Chapter 4: Social work ethics: Embracing diversity?

This article focuses on the ethics of social work. In particular, concern is to evaluate if or how professional codes of ethics like the current Australian Association of Social Work code, engaged with progressive politics, a dominant discourse of this period. It is a contention that the notion of an all-encompassing code of ethics which emphasises universality, inclusiveness and conventional conceptualisations of community in fact mutes the diverse interests and plurality of voices characteristics of modern pluralist societies. Traditionally, codes of ethics have been one of the defining aspects of a profession. Reasons identified for the emergence of codes of ethics in professions include the following: as a contribution to the professional status of an occupation; to establish and maintain professional identity; to guide practitioners about how to act; and to protect users from malpractice or abuse. Postmodernity questions the previous way social work categorised its constituent groupings.