Hok Bun Ku

Making habitable space together with female Chinese immigrants to Hong Kong : An interdisciplinary participatory action research project

When women from mainland China are newly arrived in Hong Kong, their first difficulty is usually environmental stress. Their socio-economic situation often limits their ability to express their expectations related to their living space. In order to enable the women to voice their views and become participants in urban planning, our research group adopted interdisciplinary participatory action research, including non-participant observation, in-depth interviews, focus groups, photovoice, visual simulation-modelling workshops, etc. In the process, we asked these newly arrived woman to 1) offer comments on their current living situation; 2) describe clearly their preferred housing environment; and 3) propose suggestions to the Hong Kong Government in respect to housing and neighbourhood planning. This article intends to demonstrate the validity of the use of these methods to promote participatory democracy in the context of an urban living environment.

‘Rural–Urban Alliance’ as a new model for post-disaster social work intervention in community reconstruction: The case in Sichuan, China

On 12 May 2008, a huge earthquake struck Wenchuan county in Sichuan province, China. Since that time, we have worked together with the local community, implementing an alternative model of community reconstruction. Our ‘rural–urban alliance’ is an action research project devoted to post-disaster community rebuilding, which not only restores local livelihoods but also creates sustainable economic development. This article examines the role of social workers in disaster intervention, the theoretical background of our new model and the history of the intervention itself.

Social work in disaster intervention: accounts from the grounds of Sichuan

Natural disasters are a regular feature of China. On 12 May 2008, an 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck Sichuan province, a mountainous region in western China, in which nearly 70,000 people died, 18,000 went missing and affecting over 15 million people. Where physical infrastructures are concerned, 21 million buildings were damaged and 7,000 schools were destroyed. As a helping profession, social work in Western societies has a long history in dealing with the aftermath of natural disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes and snow storms. It has been well documented that social work is most effective in traumatic stress management, delivery of resources and services to vulnerable populations (Galambos 2005, Mitchell 1983, Van den Eynde and Veno 1999, Zakours 1996), formulation and implementation of different service plans (Banerjee and Gillespie 1994, Dodds and Nuehring 1996), community organization and advocacy (Pyles 2007). As Yanay and Benjamin (2005, pp. 263, 271) rightly concluded, responding to disasters is ‘part of social work practice and profession’ and ‘social workers are the professionals best prepared to deal with complex situations resulting from an emergency’. In the past, social work interventions in disasters have mostly focused on the work of relief and recovery for the affected individuals, families, communities and organizations, and meeting the special needs of vulnerable groups (Cherry and Cherry 1996, Shahar 1993, Zakours 1996). However, some researchers believe that provision of relief and services is far too limiting a role for social work as a profession. Certainly, disaster causes destruction, traumas and tragedies, but emerging from them are also opportunities for social change and development. As the UN Disaster Relief Organization (1992, p. 202) aptly commented, ‘disasters often create a political and economic atmosphere wherein extensive changes can be made more rapidly than under normal circumstance’. Nonetheless, some argued that in order for a disaster-affected area to overcome the devastation it has experienced and to embark on a sustainable pathway to reconstruction, empowerment and participation of local community organizations and residents are critical (Harrell and Zakour 2000, Ozerdem 2003, Pyles 2007, Vandeventer 2004, Zedlewski 2006). In this context, Dominelli (2009, pp. 141–2) was correct to highlight that the role for social worker in disaster intervention indeed is multifarious – as facilitator, coordinator, community mobilizer, negotiator, broker and educator. As a newly-emerged profession, social work in China, however, is much less prepared in responding to disaster intervention. Prior to the 12 May (or 5.12) Sichuan earthquake, social work intervention in managing disaster simply did not appear in the academic or practice agenda of social work training. Not surprisingly when the Sichuan earthquake struck, few social workers in China were ready for working with the disaster-affected communities. Later when they were called upon to engage in disaster relief, many felt they

China in a new age: some remarks for social work in China

In China, people are used to naming a time period after the surname of its political leader (s), such as the Mao era, Deng era, Jiang era, and Hu-Wen era. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), held in Beijing from 8–14 November 2012, marked a critical power transition and another ‘new age’ in China. A new generation of leaders, headed by Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, has taken over the reins of leadership from the previous generation headed by Hu Jintao. Xi has become the new leader who symbolically signifies that a ‘new age’ is coming to China. Though people are still questioning if there will be differences between the new leadership and the previous one, at least a few differences in the power transition arrangement can be observed. There are now only seven members instead of nine in the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee. Unlike his predecessor Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao passed both the posts of Party General Secretary and Chairman of the Central Military Commission to Xi. In Xi’s speech, similar to that of his predecessors, he played the old tune, calling for efforts to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics. He addressed cautiously that punishing and preventing corruption is a ‘serious political battle’ for both the CPC and the country, and called on efforts to fight corruption while adhering to the CPC’s leadership, giving full play to the political advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics. However, he brought in a new idea, reminding the Party members to keep in mind that the Party’s overall approach is to promote economic development together with political, cultural, social and ecological progress, and thus its general task is to improve the people’s livelihoods, make the country more prosperous and achieve the great renewal of the Chinese nation. It is the first time that the Chinese government clearly states in a policy speech that cultural and ecological development needs to be promoted as well as the other aspects. The development of social work in China is strongly influenced by state policy. For example, in 2005 the General Secretary of the Chinese Community Party (CCP), Hu Jintao, announced the Scientific Development Perspective, his ‘signature ideology’ that seeks to bring about social harmony through reducing social inequality and meeting the various welfare needs of the disadvantaged groups of the society. Then he released the document ‘The Decisions of the Central Committee of China Communist Party on Several Significant Issues Regarding Building Socialist Harmonious Society’ (hereafter called the Decisions). All of these stipulated the government’s plan to establish ‘a grand team of professional social workers’ that was regarded as the major group contributing to the construction of a harmonious society. These government documents further delineated details of how this grand team could be established. Inspired by the Decisions, various government departments, including the Organization Department, the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, issued relevant documents mapping the development path of the professionalization, training and education, as well as qualification assessment of social work practice and its practitioners in China for the years to come. Still, the ‘Memorandum on the Nation’s Medium and Long Term Personnel Development Plan’ issued in June 2010 stipulated the development plan for social work

Social work for change

This is the age of change. Looking around the world, Chinese societies, other Asian societies and parts of the world have undergone great social transformations that have had a major effect on ordinary people’s lives. People in these societies have witnessed the expansion of capitalism, interludes of financial catastrophes, spurts of authoritarian oppression and political upheaval, and apparent assaults on the traditional community and family. Some social groups even have become victims to these changes and experienced poverty, cultural identity crisis, social inequality, exclusion of one kind or the other, regardless of whether they are in developed or developing countries. Encountering the turbulence of these transformations, the social work profession is not only committed to understanding their causes, processes, meanings and significance, but also needs to rethink the mission of social work and the ways of social work intervention. In response to the situation of financial hardship and cultural identity crisis of marginal groups, social economy has increasingly become an important alternative form of community development. The concept of ‘social economy’ is an option which has a clear vision ‘to put the economy at the service of human beings, rather than putting human beings at the service of the economy’, and which emphasizes social justice, democracy and collectivism (Neamtan 2010, 241). In the last special issue on social economy, we invited scholars and practitioners to contribute writings related to theoretical issues, critical reflection and case studies of practice of social economy in the context of Chinese societies. In this issue, we have two more articles related to the topic of social economy. The first of the articles on social economy is written by two Taiwanese scholars, Tsai and Liu, about the Case of the Peasant Farming Project launched by the Taiwan Rural Front in two remote mountainous villages in Southern Taiwan. Foreseeing the ecological crisis caused by the capitalist market economy, Taiwan Rural Front endeavours to promote land-friendly farming and green consumption. It assists villagers in establishing a simple agricultural process system, creating a self-owned brand for their agricultural products, and connecting outside consumers with the local economy. The article shows us the implementation process in detail and demonstrates how practitioners make social transformation via the model of community economy. The second article on social economy is written by a social work team engaged postdisaster community rebuilding in Sichuan. They practise an alternative model of community economy which challenges the dominant state-led model of development that is heavily reliant on the ongoing growth in GDP. By employing the community economy model, the authors of this article not only emphasize economic growth, but also the importance of renewed interpersonal relationship among local villagers and the relationship between rural producers and urban consumers. The evolution, implementation and outcome of this practice as attempts of community development are described and

Triple Capacity Building as Critical Pedagogy A Rural Social Work Practicum in China

This article contains our reflections on the experience of using a triple capacity building (TCB) model to train students in community development work in rural China. The TCB approach subscribes to critical pedagogy, which calls for a reinvention of the self by challenging the traditional model of education and by transforming institutionalized students into reflexive subjects with critical curiosity about society, power, inequality, and social change. By advocating equal participation in rural social work practices and by using the approach of dialogical education, the authors encouraged the participating students to embody this critical subjectivity.

Designing development: a case study of community economy in Pingzhai, Yunnan Province, in PRC

One of the main challenges confronted by the Chinese government is rural poverty. However, despite efforts of rural reform, Chinas rapid integration into the global capitalist economy has in fact made the rural poor more vulnerable, suffering from not only financial hardships, but also from other forms of deprivation such as the loss of cultural identity. Acknowledging such rural predicaments, in 2005, a pilot project aiming at overcoming rural poverty by preserving and developing indigenous cultural artifacts and crafts for ethnic minorities was carried out in Pingzhai in Yunnan Province, China. The project encouraged villagers to use local materials and indigenous craftsmanship to produce ethnic arts and crafts for sale in urban markets, thus generating not only cash income but also a sense of renewed pride and identity, leading to stronger community participation in local culture preservation and greater resilience to the erosion of traditional community life brought on by global socio-economic forces. This paper describes the activities undertaken in the village since 2005 and the implications for rural social work in China.

China at the crossroads: social economy as the new way of development

In contrast with the market economy, the principles of social economy should be peoplecentred, community-based, cooperative, democratic, as well as upholding a vision of a pluralistic society in which production is not for consumption but for servicing the needs of the people. Currently, China is at the crossroads of its second revolution. Confronted by the social issues and ingrained social contradictions engendered by the development of the market economy in the past 30 years, the 12th five-year plan proposes to maintain the rapid development of the economy, while strengthening social development. Emphasizing the needs of the people, focusing on the co-ordination of sustainable development, and protecting and improving people’s livelihood are thus proposed as measures to promote social equality and justice. However, in China for a long time, the chasm engendered by rapid industrialization and urbanization through large-scale migration has made more than two billion nongmingong , rural to urban migrant workers with ‘quasi-’, incomplete statuses and identities. Consequently, these migrant workers are left with precarious working and living rights, as their well-being and dignity become a distant dream. Hence, how to resolve the nongminggong and sannong problem is now a focal point in the process of social development. The 12th five-year plan proposes to remedy the chasm created by urbanization and industrialization through rapid urbanization. The principal goal of urbanization is to gradually transform the rural migrant population into urban citizens, and thoroughly transfer the right to and management of land to the market. In other words, urbanization will soon be brought into full throttle to complement the process of industrialization. The curse which has been cast on to the migrant population will disappear in a blink of an eye, as they are granted the liberating urban citizen status through urbanization. With the willing participation of capital, transforming a village into a city is an effortless feat. How can farmers live fulfilling, dignified and self-subsisting lives when land is rapidly encroached on by capital? As reality reminds us, the identity and spatial transformation accompanying changes brought about by industrial and real estate capital cannot solve the sannong problem. On the contrary, the means of production for farmers’ livelihoods may even be lost and the basic protection of farmers further denigrated into a woeful state. On 14 March 2011, we were in Xi Wing village in Chong Qing doing field research on the process of urbanization and industrialization. We learnt that since May 2010, several thousand acres of land in Xi Wing village had been reclaimed, and more than ten villages relocated to make room for a transnational corporation, Foxconn Technology Corporation, to construct an enormous industrial park. Many residents in Xi Wing village were waiting to be relocated. We were interested to find out about the villagers’ living conditions during this period. To our surprise, after striking up a casual conversation about relocation with a villager sitting on the street, more than 30 people quickly gathered around us, all of them eager to tell us about their misfortunes.

State, profession, and religion: Reflecting on spirituality and indigenous social work in China in the Yushu Earthquake Relief

ABSTRACT On April 14, 2010, a massive earthquake measuring 7.1Ms struck the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. Its scale notwithstanding, it has received much less national and international attention than the also immense Wenchun quake of 2008 in Sichun Province. This field report discusses the contribution of religion and spirituality in postdisaster relief in Yushu. It also calls for critical reflection on the issue of homogenization in the discussion of indigenous social work in China, and perhaps in other multiethnic countries in the world.

Green social work and its implications for social development in China

Abstract Green social work has been significant in introducing new issues into environmental debates and increasing its centrality to social work practice. These have included: the mainstreaming of environmental considerations; a widening of the theoretical and practice base to ensure that social and environmental justice are considered integral to any environmental involvement by social workers; highlighting the need to think of innovative approaches to socio-economic development; and making disaster interventions core elements in the social work repertoire of knowledge, skills, capacity building and curriculum formulation. This paper considers the challenges of China’s rapid industrialisation and its implications for rural people migrating into cities, the urban populations that receive them and environmental degradation. It introduces the idea of green social work and discusses the implications of green social work for social development in China in the context of environmental crises precipitated by the country’s rapid economic development.