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AbstractRecent years have witnessed a growing scholarly interest in the development of professional ethics of social work in China. Confucian ethics is believed to be able to contribute to such development. This article explores Confucian ethics and its interaction with western ethics that underpins the United States' National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics. Particularly, it compares the two cultural contexts, western versus eastern, in terms of the ethical deliberation of two elements of Confucian ethics: Chinese people are embedded in a framework of complex relationality, and practical situations take precedence over abstract moral rules (action/practice-oriented situationality). This exploration can provide insight into the Chinese moral context of social work practice and the complex issues associated with formulating Chinese ethical guidelines for such a discipline adapted from the west as social work.

The current dominant approach to active ageing policy in the EU and the UK is the productivist approach. Drawing on Weber's concepts of instrumental rationality and value rationality, this article argues that this approach is principally informed by instrumental rationality and thus has the potential to instrumentalize older persons, to become an oppressive ideological narrative, and to ignore the unique developmental meanings in late life. To avoid these pitfalls, the article proposes balancing instrumental rationality with value rationality. The balancing can occur in three dimensions. First, the value of internally oriented activities for late life should be recognized. Second, the value of participatory policy development needs to be upheld. Third, the value of meaning-in-life for the well-being and growth of older adults should be validated.