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BJSW Advance Access originally published online on October 31, 2005
British Journal of Social Work 2006 36(1):75-89; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bch364
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.

Moral Character in Social Work

Chris Clark

Dr Chris Clark is Senior Lecturer in Social Work and Dean of Postgraduate Studies in the College of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Edinburgh. His main current research interest is in professional ethics.

Correspondence to Dr Chris Clark, School of Social and Political Studies, University of Edinburgh, 31 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9JT, UK. E-mail: Chris.Clark{at}ed.ac.uk

While the standard ethics of social work are derived from liberal individualism with its minimal prescriptions for human welfare and neutral stance on the nature of a good life, in practice social workers necessarily engage with the particular, idiosyncratic values and choices of specific individuals and communities. The social work role, as in other human service professions such as teaching and nursing, sometimes requires more than the competent delivery of standardized service: it also involves modelling ways of life and counselling over morally problematic issues. Value neutrality over many pressing contemporary social issues is thus neither feasible nor desirable for human service professionals. The requirements of the role include demonstrating a virtuous character. This has long been implicitly accepted in practice, if not always clearly acknowledged, but is becoming more prominent with the new requirements of professional registration.

Keywords: professional ethics, values, virtue, character.


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