Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T14:37:01.524Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Unveiling Neoliberal Dynamics: Government Purchase (goumai) of Social Work Services in Shenzhen's Urban Periphery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2017

Mun Young Cho
Mun Young Cho*
Affiliation:
Department of Cultural Anthropology, Yonsei University. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How has social work, which has emerged as a distinct profession in the PRC with the full support of the party-state, come to produce neoliberal outcomes similar to those found in other, capitalist countries? In this article, I draw attention to the government purchase (goumai) of social work services, which is commonly considered as confirmation of state capacity and leadership rather than the passing on of state responsibilities to civil sectors with tight budgets. Ethnographic research on the actual social work practices in Shenzhen's Foxconn town reveals how neoliberal-style outsourcing has converged with diverse historical legacies, thus creating precarious labour conditions for frontline social workers. Neoliberal dynamics end up filling most of these social work positions with migrant youth from the countryside, reproducing and perpetuating China's rural–urban divide. Institutional efforts at social care may not only reduce the existing inequalities but may also rely upon and even reinforce them.

摘要

在中国政府的大力支持下, 社会工作已成长为一个新兴产业。但和其他资本主义国家一样, 在中国的社会工作发展中也发现了新自由主义的产物, 这是如何产生的呢, 带着这一疑问, 本文中我特别关注到政府购买社会工作服务项目, 通常这被认为是对国家能力和领导力量的证明, 而不是以紧缩的预算将国家的责任转移给非政府部门的行为。通过对深圳富士康工业区社会工作实践的民族志研究, 提出新自由主义形式的外包囊括了各种历史遗留问题, 使得一线社工面临着不稳定的劳动条件。新自由主义运行机制最终依靠来自农村的外来务工人员填补了社会工作的空位, 加重了中国长期以来的城乡差异。关于社会保障的制度上的工作不仅会减少现存的不平等, 也会依赖并加强这种不平等。

Keywords

social workgovernment purchase (goumai)neoliberalismmigrant youthFoxconnShenzhen社会工作政府购买新自由主义外来务工青年富士康深圳
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 230 , June 2017 , pp. 269 - 288
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abramovitz, Mimi. 2012. “Theorizing the neoliberal welfare state for social work.” In Gray, Mel, Midgley, James and Webb, Stephen A. (eds.), The Sage Handbook of Social Work. London: Sage Publications, 33–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cevik, Serhan, and Correa-Caro, Carolina. 2015. “Growing (un)equal: fiscal policy and income inequality in China and BRIC+.” IMF Working Paper WP/15/68, 1–25.Google Scholar
Chan, Jenny, and Pun, Ngai. 2010. “Suicide as protest for the new generation of Chinese migrant workers: Foxconn, global capital, and the state.” The Asia Pacific Journal 8(37), http://japanfocus.org/-jenny-chan/3408.Google Scholar
Chan, Jenny, and Pun, Ngai. 2012. “Global capital, the state and Chinese workers: the Foxconn experience.” Modern China 38(4), 383–410.Google Scholar
Chan, Jenny, Pun, Ngai and Selden, Mark. 2013. “The politics of global production: Apple, Foxconn and China's new working class.” New Technology, Work and Employment 28(2), 100–115.Google Scholar
Cho, Mun Young. 2009. “Forced flexibility: a migrant woman's struggle for settlement.” The China Journal 61, 51–76.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Iain. 2004. “Neoliberalism, the third way and social work: the UK experience.” Social Work & Society 2(1), 1–9.Google Scholar
Fisher, Karen R., Li, Jing and Fan, Lei. 2012. “Barriers to the supply of non-government disability services in China.” Journal of Social Policy 41(1), 161–182.Google Scholar
Garrett, Paul Michael. 2010. “Examining the ‘conservative revolution’: neoliberalism and social work education.” Social Work Education 29(4), 340–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, David. 2005. A Brief History of Neo-liberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Howell, Jude. 2015. “Shall we dance? Welfarist incorporation and the politics of state–labour NGO relations.” The China Quarterly 223, 702–723.Google Scholar
Huang, Rongxing. 2015. “Zhengfu goumai fuwu yanjiu zongshu” (Research on government purchase of services). Fazhi luntan 14, 145–46.Google Scholar
Ilcan, Suzan, and Basok, Tanya. 2004. “Community government: voluntary agencies, social justice, and the responsibilization of citizens.” Citizenship Studies 8(2), 129–144.Google Scholar
Jagusztyn, Marta. 2012. “Social services outsourcing to social organizations in the HIV sector in Yunnan province.” USAID Health Policy Initiave, http://docplayer.net/7133992-Social-services-outsourcing-to-social-organizations-in-the-hiv-sector-in-yunnan-province-september-14-2012.html.Google Scholar
Law, Koon Chui, Wang, Ying and Wang, Ren. 2014. “Zong baogao” (Report on social work development in Guangdong). In Law, Koon Chui (ed.), Guangdong shehui gongzuo fazhan baogao (Annual Report on Social Work Development in Guangdong 2014). Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxuan chubanshe, 1–24.Google Scholar
Lee, Eliza W.Y. 2005. “The renegotiation of the social pact in Hong Kong: economic globalization, socio-economic change, and local politics.” Journal of Social Policy 34, 293–310.Google Scholar
Li, Jinzao. 2009. Zhongguo tese shehuizhuyi de fazhan yu sikao (Development and Thought about Socialism with Chinese Characteristics). Guangzhou: Huacheng chubanshe.Google Scholar
Li, Yingsheng (ed.). 2010. Shehui gongzuo gailun (Introduction to Social Work). Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Liu, Ying, Lam, Ching-Man and Yan, Miu-Chung. 2012. “A challenged professional identity: the struggles of new social workers in China.” China Journal of Social Work 5(3), 189–200.Google Scholar
Liu, Zheng. 2012. “The development of social work policy in China: current status and strategies.” China Journal of Social Work 5(1), 81–90.Google Scholar
Ma, Qing. 2015. “Zhongguo zhengfu goumai fuwu de lishi, chengguo yu tiaozhan” (History, achievements and challenges of government purchase of services in China). Shenyang gongye daxue xuebao 8(4), 295–98.Google Scholar
Muehlebach, Andrea. 2012. The Moral Neoliberal: Welfare and Citizenship in Italy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Pun, Ngai, and Chan, Jenny. 2013. “The spatial politics of labor in China: life, labor, and a new generation of migrant workers.” South Atlantic Quarterly 112(1), 179–190.Google Scholar
Rosol, Marit. 2012. “Community volunteering as neoliberal strategy? Green space production in Berlin.” Antipode 44(1), 239–257.Google Scholar
So, Alvin Y. 2009. “Rethinking the Chinese developmental miracle.” In Hung, Ho-Fung (ed.), China and the Transformation of Global Capitalism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
So, Alvin Y., and Chu, Yin-wah. 2012. “The transition from neoliberalism to state neoliberalism in China at the turn of the twenty-first century.” In Chang, Kyung-Sup, Fine, Ben and Weiss, Linda (eds.), Development Politics in Transition: The Neoliberal Era and Beyond. Hampshire: Palgrave, 166–187.Google Scholar
Sznews.com. 2015. “Why do social workers in Shenzhen leave?” 3 September, http://www.sznews.com/news/content/2015-03/09/content_11271330_2.htm. Accessed 7 December 2015.Google Scholar
Tang, Yong. 2013. “Cong shehui fuli shehuihua shijiao sikao zhengfu goumai shegong fuwu de xingwei” (Considering the government purchase of social work services in terms of the socialization of social welfare). Shehui gongzuo 3, 153–55.Google Scholar
Teets, Jessica C. 2012. “Reforming service delivery in China: the emergence of a social innovation model.” Journal of Chinese Political Science 17, 15–32.Google Scholar
Thornton, Patricia M. 2013. “The advance of the Party: transformation or takeover of urban grassroots society?” The China Quarterly 213, 1–18.Google Scholar
Tong, Tom Chan Kam, Keung, David Ip Fu and Mei, Ava Lau Siu. 2009. “Social work professionalization in Shenzhen.” China Journal of Social Work 2(2), 85–94.Google Scholar
Xiang, Muyang, and Shihua, Ye. 2013. “Shenzhen shehui gongzuo fazhan yanjiu” (Study on social development in Shenzhen). In Xiaoru, Zhang (ed.), Shenzhen shehui fazhan baogao (Annual Report on Social Development of Shenzhen 2012–2013). Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxuan chubanshe, 224–234.Google Scholar
Yan, Miu Chung, and Cheng, Sheng-li. 2009. “Searching for Chinese characteristics: a tentative empirical examination.” China Journal of Social Work 2(1), 5–19.Google Scholar
Yuen-Tsang, Angelina W.K., and Wang, Sibin. 2002. “Tensions confronting the development of social work education in China: challenges and opportunities.” International Social Work 45(3), 375–388.Google Scholar
Zeng, Weiling, and Ye, Shihua. 2014. “Shenzhen shehui gongzuo fazhan baogao” (Report on social work development in Shenzhen). In Law, Koon Chui (ed.), Guangdong shehui gongzuo fazhan baogao (Annual Report on Social Work Development in Guangdong). Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxuan chubanshe, 75–88.Google Scholar
Zhao, Zhenzhen. 2009. “Zhengfu goumai gonggong fuwu de tansuo” (The practice of government purchasing social services in Guangzhou – a comparison between two NGOs). Dazhu sanjiao luntan 3, 1–15.Google Scholar