The various social roles we occupy, such as teacher, parent, or friend, shape our ethical lives and colour our perceptions of each other and ourselves. Social roles have long been a central topic in sociology, and specific social roles frequently feature within applied moral philosophy and professional ethics. In striking contrast, the normative significance of social roles per se--the 'ethics of social roles' as a distinct field of philosophical enquiry--has been relatively neglected. Indeed, the view that social roles have genuine ethical bite is often tacitly dismissed as socially regressive, as if the pull of a social role must always be towards 'knowing one's place'. The present collection aims to change this by putting social roles back where they belong: at the centre of normative ethics.

After an editors' introduction aimed at readers new to the topic, fourteen original chapters by an international line-up of new and established authors show how the topic of social roles is a kind of missing link between several better-established topics, including collective agency, special obligations, wellbeing, and social and political justice. These contributions are organized into four parts. The first looks at the topic through a historical lens, since philosophers have not always neglected social roles. The second addresses the source of the apparent normative force of social roles. The third examines the relation of a social role's normativity to its wider institutional context. The fourth looks at implications for self and wellbeing.