Rethinking Social Work in Prison through Posthuman Care Ethics

Bibliographic Data

ID12902146
AuthorsJulia Emprechtinger (0000-0002-8656-3861, HES-SO Valais-Wallis), M Richter (0000-0003-3147-3882, HES-SO Valais-Wallis, corresponding author)
Year2025
Pages1-16
Publication date2025-11-17
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthics and Social Welfare (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1749-6535 • E-ISSN: 1749-6543
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17496535.2025.2579915
OpenAlexW4416297952
LanguageEN
References cited18

Carceral social workers have to balance ambivalences between the interest of incarcerated people and the criminal justice system. Theprofessional ethics of social work practice provide some answers to this challenge. Nevertheless, they are strongly based in a humanist understanding of our world. We therefore set out to explore how social work practice in carceral settings unfolds and how we could understand it, not only from the perspective of traditional social work ethics but from one of posthuman care ethics. We mobilise this perspective to go beyond a traditional professional and ethical view of social work practice to ask what would be required in a carceral setting to acknowledge (incarcerated) people fully in their entanglement with the world and how spaces could open up for potential to unfold and flourish. We base our analysis and thoughts on fieldwork conducted in an open prison in Switzerland

Criminal justice · Ethics of care · Humanism · Perspective (graphical · Posthuman · Prison · Social justice · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Social Work Education and Practice · Social Work

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