Looking east: (Re-)creating a social work ‘industry’ in the People’s Republic of China

Abstract

The article furnishes a critical commentary on social work in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). It is maintained that it is important to contextualise this development by taking into account the restoration of capitalism and wider structures of governance. Although there is no perfect alignment, it is argued that the (re-)creation of social work occurred during the same period when a Chinese proletariat was (re-)created. Drawing on the work of Antonio Gramsci and resisting a reductively mechanistic interpretation of the profession’s evolution, it is maintained that social work’s new centrality in the PRC can be best understood if it is situated alongside the hegemonic project of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to construct, what is referred to as, the ‘harmonious society’. The article concludes by tentatively identifying the emerging contours of social work with distinctive Chinese traits.

Research Study on Communicative Competence Features of Social Sphere Specialists

“…The results are presented in Table 3. Training of the group of employees was done in accordance with the psychological specifics of the difficulties appearing in their interpersonal interaction as was stated by many scholars in the previous researches (Sommerfeld, 2014;Valeyeva et al, 2016;Mametyeva et al, 2018;Garrett, 2020;Miller et al, 2020; Stepney &Metteri, 2020; Reed et al, 2020), dealing with various forms and peculiarities of interaction of social workers in and with communities. Thus, it pursued the following aims:…”

A critical review of Chinese and international social work: Walking a tightrope between local and global standards

“…Anglophone world ' (p. 192), while bentude focused on cultural differences and had 'a distinct political dimension ' (p. 192). Garrett (2019) described this period in social work's development in China as follows: with the introduction of the market-reform agenda, often referred to as Dengism, Chinese political ideology embraced capitalism, while clinging to communist-socialism and centralised 'state planning or state intervention accompanied by the continuing authoritarian management of civil society' (p. 412). Chan et al (2009) believed that economic modernisation accompanied by rapid urbanisation and industrialisation had resulted in complex social challenges.…”

“…More recent social work commentaries noted the political constraints on government-driven social work in China. Garrett (2019), for example, observed the limited room for critical social work promoting empowerment, change and development by challenging the prevailing social order. To date, modernisation had increased social inequalities and social injustices and an acquiescent social work profession could not challenge the government's controlling social engineering process.…”

“…To date, modernisation had increased social inequalities and social injustices and an acquiescent social work profession could not challenge the government's controlling social engineering process. Most social work scholars in China had been reluctant to grapple with these realities (Garrett, 2019). With hindsight, one might argue that indigenisation, with its focus on local cultures rather than broad social and political issues and human rights and social justice, was the best social workers could do within this political environment.…”

‘I Respect You but I Am Not Willing to Be You’: Critical Reflections of Western Teaching of Social Work to Students in China—What Can be Learned Both Ways?

“…Guo (2017) research did highlight the need for government and social institutions to think about increasing wages, social recognition and job opportunities; but it sounds as if this could take time. On a positive note, there were nearly 80 posters, papers and presentations from China at the Social Work Education and Social Development Conference (Garrett 2019) that I went to in Dublin in 2018. In the meantime, social work academics still see studying social work as important because critical thinking and a knowledge of people and communities, is important in all areas of work (especially the humanities) so by teaching social work now, graduates may make changes in their professions to encourage the promotion of social work principles, valuing people and a harmonious society.…”