The Evolution And Direction Of The Relationship Between Local Governments And Social Work Agencies From The Resource Dependence Perspective

The primary focus of national social governance is at the grass-roots level,with the grass-roots government serving as the country’s initial representation.With guidance and promotion from the civil affairs department,the construction of social work stations throughout the country is accelerating and exhibiting prosperous growth.As practitioners of grass-roots services,social work stations can leverage their "presence" advantages to enhance civil service effectiveness and provide precise,sophisticated professional services.The relationship between social work stations and the government presents different interaction strategies under different cooperation modes,as the allocation of power between the two determines the formation of a controlling or cooperative government-social relationship.The operational mode and effect of social work stations varies based on the type of government-social relationship.The nascent nature of social work stations and complexity of environmental factors require it to find a path of resource system construction and order adjustment through interacting with other subsystems,and embedding itself into grass-roots functional departments to effectively benefit service beneficiaries and promote the modernization of the social governance system.From the perspective of resource dependence theory,this study focuses on the social work station in F Town of Anhui Province and the grass-roots government directly connected with it,examining the project for rural left-behind children and children in difficulties in F Town as a specific case.Through participatory observation,unstructured interviews,and literature analysis,this study explores the disharmonious relationship between the grass-roots government and social work station,and suggests fusion paths for the two.Based on the hypothesis of resource dependence theory,social work stations rely on the government’s various legal resources for identity and role,financial,informational,and object resources,as well as acceptance and publicity,in order to survive and develop.As a result,grass-roots government has power control over social work stations due to the power imbalance.The author concludes that in the interaction between social work stations and the town civil affairs office,children’s special workers,and service objects,social work stations face multiple "identity" dilemmas,including administrative absorption by town civil affairs offices,resistance and rejection by children’s special workers,and the cognitive deviation of service objects.The author analyzes the causes of the poor relationship between the government and social work stations,specifically the "squeezing" phenomenon of administrative power exerted by the grass-roots government on social work stations.From the perspective of resource dependence,this includes government power control and social information promotion.Social work stations serve as "practitioners" of government policies and "propagandists" of consciousness,relying on the government’s right to speak.Social work stations gain government and social recognition by demonstrating the value of their projects and waiting for policies to be established.The author suggests a integration path for the government-community relationship between social work stations and the grass-roots government.To clarify the "role expectation" and construct "normative identification," goal setting must be refined.Through optimizing the "assessment system" and improving the "supervision means," the government should balance the management means of the social work station in terms of inspection and acceptance.Incentive distribution can be achieved by providing support and recognition for social work stations through channels of funding and subsidies.