Rethinking Ethics in the Shadow of Displacement and Statelessness: A Critically Engaged Account of Democratic Agency

ABSTRACT

Statelessness and displacement represent nothing short of a loss of place, the violation of rights and international norms, threat to safety and belonging, and severely limits access to law and citizenship. Social work must leverage and sustain an ethical standpoint as a critical counterpoint to the increasing moral and political urgency of statelessness. However, traditional and normative social work ethics operate at a level of abstraction that do not engage sufficiently with the realpolitik of statelessness. This paper critically engages with moral questions concerning displacement and statelessness by engaging the philosophy of James Tully and Christine Korsgaard. This engagement enables connections between agency and notions of democratic constitutionalism where people have the right to call into and contest relations of governance that oppress them, through various means such as advocacy and activism. We present a reconsideration of established ethical understandings by arguing for the place of public philosophy and the constitution of the self as key to social work theory and practice in response to statelessness and displacement. Korsgaard’s work on normativity and agency, and Tully’s notion of democratic constitutionalism provide a rich and original contribution to social work ethics that will be articulated for social work theory and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Statelessness
• constitutionalism
• Kantian deontology
• social identity
• moral reasoning

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank both reviewers for their helpful perspectives and feedback on the paper. The authors also express our appreciation to our School SUAW crew for their encouragement and company during the writing of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Dr Lynelle Watts is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Curtin University, Perth Western Australia. Lynelle has conducted research in the areas of reflective practice and critical reflexivity in social work, teaching and learning in higher education, social work curriculum, and assessment tools for carers of people experiencing mental distress. Lynelle is the current President of Australia New Zealand Social Work Welfare Education & Research (ANZSWWER) – a peak body for social work and welfare educators. Lynelle is the inaugural Social Media Editor for the journal Australian Social Work. Lynelle is the co-author of two books Key Concepts and Theory in Social Work (2017, Palgrave) and Social Justice Theory and Practice for Social Work (2019, Springer). Lynelle is active on Twitter – you can find her @watts_lj

Dr David Hodgson is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia. David has conducted research in the areas of compulsory school leaving policy, school attrition, services for families and children, and social work curriculum. David is an Associate Editor for the journal Australian Social Work, and he has recently co-authored two books: Key Concepts and Theory in Social Work (2017, Palgrave) and Social Justice Theory and Practice for Social Work: Critical and Philosophical Perspectives (2019, Springer).