{"id":140,"date":"2023-07-30T15:10:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-30T15:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/frontlineculture.net\/?p=140"},"modified":"2023-09-06T15:11:13","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T15:11:13","slug":"the-moral-imperative-professional-ethics-and-affective-cultural-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frontlineculture.net\/?p=140","title":{"rendered":"The Moral Imperative: Professional ethics and affective cultural work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Blog originally posted to ICC website 1st September 2017: In the first blog on her Instrumental Values study, AHRC Leadership Fellow Kerry <\/strong>Wilson discusses the concept of professional ethics, and how it is framing her research on museums working in health care settings.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"In her essay prepared for the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity<\/a>, Prof Melissa Lane of Princeton University argues for a transformation in the understanding of professional ethics, which represents a shift away from prioritising responsibilities to clients or employers, to a more expansive articulation of the role and moral responsibilities of the professions in initiating global change for the greater public good. Conventionally, there are three levels of ethical engagement with the \u2018social whole\u2019, ranging from an individual\u2019s acts and practices within the existing constraints of their given role; ethical frameworks and codes of practice set by the profession itself; and then a \u2018third order\u2019 of public accountability. It is this third order that requires greater attention in the study and practice of professional ethics, to generate \u2018the initiatives needed to achieve a sufficiently sustainable society\u2019. As Lane argues, expertise does not equate to the \u2018last word\u2019 on a profession\u2019s role in and responsibility to society. This should be continuously (re)negotiated with the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lane\u2019s essay has been an inspirational paper for me in developing the Instrumental Values<\/a> project, which began in July this year with funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The project is a two-year study of ethical dimensions of collaborative practice between museum and library sectors and partner agencies working in two priority public policy areas, including public health and wellbeing and prison education reform. As a starting point, the research has been designed to explore the transitional efficacy of museum and library sectors\u2019 ethical codes of practice when working in collaborative public policy contexts. The research will furthermore examine the extent to which shared values and ethical practices are serendipitously developed between collaborating professionals and organisations as cross-sector communities of practice mature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research complements and extends a range of earlier studies on the increasing multi-disciplinary and collaborative contexts in which cultural work is undertaken, which have focused on the instrumental outcomes of such work for those taking part. These include for example the Crossing Boundaries<\/a> study, which assesses the multiple impacts of the museums-led dementia awareness programme, House of Memories<\/em>, led by National Museums Liverpool. Before any true assessment of \u2018success\u2019 can be made regarding the cross-purpose value of any cultural intervention, it is important to give equal attention to the practice-based characteristics and complexities of affective cultural work, and how these in turn affect any interpretations of success. Through the lens of professional ethics, we can begin to question and explore the underpinning conditions, as far as they exist, of moral responsibility and public accountability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethical parameters of cultural work<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lane describes the field of professional ethics as a relatively modern invention that has developed in tandem with the professionalization of a range of occupations and roles throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which do not have the historical gravitas of law or medicine. According to Durkheim<\/a>, \u2018special groups\u2019 differentiate professional ethics from other codes of civic morals through the legitimacy, autonomy and regulation of collective power. Professional ethics are subsequently \u2018more developed, and the more advanced in their operation, the greater the stability and the better the organization of the professional groups themselves\u2019. Banks and Gallagher<\/a> describe professional ethics in practice as \u2018the norms of right action, good qualities of character and values relating to the nature of the good life that are aspired to, espoused and enacted by professional practitioners in the context of their work\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an example of the legitimation and regulation of professional ethics in cultural professions, the Museums Association published a revised Code of Ethics for Museums<\/a> in 2015, following a substantial public consultation with members. The code was described as the sector\u2019s \u201csocial contract\u201d with the public by the (then) Museums Association President, Dr David Fleming. The code is structured around three core themes including Public engagement and public benefit; Stewardship of collections; and Individual and institutional integrity. Each theme includes a set of defined principles that should be upheld by \u2018museums and those who work in and with them\u2019 throughout their work. Under \u2018Public engagement and public benefit\u2019 for example, these include treating everyone equally, with honesty and respect, and supporting freedom of speech and debate. Guidance on upholding such principles includes ensuring editorial integrity, resisting attempts to influence interpretation or content by particular interest groups, including donors and funders and resisting bias in research undertaken by the museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As collaborative work between museum and health sectors<\/a> progresses and develops, to what extent does the Code of Ethics for Museums represent the \u2018social whole\u2019 in which affective cultural work is developed and practised? As researchers in health and social care, Banks and Gallagher comment on trends towards integrated services and inter-professional working, and the potential for \u2018ethical tensions\u2019 between collaborating services with particular sets of values, codes of ethics, organisational cultures and systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virtue, Values and the Moral Imperative   <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is less discernible therefore in \u2018regulated\u2019 codes of ethics are the intrinsically held values and principles that motivate cultural professionals working in different contexts and environments, and how these may change and develop through the processes and practices of collaboration. Banks and Gallagher suggest a \u2018virtues-based approach\u2019 to understanding ethics in integrated professional environments, including a focus on shared moral qualities and key virtues amongst practitioners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virtue ethics, as described by Oakley and Cocking<\/a> in the context of the medical profession, have six essential features. Actions are only right if they would be undertaken by agents with a virtuous character in the same circumstances; goodness is prior to rightness; virtues are irreducibly plural intrinsic goods; virtues are objectively good; intrinsic goods are agent-relative; and acting rightly does not require that we maximise the good. Virtue ethics are subsequently used as a framework for describing a \u2018good\u2019 professional role. Studies of virtue-based ethics in social work emphasise relationships between public life, morality and individual character, creating a closer alignment between the three levels of ethical engagement described by Lane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In considering museum work in health care settings as a cross-sector community of practice, the Instrumental Values<\/em> study will explore alternative forms of Durkheim\u2019s stable professional groups and their collective power in legitimising codes of ethics. An appraisal of the shared virtues, values and moral imperatives of these collaborative professional groups could generate new insights on the \u2018third order\u2019 of professional ethics, as demanded by Melissa Lane\u2019s seminal essay, with affective cultural work providing a model of understanding for other sectors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introducing the concept of professional ethics, and how it is framing research on museums working in health and social care settings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-ethics-identities-and-values","category-blogs"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Moral Imperative: Professional ethics and affective cultural work - Frontline Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/frontlineculture.net\/?p=140\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Moral Imperative: Professional ethics and affective cultural work - 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