| This thesis examined the formation of social work professions in Japan, by referring to Abbott's ecological model. The establishment of Certified Social Worker --- the first social work national license in Japan --- in 1987 has posed a serious puzzle for researchers. Although social workers in fields wanted the status of profession for half a century, Japanese government had given quite low reputation for social workers and treated them as unskilled workers. However, the central Japanese government abruptly changed its policy orientation in 1987 and launched the social work national license. Nonetheless, the national license neither guaranteed secure employment for the licensed workers nor excluded unlicensed workers from labor market. Licensed social workers in Japan, thus, appeared as a profession without secure niche.;Through field investigation, the author discovered that the licensed social worker was demanded when the central government attempted the shrinkage of extensive public social service system --- which had been monopolized by the state --- under the rise of neo-conservatism in the late 1980's. That is, the CSW was supposed to be a gatekeeper of non-government social services. Nonetheless, the establishment of a profession did not settle but escalated inter-occupational competition and resulted in the introduction of national insurance for public elderly care, redirecting from privatization of public social services, and the foundation of multiple occupational licenses in social work fields. Under such chaotic circumstances, the CSW gradually lost its niche in labor market by the late 1990's.;This thesis, therefore, concluded that the appearance of a profession is never an evolutional process but a recursive social process. On the one hand, a profession appears from conflicts and competition. On the other hand, the formation of a profession induces inter- and intra-occupational contentions, which possibly brings the emergence of other professions. Thus, profession is a temporary state produced by a dynamic movement of larger occupational structure in society. |
