Description based upon print version of record.

Intro -- Contents -- List of Figures, Lists and Tables -- List of Practice Focus Boxes -- Preface to the fifth edition -- Situating ethics - local and global perspectives -- Changes to the fifth edition -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- The current context of social work -- Terminology: 'social work', 'social workers' and 'service users' -- Social work -- Social workers -- Service users -- Terminology: 'ethics' and 'values' -- Ethics -- Values -- Professional values and personal values -- Ethics, religion and politics -- Religion -- Politics -- Rationale and aims of the book

The structure of the book -- The use of exercises, cases and further resources -- Further resources -- CHAPTER 1: Ethical challenges in social work -- Introduction -- The ethical, the technical and the legal -- Ethical issues, problems and dilemmas -- What are the ethical challenges in social work? -- 1. Rights and welfare of the individual -- 2. Public welfare -- 3. Equality, diversity and structural oppression -- 4. Professional boundaries and relationships -- Reflecting on the ethical challenges -- Social work as a human services profession -- Social work and state welfare systems

Blame and guilt in social work -- Conclusions -- Further resources -- CHAPTER 2: Principle-based approaches to social work ethics -- Introduction -- The place of religious ethics -- Principles -- Respect and autonomy in the social work relationship: duty-based principles -- Kant and respect for persons -- Discourse ethics as a development of Kantian ethics -- Respect for persons and the social work relationship -- Biestek's (1957) principles -- Developments in the 1960s and 1970s -- Critiques in the 1970s and 1980s -- Promoting welfare and justice in society: utilitarian principles

J.S. Mill and utilitarianism -- Contemporary utilitarianism -- Commitments to emancipation, social and environmental justice: the challenge of radical, anti-oppressive and ecological principles -- Radical and structural approaches -- Environmental justice and green social work -- Macro and micro perspectives -- 'Common morality' approaches to ethics -- Kantian-utilitarian principles -- Kantian-utilitarian-radical principles in social work -- Dignity and worth of all human beings

Application to social work: Emphasis on the participation of service users in decision-making and the promotion of empowerment - the development of service users' skills and self-confidence so they can participate more in society - is a manifestatio -- Welfare or wellbeing -- Application to social work: Much of modern social work is explicitly about ensuring that the 'best interests' of particular service user groups are served, for example children in child protection work. While it is hard to define 'best interests', -- Social and environmental justice