Family court ordered “reunification therapy:” junk science in the guise of helping parent/child relationships?

This Commentary addresses the issue of the ethics of mental health professionals recommending or doing what family courts and some others are calling “Reunification Therapy.” This is often being recommended and used across the country, and ordered by family courts, as if it has a scientific basis for successful therapy between an estranged parent and a child who does not wish to re-engage with that parent, often where the child has alleged the parent has abused them physically, sexually, or psychologically. This Commentary challenges the ethics and validity of such approaches and programs.     

Minimal Risk in Pediatric Research: A Philosophical Review and Reconsideration

Despite more than thirty years of debate, disagreement persists among research ethicists about the most appropriate way to interpret the U.S. regulations on pediatric research, specifically the categories of “minimal risk” and a “minor increase over minimal risk.” Focusing primarily on the definition of “minimal risk,” we argue in this article that the continued debate about the pediatric risk categories is at least partly because their conceptual status is seldom considered directly. Once this is done, it becomes clear that the most popular strategy for interpreting “minimal risk”—defining it as a specific set of risks—is indefensible and, from a pragmatic perspective, unlikely to resolve disagreement. Primarily this is because judgments about minimal risk are both normative and heavily intuitive in nature and thus cannot easily be captured by reductions to a given set of risks. We suggest instead that a more defensible approach to evaluating risk should incorporate room for reflection and deliberation. This dispositional, deliberative framework can nonetheless accommodate a number of intellectual resources for reducing reliance on sheer intuition and improving the quality of risk evaluations.     

Web analytics and the functional differentiation of journalism cultures: individual,organizational and platform-specific influences on newswork

A key development in journalism over the past decade has been the rise of web analytics for real-time measurement of how audiences respond to news content. While this has led to concerns that analytics may contribute to a dumbing down of news, our understanding of the impact analytics have on journalism culture is still limited. This study explores individual, organizational and platform-specific influences on ways in which journalists and newsrooms access, use, interpret and apply analytics in their daily work. It argues that, increasingly, analytics are beginning to shape and reshape journalistic roles, values, norms and practices across different types of newsrooms. These developments are contributing to processes of functional differentiation in the journalistic field, which is found particularly in emerging practices of day- and platform-parting. The study argues that this differentiation has important consequences for scholars wanting to study news production, distribution and content in the digital age.     

Rights discourses in relation to education of people with intellectual disability: towards an ethics of care that enables participation

In this paper we argue that human rights approaches for intellectually disabled people have failed to recognise the complexity of rights claims made by and on behalf of this group. Drawing on a research project into discourses of education for intellectually disabled people in the Eastern Cape, South Africa we discern three rights discourses; namely, rights to full participation, rights to special services and rights to protection. These draw off a social model, a medical model and a protective model, respectively. We note that these discourses may be set up in contestation with each other. However, we argue that they can be seen as complementary if viewed within an ethics of care that enables participation. Within this conceptualisation, participation is viewed within relations of care but is subject to a critique that examines the role of context and disciplinary power in constructing dependency.     

Judging public relations: An analysis of an Israeli court judgement on a defamatory and negative campaign

This article analyzes a recent court ruling in Israel and argues that it has major implications for the public relations community internationally. To date, the public relations literature on legal judgments has focused on cases where media channels were sued for defamation. The article uses a 2012 Israeli court decision that may be unique in ruling out defamatory intentions in a public relations plan that was part of a lawsuit. The defendant in this case was not the media but rather a company that hired a public relations firm to, according to the judgement, conduct a defamatory campaign against a competitor. Although this is just one case in one country, the article also considers some of the wider implications for the profession and for democracy.     

Otherness and empathy—implications of Lévinas ethics for social work education

This paper examines the concept of otherness in Lévinas’ ethics and raises related issues regarding the limits of empathy on philosophical grounds. This study also identifies and discusses a number of linguistic, social and cultural barriers that can establish such limits on practical grounds. This paper raises various considerations for social work educators teaching empathy. Such considerations suggest that social work educators could adopt a stance of ‘understanding and not understanding’ and a dialectical approach in using knowledge and skills. Furthermore, this study challenges the common assumption that empathy leads to compassionate action. Apart from empathy, moral commitment is necessary to engage in such action. This article discusses such moral commitment in relation to Lévinas’ notions of face and responsibility that place ethics before knowledge. Hence, the present study brings the attention of social work educators back to the importance of nourishing virtue and the moral character of students.     

From Codes to Contextual Collaborations: Shifting the Thinking About Ethics in Social Work

In this article, the authors argue that the current emphases in social work on codes, standards, and decision-making models are insufficient to the task of ensuring ethical relationships between workers and clients. Three fundamental assumptions that underpin codes and standards are analyzed. The authors then explore the nature of ethical relationships and demonstrate how codes and standards, in their current form, do not address the complexity and contextuality of the social work relationship. After considering why the profession relies so heavily on codes and standards, they call for a re-thinking of ethical relationships, offering ideas and recommendations for those relationships.     

试论道德理论的层次结构——兼论儒家伦理与西方伦理之比较

本文着重讨论了四种道德学派即:以休谟和斯密为代表的道德感派、以儒家为代表的良知派、以边沁和密尔为代表的最大幸福派和以康德为代表的自由意志派。并从两个方面对道德进行划分:从动机上把道德分为理性的和情感的,从层次上把道德分为功利的和道义的;进而将道德哲学的四大分野即情感主义、理性主义、功利论和道义论纳入一个统一的层次结构。与此同时,对儒家伦理和西方伦理做了较为深入的比较,揭示出二者之间的不同发展路径和互补格局。     

“根”文化背景下的人性呼唤——以小说《春去春来》为例

文化作为一个民族或者一个团体的生活方式,应该有共同遵守的价值标准。在中国,道德根文化影响着民族的生活方式。路一凡生活在特定的环境中,受到道德根文化的熏染,具有君子之德。他性格的形成具有两方面的原因:周围智者的教化,秀美山水的滋养。由此造就了他肉身欲求与精神欲求和谐一体的美,锤炼了他的文化自信。     

边远县域公民道德建设研究——以西充县为例

边远县域具有比较独特的文化态貌，其道德状况也呈现一些与发达区域道德状况相异的特征。以四川西充县为样本，解析边远县域公民道德和公民道德建设现状，分析在县域公民道德建设中存在的一些问题，提出县域公民道德建设思路。认为边远县域公民道德建设可以采用伦理、教育、政治和文化四种方式，按照《公民道德建设实施纲要》的要求，结合区域文化特点与优势道德资源，全方位把握公民道德建设的目标、内容及实施过程。