The Adaptive Problem Of Farmers During Urbanization And The Intervention Of Social Workers

The act of demolition and resettlement of rural housing, which relocate farmersto storied buildings, is taking place in more than twenty provinces and cities of China.Countless villages are disappearing in the vast land of China when countless farmersare “being moved to storied buildings”. The plan is carried out in different areas withthe same aim: to reinforce the reform on village appearance, to accelerate thedevelopment of urbanization, and to promote the integration of city and countryside.During the process of urbanization, it is a common phenomenon that the materialcivilization and the spiritual civilization are out of touch. During the reform of villageappearance which are taking place over twenty provinces and cities in the wholenation, most government, from the central to local administration, taking improveinfrastructure of the village as the first consideration in order to further thedevelopment of reform and to accomplish the mission of urbanization as soon aspossible. The most direct change is the improvement of farmers’ living environment.Namely, farmers move to the storied buildings similar to those of urban people.However, such an urbanization reform does not fundamentally change farmers’essence of existence. On the surface, farmers’ living environment has been improvedsince they move to the same houses as urban residents, but their lifestyle whichchiefly depends on farming and animal husbandry remains the same. Unmatchedways of life and production will bring about discomfort in life, production and culture,etc.It is common to see the scene composed of garbage piles thrown out of tidy anduniform buildings, domestic sewage flowing everywhere, people involved insuperstitious activities and gambling, and flocks of poultry wandering around theneighborhood. Farmers’“appearance” slightly presents its shiny side in the reform.However, they are still the same. Where should farmers “moved to storied buildings”place their farm tools and livestock? How can they sustain life when housings and factories have been constructed on agricultural land? The new buildings whichfarmers move in still have problems with lack of water supply and unreasonableinterior design. The key to relieve existing problems lies in how to intervene infarmers’ group and effectively improve their adaptive ability in the new circumstance.There are much more experience research of this phenomenon in domestic ratherthan taking theory into practice. Based on the facts mentioned above, the thesis takesX village as the experimental unit of intervention. Social workers adopt qualitativeresearch method to analyze cases in their work. According to research needs, theyfully utilize the working method of studying individual cases, groups, communitiesand policies in order to discover common and unique problems that target groups face.The research builds up a speech channel for target groups to communicate withhigh-rank officials, informs relevant departments of the voice and wills of commonpeople, conveys the original idea and long-term aim of departments to villagers andthus relieves the tension between governments and villagers. In addition, governmentspromise to solve existing problems as soon as possible, and villagers also expresstheir willingness to support the government work. Both parties make agreement instages and time limit of solving problems. The social workers play professional roles,such as resources suppliers, communicators and policy advocates. Social workersconstruct good channel and platform of communication between local governmentsand villagers through the implementation of the project and periodical objectives, andgovernment departments also respond actively to public opinions. Meanwhile,villagers also realize it is far from enough to neither get rid of their living situationonly by the support from government and policies, nor bring about fundamentalchanges. Farmers have begun to adjust themselves consciously to the needs of newcircumstances.