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First published online April 11, 2011

Equality and fairness: Linking social justice and social work practice

Michael O'BrienView all authors and affiliations
Volume 11, Issue 2
https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017310386834

Abstract

• Summary: Social justice lies at the heart of social work practice and is used by practitioners to describe their practice. That practice is primarily described at the individual level.
• Findings: Equality and fairness are core aspects of social justice and are drawn on extensively by social work practitioners in this research project to define social justice and are reflected in their practice. The two terms are, however, given a range of diverse meanings by practitioners. Those meanings are translated into and reflected in their practice.
• Application: There are important implications for social work education, the social work profession and social work practice in the diverse ways in which the terms are understood and used.

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1.
1. The specific questions were: a) how would you define social justice; b) please describe a practice incident involving issues of social justice, identify what was unjust and how did your definition of social justice affect your practice; c) can you give an example of social work practice action you have taken to counteract injustice/promote justice.
2.
2. In addition to being asked for some demographic and practice information, participants were also asked a) to describe the most important influences on their thinking about social justice; b) to identify the three most important social justice issues affecting their practice; c) to rank different dimensions of social justice. That data are not reported here.
3.
3. DHB refers to the local, publically funded health service, the District Health Board.
4.
4. Work and Income New Zealand.
5.
5. Children Youth and Family Service.
6.
6. Community and Family Services.
7.
7. Ministry of Health.
8.
8. Housing New Zealand.

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Published In

Volume 11, Issue 2
Pages: 143 - 158
Article first published online: April 11, 2011
Issue published: April 2011

Keywords

  1. equality
  2. freedom
  3. social inclusion
  4. social work practice
  5. social justice
  6. values

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Michael O'Brien
Massey University, New Zealand, [email protected]
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