China’s Society Work and the decolonisation of Social Work: Meaning, reasons and implications for Africa

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Africa has argued for decolonisation for almost sixty years. The Association of Social Work Education in Africa (ASWEA) was formed in 1971. It named Western curricula, Western service models and Eurocentric knowledge as shortcomings of Social Work in Africa. In 1993, Kwaku Osei-Hwedie made the case for indigenising Social Work in Africa. He argued that the profession had failed to respond to the main social problems of the region.

In 2023, China created the Central Society Work Department and began to reorganise its Social Work. Some Chinese scholars describe this as decolonisation. This post explains what China has done and how Chinese and European scholars read it. It then reads China’s Society Work through two African models, the ASWEA model and the Ubuntu model. It ends with what the Chinese case means for Social Work and social development in Africa.

Key concepts

Social Work and Society Work

The Chinese term shèhuì gōngzuò (社会工作) now has two meanings. Sheying Chen (2025) argues that, with the new department in charge, “Social Work” is no longer an accurate or sole translation of the term. In this post, Social Work means the profession and Society Work means the Party’s programme.

Localisation and indigenisation

Chinese scholars use the word localisation (běntǔhuà, 本土化). African scholars more often use indigenisation. Osei-Hwedie and Boateng (2018) note that both words have been used in the debate on local knowledge in Social Work. Recent Chinese writing speaks of new localisation (xīn běntǔhuà, 新本土化).

Social governance and Party building

Five other terms appear in this post:

  • Social governance (shèhuì zhìlǐ, 社会治理): The management of society by the Party and the state
  • Party building (dǎngjiàn, 党建): Setting up and strengthening Party organisations
  • Letters and visits (xìnfǎng, 信访): The petitions system, through which citizens send complaints to the authorities
  • Stability maintenance (wéiwěn, 维稳): Work to prevent unrest
  • United front work (tǒngyī zhànxiàn gōngzuò, 统一战线工作): Work to bring groups outside the Party into line with its goals

What China has done

The Central Society Work Department

The Central Society Work Department (CSWD) is called Zhōngyāng Shèhuì Gōngzuò Bù (中央社会工作部) in Chinese. It was set up in March 2023 as part of a plan to reform Party and state institutions. Wu Hansheng became its first head in July 2023. By February 2024, every province had its own Society Work Department.

The department has four main areas of work:

  • Public complaints and petitions
  • National industry associations and chambers of commerce
  • Party building in social organisations
  • Guidance for non-profit organisations and volunteers at grassroots level

At the 2025 National People’s Congress, Xi Jinping said that Society Work must be strengthened (shèhuì gōngzuò yīdìng yào jiāqiáng, 社会工作一定要加强).

New employment groups

Official estimates count about 200 million people in flexible employment in China. Of these, 84 million work in new forms of work such as food delivery, courier work and ride hailing. The Party calls these workers new employment groups (xīn jiùyè qúntǐ, 新就业群体). Local authorities have built facilities for them in communities and business districts, including parking, battery charging points, meals and rest areas.

A larger Social Work workforce

In March 2026, the Party Central Committee and the State Council issued guidance to create more professional Social Work posts. The guidance also extends services to rural areas, central and western provinces and ethnic minority regions. It lists tasks for social workers (shèhuì gōngzuòzhě, 社会工作者), including handling petitions, mediating disputes and serving gig workers.

How Chinese scholars read Society Work

Chinese scholars do not agree on Society Work. Cui, Sim, Huang and McBeath (2025) argue that Society Work clarifies the international concept of Social Work and supports the growth of the profession. They also argue that it helps to decolonise Social Work in China. Other Chinese writers say that macro Social Work at county level has gained value since the department was created.

Chen is more cautious. He describes a twin crisis for the profession. The first part is confusion over the term and a weaker professional identity, both caused by the Party’s Society Work. The second is the difficulty of finding resources for professional growth during an economic downturn.

How European scholars read Society Work

Frank Pieke, a Dutch scholar based in Singapore, concludes that the department aims to reduce the autonomy of social forces. He finds that it makes them follow Party building and Party discipline. The Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), a German institute, finds that the Party’s approach combines better social services with tighter political control.

These readings start from a liberal view of civil society, which treats any loss of independence for non government organisations (NGOs) as harm. African readers can learn from these studies and also test them against African experience.

An African reading of Society Work

Indigenisation in Africa and localisation in China

Osei-Hwedie’s 1993 argument is close to the Chinese one. He wrote that Western theory dominated the profession in Africa. He proposed a developmental approach, in which social workers take several roles within social development. In 2017, a study from Zhejiang made the same argument about China. It said professional Social Work came from Western capitalism and did not fit Chinese society.

Since then, African scholars have built models from African philosophy. Mugumbate and Chereni (2019) found that models based on Ubuntu see children through family, community, environmental and spiritual perspectives. By contrast, Western models rest on individualist values, government policy and professional views. In 2020, the African Journal of Social Work (AJSW) published a special issue on Ubuntu. Its aim was to fill the gaps left by Western approaches as Africa decolonises Social Work. Twikirize and Spitzer (2019) collected indigenous models from East Africa that place the community at the centre of Social Work and social development.

The difference lies in who leads. In Africa, scholars, educators, associations and communities led the push to decolonise, and governments were mostly slow to follow. In China, the Party leads the push.

State led social policy in Africa

African states have also built social policy on African philosophy. In 1967, Julius Nyerere’s Arusha Declaration set out Ujamaa (familyhood) as Tanzania’s path to socialism. In the 1970s, the state moved millions of rural people into planned villages, often by force. Kenneth Kaunda’s Zambian Humanism also drew on African communal values.

These cases show two things. First, an African state can use African values to guide social policy. Second, a programme led by the state can override the choices of the communities it claims to serve. This history lets African readers take a measured view of China. They do not need to accept or reject Society Work because of its label.

Society Work and the ASWEA model

The ASWEA model names eleven shortcomings of Social Work in Africa. Seven of them help to assess China’s Society Work:

  • Point 1 (Western curricula): China is revising its curricula and treats Western models as unfit. This matches ASWEA.
  • Point 5 (Eurocentric knowledge): Chinese scholars are building local knowledge through research on localisation. This matches ASWEA. Chen warns that a search for local authenticity can turn into nativism.
  • Point 6 (Remedial and curative approaches): Society Work gives weight to macro and county level work beyond casework. This matches ASWEA.
  • Point 7 (Focus on individual problems): ASWEA asked for Social Work to be linked to national development planning. China does this, through the Party.
  • Point 10 (Urban and elitist focus): The 2026 guidance extends services to rural areas, central and western provinces and ethnic minority regions. This matches ASWEA.
  • Point 9 (Weak professional identity): ASWEA asked for the profession to be defined for local settings, with its own professional associations. Chen describes a weaker professional identity under Society Work. This conflicts with ASWEA.
  • Points 3 and 8 (Religion and culture): ASWEA asked for Social Work to be grounded in African religion and culture. The sources for this post say little about religion or ancestral culture in Society Work, which rests on Party ideology. This area needs further study.

Society Work and the Ubuntu model

The Ubuntu model sees development at five connected levels: family, community, society, environment and spiritual. Society Work looks different at each level:

  • Family: The sources describe little direct Society Work with families. Casework stays with professional social workers.
  • Community: Society Work is strong here. It works through neighbourhood structures, grid management (wǎnggéhuà guǎnlǐ, 网格化管理), the Fengqiao experience (Fēngqiáo jīngyàn, 枫桥经验) and volunteer services (zhìyuàn fúwù, 志愿服务).
  • Society: Society Work is strongest here. It covers national governance, petitions, industry associations and platform workers.
  • Environment: The sources do not mention this level.
  • Spiritual: The sources do not mention this level. Party ideology takes the place that ancestors, religion and values hold in the Ubuntu model.

Under the Ubuntu model, social action starts with the family and moves out to the community and society. In my reading, China’s Society Work runs the other way, from the centre down to the neighbourhood. This is the main difference between the two.

Ubuntu ethics also gives weight to duties to others, so many Africans will find the collective side of Society Work familiar. Under Ubuntu, collective decisions come through dialogue, elders and family councils. A directive from a ruling party is a different kind of collective decision.

What Africa can learn and what it should question

Africa can learn from five parts of the Chinese model:

  • The size of state investment in the Social Work workforce
  • Placing social workers in rural and minority regions
  • Linking Social Work to national planning
  • Practical services for platform workers, such as rest areas and charging points
  • The weight given to macro practice

Africa should question five other parts:

  • Who decides what decolonisation means
  • Whether professional associations keep an independent voice
  • The limits on client confidentiality
  • The use of decolonisation language to justify political control
  • The absence of the environmental and spiritual levels

Implications for Social Work

Social Work is largely curative and welfarist. It responds to individual and family problems after they arise. The Chinese case points to five areas of practice:

  • Ethics teaching: Teach students cases in which duties to the state, the community and the client conflict. Use Ubuntu ethics and national codes to work through them.
  • Confidentiality: National codes should say what social workers must report to the state and what they must not.
  • Platform workers: Delivery riders and drivers come to social workers with injuries, debt and family stress. Casework should include their rights to insurance and fair pay.
  • Professional associations: Associations should keep an independent voice when they work with government.
  • Partnerships with China: African social work educational institutions (SWEI) that work with Chinese universities should state which meaning of shèhuì gōngzuò a programme uses.

Implications for social development

Social development is imaginative, creative and preventive. It builds assets, income and capacity before problems take hold. The Chinese case points to five directions:

  • Workforce planning: Plan Social Work posts for rural districts and marginalised regions, as ASWEA point 10 asks.
  • Planning with communities: Link Social Work to national development plans, and give elders, family councils and community structures a part in those plans.
  • Platform work: Build rest stations, injury insurance and skills training for platform workers with unions and municipalities. The Chinese model shows that welfare measures can be separated from political supervision.
  • South to South exchange: Compare African and Chinese models on equal terms. Neither side should treat the other as a place to apply its own model.
  • All five Ubuntu levels: Include the environmental and spiritual levels. These are the levels Society Work leaves out.

Questions for further research

Research is needed on five questions:

  • How do frontline social workers in China experience Society Work?
  • What place do religion and ancestral culture have in Society Work?
  • Does the Society Work model reach Africa through partnerships with China, including those under the Forum on China and Africa Cooperation (FOCAC)?
  • How do ASWEA, Ubuntu and Chinese localisation compare as routes to decolonisation?
  • What do African governments, associations and communities think of the Chinese model?

Glossary of Chinese terms

  • Shèhuì gōngzuò (社会工作): Social Work or Society Work
  • Zhōngyāng Shèhuì Gōngzuò Bù (中央社会工作部): Central Society Work Department
  • Shèhuì zhìlǐ (社会治理): Social governance
  • Dǎngjiàn (党建): Party building
  • Tǒngyī zhànxiàn gōngzuò (统一战线工作): United front work
  • Xìnfǎng (信访): Letters and visits (petitions)
  • Wéiwěn (维稳): Stability maintenance
  • Xīn jiùyè qúntǐ (新就业群体): New employment groups
  • Běntǔhuà (本土化): Localisation
  • Xīn běntǔhuà (新本土化): New localisation
  • Fēngqiáo jīngyàn (枫桥经验): Fengqiao experience
  • Wǎnggéhuà guǎnlǐ (网格化管理): Grid management
  • Zhìyuàn fúwù (志愿服务): Volunteer services
  • Shèhuì gōngzuòzhě (社会工作者): Social worker

Further in depth reading

Artificial Intelligence (AI) acknowledgement

The author set the focus of this post and its African lens. Claude, an AI tool, helped draft the text, check facts against published sources and identify Chinese terms. The author reviewed and verified every stage.

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