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Care Ethics In Social Work: A Human-Sensitive Approach

Year 2025, Volume: 25 Issue: 2, 381 - 398
https://doi.org/10.18037/ausbd.1581354

Abstract

Care ethics is an ethical theory that focuses on human relationships throughout history, aiming to sustain and promote relationships by prioritizing the well-being of both caregivers and care receivers. This perspective holds significant importance not only in professional practices such as medicine and nursing in the healthcare field but also in social work perspectives and practices. In this context, care ethics provides a foundation for reassessing the fundamental principles and ethical approaches of social work. The purpose of this review article is to shed light on the theory and development process of care ethics, which emphasizes values such as empathy, responsibility, and compassion in the pursuit of social justice that centers on human relationships. It advocates for evaluating moral decisions and actions within concrete human relationships and contexts rather than abstract principles. Additionally, the study aims to delve into the relationship between care ethics and social work, discussing its potential in social work practice areas and the benefits it offers. Ultimately, it concludes that care ethics provides a fundamental framework for social work theory and practice, supporting a more human-centered, ethical, and effective service delivery.

References

  • Akkan, B. (2022). Politik bir kavram olarak bakım ve i̇htimam toplumu. Reflektif Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 3(3), 529-541. https://doi.org/10.47613/reflektif.2022.87
  • Altıntaş, M. E. (2014). Ahlak eğitimine feminist bir yaklaşım: Özen yaklaşımı. Bilimname, 2014(1), 99-120.
  • Ayhan, E. E. (2022). Bakım etiği penceresinden kadın yoksulluğu. Journal of Social Policy Conferences, 82, 383-405. https://doi.org/10.26650/jspc.2022.82.1007390
  • Baines, D. (2018). Social ethics of care in a context of social neglect: A five-country discussion. In B. Pease, A. Vreugdenhil, & S. Stanford (Ed.), Critical ethics of care in social work: transforming the politics and practices of caring (1st edition). London: Routledge.
  • Banks, S. (1995). Ethics and values in social work. London: Macmillan Press.
  • Banks, S. (2011). Ethics in an age of austerity: Social work and the evolving New Public Management. Journal of Social Intervention: Theory and Practice, 20(2), 5-23. https://doi.org/10.18352/jsi.260
  • Banks, S., & Nøhr, K. (Ed.). (2011). Practising social work ethics around the world: Cases and commentaries. London: Routledge.
  • Barnes, M. (2012). Care in everyday life: An ethic of care in practice (1. bs). Policy Press.
  • Barnes, M., Brannelly, T., Ward, L., & Ward, N. (2015). Introduction: The critical significance of care. In M. Barnes, T. Brannelly, L. Ward, & N. Ward (Eds.), Ethics of care: Critical advances in international perspective (1st ed.). Bristol: Bristol University Press.
  • Botes, A. (2000). A comparison between the ethics of justice and the ethics of care. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 32(5), 1071-1075. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2000.01576.x
  • Byers, D. S., & Shapiro, J. R. (2019). Renewing the ethics of care for social work under the Trump administration. Social Work, 64(2), 175-180. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swz008
  • Campbell, T. (2015). Voicing unease: Care ethics in the professionalization of social care. The New Bioethics: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body, 21(1), 33-45. https://doi.org/10.1179/2050287715z.00000000065
  • Collins, S. (2015). The core of care ethics. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Collins, S. (2018). Ethics of care and statutory social work in the UK: Critical perspectives and strengths. Practice, 30(1), 3-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/09503153.2017.1339787
  • Corsetti, C. A. (2010). Articulating an ethic of care: The moral narratives and practices of working lone mothers in South Wales (Doctoral dissertation). ProQuest.
  • Çelik, R. (2016). Bakım/özen etiği ve eğitim felsefesinde feminizm temelli bir yaklaşım. Fe Dergi, 8(2), 73-85. https://doi.org/10.1501/Fe0001_0000000166
  • Di̇nç, L. (2017). Bakım etiğinin hemşirelik uygulamaları açısından önemi. Türkiye klinikleri tıp etiği-hukuku-tarihi - özel konular, 3(1), 1-9.
  • Dybicz, P. (2012). The ethic of care: Recapturing social work’s first voice. Social Work, 57(3), 271-280. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/sws007
  • Engster, D. (2007). The heart of justice: care ethics and political theory. New York: Oxford University Press. Fisher, B., & Tronto, J. (1990). Toward a feminise theory of caring. In E. K. Abel & M. K. Nelson (Eds.), Circles of care: Work and ıdentity in women’s lives. New York: State University of New York Press.
  • Freedberg, S. (1993). The feminine ethic of care and the professionalization of social work. Social Work, 38(5), 535-540. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/38.5.535
  • Gilligan, C. (2003). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. USA: Harvard University Press.
  • Juujärvi, S., Kallunki, E., & Luostari, H. (2020). Ethical decision-making of social welfare workers in the transition of services: The ethics of care and justice perspectives. Ethics and Social Welfare, 14(1), 65-83. https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2019.1710546
  • Hankivsky, O. (2014). Rethinking care ethics: On the promise and potential of an intersectional analysis. American Political Science Review, 108(2), 252-264. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055414000094
  • Hay, J. (2018). Care and justice: Two sides of the same coin of a critival care ethics in social work. In B. Pease, A. Vreugdenhil, & S. Stanford (Eds.), Critical ethics of care in social work: Transforming the politics and practices of caring (1st ed.). New York: Routledge.
  • Hay, J. (2019). ‘Care is not a dirty word!’ Enacting an ethic of care in social work practice. European Journal of Social Work, 22(3), 365-375. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2017.1399253
  • Healy, K. (2000). Social work practices: contemporary perspectives on change (1st edition). London: SAGE Publications.
  • Held, V. (2005). The ethics of care: personal, political, and global. New York: Oxford University Press. Howe, D. (2014). The compleat social worker. London: Palgrave.
  • Hugman, R., Pawar, M., Anscombe, B., & Wheeler, A. (2021). Virtue ethics in social work practice. New York: Routledge.
  • Koggel, C. M. (1998). Perspectives on equality. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
  • Koggel, C., & Orme, J. (2010). Care ethics: New theories and applications. Ethics and Social Welfare, 4(2), 109-114. https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2010.484255
  • Laurin, A.-C., & Martin, P. (2022). Towards democratic institutions: Tronto’s care ethics inspiring nursing actions in intensive care. Nursing Ethics, 29(7-8), 1578-1588. https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330221089093
  • Lloyd, L. (2006). A caring profession? The ethics of care and social work with older people. The British Journal of Social Work, 36(7), 1171-1185. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bch400
  • Lymbery, M. (2001). Social work at the crossroads. The British Journal of Social Work, 31(3), 369-384. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/31.3.369
  • MacKay, K. (2019). Feminism and feminist ethics. İçinde G. Matthews (Ed.), Introduction to Philosophy: Ethics. Rebus Community.
  • Magni-Berton, R. (2011). Care, paternalism and virtue from a liberal perspective. Raisons Politiques, 44(4), 139-161.
  • McAuliffe, D. (2023). An ethic of care: Contributions to social work practice. In D. Hölscher, R. Hugman, & D. McAuliffe (Eds.), Social work theory and ethics: ıdeas in practice. Singapore: Springer.
  • Meagher, G., & Parton, N. (2004). Modernising social work and the ethics of care. Social Work & Society, 2(1), 10-27.
  • Noddings, N. (2003). Caring: A feminine approach to ethics and moral education (2nd edition). Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Nortvedt, P., Hem, M. H., & Skirbekk, H. (2011). The ethics of care: Role obligations and moderate partiality in health care. Nursing Ethics, 18(2), 192-200. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733010388926
  • Pease, B., Vreugdenhil, A., & Stanford, S. (2018). Towards a critical ethics care of care in social work. In B. Pease, A. Vreugdenhil, & S. Stanford (Eds.), Critical ethics of care in social work: Transforming the politics and practices of caring (1st ed.). London: Routledge.
  • Reamer, F. G. (1983). The Concept of paternalism in social work. Social Service Review, 57(2), 254-271.
  • Reamer, F. G. (2016). Eye on ethics. Erişim adresi: https://www.socialworktoday.com/news/eoe_0916.shtml
  • Reamer, F. G. (2017). Sosyal hizmet etiği ve değerleri (1. bs). Ankara: Nika Yayınevi.
  • Rothman, J. C. (2013). From the front lines: Student cases in social work ethics. (4th edition). Boston: Pearson.
  • Richardson, L. R., Canham, S., Weldrick, R., Hoselton, J., Grittner, A., & Walsh, C. (2024). “I feel like a somebody again”: The ethics of care in a shelter for older adults fleeing abuse. Innovation in Aging, 8(1), 340. https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igae098.1107
  • Sevenhuijsen, S. (1998). Citizenship and the ethics of care. London: Routledge.
  • Shaw, J. (2019). Homines curans and the social work imaginary: Post-liberalism and the ethics of care. The British Journal of Social Work, 49(1), 183-197. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcy026
  • Teke Lloyd, F. A. (2018). Feminist ethics of care and its importance for some normative questions in international politics. FLSF Felsefe ve Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 25, 25-71.
  • Thompson, N., & Thompson, S. (2001). Empowering older people: Beyond the care model. Journal of Social Work, 1(1), 61-76. https://doi.org/10.1177/146801730100100105
  • Thompson, N. (2019). Kuram ve uygulamada sosyal hizmeti anlamak (5. bs). Ankara: Dipnot.
  • Tronto, J. (1993). Moral boundaries: Political argument for an ethic of care. New York: Routledge.
  • Tronto, J. (2013). Caring democracy: Markets, equality, and justice. New York: NYU Press.
  • Tronto, J. (2015). Who cares?: How to reshape a democratic politics. Ithaca: Cornell Selects.
  • Tong, R., & Williams, N. (2010). Feminist ethics. İçinde E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford: The Metaphysics Research Lab Center for the Study of Language and Information
  • Tuncay, T., & Tekin, H. H. (2022). Sosyal hizmet mesleğinin ABC’si: Temel kavramlar, sosyal sorunlar, çalışma alanları, müdahale ölçekleri (2. bs). Ankara: Nika Yayınevi.
  • Woods, M. (2011). An ethic of care in nursing: Past, present and future considerations. Ethics and Social Welfare, 5(3), 266-276. https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2011.563427
  • Visse, M., Abma, T., & Widdershoven, G. (2015). Practising political care ethics: Can responsive evaluation foster democratic care? Ethics and Social Welfare, 9(2), 164-182. https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2015.1005550
  • Zastrow, C. (2015). Sosyal hizmete giriş (3. bs). Ankara: Nika Yayınevi.

Sosyal Hizmette Bakım Etiği: İnsana Duyarlı Yaklaşım

Year 2025, Volume: 25 Issue: 2, 381 - 398
https://doi.org/10.18037/ausbd.1581354

Abstract

Bakım etiği, geçmişten günümüze insan ilişkilerine odaklanan, bakım veren ile bakım alanın refahını öne çıkararak ve teşvik ederek ilişkileri sürdürmeyi amaçlayan bir etik teoridir. Bu perspektif tıp, hemşirelik gibi sağlık alanlarındaki mesleki uygulamaların yanı sıra sosyal hizmet perspektifi ve uygulamalarında da büyük öneme sahiptir. Bu bağlamda bakım etiği, sosyal hizmetin temel ilkelerinin ve etik yaklaşımının yeniden değerlendirilmesi için bir zemin sunmaktadır. Gerçekleştirilen bu derleme makale çalışmasının amacı, insan ilişkilerini odağa alan sosyal adalet arayışında empati, sorumluluk ve şefkat gibi değerleri ön plana çıkaran, ahlaki kararların ve eylemlerin soyut prensipler yerine somut insan ilişkileri ve bağlamlar içinde değerlendirilmesi gerektiğini savunan bakım etiği teorisini ve gelişim sürecini aydınlatmak, bakım etiği ve sosyal hizmet arasındaki ilişkiyi derinlemesine incelemektir. Çalışma, bu etik yaklaşımın sosyal hizmet uygulama alanındaki potansiyelini ve bu alanda sağladığı faydaları tartışarak, bakım etiğinin çağdaş sosyal hizmet teorisi ve uygulamasıyla uyumunu gözden geçirmektedir. Sonuç olarak, bakım etiğinin sosyal hizmet teorisi ve pratiği için temel bir çerçeve sunduğu ve daha insan odaklı, etik ve etkili hizmet sunumunu desteklediği görülmektedir.

References

  • Akkan, B. (2022). Politik bir kavram olarak bakım ve i̇htimam toplumu. Reflektif Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 3(3), 529-541. https://doi.org/10.47613/reflektif.2022.87
  • Altıntaş, M. E. (2014). Ahlak eğitimine feminist bir yaklaşım: Özen yaklaşımı. Bilimname, 2014(1), 99-120.
  • Ayhan, E. E. (2022). Bakım etiği penceresinden kadın yoksulluğu. Journal of Social Policy Conferences, 82, 383-405. https://doi.org/10.26650/jspc.2022.82.1007390
  • Baines, D. (2018). Social ethics of care in a context of social neglect: A five-country discussion. In B. Pease, A. Vreugdenhil, & S. Stanford (Ed.), Critical ethics of care in social work: transforming the politics and practices of caring (1st edition). London: Routledge.
  • Banks, S. (1995). Ethics and values in social work. London: Macmillan Press.
  • Banks, S. (2011). Ethics in an age of austerity: Social work and the evolving New Public Management. Journal of Social Intervention: Theory and Practice, 20(2), 5-23. https://doi.org/10.18352/jsi.260
  • Banks, S., & Nøhr, K. (Ed.). (2011). Practising social work ethics around the world: Cases and commentaries. London: Routledge.
  • Barnes, M. (2012). Care in everyday life: An ethic of care in practice (1. bs). Policy Press.
  • Barnes, M., Brannelly, T., Ward, L., & Ward, N. (2015). Introduction: The critical significance of care. In M. Barnes, T. Brannelly, L. Ward, & N. Ward (Eds.), Ethics of care: Critical advances in international perspective (1st ed.). Bristol: Bristol University Press.
  • Botes, A. (2000). A comparison between the ethics of justice and the ethics of care. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 32(5), 1071-1075. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2000.01576.x
  • Byers, D. S., & Shapiro, J. R. (2019). Renewing the ethics of care for social work under the Trump administration. Social Work, 64(2), 175-180. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swz008
  • Campbell, T. (2015). Voicing unease: Care ethics in the professionalization of social care. The New Bioethics: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body, 21(1), 33-45. https://doi.org/10.1179/2050287715z.00000000065
  • Collins, S. (2015). The core of care ethics. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Collins, S. (2018). Ethics of care and statutory social work in the UK: Critical perspectives and strengths. Practice, 30(1), 3-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/09503153.2017.1339787
  • Corsetti, C. A. (2010). Articulating an ethic of care: The moral narratives and practices of working lone mothers in South Wales (Doctoral dissertation). ProQuest.
  • Çelik, R. (2016). Bakım/özen etiği ve eğitim felsefesinde feminizm temelli bir yaklaşım. Fe Dergi, 8(2), 73-85. https://doi.org/10.1501/Fe0001_0000000166
  • Di̇nç, L. (2017). Bakım etiğinin hemşirelik uygulamaları açısından önemi. Türkiye klinikleri tıp etiği-hukuku-tarihi - özel konular, 3(1), 1-9.
  • Dybicz, P. (2012). The ethic of care: Recapturing social work’s first voice. Social Work, 57(3), 271-280. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/sws007
  • Engster, D. (2007). The heart of justice: care ethics and political theory. New York: Oxford University Press. Fisher, B., & Tronto, J. (1990). Toward a feminise theory of caring. In E. K. Abel & M. K. Nelson (Eds.), Circles of care: Work and ıdentity in women’s lives. New York: State University of New York Press.
  • Freedberg, S. (1993). The feminine ethic of care and the professionalization of social work. Social Work, 38(5), 535-540. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/38.5.535
  • Gilligan, C. (2003). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. USA: Harvard University Press.
  • Juujärvi, S., Kallunki, E., & Luostari, H. (2020). Ethical decision-making of social welfare workers in the transition of services: The ethics of care and justice perspectives. Ethics and Social Welfare, 14(1), 65-83. https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2019.1710546
  • Hankivsky, O. (2014). Rethinking care ethics: On the promise and potential of an intersectional analysis. American Political Science Review, 108(2), 252-264. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055414000094
  • Hay, J. (2018). Care and justice: Two sides of the same coin of a critival care ethics in social work. In B. Pease, A. Vreugdenhil, & S. Stanford (Eds.), Critical ethics of care in social work: Transforming the politics and practices of caring (1st ed.). New York: Routledge.
  • Hay, J. (2019). ‘Care is not a dirty word!’ Enacting an ethic of care in social work practice. European Journal of Social Work, 22(3), 365-375. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2017.1399253
  • Healy, K. (2000). Social work practices: contemporary perspectives on change (1st edition). London: SAGE Publications.
  • Held, V. (2005). The ethics of care: personal, political, and global. New York: Oxford University Press. Howe, D. (2014). The compleat social worker. London: Palgrave.
  • Hugman, R., Pawar, M., Anscombe, B., & Wheeler, A. (2021). Virtue ethics in social work practice. New York: Routledge.
  • Koggel, C. M. (1998). Perspectives on equality. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
  • Koggel, C., & Orme, J. (2010). Care ethics: New theories and applications. Ethics and Social Welfare, 4(2), 109-114. https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2010.484255
  • Laurin, A.-C., & Martin, P. (2022). Towards democratic institutions: Tronto’s care ethics inspiring nursing actions in intensive care. Nursing Ethics, 29(7-8), 1578-1588. https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330221089093
  • Lloyd, L. (2006). A caring profession? The ethics of care and social work with older people. The British Journal of Social Work, 36(7), 1171-1185. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bch400
  • Lymbery, M. (2001). Social work at the crossroads. The British Journal of Social Work, 31(3), 369-384. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/31.3.369
  • MacKay, K. (2019). Feminism and feminist ethics. İçinde G. Matthews (Ed.), Introduction to Philosophy: Ethics. Rebus Community.
  • Magni-Berton, R. (2011). Care, paternalism and virtue from a liberal perspective. Raisons Politiques, 44(4), 139-161.
  • McAuliffe, D. (2023). An ethic of care: Contributions to social work practice. In D. Hölscher, R. Hugman, & D. McAuliffe (Eds.), Social work theory and ethics: ıdeas in practice. Singapore: Springer.
  • Meagher, G., & Parton, N. (2004). Modernising social work and the ethics of care. Social Work & Society, 2(1), 10-27.
  • Noddings, N. (2003). Caring: A feminine approach to ethics and moral education (2nd edition). Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Nortvedt, P., Hem, M. H., & Skirbekk, H. (2011). The ethics of care: Role obligations and moderate partiality in health care. Nursing Ethics, 18(2), 192-200. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733010388926
  • Pease, B., Vreugdenhil, A., & Stanford, S. (2018). Towards a critical ethics care of care in social work. In B. Pease, A. Vreugdenhil, & S. Stanford (Eds.), Critical ethics of care in social work: Transforming the politics and practices of caring (1st ed.). London: Routledge.
  • Reamer, F. G. (1983). The Concept of paternalism in social work. Social Service Review, 57(2), 254-271.
  • Reamer, F. G. (2016). Eye on ethics. Erişim adresi: https://www.socialworktoday.com/news/eoe_0916.shtml
  • Reamer, F. G. (2017). Sosyal hizmet etiği ve değerleri (1. bs). Ankara: Nika Yayınevi.
  • Rothman, J. C. (2013). From the front lines: Student cases in social work ethics. (4th edition). Boston: Pearson.
  • Richardson, L. R., Canham, S., Weldrick, R., Hoselton, J., Grittner, A., & Walsh, C. (2024). “I feel like a somebody again”: The ethics of care in a shelter for older adults fleeing abuse. Innovation in Aging, 8(1), 340. https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igae098.1107
  • Sevenhuijsen, S. (1998). Citizenship and the ethics of care. London: Routledge.
  • Shaw, J. (2019). Homines curans and the social work imaginary: Post-liberalism and the ethics of care. The British Journal of Social Work, 49(1), 183-197. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcy026
  • Teke Lloyd, F. A. (2018). Feminist ethics of care and its importance for some normative questions in international politics. FLSF Felsefe ve Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 25, 25-71.
  • Thompson, N., & Thompson, S. (2001). Empowering older people: Beyond the care model. Journal of Social Work, 1(1), 61-76. https://doi.org/10.1177/146801730100100105
  • Thompson, N. (2019). Kuram ve uygulamada sosyal hizmeti anlamak (5. bs). Ankara: Dipnot.
  • Tronto, J. (1993). Moral boundaries: Political argument for an ethic of care. New York: Routledge.
  • Tronto, J. (2013). Caring democracy: Markets, equality, and justice. New York: NYU Press.
  • Tronto, J. (2015). Who cares?: How to reshape a democratic politics. Ithaca: Cornell Selects.
  • Tong, R., & Williams, N. (2010). Feminist ethics. İçinde E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford: The Metaphysics Research Lab Center for the Study of Language and Information
  • Tuncay, T., & Tekin, H. H. (2022). Sosyal hizmet mesleğinin ABC’si: Temel kavramlar, sosyal sorunlar, çalışma alanları, müdahale ölçekleri (2. bs). Ankara: Nika Yayınevi.
  • Woods, M. (2011). An ethic of care in nursing: Past, present and future considerations. Ethics and Social Welfare, 5(3), 266-276. https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2011.563427
  • Visse, M., Abma, T., & Widdershoven, G. (2015). Practising political care ethics: Can responsive evaluation foster democratic care? Ethics and Social Welfare, 9(2), 164-182. https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2015.1005550
  • Zastrow, C. (2015). Sosyal hizmete giriş (3. bs). Ankara: Nika Yayınevi.
There are 58 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language Turkish
Subjects Counselling, Wellbeing and Community Services, Social Work (Other)
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Seda Nur Arslantaş 0000-0001-6621-7710

Serap Daşbaş 0000-0003-0969-6393

Early Pub Date June 28, 2025
Publication Date
Submission Date November 7, 2024
Acceptance Date April 10, 2025
Published in Issue Year 2025 Volume: 25 Issue: 2

Cite

APA Arslantaş, S. N., & Daşbaş, S. (2025). Sosyal Hizmette Bakım Etiği: İnsana Duyarlı Yaklaşım. Anadolu Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 25(2), 381-398. https://doi.org/10.18037/ausbd.1581354