1244 Sarah Banks contemporary social and political concerns around conflicts relating to ethnicity, religion and culture (Browning, 2006: Nussbaum, 2006 Appiah, 2007; Sullivan and Kymlicka, 2007). This suggests that mutual nefit could be gained from more cross-fertilization between moral plitical and religio philosophy and social work ethics, especial\s.ss social workers are dealing on a daily basis with some of these conflic and dilemmas at an individual, family and neighbourhood level The idea of a situated social work ethics and its relationship to philosophy and politics I will end this brief paper with a plea for a further development of the elationship between social work and moral philosophy. Awareness of the links between social work and philosophy is longstanding(Bosanquet, 1916: Pumphrey, 1961: Ragg, 1977; Reamer, 1993: Timms and Watson, 1978). However, this is often confined to the philosophy of social work (political and moral philosophical justifications for and analysis of the rationale and core purpose of social work), rather than philosophy in ocial work(analyses and discussion of everyday practice in philosophical terms). Although there are several examples of philosophers who have been involved in the writing of books on social work ethics(Downie and Telfer, 1980; Bowles et aL., 2006: Charleton, 2007), by and large, moral philosophers have not contributed directly to the debates and literature n social work ethics in the way they have in some other areas of applied and professional ethics, particularly health care and medical ethics Hence, the field of social work ethics has been constructed largely fror within the discipline of social work, with social work authors drawing on and using relevant concepts and theories from moral philosophy(and 5望9 other areas of professional ethics)as relevant, sometimes in rather piece meal and simplistic ways There is also a need for more conscious linkages between social work ethics and politics. The literature on radical, transformative and anti- oppressive social work has tended to remain relatively separate from the literature on social work ethics. Yet, ethics and politics are intimately connected Matters of conduct, ethical judgement and decision making of individual professionals cannot be abstracted from the political and olicy contexts in which they take place. Individual professionals are both influenced by and help create the ethical discourses of the organizations where they work and the policy frameworks within which they practise However, there is a tendency in some of the ethics literature to focus on the individual practitioner making difficult ethical decisions in cases that are sometimes constructed in ways that are decontextualized, both fromcontemporary social and political concerns around conflicts relating to ethnicity, religion and culture (Browning, 2006; Nussbaum, 2006; Appiah, 2007; Sullivan and Kymlicka, 2007). This suggests that mutual benefit could be gained from more cross-fertilization between moral, political and religious philosophy and social work ethics, especially as social workers are dealing on a daily basis with some of these conflicts and dilemmas at an individual, family and neighbourhood level. The idea of a situated social work ethics and its relationship to philosophy and politics I will end this brief paper with a plea for a further development of the relationship between social work and moral philosophy. Awareness of the links between social work and philosophy is longstanding (Bosanquet, 1916; Pumphrey, 1961: Ragg, 1977; Reamer, 1993; Timms and Watson, 1978). However, this is often confined to the philosophy of social work (political and moral philosophical justifications for and analysis of the rationale and core purpose of social work), rather than philosophy in social work (analyses and discussion of everyday practice in philosophical terms). Although there are several examples of philosophers who have been involved in the writing of books on social work ethics (Downie and Telfer, 1980; Bowles et al., 2006; Charleton, 2007), by and large, moral philosophers have not contributed directly to the debates and literature in social work ethics in the way they have in some other areas of applied and professional ethics, particularly health care and medical ethics. Hence, the field of social work ethics has been constructed largely from within the discipline of social work, with social work authors drawing on and using relevant concepts and theories from moral philosophy (and other areas of professional ethics) as relevant, sometimes in rather piece￾meal and simplistic ways. There is also a need for more conscious linkages between social work ethics and politics. The literature on radical, transformative and anti￾oppressive social work has tended to remain relatively separate from the literature on social work ethics. Yet, ethics and politics are intimately connected. Matters of conduct, ethical judgement and decision making of individual professionals cannot be abstracted from the political and policy contexts in which they take place. Individual professionals are both influenced by and help create the ethical discourses of the organizations where they work and the policy frameworks within which they practise. However, there is a tendency in some of the ethics literature to focus on the individual practitioner making difficult ethical decisions in cases that are sometimes constructed in ways that are decontextualized, both from 1244 Sarah Banks at Fudan university on January 6, 2011 bjsw.oxfordjournals.org Downloaded from