The Humanitarian Life-Mode – a New Epistemology for the Professional Ethos in Welfare Work

Abstract

On basis of a decade’s research in welfare work and professional ethics – encompassing perspectives on New Public Management causing ethical pressure on professionals – this article discusses the complexity that characterizes welfare professionals work-life and existential life-mode in society. The conceptualization of a humanitarian life-mode has emerged from empirical research, theoretically anchored in the life-mode analysis, which, in conjunction with the study of professional ethics, illuminates how professional identity and professional integrity is developing. The article discusses the dynamicsof the triadic nature of being a professional relational worker. Recent research reveals how ethical dilemmas arise between professional ethical standards and the work-life conditions for welfare professionals in the postmodern competitive state. The categorization ‘the humanitarian life-mode’ has thus emerged as an empirically based category, which, intertwined with professional ethics, captures professional identities and the complexities of humanistic welfare work. The article discusses moral perception as an essential element in professional integrity, while simultaneously focusing on the tension between ideals and realities. The dynamics between life-modes as overall social formations and professionals as specifi c agents in society are considered to be relevant fi elds for further research. This implies a continuous focus on values, issues and challenges that persistently affect our aspirations towards