Abstract

Summary This article offers a socio-political localisation of social work in the discourse on justice and, above all, in the discourse on the further development of the welfare state. Firstly, the ambivalent relationship between social policy and social work is analysed and a triangulation of social work from a socio-political and sociological perspective is proposed. In the second step, this is done for the socio-political perspective in order to finally outline some requirements for the professionalism of social work in a civil society. Of central importance here is the suggestion that the dichotomisation of market and state, or rather the triad of market, state and social work, which has prevailed in the discussion to date on the relationship between social policy and social work, should be abandoned. the triad of market, state and community, which is also reflected in Gøsta Esping-Andersen's welfare regime typology (liberal/social democratic/conservative), by adding a fourth regime type, "guarantorism" - whereby the question is whether such a regime type not only shows a socio-political perspective, but also whether it is useful for the social work of the future. Keywords Ethics of social work - social policy - welfare state - guarantorism The concept of "social ethics" appears to be both doubled and necessary. Hegel already criticised Kant's "ethics of ought" as individualistically truncated, and the "communitarianism" of the 1980s and 1990s took up this criticism. Nevertheless, the modern tension between the individual and the community (or society) marks the fundamental problem of modern social ethics: moral or ethical behaviour requires both individual attitudes and skills as well as community rules and institutions.

Authors