludes by showing how agential realism can provide a rich ontological framework for social work and highlights how it disrupts some of our long held cherished beliefs about what it means to do social work.