Introduction—The Role of Virtues in Social Work Practice

This book presents ten short biographies of professional social workers who have made significant contributions to the wellbeing of individuals, families and communities, and to the effective functioning of government and non-government organisations. The biographies, and associated discussions, aim to help the reader to see the inspiring qualities of character—the virtues—which have helped these social workers to achieve what they have. The main purpose of this introductory chapter is to explain how we understand the nature of virtue and why we see it as important in social work practice. Virtuous action, as we understand it, is action that is appropriate to the situation that confronts a social worker. Hence, we also provide a brief outline of the socio-economic and political contexts in which the subjects of these biographies worked. We explain, too, how the subjects of the biographies were chosen, and the methods (and their limitations) used to develop their biographies. Finally, we provide a very brief summary of the order and content of the biographies.