A systematic literature review of love and social work: Towards a love informed anti-oppressive ethical positionality

Abstract

Social work is premised on the key values of social justice, respect, and professional integrity. Social justice is crucial for anti-oppressive practice because it draws attention to issues of inequality and violence in peoples’ lives and in professional contexts. There is an absence of love as a key value, as well as a relative lack of discourse about love in social work. This was recognized by Morley and Ife (2002) when they argued that a love of humanity needs to inform social work. A systematic literature review is undertaken on social work scholars’ understanding of love and social work with the aim of building on current understandings to make love relevant for anti-oppressive practice. The review led the authors to believe that love as an ethic and a set of socio-political practices is directly relevant for social work. An insight arising from the review is that love needs linking with nonviolence and social justice (including species and environmental justice) to enable an ethical stance for anti-oppressive social work.