© British Association of Social Workers
A Political Critique of Kantian Ethics in Social Work
Graham B. McBeath teaches politics at Oxford Polytechnic. He is a graduate in Politics and Philosophy from the University of Keele where he is currently finishing his doctoral thesis in the history of ideas on the cultural contexts and reception of Austrian Economics. He has taught sociology, humanities and media studies at the University of Keele, and Crewe and Alsager College of Higher Education. Prior to this he studied at the London School of Economics. His major interests are in the deployment of ethical discourse in social work, postmodernism, contemporary Critical Theory, and the relation between contemporary anarchism and libertarian thought.
Stephen A. Webb is a lecturer in the Department of Social Work at the University of Dundee. He holds a degree in Behavioural Sciences and studied for an M.Sc. (with CQSW) at the University of Oxford. Prior to this he carried out research for a Ph.D. in social theory and social work at the University of Keele. Whilst at Keele, he taught sociology and was a Research Officer on an ESRC project which examined changing management styles and internal labour markets in the face of economic recession. Before embarking upon an academic career, he worked for Derbyshire and South Glamorgan Social Services. His main interests are in children and family services and the application of Critical Theory to education and training methods in social work.
Correspondence to Stephen A. Webb, Department of Social Work, University of Dundee, DD1 4HN.
Summary
This paper addresses the Kantian theory of the subject which is found in contemporary social work discourse on ethics and values. It is argued here that the Kantian idea of persons as (i) rational, (ii) autonomous, and (iii) ends-in-themselves is wholly inadequate to the social work doctrine of ‘respect for persons’. To show this, we counterpose a Foucauldian view of history, moral codes and theory of the person, and the meaning this can have in the social worker-client relation. This alternative reading claims that social work is essentially a political practice which is constructed by various discursive and institutional strategies of power. Therefore, it is suggested that social work needs a political reading of its own discourse. To this end we outline a Foucauldian micro-political analysis of the social work ‘subject’ or person as a point within a field of discursive-knowledge based strategies.
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