Bending toward Justice: Social Work Research Advocacy in Times of Political Turmoil

Abstract

Research has never been free of politics. What we learned about the scientific method, making observations, developing theories and hypotheses, testing, and eliciting findings and drawing conclusions has never been the whole story. The truth is that politics, the political environment, and social policy may affect every aspect of research. This is especially true of social work research. Currently, with white nationalist rhetoric reaching the mainstream, with certain states restricting access to knowledge, with local and state politicians targeting the very individuals and communities that social workers serve, and in some cases, social workers themselves, how can we respond? Can social work research respond to this political landscape? Should there be a response at all? The National Association of Social Workers’ (NASW, 2021) Code of Ethics has specified social workers’ responsibility to the community and broader society since its adoption in the 1960s. In fact, two ethical principles of the code remind us that social workers challenge social injustice and strive to respect the inherent dignity and worth of the person. These two principles alone place social workers at odds with a political system that targets marginalized members of a community and aims to impart further harm on those who have been historically and currently oppressed. It is a political system that threatens the civil and human rights of those whom social workers serve.