Confronting Social Work Worldviews: Ubuntu and Procedural Research Ethics with Persons Experiencing Refugee Status

Abstract

Social work's ethical principles prioritize the inclusion of worldviews from across the globe. Indeed, the current theme of the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development is the sub-Saharan African philosophy of Ubuntu. In general terms, Ubuntu emphasizes communal relationships and collectivity over individuality. Recent scholarship recommends that social work academia decolonize the profession by applying Ubuntu to decenter its mainstream, often White, Eurocentric ideologies. However, few studies have explored the ways that social work researchers utilize Ubuntu within the context of academic neoliberalism and social work's Western-influenced research ethics. That is, as evidenced by the requirements of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and their privileging of procedural ethics in research (e.g., informed consent, confidentiality) over relational ethics (e.g., respect, reciprocity, reflexivity). The lack of intersections between procedural and relational ethics in social work research impedes social work researchers' ability to implement Ubuntu in their own research praxes. While recommending that social workers apply Ubuntu in all their work and research globally, this article focuses on social work researchers working with persons experiencing refugee status in the Global South. Specifically, it details three approaches social workers can use to move closer to respectful Ubuntu research ethics: (a) privileging Ubuntu ways of knowing; (b) merging procedural and relational ethics; and (c) confronting neoliberal guiding frameworks of social work research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]