Episode 5: Is Social Work a Profession? with Donna Aguiniga
Release Date: 03/09/2023
Episode 13: The Best Advice I Have Prevails, Bill Falsey
Ethics in the Wild
Jennie and Terry speak with former Anchorage Municipal Attorney and former Anchorage Municipal Manager Bill Falsey. They discuss how the adversarial nature of legal practice relates to ethics, and how having an organization as a client is different when that client is a government. Jennie is a bit under the weather, but Ted will fix that in post. Links and resources: Alaska Rules of Professional Conduct: Alaska Court View: The Municipality of Anchorage Board of Ethics website is here (note that Terry is one of the members): If you’ve never watched Schoolhouse Rock, do yourself a favor....
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Episode 12: An Emerging Profession, with Kenrick Mock
Ethics in the Wild
It’s getting difficult (or impossible) to avoid interacting with computing and algorithms these days. How computing and algorithms affect (and will continue to affect) our lives is much in the news, especially as relates to social media and artificial intelligence (AI). Today, Jennie and Terry speak with Kenrick Mock, Dean of the UAA College of Engineering and computer scientist. We discuss what it’s like to be part of a profession that is in the process of professionalizing even as we speak. Kenrick helps us with some definitions, and then we discuss ethical...
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Episode 11: Zealous Representation, with Sean Parnell
Ethics in the Wild
Jennie and Terry speak with Sean Parnell, former Lt. Governor of Alaska, former Governor of Alaska, current Chancellor of UAA, and former practicing attorney in Alaska. We discuss ethics in the legal profession, including some characteristics unique to Alaska (such as working in a young state without a lot of settled legal precedent). We then discuss the ethics that executives have to follow, including another former politician’s take on the role of lobbyists. If you’ve never heard of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act, learn about it here! Links The Alaska Bar Association’s page...
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Episode 10: Making the Laws and the Budget, with Ivy Sponholz
Ethics in the Wild
Jennie and Terry pick the brain of Alaska State House District 16 Representative Ivy Sponholz. We discuss what it really means when legislators say that they work for their constituents, and the role of lobbying in governance. Ivy points out the importance of a professional legislative staff and professional wages for legislators as a means for building and maintaining expertise. The group also covers the history and current politics surrounding Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD), and how the Alaska constitution relates to abortion. Links and resources: Ivy’s...
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Episode 9: Being an Observer and Not a Stakeholder, with Julia O’Malley
Ethics in the Wild
Jennie and Terry speak with Julia O’Malley, a local journalist in Anchorage, Alaska. We learn that journalism is, in her opinion, more a craft than a profession, with an important cultural role to play and therefore extensive considerations for ethics. We discuss the drastic changes that journalism currently faces, and one of the biggest problems with resources drying up at the local level (turns out FOIA requests take serious resources). We also discuss Julia’s role as a professor of journalism and how she discusses journalistic responsibility and ethics with her students. Links and...
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Episode 8: A Resource of One, with Joe Sarcone
Ethics in the Wild
Jennie and Terry speak with Joe Sarcone, Assistant Professor and Director of Environmental Public Health at Alaska Pacific University. We learn about the professional credentials created for professionals in this area by the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA), and the degree requirements (they involve a LOT of science). What really stands out about this conversation, though, is Dr. Sarcone’s extensive experience working with people from other cultures and communities. How can professionals build trust when working with communities who might have very different cultural...
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Episode 7: Lawful but Awful, with David Brock
Ethics in the Wild
Terry and Jennie talk to David Brock, Professional Land Surveyor (PLS), and Term Assistant Professor of Geomatics at UAA (also Jennie’s husband). We learn that for land surveyors, determining locations on the earth is only part of the job – the legal implications of who has a right to occupy and use the land are as important. David presents a case study that began as a boundary dispute between neighbors and eventually led to the reveal of a major legal loophole with respect to the Alaska Society of Professional Land Surveyors (ASPLS) Standards of Practice. It’s...
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Episode 6: Always Considered a Disrespectable Profession, with Graham Dane
Ethics in the Wild
Terry and Jennie speak with Graham Dane, Adjunct Professor of Art at UAA and full-time professional painter. We start with whether the fine arts are a profession and go from there. We discuss how artists are trained, and power dynamics in the fine arts. How do the dizzying sums that individual art pieces can sell for affect the art world? What is the difference between an homage and a forgery? How are the internet and social media causing paradigm shifts? We discuss all this and more. Links and Resources Graham’s webpage: Dreaming...
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Episode 5: Is Social Work a Profession? with Donna Aguiniga
Ethics in the Wild
Abraham Flexner circa 1910, Donna Aguiniga returns to discuss Abraham Flexner’s infamous-to-social-workers speech at the National Conference of Charities and Correction (Baltimore, 1915) titled “Is Social Work a Profession?” Spoiler alert: in his opinion, no. Jennie, Terry, and Donna discuss the history of professionalization, how the experience of professionalization was different for fields dominated by women, and how Flexner’s speech had positive and negative ramifications for social work as a profession for decades after the speech was given. How is...
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Episode 4: Utilitarian Calculus (and its Limits), with Mark Carr
Ethics in the Wild
Terry and Jennie talk with Mark Carr, Regional Director of Ethics for Providence Hospital. We discuss how ethics committees work in hospitals, and just what the Joint Commission is. Mark talks about what we learned, and what changes we had to make, during the pandemic. Mark and Terry are both experts in the area of medical ethics, so be prepared for a fascinating (and quite wonky) discussion about how we prioritize healthcare resources as a society during a crisis. Links and resources: Ethical Framework for Transitions Between Conventional, Contingency, and...
info_outlineAbraham Flexner circa 1910, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Flexner
Donna Aguiniga returns to discuss Abraham Flexner’s infamous-to-social-workers speech at the National Conference of Charities and Correction (Baltimore, 1915) titled “Is Social Work a Profession?” Spoiler alert: in his opinion, no. Jennie, Terry, and Donna discuss the history of professionalization, how the experience of professionalization was different for fields dominated by women, and how Flexner’s speech had positive and negative ramifications for social work as a profession for decades after the speech was given. How is professionalism and how we think of professionals shaped by the prevailing culture, and what does this mean for emerging professional fields today?
Links and resources:
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A transcript of the Flexner speech is here: https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/social-work/is-social-work-a-profession-1915/
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Austin, David M. “The Flexner Myth and the History of Social Work.” Social Service Review 57, no. 3 (1983): 357–77. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30011656.