Moral injury of community social workers in China: misrecognition of the ethics of care

Research on social workers’ work-related suffering has focused on burnout and moral distress, while moral injury remains underexplored. Drawing on recognition theory and Care Ethics theory, this paper examines how moral injury arises when care-ethical practice is misrecognised. Based on six months of participant observation and in-depth interviews in Shenzhen, this paper shows that social workers’ caring dispositions are systematically devalued in grassroots governance. First, their attentiveness, responsibility, responsiveness, and care-ethical competence are denigrated as inefficient, unnecessary, or troublesome, thereby damaging social esteem and relation-to-self. Second, these same qualities may be selectively affirmed through ideological recognition and then appropriated for governance purposes without institutional support. Third, social workers adopt non-confrontational struggles against misrecognition, including ethical defence, self-mockery, and turnover. This study also advances the conceptualisation of ideological recognition by demonstrating how it can function as a form of disrespect when coupled with appropriation.