This paper examines the phenomenal growth of social work in China and the complexities and challenges faced by the profession and related stakeholders in the context of neoliberal economic practice within a hierarchical top-down political system. It proposes developmental social work as a viable indigenous social work practice mode. This analysis based on a collection of academic papers and relevant government reports sheds light on the interplay between welfare developmentalism, institutional dynamics, and professional challenges in the broader sociopolitical context, not least the neoliberal co-optation of social development aligned increasingly with economic goals to the detriment of broader social and structural issues. It shows how the political parameters of the Chinese Communist Party and its pursuit of community integration and social development shaped China’s approach to social work. It sees the necessity for a system of welfare services to address socio-structural issues and the indigenization and cultural adaption of social work in China as an expressly political process. Regarding the former, the government’s strategy of outsourcing public services to accord with its agenda has resulted in a contractual relationship between social organizations, including nongovernment and social work organizations, and the state. This has limited the independence and hindered the development of a strong civil society, and curtailed social workers’ autonomy, exacerbating professional challenges relating inter alia to the low number of qualified social work practitioners, limited job opportunities outside major urban centers, high staff turnover, and poor quality services provided by those without formal social work training. To enhance professional recognition in China, the paper suggests a holistic developmental approach that involves the resolution of individual problems through investing in people, helping them to build their capacity, drawing on social capital, and capitalizing on market opportunities to promote self-reliance, thereby contributing to community and social development.
Areas of social development are manifestations of Social Reality (SR) which defines possibilities and barriers to achieving a better life. An argument is made to unravel the “dialectic” of a broken society in the post-imperialist world. At the heart of Liberatory Development, one must recognize the lethality of coloniality and its vestiges that incubate a culture of dehumanizing subjugation, urbicidal inequality, and global injustice. A Kaleidoscopic view of human misery and our failure to address fundamental issues signifies the call for needed praxis.
A sexual instinct is a basic biological urge in humans to experience sexual pleasure and beget progeny through sexual relations. However, it is considered a sacred act of procreation in Indian culture and society. For most Indians, a woman is a personification of the mother goddess and her sexuality is a sacramental subject of worship. But the gulf between the ideal imagery and the real-life situation of a woman is a glitch in her sexual expression and choices. Irrespective of the projection of women’s inherent sexual energy as being sacred, it is deeply controlled and structured by social institutions. She is not a free sexual being but a situated mother; her sexual choices are located within the institution of marriage maintained exclusively for getting a male heir for the family lineage. This paper expounds and explores the pervasive but ignored women’s unseen sexual coercion in the form of maternal choice in Indian society. The dichotomy presented in the symbolic representations of the mother goddess’s powerful sexuality—illustrated in mythologies and scriptures, and the social construction of real-life mothers’ sexuality influence their choices. It also investigates how her maternal sexual choices are devalued, and viewed as unreal, unethical, and sinful activity. Lastly, it may be said that the divine projection of women as mother Goddesses and the exaltation of their procreative capacity deprive them of their sexual choices. It appears as a free choice but there is a hidden coercion that women fail to understand is the greatest cause of their sexual enslavement.
In many developing countries assignment of agricultural responsibilities is based on social and cultural norms. In Africa and Kenya, women take on most of the roles that involve spending long hours and use of lots of energy. The research objectives were to examine the effect of restricted access and land control in tea farming on gender equity in Singorwet ward of Bomet County. A cross-sectional study design was used and a sample size of 532 tea farmers’ respondents (comprising 431 male tea farmers and 101 female tea farmers), two directors, and 10 farm laborers were involved in this study. Purposive sampling was used to pick two director zones in the Singorwet ward and stratified random sampling to pick five tea-buying centers within Singorwet Zone and Mugango Zone. Questionnaires, interviews, and observation schedules were used for data collection. From the findings, all major decisions on tea farming rest with the men, as well as all gender equity indices and access to and control of financial services in tea farming. The overall gender parity ratio stood at 0.2 which was in favor of men. This was also evident in directorship where woman directors appeared under nomination and not election. This study recommends thorough community awareness programs on land rights within the Kenyan Constitution 2010.
Social workers are tasked with the responsibility of pursuing environmental justice to diminish environmental risks for impoverished, minority, and disadvantaged communities that have been disproportionately impacted. While social work literature addresses the topic of environmental justice, few articles discuss its root issues of poverty and racism in the environment. Through a systematic review of peer-reviewed journals from 2015 through 2021, this study identified 27 articles that focus on the intersection of social work, environmental justice, poverty, and racism. Findings reveal three common categories of articles, their themes, and publication trends. Social work education was the most common category (40.7 percent), followed by review articles and case studies (37.0 percent), and community-based research (22.2 percent). The results of this study indicate that more research is needed in all areas related to poverty and racism in environmental justice social work.
