Towards a hermeneutics of life practice for welfare professionals in the age of the ecological imperative
Date
2006Author
Clark, Chris
Metadata
Abstract
Volz argues that the task of ethics can no longer be limited to the familiar questions
of moral theory in the age of modernity: the questions of morality or right conduct
for the autonomous individual (Volz, 1993; Kiesel and Volz, 2004). This is the
framework that has formed the conventional ethics of social work as an individual
therapy. Social work, Volz proposes, should now address itself to the task of
enabling the individual to choose and live a life as a member of a specific cultural
community, who at least potentially possesses a full and specific conception of the
good life particular to his biography and socio-cultural circumstances (Volz, 2003).
Such a move would recover the classical quest of philosophical ethics: for the good
life and human flourishing. Volz proposes that the ‘heart of social work’ should be a
‘Lebensführungshermeneutik’ or ‘hermeneutics of life practice’ in which the
professional aims above all to help the client discover the meaning of the life he
wishes to lead.
In this paper I will consider the role not only of social work but of welfare policy
and practice more generally in promoting the realisation of the good life. The
traditional discourse of professional ethics in the social professions has turned on
respect and human rights. More recently it has begun to address itself more
explicitly to wider questions of the good life and human flourishing, not merely in
the abstract, but in particular real communities and cultural circumstances. The
endeavours of professional ethics in the welfare professions lie within mainstream
western political theory, social policy and state sponsored welfare practice. As such
they are primarily oriented towards human flourishing; they are informed by what
analysts of environmental thought often refer to as an anthropocentric perspective.