共识制造与空间生产:社会工作政策倡导的二象性

Making Consensus and Space Production:Research on the Dual Role of Social Work Policy Advocacy

政策倡导是社会工作的重要实务领域,已有研究大多沿着西方斗争性、运动性的理论与实践脉络开展。但这类行动取向几乎不符合我国社会工作公信力薄弱的发展现状,也不符合我国权威部门主导的政策过程的情境特征。通过对社会工作在未成年人司法保护领域的政策倡导行动进行分析发现,我国的社会工作政策倡导可能存在着共识制造与空间生产的二象性特征。在政策过程领域,社会工作政策倡导表现为以制造价值共识、行动共识和制度共识为主的共识制造行动,在社会工作专业化与职业化领域,则表现为以生产直接服务空间和间接服务空间为主的行动空间生产行动。在政策倡导过程中,权威部门的工作需要为社会工作行动创造了机会,社会工作自身拥有的文化与象征资本使得社会工作获得了行动的可能,在上述两重因素的影响下,社会工作的主要行动方式为游说和知识生产。而当政策共识和行动空间被生产后,它们就获得了自身的能动性,政策共识会沿着权威部门的地理位置、工作条线和政策过程进行扩散,同时带动社会工作行动空间的再生产。

Policy advocacy is a crucial aspect of social work,but in China,social work policy advocacy is fraught with challenges.Addressing these issues and promoting social work policy advocacy is vital for improving the theory and practice of social work.Western social work scholars,influenced by Jane Addams,emphasize the importance of policy advocacy research.However,the strategies they propose are not entirely suitable for China's context.For instance,the government is too combative in building a harmonious society and not effective given the bureaucratic structure of China's policy process.Moreover,these strategies require a high level of credibility that China's social work sector has yet to attain.Thus,discussing China's social work policy advocacy in light of its unique policy process and development stage is necessary for advancing the field.One of the challenges in researching social work policy advocacy is the lack of successful action examples,which leads to many studies relying only on theoretical frameworks.As a result,it becomes difficult to extract key concepts from practice.However,the policy advocacy actions of juvenile justice social work provide an essential research sample for this study.After over a decade of efforts,social work has achieved deep coordination with the judicial protection of minors,and its participation in the judicial protection of minors has been recognized by many laws,regulations,and policy documents.This study is based on over ten years of social work policy advocacy actions in the field of juvenile judicial protection.It has been observed that there are two roles of social work policy advocacy,namely consensus manufacturing and space production.The concept of dual role comes from the study of the basic properties of microscopic particles in natural science.In the humanities and social sciences,a dual role means that the same concept can take on different forms of expression in different situations.The dual role of social work policy advocacy is as follows:in the policy field,social work policy advocacy is reflected as the production of policy consensus,while in the field of social work professionalization,this action is manifested as the production of social work action space.Specifically,the first role of social work policy advocacy in China is policy consensus manufacturing.Policy consensus is made up of three main dimensions,namely value consensus,action consensus,and institutional consensus.Value consensus determines the direction of policy consensus,action consensus determines the specific goals and methods of policy consensus,and institutional consensus determines whether policy consensus can be ultimately transformed into policy documents to achieve long-term changes.To create a better living environment for service objects,social work promotes policy adjustment by creating value consensus,action consensus,and institutional consensus to achieve its policy advocacy goals.The second role of social work policy advocacy is the production of action space.In China,social work is still in the stage of rapid development,and the recognition level of social work by the authorities varies.In most areas,the recognition of social work by the authorities is still at the stage of formal recognition,and even at a low level.This means that social workers must first be recognized to take action.Therefore,in the process of policy advocacy,social work creates direct service space by creating action consensus and indirect service space by creating institutional consensus,thereby promoting the professional development of social work.During policy advocacy,opportunities for social work actions are created by the work needs of authoritative departments,and the cultural and symbolic capital of social work allows it to act.Social work carries out advocacy actions through lobbying and knowledge production,influenced by these factors.Lobbying involves extensive publicity,field research,and fixed-point lobbying,while knowledge production involves producing service content and system documents.The research shows that the consensus created in social work policy advocacy can reproduce and promote the generation of a new consensus,which further expands the social work action space.The reproduction of consensus has its internal logic,and it follows the basic norms of China's policy formulation and implementation.The reproduction of consensus also has three main paths:reproduction along the geographical location,reproduction along the work line,and reproduction along the policy process.The lack of policy advocacy has been hindering the development of social work in China.Research and practice have shown that the existing approach of policy advocacy in the West is not consistent with the basic conditions of our country.This study highlights the dual role of consensus building and space creation in social work policy advocacy in China,which lays a foundation for building a local knowledge system.However,the study also raises the important issue of how social work can promote policy advocacy under these dual characteristics,which requires further attention in future research.