Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/17496535.2023.2205654
E. Hanson, F. Lewis, F. Barbabella, R. Hoefman, G. Casu, L. Boccaletti, A. Leu, V. Hlebec, Irena Bolko, S. Santini, M. Svensson, S. Becker, L. Magnusson
ABSTRACT Adolescent young carers (AYCs) are a sub-group of young carers who carry out significant or substantial caring tasks and assume a level of responsibility which would usually be associated with an adult. They are a potentially vulnerable group of minors because of the risk factors associated with their caring role. AYCs face a critical transition phase from adolescence to adulthood often with a lack of tailored support from service providers. The recently completed European funded ‘ME-WE’ project, which forms the focus of this paper, aimed to change the ‘status quo’ by advancing the situation of AYCs in Europe, via responsive research and knowledge translation actions. This paper outlines the participatory, co-creation approach employed in the project to optimise AYC’s involvement. It describes the ethical framework adopted by the project consortium to ensure the wellbeing of AYCs within all project activities. Ethical issues that arose in the field study work in all six countries are presented, followed by a discussion of the level of success or otherwise of the consortium to address these issues. The paper concludes with lessons learned regarding ethically responsible research with and for AYCs that are likely transferable to other vulnerable research groups and pan-European projects.
{"title":"Ethical Considerations When Conducting Pan-European Research with and for Adolescent Young Carers","authors":"E. Hanson, F. Lewis, F. Barbabella, R. Hoefman, G. Casu, L. Boccaletti, A. Leu, V. Hlebec, Irena Bolko, S. Santini, M. Svensson, S. Becker, L. Magnusson","doi":"10.1080/17496535.2023.2205654","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2023.2205654","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Adolescent young carers (AYCs) are a sub-group of young carers who carry out significant or substantial caring tasks and assume a level of responsibility which would usually be associated with an adult. They are a potentially vulnerable group of minors because of the risk factors associated with their caring role. AYCs face a critical transition phase from adolescence to adulthood often with a lack of tailored support from service providers. The recently completed European funded ‘ME-WE’ project, which forms the focus of this paper, aimed to change the ‘status quo’ by advancing the situation of AYCs in Europe, via responsive research and knowledge translation actions. This paper outlines the participatory, co-creation approach employed in the project to optimise AYC’s involvement. It describes the ethical framework adopted by the project consortium to ensure the wellbeing of AYCs within all project activities. Ethical issues that arose in the field study work in all six countries are presented, followed by a discussion of the level of success or otherwise of the consortium to address these issues. The paper concludes with lessons learned regarding ethically responsible research with and for AYCs that are likely transferable to other vulnerable research groups and pan-European projects.","PeriodicalId":46151,"journal":{"name":"Ethics and Social Welfare","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46751652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/17496535.2023.2206671
P. Joseph
ABSTRACT For qualitative researchers seeking the perspectives of people with unusual characteristics or circumstances, compliance with expectations about participant anonymity can be difficult, if not impossible. In the age of internet communications and emerging research methodologies, traditional strategies require ongoing re-examination to ensure cohesion between a project’s ethical framework and its research practice. This paper reflects on the approach to informed consent used in a study with parent carers whose children had high-level support needs. A two-step process of written consent was developed in response to concerns about the possible re-identification of these parents as a result of their highly individual circumstances. This approach acknowledged the potential for identification, and maximised participants’ agency in choosing the level of risk that they were comfortable to accommodate. The paper discusses the researcher’s and participants’ responses to the adapted consent process and recommends that researchers and ethics review committees remain open to the development of collaborative and innovative approaches that are also culturally and contextually relevant, to enable people to contribute perspectives that might otherwise be silenced by the very ethical frameworks that purport to protect their interests.
{"title":"‘It’s All Public Anyway’: A Collaborative Navigation of Anonymity and Informed Consent in a Study with Identifiable Parent Carers","authors":"P. Joseph","doi":"10.1080/17496535.2023.2206671","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2023.2206671","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT For qualitative researchers seeking the perspectives of people with unusual characteristics or circumstances, compliance with expectations about participant anonymity can be difficult, if not impossible. In the age of internet communications and emerging research methodologies, traditional strategies require ongoing re-examination to ensure cohesion between a project’s ethical framework and its research practice. This paper reflects on the approach to informed consent used in a study with parent carers whose children had high-level support needs. A two-step process of written consent was developed in response to concerns about the possible re-identification of these parents as a result of their highly individual circumstances. This approach acknowledged the potential for identification, and maximised participants’ agency in choosing the level of risk that they were comfortable to accommodate. The paper discusses the researcher’s and participants’ responses to the adapted consent process and recommends that researchers and ethics review committees remain open to the development of collaborative and innovative approaches that are also culturally and contextually relevant, to enable people to contribute perspectives that might otherwise be silenced by the very ethical frameworks that purport to protect their interests.","PeriodicalId":46151,"journal":{"name":"Ethics and Social Welfare","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41815353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/17496535.2023.2209363
P. Narayanan, M. Brear, Pinky N Shabangu, B. Groot, Charlotte van den Eijnde, Sarah Banks
ABSTRACT This article starts with a case outlining ethical challenges encountered in participatory action research (PAR) on vaccine hesitancy in rural India during Covid-19. Community researchers were recruited by a not-for-profit organisation, with the aim of both discovering the reasons for vaccine hesitancy and encouraging take-up. This raised issues about the roles and responsibilities of local researchers in their own communities, where they might be blamed for adverse reactions to vaccination. They and their mentor struggled with balancing societal protection against individual rights to make choices. These themes are explored in two commentaries discussing the difficulties in balancing ethics in public health (prioritising societal benefits), social research (protecting participants from harm and respecting their rights not to be involved) and participatory research practices (maximising democratic participation and decision-making). As discussed in the first commentary, often these cohere, but tensions can arise. The second commentary also raises the issue of epistemic justice, questioning the extent to which the villagers could have a say in the design, implementation and interpretation of the research, and the dangers of not hearing the voices and arguments of people who reject vaccination. The case and commentaries highlight the complexities of PAR and additional challenges in a public health context.
{"title":"Ethical Issues in Participatory Action Research on Covid-appropriate Behaviour and Vaccine Hesitancy in India: A Case with Commentaries","authors":"P. Narayanan, M. Brear, Pinky N Shabangu, B. Groot, Charlotte van den Eijnde, Sarah Banks","doi":"10.1080/17496535.2023.2209363","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2023.2209363","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article starts with a case outlining ethical challenges encountered in participatory action research (PAR) on vaccine hesitancy in rural India during Covid-19. Community researchers were recruited by a not-for-profit organisation, with the aim of both discovering the reasons for vaccine hesitancy and encouraging take-up. This raised issues about the roles and responsibilities of local researchers in their own communities, where they might be blamed for adverse reactions to vaccination. They and their mentor struggled with balancing societal protection against individual rights to make choices. These themes are explored in two commentaries discussing the difficulties in balancing ethics in public health (prioritising societal benefits), social research (protecting participants from harm and respecting their rights not to be involved) and participatory research practices (maximising democratic participation and decision-making). As discussed in the first commentary, often these cohere, but tensions can arise. The second commentary also raises the issue of epistemic justice, questioning the extent to which the villagers could have a say in the design, implementation and interpretation of the research, and the dangers of not hearing the voices and arguments of people who reject vaccination. The case and commentaries highlight the complexities of PAR and additional challenges in a public health context.","PeriodicalId":46151,"journal":{"name":"Ethics and Social Welfare","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46781661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/17496535.2023.2211756
S. O'Sullivan, E. Desmond, Margaret Buckley
ABSTRACT This paper focuses on ethics in community-based participatory research (CBPR) from inception to post-publication. Central to CBPR is a collaborative, partnership approach that recognises the strengths of partners and engages their distinctive voice and knowledge in the research process. While the ethical complexities that arise in the course of research practice in CBPR can transcend individual projects, they are also grounded in the particularity of the project, community, and research partners. This paper reflects on the experiences of two participatory social policy research projects on housing in Ireland, conducted over the past three years. These projects involved collaborating with older people living in rural areas nationwide and with residents of small communities on offshore islands. The paper explores the ethics of engagement (regarding methods of involvement and access), and the ethics of representation (incorporating the depiction and sharing of research findings) and argues that researchers must pay attention to the specificity of each project and be alive to generating an organic research ethics in how research is set up, conducted, represented, and disseminated. In so doing, we can better foster agency and authenticity in the relationships developed throughout research processes and reflect on and meet shared values and responsibilities.
{"title":"The Ethics of Engagement and Representation in Community-based Participatory Research","authors":"S. O'Sullivan, E. Desmond, Margaret Buckley","doi":"10.1080/17496535.2023.2211756","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2023.2211756","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper focuses on ethics in community-based participatory research (CBPR) from inception to post-publication. Central to CBPR is a collaborative, partnership approach that recognises the strengths of partners and engages their distinctive voice and knowledge in the research process. While the ethical complexities that arise in the course of research practice in CBPR can transcend individual projects, they are also grounded in the particularity of the project, community, and research partners. This paper reflects on the experiences of two participatory social policy research projects on housing in Ireland, conducted over the past three years. These projects involved collaborating with older people living in rural areas nationwide and with residents of small communities on offshore islands. The paper explores the ethics of engagement (regarding methods of involvement and access), and the ethics of representation (incorporating the depiction and sharing of research findings) and argues that researchers must pay attention to the specificity of each project and be alive to generating an organic research ethics in how research is set up, conducted, represented, and disseminated. In so doing, we can better foster agency and authenticity in the relationships developed throughout research processes and reflect on and meet shared values and responsibilities.","PeriodicalId":46151,"journal":{"name":"Ethics and Social Welfare","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60111187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-15DOI: 10.1080/17496535.2023.2186460
C. Maylea, Lucy Bashfield, Sherie Thomas, Bawa Kuyini, Kate Fitt, Robyn Buchanan
ABSTRACT Parents and guardians in child protection systems are in unequal power relationships with child protection practitioners. This relationship is experienced as exclusionary or even oppressive by many parents and guardians. For families and communities in the child protection system who experience intersectional discrimination and disadvantage, such as people with intellectual disabilities and First Nations people, this unequal relationship and subsequent potential exclusion and oppression can be even more profound. A growing body of literature indicates that advocacy can assist in addressing unequal relationships in other contexts, such as involuntary mental health. This paper explores the role of representational advocacy in supporting parents in child protection settings through a case study of an advocacy service in Victoria, Australia. Using a human rights framework to guide the analysis, the paper highlights how advocacy can help support rights, but that broader structural change will be required to consistently uphold the rights of parents.
{"title":"Advocacy as a Human Rights Enabler for Parents in the Child Protection System","authors":"C. Maylea, Lucy Bashfield, Sherie Thomas, Bawa Kuyini, Kate Fitt, Robyn Buchanan","doi":"10.1080/17496535.2023.2186460","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2023.2186460","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Parents and guardians in child protection systems are in unequal power relationships with child protection practitioners. This relationship is experienced as exclusionary or even oppressive by many parents and guardians. For families and communities in the child protection system who experience intersectional discrimination and disadvantage, such as people with intellectual disabilities and First Nations people, this unequal relationship and subsequent potential exclusion and oppression can be even more profound. A growing body of literature indicates that advocacy can assist in addressing unequal relationships in other contexts, such as involuntary mental health. This paper explores the role of representational advocacy in supporting parents in child protection settings through a case study of an advocacy service in Victoria, Australia. Using a human rights framework to guide the analysis, the paper highlights how advocacy can help support rights, but that broader structural change will be required to consistently uphold the rights of parents.","PeriodicalId":46151,"journal":{"name":"Ethics and Social Welfare","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41527913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-21DOI: 10.1080/17496535.2023.2178328
Claire Dorrity
{"title":"Ethics, ethnocentrism and social science research","authors":"Claire Dorrity","doi":"10.1080/17496535.2023.2178328","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2023.2178328","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46151,"journal":{"name":"Ethics and Social Welfare","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41289963","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-06DOI: 10.1080/17496535.2023.2173794
J. O’Riordan, Felicity Daly, C. Loughnane, C. Kelleher, Claire Edwards
ABSTRACT CareVisions (2022–2026) is an interdisciplinary researcj project reflecting on care experiences during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic to re-imagine care relations, practices and policies in Ireland and internationally. Inspired by feminist ethics of care perspectives and Irish traditions of relatedness and living in the community, epitomised in the quote: Is ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine (We live in each other's shadow and in each other's shelter) (Higgins, M. 2021. Letter from the President of Ireland to the President of the United States of America, 20thJanuary 2021. Accessed 18 January 2022. https://twitter.com/PresidentIRL/status/1352162151817949184?s=20Q2), CareVisions prioritises the creation of deliberative and participative spaces to enable care debates from a wide and diverse range of voices. Thus, the project's essence required examination of and attention to ‘care-full' internal and external working relations. Informed by an advisory group comprised of care practitioners, researchers and activists, CareVisions' ethical statement recognises that adopting this approach requires a focus on ‘a dialogic and narrative form of practice' (Barnes et al. 2015b:238).This paper focuses on the process of conceptualising, operationalising and illustrating a feminist ethics of care from the early stages of the project’s development and in approaching its empirical studies.
CareVisions(2022-2026)是一个跨学科的研究项目，反映了2019冠状病毒病大流行期间和之后的护理经验，以重新想象爱尔兰和国际上的护理关系、实践和政策。受女权主义伦理关怀观点和爱尔兰传统的关系和生活在社区的启发，概括在这句话中:我们生活在彼此的阴影和彼此的庇护下scáth a ch ile a mhaireann na daoine。爱尔兰总统给美利坚合众国总统的信，2021年1月20日。于2022年1月18日发布。https://twitter.com/PresidentIRL/status/1352162151817949184?s=20Q2)， CareVisions优先考虑创造协商和参与空间，使护理辩论能够来自广泛和多样化的声音。因此，项目的本质需要仔细检查和关注内部和外部的工作关系。由护理从业者、研究人员和活动家组成的咨询小组告知，CareVisions的道德声明承认，采用这种方法需要关注“对话和叙事形式的实践”(Barnes et al. 2015b:238)。本文侧重于概念化，操作化和说明从项目发展的早期阶段和接近其实证研究的女权主义伦理的过程。
{"title":"CareVisions: Enacting the Feminist Ethics of Care in Empirical Research","authors":"J. O’Riordan, Felicity Daly, C. Loughnane, C. Kelleher, Claire Edwards","doi":"10.1080/17496535.2023.2173794","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2023.2173794","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT CareVisions (2022–2026) is an interdisciplinary researcj project reflecting on care experiences during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic to re-imagine care relations, practices and policies in Ireland and internationally. Inspired by feminist ethics of care perspectives and Irish traditions of relatedness and living in the community, epitomised in the quote: Is ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine (We live in each other's shadow and in each other's shelter) (Higgins, M. 2021. Letter from the President of Ireland to the President of the United States of America, 20thJanuary 2021. Accessed 18 January 2022. https://twitter.com/PresidentIRL/status/1352162151817949184?s=20Q2), CareVisions prioritises the creation of deliberative and participative spaces to enable care debates from a wide and diverse range of voices. Thus, the project's essence required examination of and attention to ‘care-full' internal and external working relations. Informed by an advisory group comprised of care practitioners, researchers and activists, CareVisions' ethical statement recognises that adopting this approach requires a focus on ‘a dialogic and narrative form of practice' (Barnes et al. 2015b:238).This paper focuses on the process of conceptualising, operationalising and illustrating a feminist ethics of care from the early stages of the project’s development and in approaching its empirical studies.","PeriodicalId":46151,"journal":{"name":"Ethics and Social Welfare","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45959595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-06DOI: 10.1080/17496535.2023.2172197
G. Schweiger
ABSTRACT In Austria, foster parents are screened and selected by local child and youth welfare services, and then they are required to complete several weeks of training. This essay is a personal reflection on this training, which I completed with my wife in early 2022. However, I am also writing this personal reflection from an ethical perspective informed by my work as an ethicist and philosopher at the university. Topics that concern me are the understanding of child and youth welfare, the parental role of foster parents, the focus of the training on practical knowledge from experience, and the relationship between experts and foster parents.
{"title":"A Personal-Ethical Reflection on the Training for Foster Parents in Austria","authors":"G. Schweiger","doi":"10.1080/17496535.2023.2172197","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2023.2172197","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In Austria, foster parents are screened and selected by local child and youth welfare services, and then they are required to complete several weeks of training. This essay is a personal reflection on this training, which I completed with my wife in early 2022. However, I am also writing this personal reflection from an ethical perspective informed by my work as an ethicist and philosopher at the university. Topics that concern me are the understanding of child and youth welfare, the parental role of foster parents, the focus of the training on practical knowledge from experience, and the relationship between experts and foster parents.","PeriodicalId":46151,"journal":{"name":"Ethics and Social Welfare","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41288387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17496535.2022.2159310
David Alvargonzález
ABSTRACT Three recent studies carried out in the Spanish regions of Madrid, Valencia, and Murcia have shown that medical residents at public hospitals are systematically required to work for more than 48 hours a week. This practice is institutionalised, and there are indicators suggesting that it also occurs in other public hospitals throughout Spain. The obligation to work excessive hours has been shown to have harmful consequences for workers’ physical and psychological health while jeopardizing residents’ and patients’ safety. I argue that behaviours contrary to people’s health and safety imply bioethical and, in this case, institutional, malpractice.
{"title":"Institutional Bioethical Malpractice at Spanish Public Hospitals","authors":"David Alvargonzález","doi":"10.1080/17496535.2022.2159310","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2022.2159310","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Three recent studies carried out in the Spanish regions of Madrid, Valencia, and Murcia have shown that medical residents at public hospitals are systematically required to work for more than 48 hours a week. This practice is institutionalised, and there are indicators suggesting that it also occurs in other public hospitals throughout Spain. The obligation to work excessive hours has been shown to have harmful consequences for workers’ physical and psychological health while jeopardizing residents’ and patients’ safety. I argue that behaviours contrary to people’s health and safety imply bioethical and, in this case, institutional, malpractice.","PeriodicalId":46151,"journal":{"name":"Ethics and Social Welfare","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45477002","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17496535.2022.2073381
Emily Keddell
ABSTRACT This article conceptualises theories of ethics relevant to the recognised problem of decision variability in child protection. Within this field, social workers are faced with multiple ethical imperatives when making decisions about children’s care. They must respond to justice principles concerned with duties and consequences, as well as ethical obligations created by the relational and contextual elements of each case. Recent scholarship on decision variability highlights the justice issues that arise when decisions in response to apparently similar cases differ. An ethical imperative is that similar cases should be treated ‘like for like’ so that children’s and family’s rights are upheld consistently. This article contends that ethical concepts relating to both universalist duties such as respect for persons, extended by the concept of interactive universalism, and contextual responses based on an ethic of care, help theorise the complexities of ethical decisions in child protection. These concepts develop a nuanced understanding of the ways social workers resist risk discourses, may make decisions reflecting the participation of service users, and contextual evaluations of risk based on understanding service user’s life histories. Understanding this combination helps explain the reasons behind variability, and evaluate the moral acceptability or otherwise of apparently variable decisions.
{"title":"On Decision Variability in Child Protection: Respect, Interactive Universalism and Ethics of Care","authors":"Emily Keddell","doi":"10.1080/17496535.2022.2073381","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2022.2073381","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article conceptualises theories of ethics relevant to the recognised problem of decision variability in child protection. Within this field, social workers are faced with multiple ethical imperatives when making decisions about children’s care. They must respond to justice principles concerned with duties and consequences, as well as ethical obligations created by the relational and contextual elements of each case. Recent scholarship on decision variability highlights the justice issues that arise when decisions in response to apparently similar cases differ. An ethical imperative is that similar cases should be treated ‘like for like’ so that children’s and family’s rights are upheld consistently. This article contends that ethical concepts relating to both universalist duties such as respect for persons, extended by the concept of interactive universalism, and contextual responses based on an ethic of care, help theorise the complexities of ethical decisions in child protection. These concepts develop a nuanced understanding of the ways social workers resist risk discourses, may make decisions reflecting the participation of service users, and contextual evaluations of risk based on understanding service user’s life histories. Understanding this combination helps explain the reasons behind variability, and evaluate the moral acceptability or otherwise of apparently variable decisions.","PeriodicalId":46151,"journal":{"name":"Ethics and Social Welfare","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43933518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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