British Journal of Social Work(2010)40, 1794-1811 .dvance Access publication September 22 2009 Moral Sources and emergent ethical Theories in social work Mel Gray Mel gr Professor of Social Work at the University of Newcastle in New South wales, Australia and Research Professor in The Australian Institute for Social Inclusion and Wellbeing. Her recent works include Indigenous Social Work around the World: Towards culturally relevant education and practice jointly edited with John Coates and Michael Yellow ird(Ashgate 2008), Social Work Theories and Methods, co-edited with Stephen A. Webb (Sage 2008), Evidence-based Social Work: A critical stance with Debbie Plath and Stephen A Vebb(routledge, 2009), Ethics and Value Perspectives in Social Work, co-edited with Stephen A. Webb(Palgrave 2010), and Sage Intemational Social Work (four volumes) ca edited with Stephen A. Webb(Sage 2010) Correspondence to Mel Gray, Ph. D, Professor of Social Work, The Australian Institute for Social Inclusion and Wellbeing (TAIsIW), The University of Newcastle, University Drive Callaghan 2308, New South Wales, Australia. E-mail: Mel Gray @newcastle.edu. Abstract This paper examines the feminist ethics of care as an emergent ethical theory that casts ethical dispositions in a different way to the deontological focus on duties and rules and onsequentialist-utilitarian focus on minimising harm. It is closer to, though different from, virtue ethics with its focus on moral character. The paper highlights the philoso phical tensions within and between these disparate theories, suggesting nevertheless 5望9 that discussions about ethics are enriched by these diverse influences. Since it is not poss- ible within the scope of this paper to deal with all of these ethical theories in depth, fo lowing a brief overview of the more established theory of deontology, virtue ethics and the ethics of care are discussed. while the feminist ethics of care attempts to provide a more complete view of morality and ethics in social work, there are important philoso- phical problems with which social work needs to engage in order to discern whether it offers a better understanding of morality than existing approaches in social work ethics and whether it can address the complexities of the problems social workers deal with and the harsh practice environments in which they work where the 'practice of value is becoming ever more difficult and strong reasons to care must be found Keywords: Social work ethics, feminist ethical theory, virtue ethics, ethics of care dialogical ethics C The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf ofMoral Sources and Emergent Ethical Theories in Social Work Mel Gray Mel Gray is Professor of Social Work at the University of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia and Research Professor in The Australian Institute for Social Inclusion and Wellbeing. Her recent works include Indigenous Social Work around the World: Towards culturally relevant education and practice jointly edited with John Coates and Michael Yellow Bird (Ashgate 2008), Social Work Theories and Methods, co-edited with Stephen A. Webb (Sage 2008), Evidence-based Social Work: A critical stance with Debbie Plath and Stephen A. Webb (Routledge, 2009), Ethics and Value Perspectives in Social Work, co-edited with Stephen A. Webb (Palgrave 2010), and Sage International Social Work (four volumes) co￾edited with Stephen A. Webb (Sage 2010). Correspondence to Mel Gray, Ph.D., Professor of Social Work, The Australian Institute for Social Inclusion and Wellbeing (TAISIW), The University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan 2308, New South Wales, Australia. E-mail: Mel.Gray@newcastle.edu.au Abstract This paper examines the feminist ethics of care as an emergent ethical theory that casts ethical dispositions in a different way to the deontological focus on duties and rules and consequentialist–utilitarian focus on minimising harm. It is closer to, though different from, virtue ethics with its focus on moral character. The paper highlights the philoso￾phical tensions within and between these disparate theories, suggesting nevertheless that discussions about ethics are enriched by these diverse influences. Since it is not poss￾ible within the scope of this paper to deal with all of these ethical theories in depth, fol￾lowing a brief overview of the more established theory of deontology, virtue ethics and the ethics of care are discussed. While the feminist ethics of care attempts to provide a more complete view of morality and ethics in social work, there are important philoso￾phical problems with which social work needs to engage in order to discern whether it offers a better understanding of morality than existing approaches in social work ethics and whether it can address the complexities of the problems social workers deal with and the harsh practice environments in which they work where the ‘practice of value’ is becoming ever more difficult and strong reasons to care must be found. Keywords: Social work ethics, feminist ethical theory, virtue ethics, ethics of care, dialogical ethics # The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved. British Journal of Social Work (2010) 40, 1794–1811 doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcp104 Advance Access publication September 22, 2009 at Fudan university on January 6, 2011 bjsw.oxfordjournals.org Downloaded from