Brittanie E. Atteberry-Ash, PhD, is assistant professor, University of Texas at Arlington, 211 S. Cooper Street, Arlington, TX 76019, USA; email: brittanie.ash@uta.edu.
Search for other works by this author on: Social Work, Volume 68, Issue 1, January 2023, Pages 38–46, https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swac042 02 November 2022 21 January 2021 Revision received: 21 July 2021 Editorial decision: 09 August 2021 12 August 2021 02 November 2022Brittanie E Atteberry-Ash, Social Work and Social Justice: A Conceptual Review, Social Work, Volume 68, Issue 1, January 2023, Pages 38–46, https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swac042
Navbar Search Filter Mobile Enter search term Search Navbar Search Filter Enter search term SearchAs a profession, social work has codified within its ethical guidance and educational policies a commitment to social justice. While a commitment to social justice is asserted in several of our profession’s guiding documents, social work continues to lack consensus on both the meaning and merit of social justice, resulting is disparate and sometimes discriminatory practice even under a “social justice” label. This study examines how social justice has been operationalized in social work via a conceptual review of the literature. Findings show that social work leans heavily on John Rawls’s definition of social justice, Martha Nussbaum’s and Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach, and the definition of social justice included in The Social Work Dictionary. Unfortunately, none of these adequately align with the National Association of Social Workers’ Code of Ethics, which drives the profession. This conceptual review is a call to social workers to join together in defining the guiding principle of the profession.