Governmentality and the politicisation of social work in China

Abstract

This paper examines, from the governmentality perspective, how social work contributes to the recent political mission of the Chinese party state in constructing a harmonious society. A political rationality was constructed in response to new social and political challenges, and a new problematic of government was created, which portrayed personal failings as obstacles to social harmony. A humanistic idiom of 'person-centredness' was unprecedentedly employed in political discourse connected with the newly crafted government programmes for consolidating social harmony, in which social work was identified as a significant agent. From the governmentality point of view, social work is an appropriate technology of government. With rich knowledge in personal psychological functioning and sophisticated techniques in fostering interpersonal relationship, social work fits neatly into the prevailing problematic of personal failings. However, a clearly humanistic and liberal undertone of social work practice has posed a potential threat to the Chinese party state, in its capability to manipulate social work to its own advantages. Our initial findings point to the difficulties of an overarching control. Yet it requires more sophisticated analysis to conclude whether social work will eventually be co-opted into the authoritative control system, or whether the socialist regulatory machine will be encroached on by social work ideology. © The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of.al Workers. All rights reserved.