Reading an Ethics of Risk in Social Work
In the spirit of post/modern/structural contestation this paper disrupts dominant territories of ethical discourse in social work by suggesting that risk society has become a key context for the development of social work ethics. Specifically the intent of this paper is to establish that there is an ethics of risk in social work. In doing so, this paper has attempted to illuminate the assumptions contained within this particular view.
It is suggested that practice can be read for the existence of an ethics of risk. The primary example used to illustrate this claim is the ‘production’ of social work students in academic and fieldwork contexts. The paper presents a number of scenarios that suggest that risk has been enacted as a basis for decision making when constructing ideas about what a 'good/bad' social work student might be. Primarily it seems that the risk identified in this context is the production of a social worker that is not ‘good’ or at least ‘not as good as they could be’ and who could potentially harm clients and the profession.
Accordingly, the argument of this article is that risk is constructive of, and has become integrated as, an ethic to guide decision-making and action in social work. This argument is established by first considering debates between modernist and post/modernist/structuralist accounts of ethics and secondly, socio-cultural theories of risk. Third, an ethic of risk is suggested to be evident in decision-making in social work. Fourth, risk as an ethic is problematised to reveal its assumptions and consequences. The problematic aspects of this ethic are considered as a means for prompting critical questions about the place of, and alternatives to, ethics of risk in social work.