A Discussion On The Combination Of Professional Social Work And China’s Social Governance

Since the implement of the reform and opening up policy, tremendousdevelopment has been made in China’s politics, economy and culture. While at thesame time, social problems like unemployment, social insurance, old supporting,housing, and employment have emerged. The solutions of these problems are closelyrelated to China’s development. After the structural reform, traditional unit systemhave disintegrated in cities, social members once under the control of unit system areno longer belong to it, they become “free man”, who are independent fromorganizations. In rural areas, after the implementation of the contract responsibilitysystem, collectivization has declined; families have become independent individualswho are engaging in production activities. Traditional methods of social managementare not suitable for the new society which is combined by members who areindependent from the units or the administration of the organization. Hence, how toadministrate the new and complex society after the reform is an urgent and significantproblem the policymakers should solve.On November the eleventh,2013, the third plenary session of the eighteenth putsforward the concept of social governance in its communiqué,“Improving the socialgovernance, stimulating the dynamics of social organization, innovating the effectivesystem to prevent and resolve social conflicts”, which will be a new develop directionfor social governance in the future and indicate that the policymakers pay attention tothe role of social organization in a meaningful sense. The social organization here isnot the traditional labor union or the Communist Youth League, which haveadministrate colors, but social organization independent from the government,without the intervention of government or other organization, which has independentlegal person status, for instance, social work organization, industry organization, andfolk charity organization, etc. In recent years, professional social work is a boomingdomain and profession based on social work institution, which has professionaltheoretical system, scientific method and sufficient practical experience, which alsogradually plays an irreplaceable role in the specific social practice of societygovernance. With its techniques and methods in solving problems and offering services,professional social work plays an important role in the process of China’s societygovernance. Two kinds of social work exist in Chinese society, one is local socialwork, and the other is professional social work which originated from the westernsociety. In China, there are some disputes on the development of local social workand the western professional social work. Focusing on the new features andrequirements of social governance, this thesis will give a systematic analysis of thesetwo social works, and find a social work as a mean and tool for the service of socialgovernance, which is suitable for China’s social governance.