Cultivating Moral Character and Virtue in Professional Practice

David Carr is Emeritus Professor at the University of Edinburgh and lately Professor of Ethics and Education in the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues of the University of Birmingham (UK).

"This timely and scholarly work brings together leading international commentators from a range of disciplines and contexts to make the case for the role of character and virtue in professional encounters with citizens. With careful attention to concepts and definitions, it makes the case for a re-invigoration of ideas of justice, integrity, wisdom, care and compassion which resist codification in rules and regulations. Such virtues are contingent, situational and must be made anew in each encounter. They require organisational environments in which practical reasoning and the deliberation of matters of value can flourish."Sue White, Professor of Social Work, University of Sheffield."Cultivating Moral Character and Virtue in Professional Practice is not only relevant to the distinctive and individual professional fields represented by its multidisciplinary collection of chapters, but also simultaneously relevant to all.The issues raised by the authors are universal in their timely recognition of personal character and professional practice as being intricately interwoven. The power of this unique book is grounded in its refreshingly compelling convictions with respect to contemporary virtue theory and how, through this general lens, we can come to define, develop, support, and enable the professional work of ethical practitioners."Elizabeth Campbell, Professor of Education, University of Toronto.

• ContentsIntroduction by DAVID CARRPart 1: Virtue, practical wisdom and moral psychology in professional practice Chapter 1: Why you cannot regulate for virtuous compassion, by PAUL SNELLINGChapter 2: Thin ‘thank you’s’: resentment and gratitude in homecoming rituals, by NANCY SHERMANChapter 3: Role duties, role virtues, and the practice of business, by MIGUEL ALZOLAChapter 4: Practising professional ethical wisdom: the role of ‘ethics work’ in the social welfare field, by SARAH BANKSChapter 5: Attachment, detachment and indifference in clinical practice, by PETER TOONPart 2: The social, historical and institutional context of virtuous professional practiceChapter 6: Creating regulatory environments for practical wisdom and role virtues in medical practice, by JUSTIN OAKLEYChapter 7: Progress in nursing ethics: something old, something new…, by ANN GALLAGHERChapter 8: Organizations, character, virtue and the role of professional practices, by GEOFF MOOREChapter 9: The institutional framework of professional virtue, by ANNE-MARIE SØNDERGAARD CHRISTENSENChapter 10: Character in the British army: A precarious professional practice, by DAVID WALKERPart 3: Learning professionally virtuous character: research and developmentChapter 11: Experienced UK nurses and the missing U-curve of virtue-based reasoning, by JINU VARGHESE AND KRISTJAN KRISTJANSSONChapter 12: Beyond research ethics: How scientific virtue theory reframes and extends responsible conduct of research, by ROBERT T. PENNOCKChapter 13: Transformation needs an agent: Preparing senior professional practitioners to nurture character, virtue and professionalism in their supervisees, by DELLA FISH AND LINDA DE COSSARTChapter 14: Practitioner research, practical wisdom and teaching, by WOUTER SANDERSEChapter 15: Why is there lack of growth in character virtues? An insight into business students across British business schools, by YAN HUO AND KRISTJAN KRISTJANSSON Postscript by DAVID CARRIndex