Editorial

Relationships are central to social work; it is what we do. The social work relationship is often a site of rekindling hope but also building resilience or standing against oppression. Regardless of the field of practice, quality relationships are an essential prerequisite for effectiveness. This has been emphasised in social work literature for over a century. Our values shape the type of relationships we want. Unlike most other professions, good interpersonal relationships are ontological to social work. This is because we advocate doing things ‘with’ clients rather than ‘to’ or ‘for’ clients. Over recent decades, the profession has developed a sophisticated and critical analysis of social work relationships, elucidating power imbalances arising from culture, ethnicity, gender and identity. These considerations expose the potential for the social work relationship to reproduce discrimination and exploitation. Micro and macro relationships for social work occur with individuals, groups, communities, other professions, governments, agencies and even nation states.

The complexities of social work relationships cannot be emphasised enough. The power entrusted to statutory practice must be balanced with values and ethics such as self-determination and ‘do no harm’. While the relationship with one client might necessitate the need to consider how our intervention affects others, thus showing the multiple dimensions of the relationship. At the same time, the social work relationship is unique and often has qualities of a close friendship, yet it is not a friendship and has a finite time for it to exist. Clients often share very intimate information, and the social worker must ‘show up’ to the relationship with feelings and compassion. At times the social worker might even share aspects of their own life experiences. Such decisions require an ethical framework and contextual considerations. These situations bring attention to the boundaries of the social work relationship. Where are those boundaries? How do we know we are crossing a professional boundary? Does the client understand the boundaries of the relationship? Often these questions of professional boundaries are based on traditional or medical conceptualisations where the boundary is between the professional and their patient or client, and are thus based on separation rather than connectedness (see O’Leary et al., 2018). The rapid development of social work theory and practice has not been matched by a corresponding exploration of the boundaries of social work relationship. These boundaries can be permeable and change in particular contexts. Some re-conceptualisation has been suggested to centre ‘connectedness’ by placing a boundary around the relationship (O’Leary et al., 2018). However, more work from practice wisdom and research is needed to expand the dimensions of how the boundaries of the social work relationship are constructed. This is especially required at an international level as we face global issues of social justice.

In our last editorial we reflected on social work’s role in standing against acts of violence, racism and hatred. This necessitates an ongoing critical review of how social work builds relationships in keeping with its value base and purpose. Building relationships among social workers, especially internationally, is a central function of this journal. It is a place where social work knowledge and practice are shared to both improve the profession’s effectiveness but also provide critical insight into diverse contexts and experiences. It is a place where there can be debate that allows a convergence and divergence of knowledge. This builds our international social work community, without attention to the separation of nation states, towards a connectedness from the South to the North and East and West. At times of increasing complexity in global shifts in social, environmental and economic political horizons, strengthening a connected international social work community will rely on our relationships and how we also conceptualise boundaries among ourselves as a profession. This will help us focus on what is important.