Conjuncture and cultural reproduction in the process of embedding: Social work practice in the context of government purchase of services in China

Abstract

This paper focuses on the Chinese government’s policy of purchasing social services and discusses how relevant organisations provide social work and develop it within local socio-political and cultural contexts. An ethnographic research method was adopted for the study by the first author while participating in social work development in Q City. We argue that the policy of purchasing social services succeeded in achieving “embedded development” but also created a “conjuncture structure” in cultural reproduction. However, due to professional social workers in China have, in practice, passively responded to the conjuncture there has been a failure to reproduce professional values of social work in the Chinese cultural context. Therefore, further development of social work in China needs to strengthen cultural reflection in practical actions, focus on the exploration of cultural connections between social work practice and local communities, and enhance the cultural capacity of social workers in the local cultural context.

本文運用民族志研究方法聚焦政府購買社會服務的政策實踐，探討相關主體如何在地方社會-政治及文化情境中實踐和發展社會工作。本研究發現購買社會服務的政策實踐不僅成功實現了“嵌入性發展”，也創造了一個文化再生產的“並接結構”。但是，由於中國社會工作專業群體被動應對“並接結構”實踐過程，結果導致社會工作專業價值在文化實踐中遭遇無法再生產困境。因此，中國社會工作發展需要加強實踐行動中的文化反思，注重社會工作實踐與在地社區的文化連接性探索，增強社會工作者在本土文化情境中的文化能力。