Rethinking Social Work Ethics in the African Context: Towards a Communitarian Ethical Framework for Nigerian Practice

Dominant ethical frameworks in social work, including the IFSW Global Social Work Statement of Ethical Principles, are grounded in liberal individualist philosophy that is epistemologically incongruent with African communitarian traditions, creating ethical tensions for Nigerian social workers navigating between professional codes and community values. This doctoral study develops a Communitarian Ethical Framework for Nigerian social work practice, grounded in African philosophy and empirically validated through practitioner consultation. A constructivist interpretive paradigm employing philosophical inquiry and critical ethnographic research methodology underpins the study, combining philosophical analysis of African communitarian ethics in Igbo, Hausa, and Yoruba traditions, 50 ethical case analysis interviews with social work practitioners across six geopolitical zones, and collaborative framework development workshops. Hermeneutic phenomenological analysis and Ubuntu ethics analytical framework are applied. The study's original theoretical contribution is the Nigerian Communitarian Social Work Ethics Framework, comprising nine ethical principles that integrate communal solidarity, relational accountability, ancestral dignity, and social harmony values with core social work ethical commitments to human rights and social justice. The study argues for a pluriversal social work ethics that transcends liberal-communitarian binary framings and enables culturally coherent ethical practice. Implications for the Social Work Council's code of ethics and professional education are elaborated. Keywords: social work ethics, communitarian philosophy, African ethics, Nigerian social work, Ubuntu