Face-to-face: Social work and evil

Humphrey, Caroline

Abstract

The concept of evil continues to feature in public discourses and has been reinvigorated in some academic disciplines and caring professions. This article navigates social workers through the controversy surrounding evil so that they are better equipped to acknowledge, reframe or repudiate attributions of evil in respect of themselves, their service users or the societal contexts impinging upon both. A tour of the landscape of evil brings us face-to-face with moral, administrative, societal and metaphysical evils, although it terminates in an exhortation to cultivate a more metaphorical language. The implications for social work ethics, practice and education are also discussed.

Citation

Humphrey, C. (2015). Face-to-face: Social work and evil. Ethics & social welfare, 9(1), 35-49. https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2014.968179

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Oct 17, 2014
• Publication Date: Jan 2, 2015
• Deposit Date: Apr 22, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 22, 2015
• Journal: Ethics and social welfare
• Print ISSN: 1749-6535
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 35-49
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2014.968179
• Keywords: Evil, Social work, Controversy, Philosophy, Metaphors
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/372914
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17496535.2014.968179#.VTejsE90y6I
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Ethics and social welfare on 17/10/2014, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/17496535.2014.968179
• Contract Date: Apr 22, 2015