SOCIAL WORK ETHICS RESEARCH GROUP (SWERG)
Convenors: Sarah Banks (s.j.banks@durham.ac.uk) and Ana M. Sobočan (AnaMarija.Sobocan@fsd.uni-lj.si)
To join the mailing list, please contact Sarah and Ana.
Description and aims
The SWERG (Social Work Ethics Research Group) is dedicated to researching ethics in social work practice, involving aspects such as ethics and professional identity, ethical decision-making, the role of virtue ethics, professional wisdom, ethical dilemmas, ethics education etc. The aims of SWERG are to explore these perspectives in international contexts, with their specific education traditions and social policy frameworks. The validity and relevance of such research rests also on including cross-national and cross-institutional perspectives – and these can be reached through collaboration of researchers across countries. The SWERG group members believe the ESWRA SIG facilitates an establishment of a pan-European (and wider) network of researchers interested in social work ethics.
The aims of the SWERG SIG are to develop a strong SIG membership base to initiate exchanges of research interests, projects, methods and results in the field of ethics in social work. Steadily we hope to establish a wider network of researchers and generate joint research endeavours, among other activities (such as small conferences, seminars, joint publications etc.). SWERG is usually organises a Pre-Conference workshop at the annual European Conference for Social Work Research and sometimes a symposium or workshop as well. We hold regular online meetings every few months when we often have a paper presentations or discussion. If you want to join a meeting please contact Sarah Banks or Ana Sobočan.
Pre-conference in-person SIG meeting in Aberdeen, Wednesday 15 April, 2026, 13.00-15.30: 'Social work ethics as inter-disciplinary practice'. This meeting is supported by the Ethics and Social Welfare journal and we will produce a short article based on our discussions. All welcome. Further information and programme is at the end of this page. Contact: s.j.banks@durham.ac.uk. Booking via ESWRA.
Recent research and publications
Article on 'Re-imagining social work ethics' - drawing on the provovative contributions and discussion at the pre-conference workshop at the Munich Conference in 2025, several members of the group submitted an article on this theme, currently under revision for the Ethics and Social Welfare journal (2026).
Article on 'Slow ethics in an age of fast technology' - following the pre-conference workshop at the Vilnius conference in 2024, members of the group worked together over several months to create an article now published in the Ethics and Social Welfare Journal (2025). https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2025.2512949
Research on professional ethical identity - Members of the group held symposia at several ESWRA conferences and worked together to explore the theme of ‘professional ethical identity’ in social work. This resulted in an article in the journal Ethics and Social Welfare: In Conversation with a Case Story: Perspectives on Professionalism, Identity and Ethics in Social Work (2020) https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2020.1726982
Research project: Ethical challenges for social workers during Covid-19 - Members of SWERG worked in partnership with the International Federation of Social Workers to conduct an international survey on ethical challenges for social workers during Covid-19. The survey was conducted in May 2020, and received 607 responses from 54 countries. A small grant was received for this work from Durham University (UK) ESRC Impact Acceleration Account. Members of the group are now looking at ethical challenges post-pandemic. For further details contact: s.j.banks@durham.ac.uk Various publications have been produced from the research, including:
‘Co-building a new eco-social world: leaving no one behind’ – people’s summit 2022 - SWERG was a partner with IFSW and others in working towards a people’s summit held online, 29 June-1 July 2022. This initiative was stimulated by the experience of the inequities highlighted by Covid-19 and the growing crisis generated by climate change. Details can be found here: https://www.newecosocialworld.com/ A report was produced: BEYOND THE PANDEMIC: EXPLORING SOCIAL WORK ETHICS AND VALUES AS A CONTRIBUTION TO A NEW ECO-SOCIAL WORLD An article was also published: Social work beyond the pandemic: Exploring social work values for a new eco-social world
Steering group of the SWERG SIG:
Pre-conference SIG Workshop, European Conference for Social Work Research, Aberdeen, 15 April 2026
Social work ethics as interdisciplinary practice
Aims and approach of the workshop
This pre-conference workshop (2.5 hours, afternoon) aims to bring together researchers with an interest in social work ethics to enable sharing of ideas, networking and developing plans for future collaboration. The workshop will start with sharing expertise and interests in an informal and friendly way. We will then focus on the substantive theme for this workshop: social work ethics as interdisciplinary practice, with a programme of provocations, group exercises and discussions. At the close of the workshop we will draw together conclusions and consider next steps for the group, including future publications, meetings and workshops.
About the theme: Social work ethics as interdisciplinary practice
Social work ethics as a topic tends to be concerned with the ethical being and action of social workers facing challenging situations in their daily work, and with articulating and explicating the values and principles upon which ethical practice is or should be based. This workshop will address the theme of inter-disciplinarity and the implications for professional ethics in social work from two perspectives: firstly, considering inter-disciplinary approaches to theorising social work ethics; secondly considering the ethical challenges experienced as social workers practice alongside people from other professions and disciplinary backgrounds.
1) Theorising social work ethics. Traditionally social work ethics draws on moral philosophy for its theoretical underpinnings (e.g. deontological, consequentialist, virtue and care ethics). What can we learn from recent work in moral philosophy on themes such as empirical, contextual, indigenous, post-human, embodied and relational approaches to ethics? What might be the contribution of other disciplines, which have developed their own perspectives on thinking and theorising about ethics, such as moral geography, moral anthropology and moral psychology? What are the implications for how we conceptualise and practise social work ethics and for theoretical and empirical research on the topic?
2) Interdisciplinary working. The interdisciplinary nature of contemporary social work practice complicates the ethical considerations. When social workers collaborate with professionals from medicine, law, psychology, and emerging fields like artificial intelligence, they encounter competing professional codes and conflicting approaches to the well-being of people using services, confidentiality, and intervention strategies. These intersections create new ethical dilemmas that traditional frameworks may not adequately address. What are the findings and implications of recent research on this theme and what is the potential for further studies?
Programme for the workshop
· Introductions to each other and sharing of interests, research projects and expertise in social work ethics
· Introduction to the workshop: Social work ethics as interdisciplinary practice: when moral philosophers meet social scientists, Sarah Banks, Durham University, UK
· Five short provocations
1. Slow Ethics and Creativity, Daria Forlenza, Libera Università degli Studi Maria SS. Assunta (LUMSA), Italy.
2. Legal Language as 'The Language of Secrets': Ethical Dilemmas in Teaching Legal Knowledge to Social Work Students, Michal Segal, Tel-Hai College, Upper Galilee, Israel.
3. Spirituality and Citizenship: Disciplinary or Transversal Questions for Social Work Ethics? François Gillet, Haute Ecole Bruxelles-Brabant, Belgium.
4. "Can Two Walk Together?" Negotiating Ethical Dilemmas at the Intersection of Rabbinic Authority and Social Work Practice, Netanel Gemara, University of Haifa, Israel.
5. Multi-disciplinarity, Ethics, and Social Work: Insights from Professional Supervision, Maria Irene Carvalho, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal.
· World café discussions in small groups focusing on questions raised by different provocations
· Plenary feedback and discussion
· Concluding remarks and plans for future activities of the group
