Construction Of Social Work Stations And Analysis Of Their Function

The development of social work in China cannot be achieved without the support of the government.The construction of social work stations in townships(streets)in recent years is a significant progress in the development of social work with government support.Through literature review,the reasons for the construction of social work stations are explained.The social work stations are the result of the civil affairs system’s initiative to transform in response to the difficulties of carrying out grassroots civil affairs services,and are also a concrete manifestation of the administrative development model of social work.Under the administrative promotion of the civil affairs system,professional social work sprouted in County H,which was manifested by the completion of the Y subdistrict social work station.This study takes Y subdistrict social work station in H County as a case,collects and analyzes research data on the establishment and daily service of social work stations through interview,participant observation and documentation methods,and provides a detailed description of the construction background,the environment in which the social work station is located and the actual construction situation.On this basis,the Merton functionalist theory is applied to analyze the functions of social work stations in the county.First,the social work stations have manifest function.The establishment of social work stations reduces the pressure of grassroots civil affairs work in counties and promotes the transformation of civil affairs work toward professionalism.In other words,the social work stations take up specific service tasks for the civil affairs bureau,which can then focus on social service management,thus allowing social work agencies or other social organizations specializing in social services to gain survival space.Second,social work stations also have manifest dysfunctions.While professional social work is embedded into the field of civil affairs work to gain practical development,it is also easy to produce administrative social work counter-embedding.The administrative nature overwhelms the service nature,and the mission of professional social work becomes alienated.Again,social work stations also have latent functions.For example,they promote the transformation of community work toward professionalism;attract the attention of county units to social work;provide a platform for nurturing county social organizations;and promote the development of volunteerism in the county.Finally,there are some latent dysfunctions of social work stations that are not easy to be found.For example,there is a tendency to "de-professionalize" in social work;form an inaccurate image of social workers;and produce ambiguity and shirking of responsibilities.At the end of the article,targeted suggestions on the construction of social work stations and the development of social work in county region are also made for multiple subjects such as the Civil Affairs Bureau,social work organization,the Residents’ Committee and social worker.