Applying Research to Enhance Capacity: A Unifying Purpose for an Integrated Profession

ABSTRACT

For more than a century the social work profession has had a dual purpose: to promote individual well-being and social justice, but the micro–macro divide is fragmenting the profession. This article suggests that the profession’s aim might best be realized by adopting a unifying purpose, a just sense of well-being. Research on complex adaptive systems conceptualizes a unifying purpose as vertical integration carried out in differentiated ways in discrete moments of practice in various settings. Interpersonal neurobiology and Aristotle’s interdependence of character virtues and practical judgment inform a corresponding shift from the dualities of personal and professional to the social worker as a person with differentiated professional capacities and activities. Integration with differentiation enhances capacity to promote the profession’s purpose.

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Notes on contributors

Elizabeth King Keenan

Elizabeth King Keenan is professor at Southern Connecticut State University.