Fostering a personal-is-political ethics

Chris Chapman, Nazia Hoque, Louise Utting

This article suggests that interviews about past ethical dilemmas or transgressions can foster ethical skills for navigating interlocking power relations. It shows how narratives claiming relative innocence are widespread and that taking responsibility for personal implication in oppression is crucial for fundamental social and political transformation. Chris is instructor and creator of a social work ethics course; Nazia and Louise are former students. In the second half of the article, Nazia and Louise use their interviews from the class as illustrations of personal-is-political ethical reflexivity. The authors encourage the use of resonant processes in social work ethics education and other pedagogical contexts that politicize everyday ethical navigation.

Foucauldian ethics, claims of relative innocence, interlocking oppression, moral economy, Invitational and Narrative Practice