Competence-Based Social Work: The
Profession of Caring,
Knowing, and Serving
Chapter 9: Human Rights and Justice
Michael E. Sherr, Ph.D
Johnny M. Jones, Ph.D.
Case Vignette 9.1
• Violet, a social worker, attended a high school
orientation with Erica, a 15 year old African
American girl, who was living in the group
home where Violet worked.
• Erica did so well in her last year of middle
school that she qualified to register for gifted
and talented courses.
Case Vignette 9.1 continued
• When the assistant principal handed Erica her
schedule at orientation she noticed she was in
regular classes.
• Before they could say anything the assistant
principle told them that although Erica qualified
for the gifted and talented program she and the
principal felt that due to her unique living
circumstances she might fit in better with the
students in regular sessions.
• What should Violet do as the social worker?
Case Vignette 9.2
• Dustin, a social worker on a local housing and
planning commission, noticed that two of his
clients had an unusually high utility bills for a one
bedroom apartment.
• David discovered that all of the families living in
apartment complexes had unreasonably high
utility bills, which may be the reason why families
are having trouble meeting their expenses.
• What can Dustin do to help?
Case Vignette 9.3
• Teresa works for Area Agency on Aging as a social
worker in the consumer education and protection
program.
• The agency has received over two-dozen calls
from people reporting they were not receiving
the monthly checks from their reverse
mortgages, and the director of the ombudsman
program asked Teresa to investigate the situation
from a macro level.
• Where should Teresa begin?
Human Rights and Justice
• The three case vignettes demonstrate the
uniqueness and broadness of social work.
• Although working with different population
groups in different practice settings, and at
different levels of practice, all three social
workers in the case vignettes share a
commitment to advancing human rights and
social and economic justice.
Human Rights, Justice, and Well-Being
• Social work’s primary purpose is to enhance or
restore well-being for individuals, groups, and
communities.
• Social workers believe all people have basic
human rights such as safety, privacy, adequate
standard of living, and education .
• Social workers believe that well-being is a
basic human right of all people, regardless of
their position in society.
Human Rights, Justice, and Well-Being
cont.
• Social workers recognize that forms and
mechanisms of oppression and discrimination
prevent some people from exercising their
rights.
• Social workers must be aware of oppressive
and discriminatory practices and be prepared
to do something about it in their work with
individuals, groups, and communities.
Difficult but Important Questions
• All social workers should explore these two
questions:
1. What is well-being?
2. What is social justice?
• These two questions are deeply personal and
difficult to answer.
• How a social worker answers these two
questions directly influences and informs
his/her practice.
What is Well-Being?
• There are three perspectives on well-being:
1. The Hedonist Perspective
2. The Desires Perspective
3. The Objective List Perspective
• All three perspectives are similar in that they
view well-being as describing what is
fundamentally good for a person.
• All three perspectives are also flawed and far
from being the “right” answer.
What is Well-Being?
The Hedonist Perspective
• The Hedonist Perspective describes well-being
as consisting of the greatest balance of
pleasure over pain.
• The Hedonist Perspective was first expressed
by Socrates.
• There are two forms of Hedonism to describe
well-being:
1. Simple Hedonism
2. Evaluative Hedonism
The Simple Hedonist View
• The simple hedonist view of well-being is the
more pleasure people can pack into their lives,
the better, while the more painfulness in their
lives, the worse their lives will be.
• According to this viewpoint, the only aspects
of experience that matter are duration and
intensity of experiences.
The Evaluative Hedonism Perspective
• In addition to the duration and intensity of
experiences, evaluative hedonism considers the
quality of experiences (i.e. higher vs. lower
pleasures), claiming that some pleasures are
more valuable than others.
• Evaluative hedonism posits that people
experiencing both types of pleasures are
normally capable judges who will usually choose
higher pleasures whenever they are accessible
and possible.
What is Well-Being?
The Desires Perspective
• The Desires Perspective holds that well-being occurs as
a consequence of experiencing satisfaction in obtaining
or fulfilling one’s desires.
• The Desires Perspective emerged from economists,
who recognized that pleasure and pain are inside
people’s heads and are difficult to measure.
• In viewing well-being as consisting of the satisfaction of
fulfilling one’s desires, it made it possible to rank order
preferences and develop methods for assessing the
value of obtaining preference satisfaction.
The Desires Perspective cont.
• There are two primary forms of the Desires
Perspective:
1. Present Desire Theory
2. Informed Comprehensive Desire Theory
• Present Desire Theory assumes a short-term
view of well-being, where people are better
off when their current or immediate desires
are fulfilled.
The Desires Perspective: Informed
Comprehensive view
• Informed Comprehensive Desire Theory assumes that
well-being results from the level of desire-satisfaction
experienced through an entire life span.
• Informed Comprehensive Desire Theory considers
people capable of prioritizing their desires and
choosing options that will benefit their lives as a
whole.
• Well-being results when people experience desiresatisfaction from preferences chosen after being fully
informed about all the facts available used to prioritize
their desires.
What is Well-Being?
The Objective List Perspective
• This perspective assumes that people can
agree upon a list of items that if experienced
or achieved constitutes well-being.
• Unlike the other two perspectives, this
perspective moves the concept of well-being
away from experiencing pleasure and avoiding
pain and instead holds it is the result of
figuring out and obtaining what is good for
people.
The Objective List Perspective cont.
• There are two primary approaches to what should go
on the list:
1. Aristotle suggests that the list must include every
possible good. In this view, people experience wellbeing when they experience or obtain every possible
thing listed as good.
2. In perfectionism, the list should include items that
contribute to perfecting human nature. Well-being is
experienced when people experience or obtain things
listed that help people realize their true nature as
human beings.
What is Social Justice?
• There are three central theories of social
justice:
1. Utilitarianism
2. Social Justice as Fairness
3. Libertarianism
• The first two theories emphasize a societal or
communal approach, while the latter theory
emphasizes individual freedom of choice.
What is Social Justice?
Utilitarianism
• According to this theory, a just society exists to
the extent that laws and institutions of society
are such as to promote the greatest overall
happiness of its members.
• 19th Century Utilitarian philosopher John Stuart
Mill considered freedom to be a basic human
need necessary for overall happiness.
• Mill believed that political liberties (e.g. freedom
of the press, freedom of assembly, etc.) were
essential to the happiness of every person.
Utilitarianism cont.
• 20th Century Utilitarian philosopher James P. Sterba
suggested there are certain basic needs that must be
satisfied for overall happiness to be even be possible.
• These basic needs include food, shelter, medical care,
protection, companionship, and self-development.
• Social justice exists when the institutions of society
create an environment where as many people as
possible have the means and opportunity to achieve
their chosen conception of a desirable life.
• Advocating for social justice in this view involves efforts
to reform the institutions of society toward the above
goal.
What is Social Justice?
Social Justice as Fairness
• This theory was developed by John Rawls,
who suggested that elements of social justice
be determined by a hypothetical situation
called the Original Position (OP).
• In the OP, people look out for everyone in
society.
• In the OP, discrimination and oppression do
not exist, and fairness alone guides decisions
about social justice.
Social Justice as Fairness cont.
• According to Rawls, if people could start from
the OP and choose basic societal principles,
two principles of social justice would be
chosen:
1. The Equal Liberties Principle
2. The Difference Principle
Social Justice as Fairness cont.
• The Equal Liberties Principle is that each
person is to have the maximum civil liberties
compatible with the same liberty for all.
• The Difference Principle is that inequalities are
only permissible when they can be expected
to work to the advantage of everyone and
when the positions, offices, and roles to which
the inequalities attach are open to all.
Social Justice as Fairness cont.
• Social justice exists when the institutions of
society ensure that people have the maximum
civil liberties compatible with the same liberty for
all and that when differences are necessary, they
work to the advantage of everyone.
• Advocating for social justice in this view involves
efforts to reform the institutions of society
toward functioning in such a way as to emphasize
these two principles.
What is Social Justice?
Libertarianism
• According to this view, a just society must grant
and protect the liberty of each individual to
pursue his or her desired ends without
interference from others.
• This view emphasizes the safeguarding of
property rights, which includes anything people
can call their own property.
• To be truly free, people should have the right to
acquire ownership, the right to own the means of
production, and the right of bequeathal of
property.
Libertarianism cont.
• Social justice exists when the institutions of
society remain as unregulated as possible.
• Advocating for social justice in this view
involves efforts to deregulate the institutions
of society to minimize the amount of intrusion
into the lives of individuals.
Summary
• Advancing human rights and social and economic
justice is central to competent social work
practice and distinguishes social work from other
professions.
• It is important to develop self-awareness
regarding your own views of well-being and social
justice and how this influences your practice.
• It is also important to recognize that there are
different views of well-being and social justice
and to respect how other people may view these
concepts.