Ethnic Group Social Work: The Proposal And Explore Of A New Concept

In Mainland China, theoretical studies about the restart and development ofprofessional social work get involved in ethnic issues are far behind the practices.Based on this background, the studies of this field are still confined to the reflectionsof the basic concepts, such as using key concepts irresponsibly and incorrectly, lackof rational systematic consideration and necessary analysis.This paper tries to systematize the related concepts about the intervention ofprofessional social work in ethnic issues in China and abroad, tells the differencesbetween them one by one, and makes the hypotheses of these concepts clear, thenpoints out the relationship between these concepts. After analyzing, the conclusion isthat these concepts are all not proper to be used as basic concepts for the interventionof professional social work in ethnic issues.This paper lays a lot of emphasis on the theoretical analyzing of the concept:national social work, which is used widely in social work now. This paper thinks theconcept dose not grasp the development trend and main contradictions in ethnicissues, fails to reflect the sociality of social work, and can‘t match the principle ofindividual in social work. The concept "nation" has different meanings in Chinese andWestern languages, and it will bring different understandings in communication, so itis not suitable to be used as a basic concept for the intervention of professional socialwork in ethnic issues.The old concept is not appropriate, but the basic concept is very important, so itis necessary to create a new concept. This paper explains these theories systemically:ethnic group theory, the diversity and unity of the Chinese nation theory,multi-cultural theory, theory of life world and civil society, governance theory, theproposition of social work institutionalization and antinomies, and the principle ofindividualization in social work. On the bases of that, it thinks that the concept ethnicgroup social work is proper to be used as a basic concept for the intervent ion ofprofessional social work in ethnic issues.Then this paper defines the concept of ethnic group social work, describes the service object and concerned issues, establishes a classification system including sixstandards of classification, and analyze some principles of ethnic group social work:ethnical sensitivity, political sensitivity, to follow but not rigidly stick to theknowledge of social work, reflection, differences and unity.