From Aug. 20 to 21, the Tenth National Social Work Student Forum of China and the Third MSW (Master of Social Work) Forum were jointly held in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province in central China.

Zheng Guanghuai, deputy dean of the School of Social Sciences at Central China Normal University, said that currently, the platform economy is growing rapidly and the number of flexible employees is on the rise. For example, employees engaged in logistics and takeout food delivery don’t have fixed workplaces—their workplaces are roughly the entire social space. We cannot directly transfer the established social work models and theories fit for enterprises and public institutions to these emerging industries’ employees. Instead, we need to explore new social work methods.

Xu Yongxiang, president of the China Association for Social Work Education, said traditional community building is highly administrative and inefficient as community management is solely practiced by government. Due to this, community committees’ social work is often disconnected from residents’ real needs.

Xu also said that to solve this problem, since the beginning of the 21st century, local governments in coastal areas such as Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang have gradually delegated parts of social services and management by attracting social organizations, particularly professional social work services institutions. These organizations intervene in community governance innovation, and new mechanisms can be gradually constructed. Meanwhile, the government can delegate power to these institutions and cooperate with them in community development and management.

In addition, another scholar said that as China’s “going global” accelerates, more and more nationals are going overseas. Their integration into local societies is facing various problems. Solving these problems also requires participation in and the advancement of social work.

(Edited and translated by Shao Yijia)